Excondida & My Peace in sunset Caye Caluker
Will be leaving Caye Caulker in the morning for either Long Caye or St. Georges Caye, Matt hasn’t made up his mind yet, but will by 0900 hours in the morning when we are to up anchor, doesn’t much matter as we will finally be heading south.
Sunset at Long Caye
4 August 2011 – Departed Caye Caulker 0900 hrs without incident wind 2 – 5 knots from the east northeast. Sailed without engine to Long Caye. Arrived Long Caye 1215 hours and dropped anchor on the west side of the caye just south of the lagoon at the north end of the caye. Took the dinghy to shore than went through the lagoon to the west side of the caye and walked the beach for a while. On the return to the boat we went around the north end of the caye back to the boat. Matt came over and we tried to figure out why the solar panels aren’t putting out like the should. We changed the dip switches and it made no difference. The problem is that the panels are only putting out around 13.5 volts and 3 to 8 amps, not enough to keep the batteries up. We checked each individual panel and they were putting out 20 volts as they should, but when wired in a series the loss occurs. Leaving Long Caye at 0900 hrs heading to St. Georges Caye to the south about 10 miles.
Carl our tour guide
5 August 2011 – Up anchor 09920 hrs heading for ST Georges Caye, totally uneventful ride. Arrived St George’s Caye at 1100 hours dropped anchor. Went ashore and walked around the island, very nice no form of motorized transportation, isn’t needed anyway. Found the local aquarium and was guided through it by the 10 year old son of the owner, very knowledgeable young man. When going ashore we went through a cut through the middle of the caye made by hurricane Hattie, leaving we went around the north end of the caye and across to the caye next to it which is a very nice resort. There was no place to purchase a coke or water on St George Caye, the caye next to it which doesn’t have a name has a resort which did have Coke and water. We then returned to the boat and read a little and took a nap before joining Matt and Carla for dinner on Escondida. Carla fixed the tastiest beef stew I have ever eaten, Mia actually behaved herself at dinner and just laid around with Beef. Early day tomorrow, heading to English Caye about 20 miles south. Nothing there but a lighthouse and a lighthouse keeper who has been there forever and loves to tell stories to the cruisers that stop in.
Engilsh Caye
6 August 2011 - Departed St George’s Caye 0800 hrs heading to English Caye pretty much uneventful trip, trolled most of the way, something kept stealing my baits. Had to motor most of the way as the wind was dead on the nose. Arrived English Caye 1215 hrs, Escondida was unable to get their anchor to hold, so we moved back north to Water Caye. Water Caye is mostly a mangrove swamp with a privately owned beach on the eastern shore. Rose and I took the dinghy out to Goff’s Caye located on the reef and walked around and swam. There was a Christian group from Lajay Georgia there that we visited with. Then back to the boat for a nap and to fix dinner. Heading to Colson Caye in the morning about 0800 hrs.
Fransico's house
Mountains of Belize from Colson Caye
7 August 2011 – Wind out of the northeast this morning, should make good time down to Colson Caye. Upped anchor 0745 hrs, arrived Colson Caye 1145 hrs. Topped off the diesel tank for the generator, fixed the cowling on the outboard and took a nap. Went to shore with Matt, visited the north end of the island there are two stilt houses, upon close investigation the stilt houses have water under them at high tide. Talking to Francisco, who has lived there for 30 years, Hurricane Ricardo, washed out all the sand in 2002, he is slowly building up a new beach under his house with conch shells and sand. If the wind doesn’t lie down it will be off to Tobacco Caye in the morning’.
Stowaway
Carman, Geff, & Suzi Q
8 August 2011 – Awake 0700 hrs, no movement on Escondida, don’t know if we’re heading to Tobacco Caye this morning or not. SIRIS weather reporting that it will continue to blow until late afternoon, skies are hazy with the wind out of the east is at 14 -15 knots. Last night there was a Belizean fishing boat anchored 150 yards to the north of us. Amazing life, there are 9 men living on this boat, 8 fishermen and the Captain, there are 8 dugout canoes about 10 feet long, in the morning each man gets in his canoe and paddles to where he is going to fish and dive for lobster. In the evening they all come back to the “Mother ship” to clean and ice down their catch. The “Mother ship” is only 20 to 25 feet long, it kind of looks like a “Skipjack” like they use in the northeast around the Chesapeake Bay area. My understanding is that the Captain charges the fishermen to come on his boat and provide them with a place to spend the night while they are out fishing. The Captain also provides the ice to keep the catch cold until it is taken to market. Departed Colson Caye for Tobacco Caye 0920, received a strange call from Escondida at 1030 hrs. Seems a 2 foot Boa Constrictor had stowed away on their boat. When we arrived at Tobacco Caye I took the dinghy over to Escondida and caught the snake which had made their bar-b-que pit it’s temporary home, and placed it in a pillow case to take it to shore. When we got to shore on Tobacco Caye, they said there were no snakes on this Caye take it to the mangrove caye to the west about a mile and a half by dinghy, which we did. Tobacco Caye is fantastic, a small Caye about the size of maybe 3 football fields, several cottages, two bars, a gift shop/convenience store and three restaurants. The people are very friendly and helpful as we have discovered are most of the people we have met in Belize. We started out just enjoying swimming at the dock, then had a few drinks found the restaurant we wanted to have dinner at. Here it isn’t a case of walk in sit down, ask for a menu and pick out what you want. It is a case of walk in and ask, what dinner is going to be? If you don’t like the meal served go elsewhere. Tonight it was bar-b-qued chicken, beans, coleslaw and Kool-Aid, all for $15.00 BZD, not bad. After dinner we went to the bar at the south end of the island and listened to local music and watched them dance. This is without a doubt the best evening of the trip so far. We will spend the day here tomorrow and leave for South Water Caye Wednesday morning.
Eric, Suzi Q, Geff, Alex, & Riyya
Tobacco Caye
9 August 2011 – Still at Tobacco Caye, woke up around 0700 had some coffee and headed to shore, one of the local captains is taking mu empty 5 gallon water bottle and the gas tank for the dinghy to the mainland to get them both filled, none of that out here, it’s about 20 miles to the mainland. Being we are without dinghy today we spent the day snorkeling and visiting with the locals. Eric a local dive master was a lot of fun, learned a great deal about Belize and Tobacco Caye from him. We met Suzi Q, Alex and Royya. We all snorkeled together around the island, the visibility was about 35 feet. Saw a few rays, barracuda, and lots of colorful reef fish. In the evening we had them all out to the boat so they could get a glimpse of our life. It was Alex’s 40th birthday, didn’t have any cake so we put candles is a slice of bread and sang happy birthday to him. Suzi Q is from Hawaii, Alex ad Royya are from Los Angeles. Uncertain if we are heading south tomorrow or not, ask Matt this evening, “are we leaving tomorrow or are we staying another day?” His reply was yes. Oh well guess we’ll find out in the morning.
Belizian fisherman
Rose snorkeling
10 August 2011 – Went to shore to say goodbye had lunch at Gavitos with Suzi Q, my favorite fried chicken & French fries. Saw Melissa and George and told them we were going to South Water Caye, they both said we wouldn’t like it there, the people were stuffy and everything was very expensive.. Eric and Doggy had said the same thing the evening before. Back on the boat 1300 hrs Matt and Carla were already onboard Escondida, up anchor at 1330 hrs on the way south to South Water Caye. Sailed all the way, nice 8 to 12 knot breeze from the north east drove us at about 5 knots. Arrived South Water Caye 1510 hrs and dropped anchor. The folks back at Tobacco Caye were correct, we went ashore to the dock at IZA , they didn’t have a cold soft drinks, and the beer was warm and $6.00 BZD. We took the dinghy out to the reef and looked at all the trash from around the Caribbean that had washed up on the reef. Went over to Escondida to visit with Matt & Carla, a few after our friend JJ from the Belize fisheries Department came over in his boat just to say hello. There are 6 boats anchored here, it is a good anchorage and great snorkeling. Our plans for tomorrow are to go Carrie Bow Caye about a mile south to do some snorkeling. Carrie Bow Caye was donated to the Smithsonian Institute in 1972 by the Bowman family (the folks that control the beer, soft drink industries, and many other aspects of the Belizean consumer products) to conduct extensive research within the barriers of the barrier reef systems and the offshore atolls.
Yellow Ray Carrie Bow Caye
11 August 2011 – took the dinghy a mile south and went snorkeling at Carrie Bow Caye today it was fantastic, visibility was about 40 feet, coral heads and the fish were magnificent. Went back to the boat at took a nap and fixed dinner. Just went up on deck ant the moon is so bright that you can see the sand patches on the bottom 8 feet below surrounded by the turtle grass. We are going back to Tobacco Caye in the morning, a much more relaxed atmosphere and Mia can run around. All the land on South Water Caye is privately owned and the resorts are real snobbish about you walking around. It has been a nice visit and I’m glad we came for the snorkeling, but rose and I like Tobacco Caye much better, and the locals on Tobacco Caye told us that we would. So back to Tobacco Caye tomorrow and eat some crow and stay a few more days there. Do need to get to an ATM and purchase some diesel as we are running low on both.
Reef at Tobacco Caye
12 August 2011 – Departed South Water Caye 1115 hours heading back to Tobacco Caye. Arrived Tobacco Caye 1220 hours, we were greeted by the young boys we met on our prior visit. After the anchor was set they came up calling Mia, Mia wanting to play with her. I did a real dumb dumb, I was trolling for a fish while we were going to Tobacco Caye and forgot to pull in the fishing line, so when I went into reverse to check the anchor, the line wrapped around the propeller shaft. I got a knife, mask, and snorkel and spent the next 15 minutes cutting it off. We went ashore for a swim and saw George, Eric, Doggy and Curt. They welcomed us back to the island. I walked over to Margret’s to see if she would have fresh bread in the morning and reserved 4 loaves. George had 3 lobster he wanted to sell for $20.00 BZD and Rose and I wanted lobster for dinner so I brought them to grill later that evening. Four charter cats showed up with some kind of Italian tour group on board, 42 people, all of a sudden the island paradise was crowded, so we went back to the boat for the evening.
Michael & Donavan
Oh no, lobster again!
13 August 2011 – During the night the anchor alarm went off, I got up and checked and everything was OK, so I went back to sleep. An hour later the generator shut down, the seawater strainer had filled up in record time. Cleaned out the seawater strainer re-started the generator it was 0500 hrs. I went back to sleep with Mia and Rose stayed up and watched the sunrise. Got up at 0900 hrs went up on deck and the boys were next to the boat telling me the bread was ready. I launched the dinghy and went to shore to get our bread. I got to Margret’s to get the bread, when I got there she said the charter boats came by and purchased all she had except the 4 loaves she saved for me. They offered her double the price but she told them it was for her regular customer and saved them for me. We will spend the day here at Tobacco Caye then head south tomorrow. I believe we are going to Blue Ground Range and from there to Placencia where we will spend a few days before checking out with customs to head south down to Livingston, Guatemala.
Had Eric, Suzi Q, Royya, and Alex over to the boat for a look. It was Alex's birrthdaySuzi Q suggested we have a birthday cake for Alex, the only thing we had was a slice of stale bread and some candles. He was totally surprised and couldn't have been happier.
Alex's birthday cake
Went to shore and Melisa told me her boyfriend, Nigel, was going to Dangriea about 25 miles across the inner channel to the west and he would take me with him so I could go to the bank, get some Diet Coke for Rose and some purified water. We left tobacco Caye at 1430 hours heading west to Dangriea. The water was 2 foot chop we were in a 23 foot panga with twin 40 hp Yamaha outboards, talk about a dumpy ride. The trip took about an hour, we let off the passengers that went ashore to catch a bus to wherever , then to the gas station to get fuel for the return trip, the bank, the water place and the store where I purchased the Diet coke for Rose. We picked up a lady Isabel and her two sons, Mike and Donavan who were going out to Tobacco for the day. The younger Mike age 4 was sitting between his mom and I, Donavan was sitting on a seat by himself. Within minutes Mike fell asleep in his Mom’s lap and Donavan was dosing off. I put Donavan next to me, he laid his head in my lap and he was gone.
When we arrived back at tobacco Caye, George had more lobster and made me a deal on them I couldn’t pass up, about 4 pounds of tails for $20.00 USD. I made a deal with Melisa to cook them and Rose and I suffered through another lobster dinner.
The thought of leaving the islands of Belize is almost depressing, the water and people are so wonderful, but it was a similar feeling when we left Mexican waters. I know we will enjoy Guatemala, it is a different type of beauty, it won’t have the pristine waters of the Belize reef system, but it will offer hot steamy tropical rain forest. We will just have to wait and see. It will be nice to have unlimited fresh water, a real shower at the marina, not bouncing around all night at anchor, sleep without the noise of the generator, walk on land without having to launch the dinghy, but is all that worth the loss of the crystal clear waters of the barrier reefs of Belize.
Herman and Aloma
Geff & Herman
14 August 2011- We woke up and went to shore on Tobacco Caye this morning to say goodbye again to our friend on Tobacco Caye. Herman found a 5 gallon bottle of purified water to replace the one I lost on the Panga yesterday. Went back to the boat, up anchor at 1000 hours and headed west to the inner channel, then south to Blue Ground Range about 10 miles to the south. Arrived in the middle of Blue Ground Range at 1230 hours and set the anchor. We got into the dinghy and headed into the mangrove cayes for a look around. Found a caye that had been developed and looked like a nice place to let Mia run around for a while. Pulled up on the beach and was greeted by Herman the caretaker of this little 3 acre island. Herman invited us to the island to walk around and showed us what a wonderful little island it was. Matt, Carla, and Beef were there as well and we all walked around this private island owned by an attorney from Los Angeles. How much is a 3 acre island selling for these days, 1.8 million USD. During the conversation, Herman said that his Panga wasn’t working and asked if we had some extra food. I went back to our boat and got a pack of frozen chicken thighs, peanut cheese crackers, and a few bottles of ginger ale and brought it back to them. Aloma gave us some bread she had just taken out of the oven and some onion chili relish she had made the day before. They invited us to stay for dinner, we politely declined as we had already defrosted meat for this evening’s meal. We visited for a while, Rose, Carla, Herman, and his wife Aloma played dominos until it was time to go back to the boats and fix dinner. Anchors up 0800 hours in the morning heading to Placencia.
Rose at the helm
The pass between Placecnia Settlement and Placecnia Caye
15 August 2011 – Departed Blue Ground Range 0800 hrs heading to Placencia, kind of sad as Matt & Carla are renting a car and exploring the back country and mountains of Belize and Rose and I are heading to Rio Dulce. Rose took the helm most of the way on this leg, about 4 hours south. I went to sleep when we had our course set and she woke me up as we were entering the cut between Placencia and Placencia Caye. We dropped anchor and took the dinghy to shore. Walked down the “1 mile sidewalk” which took nearly 30 years to complete according to the locals. We stopped at a little restaurant for lunch on the beach I ordered the Creole lobster and pasta the special of the day, Rose ordered the same, the waitress failed to hear Rose’s order and when our meal came, I got mine, Matt got his BLT, ad Carla got her fish sandwich, and Rose got nothing. We asked about Rose’s meal, the waitress said she didn’t order anything. Once again Rose ordered the Creole lobster and pasta, the waitress came back and said they were out of the special. Being the nice guy I am I gave her mine, cried a little and ordered a fish sandwich.
Walking back to the dinghy stopped by Placencia Sailboat Charters and saw Rob, whom we had met at south Water Caye a few days ago, picked up some bananas, apples, Belizean Rum, had an ice cream cone, and back to the boat. Finished our daily chores, like cleaning the sea water filters and putting away the dinghy, then just sat on the deck and watched the sun set over the mountains to the west.
In the morning we plan on going to shore and having coffee with Rob and using the WIFI at the Above Ground Coffee Shop to publish this part of the blog. We will stay here a few days and then continue our journey south. We are only about 40 miles north of Livingston, Guatemala the entrance to the Rio Dulce. It is only 18 miles up the Rio Dulce to Mario’s Marina where we will spend the next 2 ½ months until the official end of hurricane season.
Congratulations you made it!
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