This adventure started on Saturday, March 4.
We were generously invited by Susan’s parents to spend a week sailing the reefs off of Belize. The Caribbean barrier reef is the 2nd largest reef in the world. It’s over 20 miles wide off of Belize.
It’s interesting that Belize and the Yucatan are neighbors, yet hardly anybody from each country visits the other. We were the only group in the immigration office at the boarder when we crossed over. There is no direct flight our bus resulting in our trip from Valladolid to Placencia taking over 12 hours. On the way, we stopped at Jenny’s were we had yummy fare such as “boil-up” and “Gibnuts”.
The thing that was really odd, was that we unexpectedly experienced a “culture shock”. Belize is a beautiful country with gorgeous (un-deforested) rainforests and gracious people. It is also an English speaking country. For the past two months, we have been in a place where very few speak English (and many speak Maya). All of a sudden, we could understand all the conversations going on around us. We felt like we were voyeuring into other people’s lives and had to relearn how to turn this off.
Anyway, I digress…
We spent a few days in Placencia before getting on our boat. Placencia is a lovely, yet fast growing town. Ten years ago, it wasn’t much more than a fish village. We watched soccer games, swam, ate great food, and prepared for our voyage.
This one is for Ben and Abigail:
We took off on the third day on comfortable 40 ft boat provided by The Moorings. With 3 double beds and two bathrooms, this boat is made for cruising! Check it out:
http://www.viyachts.com/moorings/m403.html
We were off to sail the Belizean Cayes (pronounced “Keys”). The sailing was great, but we had to stay on our toes. You can be moving fine in 50 ft of water, and then all of a sudden it's 8ft and than 2 ft!! We used a combination of a plotting GPS along with “oldschool” chart and compass for navigation. Both tools had their issues (islands misnamed on the GPS and 15 yr old charts not showing how the reefs have shifted). We felt good about it when both navigation methods agreed. Often, however, it was best just to have a lookout on the bow in addition because the channel may be 20 yards wide between corral heads.
Someone's got to drive the boat.
Life above deck (someone's got to catch the fish):
Life below deck:
Where the heck are we???!
Did you know that Bob has a private island?
Sunrise, Pelican Cayes:
and sunset Pelican Cayes:
We trolled for fish whenever we got the chance, and got a few small ones. One time, it looked like we had a good sized fish on the line. Stefan grabbed the pole to reel it in. All of the sudden, Bob had to grab Stefan to keep him from going over. Something BIG was on the line. Then the line went slack, and Stefan reeled in half a fish. Barracudas often eat the fish off your line. And they can be huge. We think that this is what happened.
We let this guy go...
A local spear fisherman paddled up to sell some of his catch:
The Cayes are well spaced out with five to ten miles between island groups. They have few trees. Thus, the birds must share. That's a pelican and two osprey in a tree...
And, things can be quite exciting. We were on Queen Caye and watched an osprey coming at us with a frigate in hot pursuit. We were on the island, and they must have circled around us 10 or 15 times. The osprey was flapping his heart out trying the keep the frigate from steeling his fish.
Now for those of you who have not seen a frigate bird, they are huge! And, they are just beautiful fliers with a prehistoric looking wing form and a fast efficient glide -- super maneuverable too boot. Think of Ubber seagulls on steroids.
Anyway, the frigate was hardly working a sweat in all this. In a fit of exasperation, the osprey ejected his fish and turned on the frigate once he had lightened his load. The fish actually bounced in and out of our zodiac. Sasha went to rescue the poor guy, but he was too far gone. Ashes to ashes, reef to reef.
The evenings were also an amazing sight. With trees in short supply, we would watch the frigates, pelicans, cormorants, and etc. all bicker with each other as they found a place to turn in for the night. It was just awesome….
Sunrise, Queen Caye:
Morning dip:
Needless to say, the snorkeling was just fantastic with big fish and colorful corral all around. We would just jump in wherever we dropped anchor to see what was about. I didn’t bring my “good” camera on this boat trip. But, I did bring my old trusty-dusty point and shoot. I also purchased a waterproof plastic bag from a dive shop that the camera would fit in. The photos from this were hit and miss, but I’ll present a few for your review (these just don’t give the underwater views justice).
Also on a photographic note, Susan should get credit for most the images captured on this trip. A more complete photo-essay can be found on our Webshots page:
http://community.webshots.com/album/548859634zlHgqo
Anyway, we had a great voyage. Often, we would look all around and all you see is water… and maybe an island not much bigger than our house. This leads me to believe that we live on a coin.
Sunrise, Ranguana Caye
It all ended a week later with eventful day of travel “home” (small planes, a 3 hour taxi ride with 2 flat tires and then a 5 hour bus). We had a great time and want to go back to Belize.
Best wishes to all,
Tim
