Islas de Colombia

The islands of Colombia are a group of islands, islets and reefs lying off the east coast of Nicaragua. They are not really part of Colombia, which is several hundred miles to the south. This is the country where the pirates and privateers hung out (as opposed to being hanged out). Morgan made his home port at Providencia. We visited Providencia, San Andreas, isla Bolivar and Albuquerque reef. There are a couple more reefs in the group, but they are frequented by drug transporters, and consequently by the Navy (and a few of their friends), and are not recommended for stopovers.

It was nice to arrive at Providencia after a hard motor-sail from the Hobbies. We left early and wanted to arrive in plenty of light, as there are a couple of reefs/shoals to be avoided when entering the harbor. Providencia is a small town on the islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina. The population is about 5,500 people. Both here and at San Andreas, you must use an agent to clear in and out, which adds a bit to the cost, but makes the process very easy. After we anchored, we hailed Mr. Bush on the VHF, who told us to come to the dinghy dock the next morning and he would meet us. He walked us through immigration and took us to his office (pointing out on the way the places we would want to visit - good restaurant, grocery stores, hardware store,...) where the customs and port captain officers finished our processing. It all took about an hour and was easy.

Everyone knows everyone on the island and a friend or cousin is available to help with anything you need, from transport to propane to sighseeing - well, you get the point. We were all amazed at the number of really georgeous women on the island. There were basically none who were just average. The men are also very attractive.

After several weeks off on our own, it was nice to ease back into civilization here, with a slow paced easy lifestyle. The Friday after we arrived, the town decided to have a party on the dock for the cruisers. When we went in to the dinghy dock (built mainly for the cruisers) there were several dance groups, mainly kids performing traditional dances, followed by a short speech by someone, and disco dancing. Enter Roland. Roland is maybee-rasta, but veerrry cool. He was passing out cards to his restaurant, and I sicced him on Gilda, Shelley's sister. Over much protestation, he got her out dancing several dances. He then proceeded to dance with just about every woman there. A few days later, we went to his restaurant (it is actually a pretty rough-n-ready beach resort he has been building for several years) for dinner - beautiful food.

One Saturday, we went down to the south end of the island for a horse race. It was a major event on the island, held on a beach in a weekend area for the locals. We had a big lunch (fried fish,salad, chips, umm) and watched the bookies take bets. Then there was a shout, and before we could get our camera up, the two horses in the race were by and at the finish line. Then the parties started.

Another day, we climbed a rock formation just outside downtown, locally called Morgan's Ass. Quite a climb! Another day, Richard and Pam on Tisha Baby invited the gang (Jim and Sharon on Pelican's Flight, Annette and Bob on Tempest and Jay and Barb on Jupiter's Smile) to sail around the island. Tisha Baby is a catamaran and draws very little water, so is ideal for dancing through reefs. Another day, we went snorkeling around the point from the anchorage, in an area where some cannons are submerged just offshore.

After a few weeks, we dragged ourselves (minus Gilda who had flown to Panama to meet her partner, Peter, and continue their holiday) away from this delightful place and headed south to San Andreas. This place is totally different from Providencia. San Andreas is a tourist mecca, mainly for Colombians, but also some gringos. And, of course, the cruisers. This is a good place to re-provision and eat in a few restaurants, having been in short supply of them for a while.

We lasted two weeks before we all decided that the weather was right and we had sufficient waypoints for Cayos Bolivar. So we set off, still motor-sailing, since the wind was either non-existant or in our faces. And besides, we wanted to arrive in good light for picking our way through the reefs and not grounding and anchoring tightly.

Bolivar consists of several islands, one with an active fishing camp and one with some unoccupied camps. There is also a light one one island with four or five tenders, whom we did not visit. We did go to one small island which had a statue of Maria Riena del Mar, who is probably also The Virgin Mary dedicated to two men who had been lost in a shipwreck. We snorkeled, we walked around one of the islands, we swam and generally lazed around for a week or so, till the weather was right for Albuquerque Reef, some 30 miles southerly.

Getting in to Albuquerque reef takes about an hour. We managed to get off the route and grounded briefly, but made it ok to the anchorage. Here the anchorage is in the center of a ringing reef, between two islands. You are pretty well protected from the easterlies, but southerly gets a bit choppy. Again, there was much swimming, snorkeling, and lazing about. The water here is perhaps the clearest I have ever seen. You can see the bottom at 85 feet and make out the fish at 65 feet. There is a Colombian Navy post on one of the islands, about six men, and they ask that you check in with them when you arrive. You have to go ashore to check in, since they have no boat. There are lots of places to snorkel, one of them being fifty feet from where you are anchored. We stayed there for about a week, just looking at the water, the islands, the fish, the clouds,... Finally, the weather was right, and might not be that way again for a couple of weeks, so we all (except for Tisha Baby who had left a day before) hoisted our anchors and headed for Panama, about thirty hours away.

The trip to Panama was great. We motor-sailed most of the day, as the wind was a little farther south than forecast. Overnight the sea went flat with no wind, so we pulled down the sails and motored. The next morning the wind came back up a bit, so we put up the sails and motor-sailed for a while. About 11 am, a dolphin showed up, and suddenly, from every direction, dolphins were coming toward the boat, from up to a half-mile away. They were jumping clear out of the water, as if to get a better look at us as they came. In total, about forty dolphins showed up, and began swimming in the bow wave, perhaps ten at a time. They would trade places with others who were swimming nearby, rolling on their sides and looking at us. We were up in the bow, watching back. This went on non-stop for perhaps 45 minutes. We finally went back to the cockpit to sit down, and within a minute, they were all gone. It was as if the whole performance had been for our mutual benefit, and when we left, so did they.

About this time, the wind came around so we could sail. We shut off the engine and had a beautiful reach in 20 kts for about three hours, at which point we were at the Bocas del Toro channel outer marker. We motored in the well-marked channel and anchored for the night at Starfish Beach off Bocas del Drago. The scenery is fabulous and reminds me of islands in the South Pacific - low-lying hills with clouds sitting in the valleys between, with the hill-tops peaking through the clouds and everything getting hazy as the hills recede into the distance.

The next morning we motored on in to the anchorage next to the marina and proceded with clearing in. Another voyage completed. After a week in the anchorage, we tied up in the marina, being docked for the first time in four months.We plan to be here for about three months, while we take care of several chores and projects. Then we will be off to San Blas and more remote anchorages.

It's All About the Boobies

Leaving Guanaja was uplifting. We were looking forward to a passage to clear our heads from the clutter of ports and people and way too many parties. We motor-sailed out and prepared for the continued growl of the engine, as the wind showed no signs of the expected shift to the north so we could sail.

This continued through the day and into the evening, when the seas started building. We reefed down and took our seasick meds in anticipation of a rough night. It came as anticipated. The wind built to about 30kts and the seas were up to 10-14 feet. Gilda was in the v-berth (roughest spot in the boat) riding it out. When morning came, we had no breakage and were only about 10 miles behind the other boats. We bypassed the Vivarillos and went directly on to the Hobbies, arriving early afternoon.

The Hobbies are very remote, very basic and extremely beautiful. They are comprised of two small islands (3-4 acres each) and a reef with good protection to weather from the east. There are two fish-camps, one on each island. The near island has two people on it, no power and lots of Boobies. The two are Jose Angel (about 19) and Jimmie (about 30). They have been there fishing for eight months. They, and the two guys (George and Charmin) on the other island bring us fish to trade for beer and cigarettes (or food) and are really nice people. Jose Angel and Jimmie have six dogs on the island, who are very playful and loving. It is an excellent place to lose a few days or weeks, fishing, snorkeling and sitting.
We seem to keep finding these incredible places to stay, each better than the last. Where will it end? Will it end? Must it end?

All the testosterone-types go out spearing fish which they proudly bring home for the communal feast. I really have to get a spear so I can join in... Oh wait, we haven't even tried a line in the water while we are on passage! I suspect I have a few grades to advance through before I would be allowed a real spear!!!! The fish is really good, though.

This seems like a rather short entry for such a profound interlude. We spent about three weeks there, and fervently wished it could go on and on. But in spite of being really, really special (am I gushing too much?), eventually Paco the wonder weather dog barked "GO", and we all went, headed for --- Providencia.


As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

The Bay Islands of Honduras

I was going to name this blog "Going to Roatan", but nothing really special happened on the way. Oh, I suppose the night we spent in Puerto Cortes was interesting. Puerto Cortes is the biggest container port in Central America, according to the guide books, and is a very pretty anchorage. We dropped the hook (that is sailor talk for anchoring) next to a wreck (a 200ft freighter probably beached by hurricane Mitch) that the local kids use for their swim/dive platform. And we listened to the navy trainees chants as they jogged along the beach.

And I suppose it is worth mentioning the next night, which we spent at Puerto Escondido, thirty miles west of Puerto Cortes. It is a small cove, about 1/2 mile in diameter, with a narrow entry between rocks just awash on either side. Once in, it is quiet, the silence broken only by the howler monkeys on the hillside.

And how could I not mention East Harbor in Utila. We went there to anchor overnight before sailing on into French Harbor on Roatan, but the next morning we ran into 20 knot headwinds and 10 ft seas that we were regularly burying the bow in and turned back after a half hour to return to East Harbor until the weather improved. East Harbor exists for the dive industry and the entertainment of divers when they aren't diving. Saturday night lasts until getting close to Sunday morning.

As I said, nothing really special. Now we are in French Harbor, on Roatan. Our sailing friends who have been here have told us what Roatan was like. "Really good shopping." "Protected harbor." "Good diving/snorkling." "Friendly people." The problem is, THE BLOODY IDIOTS DIDN'T TELL US IT WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE WE HAVE EVER BEEN TO. Here starteth the travelog. We are anchored in about 20 ft of the clearest water we have seen in years, a half mile from a resort where we can dock our dinghy, pick up a rental car, catch a taxi and connect to the internet. About a mile the other way is a dock we can tie up to, which is near the supermarket, a bank, petrol station and a fast-food house. Town is a half mile walk up the road and chandleries are a taxi ride down the highway. The island is beautiful, everything you would want a tropical island to be. A friend was talking to an ex-pat living here who has an anteater for a pet, we met a Honduran lady who has two iguanas she has raised from babies. We have had the local snapper and the grouper, and both are fantastic - delicate flavour and tender. The shrimp and lobster are supposed to be quite good.

When we arrived, our HF radio (read long range) was waiting for us, duly delivered by Bryan and Dorothy on Pearl S. Buck. I didn't even come close to the installation time of three days it took Bryan to install the same equipment on his boat, but it is now installed and working and we are getting good signal reports. Unfortunately that project (and quite a bit of sitting in the cockpit staring around) has used sufficient time that we can't get any more projects done before Gilda (Shelley's sister) arrives for a spell. This happens in four days. We don't know what to expect, as Gilda has not been on a boat, particularly a sailboat and a cruiser, and her response to such a different way of life could be interesting.

----000---- (time passing)

Well, we have now been in French Harbor, Roatan long enough that we are considered the old hands here. Gilda arrived on time after much confusion. The airline had changed her flight and didn't inform her of this until she arrived at the airport to leave. The change meant more time in the air, and less time in the hotel room in Houston.

She spends much of her time in the water or under the fan. We have reassured her that it really isn't that hot, but I am not sure she belives us. We walked around town with her and went to the Iguana farm and all the things tourists do. We have also been educating her as fast as we can on how to cope with life on a boat. We want to go to Cayos Cochinas for a day to let her see what sailing is all about.

Pelican's Flight and Tempest arrived from West End. Big reunion.

After sitting around French Harbor waiting foe Gilda to get well (bacterial infection and worms) and for parts to arrive (once again, I ordered stainless tubing and got stainless pipe), we mounted the solar panels so we could get extra energy into the batteries, and headed East. First was a 2-day stop at Jonesville bight, witha trip to the Hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Kitchen had closed, so we had beers. Then it was off to Port Royal. While there, we went to Mango Creek for dinner. Food was excellent, scenery as good and the hosts welcoming. They live in Durango! The trip back from the restaurant was a little hairy, as the wind had come up and we were anchored at the other end of the harbor. We all got wet.

The next day it was off to Guanaja and El bight (good anchorage). Bonacca is the main town there, built on an island in the harbor. The island is 10 acres and Bonacca has 10,000 people - crowded. There are no streets, only paths that wind around - sort of like a rabbit warren. There are some good diving reefs and one day the bunch of us went snorkeling on the North side of the island at Michael (or Michael's) Rock. Good snorkel, but still a bit chilly for me. Shelley loved it.

We stayed at Guanaja for a few days, waiting for a weather window. We finally checked out and headed for the Hobbies, 150 miles to the east with Tisha Baby, Jupiter's Smile, Pelican's Flight and Tempest.

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

Leaving The Rio

Along about New Years, we finally decided that we had dawdled enough and it was really time to get packed up and go to Honduras. We had given up on putting up the solar panels (we could not get 1" stainless tubing). and converting the freezer was too daunting to complete before we had to leave. So we started stowing stuff and doing final checks on equipment.

That is when the generator malfunctioned. It would run for about 10 minutes and quit. We then had to wait 5 minutes before re-starting it. Most unsatisfactory. Friends chimed in with their fixes for the same type of problem, and it became clear that the fault was probably in the logic for the control relays. (Note to self: when the turn signals fail, do not start by checking the switch, the wiring and the flasher unit. Start by checking the bulb.) After two days of troubleshooting some arcane circuits and 4 relay boxes, I finally realized that Shelley had been saying all along that the exhaust looked wrong. So, I put my hand over the exhaust and, lo and behold, there was no water coming out. In order to cool the exhaust and to partially muffle the noise, sea-water from the cooling system is injected into the exhaust and it is all expelled together. There was no water being injected, which meant the sea-water cooling on the generator was not working, and it was overheating. The logic circuits were operating properly and shutting the system down when it got too hot. I pulled the sea-water pump and found that there were no blades left on the pump impeller. Replacing the impeller and cleaning the heat exchange unit fixed the whole problem, and it only took 4 days!!

We were then packed and ready. The problem now was the weather. There were strong trade winds blowing. Trade winds begin setting in this time of year, and blow from East to West, right from where we were going. So we sat, waiting for a weather window. In this case, this is when a cold front comes out of Texas and creates a northerly (blowing from the North) wind pattern. These fronts bring rain, cold and pretty strong winds. What we were looking for was the tail end of one of these fronts, while the North wind was collapsing and before the trades built again. Finally, on Saturday the 17th, we had a front stalled over southern Mexico. This was perfect, as it would keep the window open longer. Sunday was the day!!

Sunday morning we got up at 7:30 and got ready to go. We had just started our morning cup of tea, when there was a loud bang and something heavy hit our boat. We raced up on deck to see one of the Tijax employees racing out of the marina in her launcha, obviously out of control. The manager jumped in the marina launcha. caught up with her and helped her get it under control. She had little experience driving a launcha, and had sat on the left side of the outboard rather than the right. This means you are using the wrong hand to control the motor and all the motions are backward. When she twisted the throttle to slow down, she accelerated instead! Her boat was damaged, with a big chunk out of the bow and a crack in the stem. Fortunately, she had hit a solid piece of steel which attaches to the side stays and there was little damage to Jacana, with the exception of a big paint smear on the side. Had she hit a foot lower, it would probably have put a hole in the hull. At any rate, leaving Sunday was out. The marina spent several hours rubbing out the hull and polishing the area of the damage.

Complicating things was Miela, the resort cat, who is very loving and attentive and definitely a lap-cat. She had been pretty much living on the boat and working very hard to be adopted. It was ever so hard to put her ashore when we untied, but she belonged to the marina, she is 14 years old and she is deaf. When I picked her up for the last time to carry her to the dock was the only time she ever used her claws on me. She knew exactly what was happening. We miss her and will miss her.

Monday morning we managed to leave. We motored down the river to El Golfete and Texan Bay Marina. This is a beautiful little bay just before the river enters the canyon. It is quiet, isolated and very down-home. Run by Mike and Sherry, it is a nice place to decompress for anywhere from a day to 10 years. We managed to only stay one night (there was some discussion about this) and head for Livingston Tuesday morning.

We had alerted Raul (paperwork agent) and he had all our paperwork ready for us to exit. We decided to have lunch and I was keen to try a specialty dish available in Livingston called Tepezquintle, which is a small rodent, also known as a Paca (something like an Agouti) . It might possibly be endangered, but is available in the restaurants and I was determined to try it. Needless to say, I was disappointed. The meat was something like beef roast, but with less flavor and more stringiness. Ok, I tried it. We were then off across the sand bar at the entrance to the river. Pelican's Flight went out first and made it ok, followed ever so carefully by us. We did not touch the bottom, but Destiny behind us (deeper draft) grounded and had to be pulled through ($50 for the tow). We continued 10 miles to a bight just south of Cabo Tres Puntas for the night. We were on the road again.

End of Days - on the Rio

OK, it is time for another entry. A lot has happened and, at the same time, very little has happened.

We have been to Frontera 112 times, under the bridge 20 times, across the bridge perhaps 10 times, and to Gutemala City and Antigua - once. We have been here for 6 months and seen very little of Guatemala. I regret that, but possibly we will have to come back for the parts we missed. We did go to Guatemala City once, to see a cardiologist, and spent a few days in Antigua. We found Antigua to be a beautiful town in a gorgeous setting. One problem with it is that all the buildings look the same, and I kept getting lost. We had intended to use Antigua as a base to explore the Western part of the country (Lake Atitlan, Mt Pacaya, the market at Chichicastenango) but we got sick and spent most of our time there in bed. We also talked about going to Tikal, but we are both a little ruined out. Perhaps we will go to Copan in Honduras.

What we have done in the six months on the river is meet a lot of really great people (I won't name you, as you would get all squirrelly), learn a little Spanish, done a little work on the boat and relax a whole lot. We have never been in a reasonably timeless place and had no time constraints on us. As a result, there are a couple of months we cannot account for, and if we do not focus on getting the boat ready and getting out of here, there could easily be a few more. It is an idyllic way to live, and very addictive.

But, we want to move on and see some more of the Caribbean and the world, and that means focusing on the chores at hand. We were going to wait until we got to Honduras and haul Jacana in La Ceiba, but a price comparison showed a $0.30 difference here, so we had the haul-out done at Don Abel's. We got the bottom painted with two coats of ablative anti-foul, the prop pounded back into shape after that grounding in Belize, put in the keel-cooler for the new Frigoboat refrigeration unit and had a couple of dings on the keel and skeg repaired. We were very pleased with the work and the 48-hour turnaround time. While we were out of the water, we stayed at Nutria Marina, a small back-packers resort near the boatyard. It is run by Becky, a lady from New Zealand and Australia, who is making a name for herself as a hotel manager. In her words, she can "chew the leg off a chair", and we had a couple of pleasant evenings talking with her. While we were there, she managed to get an indian pipe band named Sol Latino to do a short concert one afternoon. We had seen them at Cafe La Pena in Antigua, and enjoyed their music enough that we bought one of their CDs.

Frontera and Relleno, now known as Rio Dulce town, is a frontier community. A lot of people wear guns, and some use them to settle arguments. It is reported that there were more than 20 murders in town during October, a lot for a town of perhaps 5,000 people. As far as we know, all of these 20 were locals. Cruisers are generally excepted from this violence with one notable exception while we have been here (newspaper article). More and more cruisers are discovering the Rio, and we suspect that the area will soon be forced to become a little less wild and a little more organized as a result. That will probably be a good thing, for both the cruisers and the locals, but I for one will miss it. There are too few frontier towns left.

From here, we plan to go (in a couple of weeks) to the Bay Islands in Honduras and do some more work on Jacana. We want to put our solar panels on, get the wind-charger mounted, complete the conversion of the refrigeration system and buy/install a SSB radio. We hope we can get that completed before Shelley's sister, Gilda, arrives in mid-February for an extended visit. After she arrives, we may go back to Belize, or come back to the Rio for a visit. Our desire is to be in Panama by about July. This will give us protection from Hurricanes, and the San Blas islands are a great cruising ground. After that, we really don't have any firm plans. Cruising is truly an exercise in Carpe Diem, since you don't know where you will go next, or what the day will bring. I do know that if I don't get moving, this day will be gone and my chores will not be done.

Let's see, what were those chores anyway?

Belize - Rio Dulce.............Voyage End

We are now on the last leg of the journey. An easy 35 mile day with fair winds and low current was a great way to get to Guatemala. We left No Name Point about 1000 hrs and about noon the wind began to pick up enough that we could shut off the motor. There was a slight vibration from the prop and we didn't want to tax the transmission any more than necessary. And besides, it is a sailboat.

We arrived off Livingston about 1530 and got some instructions on crossing the sand bar at the mouth of the river. "Go to the buoy and head for the red roofed building". There about 20 red roofed buildings!!! We touched once or twice as we crossed, but made it OK. Since there was an offshore wind pushing the river back, the harbor was a bit bouncy, but we got the anchor set just above the fuel dock. By the time we finished anchoring, the customs boat had arrived. Four officials came aboard, Port Captain, Customs, Immigration and a doctor. We gave them the papers they needed, customs had a quick look around the cabin, and they left, saying welcome to Guatemala.

We were going to take the dinghy in, but quickly decided that it was much too rough to put the motor on it, so we flagged down a family passing by and got a ride in their panga. The standard fee for this is 30 Quetzals or about 4 dollars. Unfortunately, the smallest bill we had was a $20 Belize note, worth $10. They seemed quite happy with it. We went to the clearance agents office where we signed a couple more forms. The agent told us where the bank was and to hurry back as 1700 was approaching. We had picked up a self-appointed guide/information source named Carlos who escorted us to the bank, pointed out a good seafood restaurant and took us back to the agent. He returned a few minutes after we arrived with all our paperwork completed and our passports stamped. We paid him $150 and received 90-day visas and 3-month clearance for the boat. I am still not sure why there is a distinction between the durations.

We went back to the boat, relaxed for a while and took the dinghy in to the dock. Carlos was there to watch it for us while we ate. We asked him what he did for a living. "I'm a hustler. I hustle tourists." The meal at the Happy Fish was very good, a Garifuna seafood soup called Tapada. Livingston had no road access, very narrow streets, almost no sidewalks and looks like a Disney theme park to me. It really is a nice little town.

Friday morning we were about ready to weigh the anchor, when this dinghy came out of the canyon mouth. Shelley looked at it and said that she recognized those feet. Sure enough, Bryan had come all the way down to help pilot us back up. The motor up the river took almost 5 hours, against the 2 kt current of the river. As we entered the canyon, I was reminded of a passage from the guide book. In a few moments we entered the Rio Dulce. On each side, rising perpendicularly from three to four hundred feet, was a wall of living green. Trees grew from the waters edge, long tendrils descended to the water, as if to drink and carry life to the trunks that bore them. It was, as its name imports, a Rio Dulce, a fairy scene of Titan land, combining exquisite beauty with colossal grandeur. As we advanced the passage turned, and in a few minutes we lost sight of the sea, and were enclosed on all sides by a forest wall, but the river, although showing no passage, still invited us onward. This was written by John Lloyd Stevens in 1841.

As we progressed up the river, we would be treated to a beautiful scene, and then come around a bend and be presented by an even more awesome view. This went on for almost the entire trip. It is the sort of place where it is difficult to take a bad picture. Finally at just past 1400, we arrived at Frontera (which has been officially renamed Rio Dulce town) and our journey's end. Bryan went on ahead to direct us in to our slip. Most slips here are med-moors, where you back into the dock and drop an anchor about 30-40 feet out to keep the bow pointed directly away from the dock. Shelley did a magnificent job of backing Jacana in while I managed the lines and anchor. We shut off the engine, I had a rather large rum and we went swimming in the marina pool.

What followed was about a week of sleeping, resting, relaxing, and in general, recovering from a month-long voyage of 1344 nautical miles. We had not realized just how fatigued we were, but sleeping 12-15 hrs a day seemed quite proper.

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

Isla Mujeres - Belize

On June 8, we decided that the weather window wasn't going to get any better for a while, so into a 10-15kt easterly and 4-6ft seas, we headed out the cut and toward Belize. One of the unfortunate things about the easterly trades is they are generally accompanied by seas in the same direction, and since we were sailing south, we had beam seas. This is not a comfortable sail. The weather forecast was wrong -we had SE 15-20kt wind with 6-8ft seas which put green water over the bow and at times over the Bimini top. We also had a 2 kt north-running current to deal with. After we got nearly to Cozumel, we moved toward the mainland to minimize the current and not enter the area where the sea started feeling the bottom and get rough. We motor-sailed for most of Thursday and Thursday evening, until the wind came around on the beam about 2000 and we were able to sail on a good reach throughout the night. Friday morning we reached the cut into San Pedro. Unfortunately, the yellow marker buoy was gone (a victim of Arthur, probably) and there were 6ft seas. We took one look at this and turned south for Long Cay entrance. This cut is wide, deep and easy to navigate. We then sailed up to Caye Caulker and dropped anchor. We were accompanied in by Silver Lining (Wally and Marcie), a 47 ft Leopard Catamaran. We all went to Rosie's for lunch/dinner. The next morning we woke up and found that our anchor job was not as good as we had thought. We had dragged and were about a mile offshore. We were still in 7-9 ft of water. We picked up the anchor, motored back in and set it again, this time more firmly and we set an anchor watch on the GPS (if you move over the set distance from where you set it, an alarm on the GPS goes off so you can do something about it. Silver Lining invited us over for coffee, but we could not get the outboard started. Wally came over and (with my help) disassembled the fuel system and cleaned it. We put it back together and it started first pull. We stayed there through the weekend, leaving Tuesday, June 10. The water in northern Belize is all pretty skinny and you spend a fair bit of your time with 2-3 ft or less of water under the keel. We got lost and were passing the wrong cay. We managed to get turned around with only a small panic and no grounding. We sailed most of the way, arriving at Middle Long Cay about 5pm. It is a nice anchorage, very protected. We left early the next day, as we had about 60 miles to do and did not want to arrive at an anchorage in poor light. We finally got to Palmetto Cay which is described as a good anchorage in 15 ft. As we made the turn around the north side, we went hard aground on a coral garden. We worked the boat and managed to turn enough to fall off the head we were on and got out of there. We motored down to our alternate anchorage, No Name Point. We were later told it was good water further in, but we were freaked out by the coral and did not go clear in. As a result we had a bit of a rolly night. Thursday morning we dove on the hull to inspect, and found only a couple of scratches on the rudder and keel. The prop, however was a different story. Two of the blades were bent up some. This caused some vibration and a slight reduction in our speed, but the transmission seems OK. We didn't get the chance to do any snorkeling or diving while we were there, but perhaps next time.

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

Isla Mujeres

When we cleared in at Progresso, we were told we did not need an Importate, the document that shows you have registered your boat with the government and can legally navigate Mexican waters for 10 years. Jose at the marina said that we did need it, as we would be in Mexico more than 10 days and we could have our boat impounded if we didn't get it. so we took the ferry to Porto Juarez (next to Cancun) and went to the Port Captain's office. They wanted our stamped copy of the crew list. "Progresso didn't give us one." "They should have. We will call Progresso and talk with them. Come back in an hour." We had lunch and went back. "Progresso made a mistake. They should have given you the form." "Ok, can you stamp it?" "No, only Progresso can do that." "We have to go back to Progresso?" "No, they will fax it over." So we wait?" "It may take a while to fax it, so come back Monday." Four days to fax one page?

So we went to Chichen Itza on Sunday. Apart from being one of the seven wonders of the modern world, it is a beautiful place. You cannot see it all in one day, as it covers 5 square miles. The bus takes 4 hours to get there. Here are the pictures of Itza {pictures}. there is not really much you can say about the place except Wow and Incredible.

Monday we went back to Port Captain. The fax had arrived and we paid our money and got our Importate. We then hunted down a marine supply store, trying to replace a winch handle which had gone overboard. Finally found it, but they had very little for sailboats and handles was not included. So, on to Wal-Mart. It is just like every other Wal-mart, except for the cafeteria, which has great food. We bought the place out and headed back to the boat.

Wen we first arrived at Isla Mujeres, the sky was full of helicopters flying into the Navy base. They were bringing tents and generators and air conditioners in for the big festivities on Sunday when President Calderon would be there (for about 20 minutes). We missed it all.

Tom had turned us on to a brand of Cuban rum called Havana Club which is really good. His fiancee (Elizabeth) bought me a bottle for 135 pesos. We went to the shop a couple of days later to get more and the price to us was 450 pesos. So we asked Elizabeth to get another. The price was now 145pesos to her.

We finally got the weather window we had been waiting for, and on Thursday (June 5) we headed south for Belize.

Progresso - Isla Mujeres

Ok, we have stayed in Progresso long enough, and it is time to head on. So we left the marina and motored for two days until we got around the corner and into Isla Contoy, arriving about 2230. We anchored and went to bed. The next morning we awoke to a beautiful island - a nature preserve - surrounded by turtles. There must have been a hundred of them feeding and mating. We are talking 4ft long turtles here, possibly leatherbacks or loggerheads. then we pulled up the anchor and headed for Isla Mujeres. We arrived at Marina Paraiso about 1400. Tom (owner) and several others were on hand to assist us in getting tied up. Our adventures while in Isla Mujeres take up too much space for this entry, so it will be in its own episode.