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December |
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Felice Navidad!
27 December - Utila & Christmas
21 December - Return to Placencia
16 December - Back to the Queens Cays
12 December - Finally Left Guatemala!
27 December - Utila & Christmas
We managed to get the dingy engine started, so we could leave the boat after all! Checked emails when we got into Placencia town only to find out that the guys we were meeting in the Sapodillas for Christmas had to cancel. That was very sad news, and left us with a big fat nothing to do on Christmas :-(
We went to the Pickled Parrot to drown our sorrows and decide what we should do next. We decided to leave for Utila Honduras the next day. It was a pretty bad day all in all, it was Stuart and my 7 year anniversary and we ended up having beans on toast for dinner, the big block of what we thought was blue cheese, we brought in town, turned out to be horrid processed cheese made by a company with Blue in the name and the wine we brought tasted like sweaty socks. Not the happiest of days!
The next day didn't work out very well either, the dingy engine refused to work again. We took the boat over to Big Creak to sign out of the country, which went pretty well then we headed off to Long Coco Cay for the night to give us a head start the next day. This went horribly wrong, we reached the island in a bit of a gale just as it was getting dark, our guide book said this was a good place for anchoring but when we got there we found the depth went from 40 meters to 1 meter in a second, and right next to the island, it didn't help with the wind and the waves either. We dropped the anchor but appeared to be dragging so Stuart tried to pull the anchor but it was completely stuck and he couldn't budge it but we were still drifting toward the island and the reef. We found that we could still motor slowly forward with the anchor down so we went very slowly forward and away from the island.
By this time it is pitch black, Stuart tried to pull the anchor with the winch, only to break the winch. When we felt we had got far enough away from the island and the reef, I left the wheel and we both managed to pull it together. What we think had happened was when the anchor dropped it must have missed the shallow part and gone straight down to 40 meters, with the weight of all the chain and the anchor making it impossible to pull up.
Anyway we were free, but now it was pitch black and there was no way we were going to be able to anchor on that island, so we headed back to Placencia with the wind, rain and waves all against us in the pitch darkness. We used the navigation program with the GPS on the computer to get us back and was totally reliant on that to get us back as we couldn't see a thing. Luckily we got back in one piece but it took double the time with all the elements against us. It was really strange as we had a dolphin swimming along with the boat for a fair way (an Atlantic Spotted Dolphin!) but when we got to the island he started going loopy and doing leaps and twisty jumps all over the shop. We now think he was trying to tell us something! We will listen to the Dolphins in future!
Well we set off again the next morning to attempt the trip again. This time we made it to the Queens Cay's where we moored up for a couple of hours, had a bit of a sleep and made some food for the journey then headed off to open seas in the afternoon (to ensure that we ended up in Utila in the light). We took 2 hour shifts at the helm each throughout the night.
On Stuart's first shift, it was night time by now, he saw another boat in the distance which was headed straight towards us. It was a commercial ship and fairly large and fast so Stuart changed our course, this boat then caught up with us, changed cause to run parallel with us and slowed down to the same speed that we were doing. After a while it changed course again and headed straight towards us, Stuart did and quick u-turn and it eventually passed behind us & went off into the distance. The bloody thing was soo close though, it was really scary, I thought it was going to ram straight into us. We have heard stories like that from other sailors, where the people driving these big ships get bored so think they will play little games with smaller vessels. We weren't very impressed and I hope something very nasty happens to the guy driving.
Nothing particularly eventful happened throughout the rest of the trip, the wind died down in the middle of the night and left us doing 0.5 - 1.5 knots for a few hours. The sea was very calm but still the swell was enormous and made me feel pretty queasy for the entire journey. I have found I am ok if I am at the helm and don't have to move anywhere. Going inside isn't much fun, apart from when its just to fall straight onto the berth and sleep. Cooking is a big no no for me, so I think in future I will have to prepare lots of food before hand, this will have to be eaten cold and a big thermos of coffee so I don't have to venture downstairs! Mano now hates us!
We made it to Utila at 13.00 on Christmas Eve. Stuart managed to get the dingy working and we went into town to sign in. The Port Captain was closed though with a sign saying that they reopened on 3rd January! So we are currently here as illegal aliens! We bumped into a few people from the Rio Dulce and settled down to a few well earned Xmas Eve beers.
Christmas day was a bit of a non event, Father Christmas couldn't leave us any pressies as we don't have a chimney on the boat. For some strange reason Stuart decided to try and fix the cooker in the morning and found it is completely broken, which is a real pain, but was a bonus for me today as it mean't we could go out to dinner!! No cooking for me, hurrah! It rained all morning, then we went into town in the afternoon and reserved a spot for dinner at the Jade Seahorse fab place, run by an artist and his wife so all the decor is really elaborate. The garden is all mosaic glass beads, and all sorts of crazy stuff, tea cups, little army figures, dead corals. With windy paths and seating areas in all sorts of different spots. The cocktail bar is a tree house which was really funky. The dinner was a bit of a let down though, served cold on a plastic plate, that was a bit sad but the rest of it was good and the staff were really nice.
Well Christmas is all over now (thank god!!) and we are just spending time chilling out in Utila. Stuart went on a couple of dives this morning. That is mainly what the island is, full of dive resorts, divers and boaters. The locals here aren't what I expected, they are mainly white descendents of pirates, privateers, buccaneers and British settlers who were here working in the logwood and mahogany cutting operations. The British brought with them African Slaves and Black Caribs and there are also the hispanics here from mainland Honduras. It is very strange to see a very white ginger haired girl who looks like she comes from Scotland talking in a very broad Caribbean accent! We are liking it here so far the people are very friendly and its a nice town with lots of bars and restaurants, everyone gets around either by golf cart, quad bikes, push bikes or motor bikes. We are planning to rent some bikes and do a bit of a tour of the island in the next couple of days.
21 December - Return to Placencia
We went into Dangriga which was a nice little town it looked a little like something out of a crazy western film, if all the Coca Cola etc signs weren't there, with the obligatory burnt out wooden house with front still intact. When we pulled the dingy up the beach we were suddenly surrounded by about 10 kids all prodding and poking the thing, we left it with them all sitting on and round it (with fingers crossed that they wouldn't pinch it!) We did our shopping and took a look around, it was a shame we didn't have a little longer as just down the road is the Mary Sharps Hot Sauce factory, very popular round here and also sold in supermarket back home, apparently if you go during the week Mary Sharp will show you round herself!
When we were finished we found the dingy where we left if still in one piece, the kids had got bored of it by then and left, so we attempted to head back to the boat, but the naughty little Seagull (engine) had other ideas and refused to start. We have to row out a little way before we can attempt to start it so I was left rowing whilst Stuart was trying the engine. After about half a hour we eventually drifted over to a pier where we spent the next hour and a half trying to start the bloody thing. Stuart eventually got it going with the help of a local guy, but that messed up our quick trip to town and off!
We then set off and did 2 hours of sailing to spend the night at the Fly Range, a group of mangrove islands, not much to see here. The next day we set off early towards Turneffe Island which is on the outer side of the reef and with more choppy waters. We had a bit of a nightmare going through the channel in the reef, with worries of hitting the bottom, being run over by a cruise liner (which turned out to be stationary!) and being run down by a tug (which stopped off at the cruise liner, so came no where near either!). I was quite impressed at one point at how ridiculously clear you could see the bottom at 35 meters, only to realise that the depth sounder was playing silly buggers and we were actually only in about 3 meters! We saw a few turtles on the way which was nice and we eventually got to Turneffe with no incidents.
We set off the next morning for Light House Reef, which was our next stop before the Blue Hole, the waters were pretty choppy and after about 4 hours sailing we decided to turn back as it looked as though there was a big storm brewing over Light House Reef and we needed good light to get in without hitting the reef. So we about faced and headed back to Turneffe. We decided this time to anchor inside the Lagoon, we heard that there was a lodge inside where we could go out to dinner. So we found the channel that was described in the cruising guide and marked by a couple of markers, the channel was supposedly over 6 ft, we have a 5.5 ft draft so we should have just fitted. Hmmm In the 15 years since the book was written it must have silted up some as we managed to get firmly stuck on the bottom! The boat wasn't going anywhere (luckily Stuart was steering at the time so it wasn't my fault!) Stuart had to winch us off with the anchor in the end. After that little adventure we decided to stop where we were and anchor there.
That wasn't the end of our disasters for the day, when Stuart went in the water to check the anchor (and see if there was any damage to the keel) he noticed that the P Bracket that holds the propeller shaft in place has spilt. This was the part that we had welded up when we had the boat hauled at Abel's, in Guatemala, earlier this year. This is really not a very good sign and means we need to be hauled out again and have a whole new propeller shaft fitted. Until then we need to use the engine as little as possible so the split doesn't get any larger. The plan is to still head down to La Ceiba, Honduras, and do it there.
The next day we decided to skip the Blue Hole and head back down south, to make it back to the Sapodillas by Christmas, we managed to sail all the way to the Tobacco Range, only using the engine to pull up and set the anchor. We left here the next day and headed towards Placencia in a bit of a gale, waves up to 10ft! We had to find our way out of the reef solely under sail, we managed to do 6 knots with only half the main sail up, there are some times when you just don't really want to be going that fast, like when you have reefs looming! We got out eventually after having to go well out of our way. Behind the reef the water was much calmer, although poor Mano is not enjoying his life at sea, I think the starting point was when a bottle of rum landed on his head! He almost leapt over the side this time, so we now have to lock him in the loo when it gets rough.
Getting into Placencia wasn't without its incidents either. Before we have always entered from the South, this time we were entering from the North, you have the mainland to the west and Placencia Cay a little to the east, in between on the South side is the anchorage. We decided to go in between the mainland and the Island rather than going all the way round the Island to save time. The channel here is noted to be 20ft, although again I think a lot has changed in 15 years and the channel couldn't have been more than 5 feet deep!!!
..... DONK.... we're stuck in the sand again :-( ......
This time was pretty horrible as we had waves crashing up against the side of the boat, pushing us further into the shallows and you could feel the keel bashing further into the sand, we thought the keel was going to break off at one point. Stuart put the engine on full bore (probably doing the already broken P Bracket no good whatsoever) and we eventually scraped off, and took the long way around the island. Blimey, I don't want to go through that again in a hurry!
We are now anchored up at Placencia and Stuart is trying to fix the dingy engine, it is sometimes sounding successful and other times not, so if you never hear from us again it is because we are stuck on the boat for the rest of our lives as we can't get the engine working!!!
Merry Christmas everybody!
16 December - Back to the Queens Cays
Well the night at Laughing Bird Cay, turned out to be pretty peaceful after all that, a bit of a rough afternoon but calmed down by the evening. The next morning we waited a little while to see what the weather was doing, so Stuart did a little fishing whilst we waited. He caught one of the nice yellow and white fish which we think is a Yellow Tailed Snapper (thanks to the fish book that 'That' gave us!), but before Stuart got a chance to pull it up the big nasty Barracuda zoomed up and bit it in half in one foul swoop! We pulled the fish up and there was only half of the poor thing there. I'm just glad I didn't go swimming with the monster it could have taken your arm off!
Anyway the weather cleared up and we headed off the the Queens Cays. It took a couple of hours to get there and we managed to do one of the worst mooring maneuvers ever. We forgot to pull the dingy up tight to the boat so when I reversed as Stuart was going for the mooring buoy we reversed over the painter (the dingy rope) so it got wound round the propeller, promptly cutting the engine out. Stuart quickly dropped the anchor instead. We were lucky that the weather was calm as we were completely surrounded up hazardous reefs. Anyway, Stuart went under the boat and cut the line off and luckily we hadn't damaged the engine, which started again as normal. At this point with their usual perfect timing the marine rangers popped up and charged us $40 to moor there!
We spent a couple of days here, you wouldn't believe how much it could change in 5 months. The island is a completely different shape the sandy part is now at the opposite end of the island. Good job it has trees on it or it would either be half a mile down the road or not be there at all! The hazards of buying a desert island, if your going to do it get a big one, other wize it could well dissapear within a year!
We attempting to have bar-b's on the beach without much luck. The fire would never get going, I think our problem was we didn't have enough men standing around looking at it. That seems to be the normal secret of starting a fire. We let Mano have a bit of an adventure on the beach too. He was a bit spun out at first but was soon playing in the grass and climbing trees.
We took the dingy over to the other islands too to do a bit of snorkeling, its is very nice for snorkeling as you can swim in just 3 feet of water and still see lots of nice fishes, and in my case a SHARK!!!! Why is it always me??? 3 feet of water and I get a bloody shark! Well at least that's what I think it was! It was only 2 or 3 feet long but I have looked it up in our fish book and it looked very similar to a Nurse Shark (albeit a baby) I couldn't find any other fish in the book that looked anything like it, so I am declaring it a shark!
We left Queens Cays yesterday morning and spent yesterday sailing to Blue Ground Range, which is a group of mangrove cays we spent 7 hours getting there and it proved to be a nice peaceful anchorage. This morning we left there at 6am and have just arrived at Dangriga, a town back on the mainland where we are about to do some shopping......
12 December - Finally Left Guatemala!
Blimey can't believe its December and nearly Christmas. Well it still took us longer to leave the river than we had initially planned, we kind of got caught up in the socializing side of everything rather than getting ourselves in gear and getting out. The weather spent a bit of time being pretty British too, lots of dull rainy days. We had a nice Thanks Giving night over at Jurrien and Babets place, click here for pics.
We also went out on the lake again for a couple of days to shake the boat up and test things. The wind vane isn't working as we would like it to, in the way that it doesn't keep the course that it is set to keep, which is a bit of a big problem, but Stu recons with some tweaking we can get it going properly. Stuart fitted all the bits that Ron and Ariane had brought back with them from the States. We got our main sail back from Lobo and Erica, a very good job done, so we are pleased and a lot more confident with our main sail now.
We got some provisions in, filled the boat with diesel, water, stove alcohol and rum, got the cat vaccinated against Rabies and got some paperwork for him, then set off on 8th December.
Click here for pics since we left.
We spent the night in Livingston after getting the paperwork for the boat done and signing out at immigration. Then we set off the next morning with the high tide at 3.30am! We didn't have much choice, we could either leave in the dark or arrive in the dark, so we chose the former. Woke up at 3am in the pitch black and the pouring rain, oh yes, the weather was definitely expecting us! It was a little stressful crossing the bar in the pitch black but we made it without hitting the bottom, or anything else for that matter! Then continued on motoring in the dark until the sun showed its face. I thought it would be quite a scene to see the sun set on the move, but was rather disappointed as couldn't see much due to the clouds. We managed to sail the rest of the way in the light though which was nice. Although I'm not too sure Mano was quite as excited, he has never really moved anywhere on the boat before and was a bit spun out as to why his home was suddenly lurching back and forth. He gave one attempt of walking, gave up and has slept through all sailing ever since!
Managed to sign in in Punta Gorda, Belize no probs. We are back up this way again as we have decided to spend Christmas with the friends that we have made on the Rio Dulce, and are meeting up with them on 24th December in the Sapodillas (also Belize) then we will head off to Honduras after that. From Punta Gorda we went to the Moho Cays again to anchor for the night. I couldn't believe it, since we were there the last time 5 months ago, the island is being built on! There won't be a grain of sand left in this county that hasn't been built on within the next year.
We left Moho the next morning after a peaceful night, surprise surprise, in the wind and the pouring rain again. We headed up to Placencia, one good thing with the wind was it meant we could sail. Sods law though, the wind was on the nose all the way there which meant we had to tack lots. Last time we motored up in bad weather from Snake Cays doing 1 Knot an hour and it took us 6 hours, this time we sailed most of the way in bad weather doing 4 - 6.5 Knots and from Snake Cays it took us 7 hours!!! 9 hours in total from Moho, quite a long wet day! We got in to Placencia at 6.00pm in the end just after dark but for our troubles the anchorage was the calmest we had ever anchored in, so had a lovely peacefully nights sleep. Then next day we did a little Christmas shopping in town, then back to the boat for one of the rolliest nights at anchor we had ever had!!
Today we left Placencia in the morning, cloudy with no wind today , and set off toward Laughing Bird Cay, motoring all the way. We tried to use the electric auto helm, which now appears to have broken, so looks like we will be manual steering where ever we go now! Oh well you can't win them all. We arrived in Laughing Bird Cay a couple of hours after we left, its a nice sandy island with a dive center based on it, clear waters and lots of fishies, with a mean looking Barracuda which has been casing our boat since we got here. We are discouraged from catching and eating them anymore though, after hearing about the disease Ciguatera. We heard a story from some friends who had caught it after eating a fish that they thought was safe to eat. The whole family suffered from it. Apparently you get it in fish that feed off the reefs, or fish that feed off the fish that feed on the reefs, but it differs from area to area, so we are a little stumped now. We need to do some internet research to find out what is safe to eat or not.
Anyway we are now moored up at Laughing Bird Cay which I can tell you now is going to be a lively night, we are rocking and rolling like mad, mind you our guide book did warn us that it was uncomfortable to anchor here for the night but we decided it couldn't be any worse than Placencia last night! Time will tell....