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My step-son Ian McEwen and his wife, Trudy Hodges, and my neice Melissa Payne, came down for a week the end of March.
We had light winds as we headed south from Belize City. Mel couldn't wait to get wet, but she was all worried about something from the deep getting her. After all, "You can't see the bottom!" This from a girl who used to swim competitively, and still likes to coach. I assured her the sharks were friendly, and any other big critters would only nibble on her toes in a friendly sort of manner. Besides, you could see the bottom, here and there, twenty feet below us. The water got clearer as we left Belize City and the mainland farther behind. We tied a line off behind the boat, and with some apprehension, she finally jumped in. That was the end of her concerns. She raced us, and won for quite a while. But after a while the wind picked up a bit, and three knots was more than she could handle. I was impressed.
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(She won for quite a while) |
taking a breather | | |
As we were leaving the marina where I picked them up, I said something about hoping the engine worked well this week. Ian said something about not using the engine, so I said ok. I was delighted that he wanted to sail, not motor. We spent the week sailing, starting the engine only to get back into the marina at Belize City. It's not too bad getting in, but there were a lot of expensive boats in there, and once in, you have to be able to STOP. No small task if you don't have an engine and there's not enough room to turn the boat into the wind and wait for her to lose way. I'd thought about it a lot, having already gone in there once without an engine, under tow.
Our first night was at Bluefield Range. Ian, Trudy and Mel went snorkeling. Ian checked out the mangroves, where he managed to find some small leeches to help him lose weight.
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We went out to Rendezvous Cay to snorkel.
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The sailing was pretty good.
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We stopped by English Cay, where we talked with Carl, the lighthouse keeper. He let us climb up to the light, from where we could see a long ways. It's nice being someplace where people aren't worried about being sued all the time. In spite of the old rusty ladder and shards of glass on the lighthouse floor from a broken lens.
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(Mel) |
(Blow it up and you can see Goff's Cay) |
About fifteen humongous cruise ships visit Belize each week, coming in the ship channel as close to Belize City as they can, which is several miles out. The ships disgorge anywhere from 2,000 to 4,500 people for their one day in Belize. They get a choice of a tour of the city, a whirlwind trip to Tikal, a trip to the zoo, a day of scuba diving, or a day of snorkling. Not a lot of time to see a whole country.
To the north of English Cay, on the other side of the ship channel, is Goff's Cay. Because it is close to the ship channel, it is also close to where the humongous cruise ships anchor. So it is the picturesque Caribbean island of choice for the cruise ship snorkeling zoo. Carl, the lighthouse keeper, told us there have been as many as 500 people out there at once. Not exactly what the cays need.
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Then we took the dinghy out to the reef and had a great snorkel.
Most days the wind was light, and we could laze around while we sailed. The puffy bag with the blue rings on the deck in the photo of Mel is a sun shower. Not the best place to put it, but hey, this is a small boat, and there's no such thing as a good place for it when under way, if you want it to be heating up.
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One day Ian jumped overboard while we were sailing along, giving us a chance to do a man-overboard drill. It reminded me of the time Peanut (Carmany) Thorp did the same thing, many years ago in the Windward Islands. Something one should do more often.
When we anchored in the Drowned Cays on the way back, we lost the cap to the chain pipe going down to the anchor locker. The anchor got away too fast and the chain caught on the cap, breaking the wire that held it. Ian put on his mask and snorkel and went looking. It was twilight, with the sun already down. We were in about eight feet of not very clear water, with a grass bottom. I figured it was a gonner, but after about a half hour, he found it! I was impressed.
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