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When I left Livingston, Guatemala, I headed straight for Punta Gorda, Belize. It's a pretty straight shot with no real obstacles in the way, which was nice. The wind was good, although a bit too far forward; I was close hauled most of the way. The seas were small, two foot waves, but enough to make me not want to be zipping around like the fisherman below. I made good time, 5-6 knots, and was in Punta Gorda just after noon. I learned a bit more about how I wanted to operate the boat, how well the autopilot worked, got a little more used to the GPS, and generally had a good time. Plus discovering some more things that needed to be fixed or changed. I had deflated the dinghy for the crossing, as I was concerned about it digging when I was heeled. That was a good thing, except I had to inflate it to get to the Punta Gorda authorities to check in. It was great to be out on the water for a longish sail.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Malakii under sail. As a single-hander, it's tough to take pictures from a distance. Perhaps next year I'll get friends to take some if we're in a friendly race.
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After checking in, I did a little grocery shopping, then went up to TC's to see about getting my dive gear. We had a good visit, and I had dinner, and he brought the gear down to the dock the next morning. After that I took off, hoping to make Placencia. Unfortunately, the wind was really light, most of the day. I wasn't going to make it, and at the end of the day it started piping up. I ducked into shelter at Little Monkey Bay. The next morning I ambled into Placencia in the smoke and fog.
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In the photo above, the green line by my right foot is known as a jackline. I tried to always wear a safety harness. It's clipped into the jackline when I'm on deck. Even in light winds, I decided I was enough of a klutz sometimes that I might trip. Or lean against a lifeline and have it break. Or any number of other little mistakes which would become big mistakes if the boat sailed off without me.
It's a long haul from Placencia to anywhere that's a good anchorage, with the exception of Sapodilla Lagoon, so I decided to wait until the next morning to head on north. I got an early start, and made it to Colson Cay. On the way I got treated to Dolphins swimming off the bow. After I settled in at Colson, I got out my sextant and took a moon sight and a sight on Venus. Finding stars and planets in the sextant is a bit of an art, and I need a lot of practice.
Somewhere during the day, the depth sounder quit working. I rigged up a sounding line from the yellow mason's line I've been using to whip the ends of lines, and knotted it every five feet.
The next day I headed for Belize City. On the way, the auto-pilot went haywire and I ended up heading back south. I was down below working out some waypoints on the chart and heard the sails doing something funny. When I came up I at first thought the wind had changed, then realized the cays I was seeing weren't supposed to be there, and finally checked the compass. I was pretty confused until I looked at the trace on the GPS and realized what had happened.
I anchored off Peter's Bluff, about a mile and a half from Moho Cay Marina. I didn't like the approach to the marina and decided to take the dink in. I snorkeled under the boat and scrubbed the depth sounder transducer hoping that would fix the problem with it, but it didn't. While I was there I cleaned off the speedometer paddle wheel. I also inspected the prop, and discovered my vibration problem is because the prop strut has a crack in it and is loose.
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My original plan was to sail clear to Chetumal, where I would meet my friend Lynde who was going to be on Isla Mujeres in Mexico for three weeks and had added some time to her trip to go sailing. But with the depth sounder out, I didn't want to make the trip up there. It is notoriously shallow and narrow. So... during the next few days I worked on the boat and did some errands in Belize City. I bought a storm anchor, a 55 pound fisherman, that I named Big Bertha because it is so heavy. It's a pain to stow, a pain to attach to an anchor chain, a pain to set, and a pain to retrieve. But it's real nice to have when the weather kicks up and I'm not 100% convinced the primary anchor will hold. Then I took the bus up to Chetumal to meet Lynde. We came back the same day, then headed out the next morning. Sailing with Lynde
After Lynde left, I only had a few days until Brian and Bob were set to arrive. So I found a nice spot in the Drowned Cays and did some boat repairs. I built a new cover for the bilge over the keelbolts, prompted by slicing my foot up one night when I stepped on the old cover which was made of heavy plastic, and had broken. I was visited by manatees one morning, which was a treat. Then I sailed over to my sheltered spot off Peter's Bluff and got provisions for the upcoming week with Brian and Bob.
After I dropped Brian and Bob off at the airport, and got the prop fixed, I set off to explore a bit more. I headed south to Blue Ground Range for the night.
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Then on to explore the Pelican Cays. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough rode to anchor in the Pelican Cays,
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so I went on down to Lagoon Cays. The Lagoon Cays have a (surprise!) wonderful lagoon. It's more like a huge bathtub full of 1" - 2" fish, and consequently, a lot of Pelicans.
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From Lagoon Cays I went up to Spruce Cay, where I saw an Osprey, then on up to Tobacco Cay. At Tobacco Cay I had a wonderful sunrise on a foggy morning.
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From Tobacco Cay I followed the reef north. North of Columbus Cay I was treated to a family of dolphins swimming off the bow in super clear ten foot water for half an hour.
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When I got to English Cay, I stopped to check out the lighthouse and say hello to Carl, the lighthouse keeper.
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Then I went up past Goff's Cay and Seargent's Cay, and through one of the bouges in the Drowned Cays and back to Belize City to pick up Ian, Trudy, and Melissa.
My dinghy has proved to be a good little workhorse. It's about nine feet long and five feet wide, with a lot less interior space. It's not fast, having only a four horsepower engine; but it can haul a fair amount of stuff. I've never had to take two trips :-). The board across the bow is something I rigged up to enable me to raise it higher in the davits. At the time this picture was taken, I was still lifting it by a line attached to the two forward D rings. I now attach the lifting line to a rope loop attached to one of the floorboards, which gets it much higher.
