What a great time we had at Glover's Reef, Belize. Glover's is one of three offshore atolls. It is Belize's best formed coral atoll, 17 miles long and 8 miles wide. Within the reef are 5 islands and hundreds of coral heads and reefs to explore. We first anchored off Southeast Cay, where we celebrated New Year's Eve, and got to know Mora, the bartender, at the dive resort. These islands have nothing on them but a one or two resort hotels with a few huts for the guests. Hurricanes tend to wipe out the resorts ever few years so building are made to be replaced inexpensively.
After anchoring off Southeast Cay for a few days, we moved 6 miles northeast to Long Cay. It's a beautiful, lush island that has only dive and water adventure resorts. We wandered the island looking for a restaurant or bar and found none, so we looked forward to some gold-star days (days where we spend no money). We spent days watching the kayakers, wind surfers, and dive boats come and go; Bob kept a watchful eye for the wind surfers who needed help getting back to the resort.
An area about 48miles is designated as a "no take-no fishing" zone; these reefs are the most beautiful Bob has ever seen in his many years of snorkeling and diving. Big fish, many schools, untouched coral - totally awesome. Next year's Christmas gift will be an underwater camera; it's a shame to miss these great underwater pictures. (Our friends on Tashmoo and Evergreen have been posting pictures on their sites, so check them out at www.sailblogs.com/member/tashmoo, and www.sailblogs.com/member/slowsailing. Still much of the area is open for spear fishing, so Bob went off to hunt with a pole spear and ended up losing it, but not before bringing back 4 fish to the boat (2 of which were edible).
We were thrilled that Off the Wall Dive Resort allowed us to use their internet - here in the middle of paradise we had wi-fi on the boat. "It doesn't get any better than this," says Maggie.
While Maggie was snorkeling in the shallow reefs, Rosie was assisted by Luther in handling her job. Rosie is making sure nothing more gets booked on Peter's calendar, while the directional booster antenna is looking for a signal from the dive resort.
We shared sundowners on the deserted beach with our friends, while we watched the sunset and even a blue (not green) flash. Once again, Bob blinked and missed it, he still has never seen a green or blue flash.
Cindy taught Maggie to bake bread; now all we need to do is get to a store to buy flour and yeast. (Some fresh produce would be nice, too; it's been almost 3 weeks without a store.)
A few gremlins appeared ... our watermaker stopped producing and the wind generator quit pumping in amps. After checking the water intakes, and taking apart hoses, Bob found tiny fresh water muscles from the Rio packed in the hose. Bob and John figured out the problem with the wind generator and we ordered the part for Greg to bring down. Bob has been spending days on the watermaker with the gremlins moving all over it.
The nights were filled with stars and we picked out the constellations and planets. With an abundance of wind and sun, Trixie had enough power to invite us all over for a movie and popcorn night on their boat. We watched Slumdog Millionaire on their 32" flat screen. Bob is envious trying to figure out how to get one on SeaTryst .
We had 6 gold-star days at Long Cay, before returning to Southeast Cay to be ready for the right weather to head southeast to Honduras. We returned to Mora at the bar (which by the way has internet access), and even went to dinner at the resort's restaurant.
We had planned an overnight sail to Utila, Honduras, one of the Bay Islands about 72 miles away. Days went by while we waited for the right wind; it was too much out of the east, which is where we were heading. Finally, with a cold front approaching bringing nasty weather and no protection in the reef, we decided on Monday to do a day's passage to the coast of Honduras. We gently followed Evergreen and Tashmoo out of the tricky reef entrance and into 5-6' rolling swells. With wind from various directions, we kept adjusting sails and sometimes we were cranking 8+ kts under full sail! This was a good test of the new cut in the headsail, which we had done in the Rio. With lots of squalls we were very happy with the new bimini, dodger and full enclosure (which is now called the Pope Mobile).
Just before approaching our waypoint for the anchorage, Bob had a big tug on his fishing line - we started the motor, took down sails, and reeled it in. We thought for sure it was a tuna - it had bright yellow fins and tail. When we ate it that night, we knew it was not. Our friends are convinced it's a yellow jack.
We anchored in a magical place called Laguna el Diamante. What a beautiful spot surrounded by low hills, lush, dense forest and howler monkeys. It was a calm, peaceful night with a full moon. Up early the next morning for our 6-hour trip to Utila, we caught the sunrise as we left our pretty anchorage, and Jon caught a picture of SeaTryst with the jungle as backdrop.
And along the way we caught a shot of our buddy boats.
Doing about 6 kts motor sailing, we arrived in Utila about 2:00, lowered the dinghy, picked up our friends, and dashed to Immigration and Port Captain to check into Honduras. Utila is a cute island and we wanted to hang out, but the weather and holding wasn't in our favor. Wednesday, 1/14, again up early, and in the pouring rain, we made our way through sloppy seas to French Harbor, Roatan where we are with 20 other boats riding out the cold front.
Here is the largest supermarket we've seen since the States; it even has grocery carts! We go there day after day, in between the rain and squalls, to just stare in awe at all our choices, most of which are American products. We can actually read the labels, and not have to guess at what we are buying. We get so spoiled in the US, unaware that much of the world doesn't have anything close to the abundance of goods and services we have back home.
Fantasy Island Dive Resort is nearby and we can go there for internet connection and a walk on the beach. We do need to remember to bring bug spray, or the noseeums will eat us alive.
Greg and Beth arrive mid-week, lugging with them packages of boat parts, mail, and grocery items we can't find here (Dove dark chocolate is a high priority!). When this cold front leaves we'll make our way to West End where they are staying to enjoy some time together. They are in a hotel for a week and will stay a few days aboard SeaTryst .