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March was and is a month that brought terrible news.
First there was the news that our Granddaughter Lily was dreadfully ill. Meanwhile the pandemic that is plaguing the world and threatens everyone everywhere. It was a tragic month, totally out of our control, just depressing.
However, life for us, this month in Belize has continued at much the same pace. We have moved from cay to lagoon, to cay, we swam, snorkeled and between worry we enjoyed our outdoor life.
In early March we finally left our base in Placencia with the plan of heading north. All stocked up, first stop was Sapodilla Lagoon. Here we intended to shelter from the next northerly cold front and explore new territory.
The lagoon proved to be the ideal shelter, we left a rolly, windy anchorage and arrived to a flat calm, peaceful, sanctuary. While there we did have some nasty squalls but they really didn’t affect us.
We dinghied into the new Marina which is found on the very inside – sort of like a lagoon within a lagoon. There we found the new Marina to be a wonderful, with everything one would need, a gas station, small store, laundry etc.
At present the whole set up, Marina and housing on 14,000 acres is in some sort of “trouble” or receivership. Once and if it gets sorted the place hopefully becomes successful. The homes we saw were very large, grand, and mostly unfinished, but still had workers building.
The beach club again was quite amazing with a pool and bar plus a restaurant and beach cabanas. However it is only open for weekends. The staff were all very nice, hard at work keeping the place immaculate with hopes of guests one day. Now, the whole place is shut due to Convid 19.
South Water Cay
After Sapodilla Lagoon, we headed out to South Water Cay, keeping within wifi range, for any news of Lily.
South Water Cay is a small isle with a few small “resorts,” a bar and restaurant dive facility and such. The tourists are brought out in the locals launchers aka fast boats, from the mainland, either to stay or for the day.
At South Water Cay we snorkeled the beautiful waters and walked the cay. The snorkeling is still just wonderful, the water so incredibly clear as there is a cut in the barrier reef, from the outside leading inside.
The reef is very alive with many varieties of corals and fish, you never know what you might see. Of course it is best snorkeling there when the seas are calmer.
Placencia again!
After a few days we headed back to Placencia, still awaiting news of Lily, and now to provision with a goodly stock of supplies due to the threat of Corona virus’s possible arrival and quarantine. No, it was not in Belize, at that time. Coincidentally there were a few other boats headed towards Placencia, and looking at the AIS John could see they were basically racing back – speeds of 7 kts or so…..was a Tsunami headed towards us? We just kept on with our steady sailing speed of 5knots. Once anchored we saw the same boats were already headed back towards Guatemala.
We guessed they were racing for the border before it closed in 2 days, so they would not be held in Belize. We decided not to race back to the Rio Dulce, as the others had done, but to hold up here in Belize. We had till April 5th for our visas and then we could renew our visas till May 5th. However, since then we have learned we can renew as long as necessary, Belize is allowing us to remain here. So Belize it is until, well who knows, hopefully we return to the Rio by July. This was our plan anyway, we had hoped to sail to Roatan, but we will probably have to give it a skip.
Days in Placencia followed the same basic routine: up with the sun, breakfast, surf the net, go ashore and walk. The route being usually walking along down the famous longest sidewalk in the world. It runs behind the beach, well really, between the beach and small businesses, homes and guest accommodations.
Normally the sidewalk has a few persons out walking, but not now, it was more or less deserted. At the end of the sidewalk we turn to walk down the roadway back to the village, stopping on our way to buy our supplies.
The baker for our baked goods, the fruit and veg stand and a small shop or two. Then we would haul all our bounty back to the dinghy and back to the boat. It took us 3 daily trips to stock up, not horde, all that we needed for another few weeks away from civilization.
All resupplied we headed back out with the plan of sailing to Glovers and Lighthouse – 2 atolls off shore. First stop was at the Pelican Cays again. There we made water and had a very nice evening. Last time we had been there with Gail and Pete, now poor Gail is in the USA recovering from her broken neck – she’s called a walking miracle!
From there we sailed to South Water Cay with the idea of heading onwards the following day. But, that was not to be as Lily had to be medic-vacated out of Bermuda to Boston Children’s Hospital, she was in critical condition. John and I were besides ourselves with worry, but could do nothing. By this time most counties had closed their borders, there is now nowhere to leave the boat and it is too dangerous to travel. Plus, what good would any of that do to help the situation. So, we decided to stay within wifi range. We now hoist one phone up the mast and use it as a hot spot for our data.
South Water Cay
Once again at South Water we went snorkeling, in the cut that leads from the ocean inside. And then at the small cay on the other side – Carrie Cay.
The snorkeling was once again wonderful. At Carrie Cay I saw a shark, this time I believe it was a nurse shark. Plus a huge hermit crab living in a conch shell. This cay is a research station for the barrier reef in Belize.
Tobacco Cay
The next stop was Tobacco Cay. This is another small isle with coconut trees, and colourful cabanas for tourists to stay. Here we anchored up and set out to dinghy around plus snorkel. The shallows inside the reef were lovely, there were many rays to be seen and the reef along the edge was out of the water, so we hoped to walk along it.
Again at Tobacco Cay there is a cut between the island and the reef so that the open sea flows in. We anchored in the shallow sands off the island by the cut and then snorkeled the cut.
The snorkeling was magnificent! There were excellent corals, many fish of all different types, just so much to see. In the deeper waters of the cut tarpons both large and small were idling in the current with schools of bait fish and eagle rays were soaring around.
It really was wonderful! I saw 4 different types of rays and a while flounder atop of a piece of brain coral.
We never went ashore as we could see the docks were tied off to discourage us.
We had friends aboard that evening and enjoyed each other’s company.
Tobacco Range
The next day we needed to head to Tobacco Range as the wind was up and the anchorage is open to the blowing 25kts plus winds. Now Tobacco Range is totally different, it is a group of mangrove cays. We had to carefully make our way in as there were brown bars and thin waters. In the anchorage all was sheltered and peaceful.
The next morning we went in the dinghy to a small bird sanctuary about a mile and a half away. There we saw hundreds of Frigate Birds – Man of War Birds, nesting and soaring in the skies. I love Frigate Birds, they are wonderful to watch soaring above in the skies, just effortlessly “floating” across and with the wind currents.
They are large birds with a wind span of about 6 feet and a long forked tail so their shape is in harmony with their movement across the skies, they cannot swim so while being water birds they rely on swooping down to catch their food with their beaks.
The male frigates puff out their red throats to attract the females, quiet an awesome sight! Frigate birds tend to steal food from the other sea birds and often we see them in a dispute over such. This colony of birds was huge, but their little island appears to be disappearing into the rising seas. Why do they just nest there? I am guessing its cause they always have……
From the Frigate bird colony we decided to explore the mangroves. Again we found many birds of differing types, plus some frigate birds that had fledged.
The mangrove cays in this area are huge with only a few fishing “camps” where solitary men could be seen. It looks to be an incredibly quiet and simple way of life, not sure if many folks could live like that, but the men gave a friendly wave and appear happy.
We then moved back to South Water Cay for a few days, mainly for a change of scenery. And back to Placencia to restock……
