Belize - Amadeus II
Belonging to The Moorings owners program allows us the use of other boats in other locations around the world. Sandy has wanted to try out a larger boat to familiarize us with the characteristics of the larger boat before we bring the family on a trip to join us.. so we booked a Moorings 4600, a 46' Catamaran that sleeps 10 and has an 18 passenger limit. A $700 up-charge, for the use of the larger boat (it is two sizes up from ours) seemed pretty reasonable for a 2 week charter. The up-charge is the same whether it is a 2 day trip or a 2 week trip. It was an older model than our 39 and so had a few dated items that were not as nice as ours, primarily the fridge/freezer, the dinghy davit, lack of LED lighting, and some of the electronics. It also was a 4 cabin version with 4 heads, so the bathrooms and showers were very small compared to the ones we have in the owners hull of the 39. The one thing that was nice on the 46' cat was the double duty that the anchor windlass could do as a winch to raise the main sail. That was nice!
Arrived Placencia by air.. $106 pp ow from BLZ. Couple mile taxi ride to Moorings Base. Base personal, Diego, Matao (both managers), Salome - technician, German, and base manager Renae Brown.
Big Mike taxi service. Taxi about 5 miles to Placencia village for provisioning and a few other items. Purchased a pole spear at El Capitan dive shop, phone sim at store near Wallens market. Wallens is where we loaded up with groceries for what we thought was a reasonable $150 US. Groceries here are much better priced than the BVI or St. Lucia. Beer not so cheap, $35 case for 10 oz.
Two islands on the 1st outing.. Laughing Bird marine reserve then to Ranguana for the over night. A good snorkel at both. Even stuck a horse eye jack with the pole spear and Diego hooked a small barracuda while trolling the reef with the dinghy. Laughing Bird was full of hogfish, but alas, no spearing allowed there. $10 US per person to visit Laughing Bird. Lots of eagle rays at Ranguana! That was fun! Diego was along for the night to help familiarize us with the 46 foot boat that was 2 size upgrades from our 38 foot.
On the way back to Placencia today, our skipper Diego caught a large king mackerel, a spanish mackerel, and a small tuna. Now we have even more fresh fish to eat. We kept a few steaks from one of the mackerel, should be good.
We are having a few items taken care of on the boat. Just minor stuff, but since we are in harbour we may as well. It is undecided which direction we go tomorrow, or to which island or which group of islands. We could plan something tonight but if the winds change, so could the plans. Oh, the stress of it all!
Chaos - on arrival to the Moorings Base, after awhile of settling t
Into the boat, I realized my and Sandy's fins are missing.. left in the taxi!
So, several phone calls to the taxi and we make arrangements to get provisions the next day and the return of the fins.
Back at harbour after a day out with our skipper we needed some things from town, mainly cash and a cap. We arrive all the way back to the base after the taxi trip to the village and realize I don't have my prescription sunglasses. A race in the taxi back to town just in time to catch the checkout lady at the hat shop leaving. She opened the store back, as it was after 5:00 now, and had m sunglasses at the counter. I had left them when trying on caps! Whew, that was close! A spendy trip for sure.. First trip $40 BLZ, second trip $30 BLZ. Always plus a little extra.
Whipray to Rendezvous to the Pelican Cays via Victoria Channel
Two nights at Whipray - First night we enjoyed the singing and antics of a crew of Austrians who get together several times a year for sailing and snow skiing. We think they were probably some sort of musical group in an earlier life as their harmonizing was a bit more than spontaneous.
We left Whipray Cay around 9:00 this morning, decided to go towards Rendezvous Cay. After a bit of motoring we hoisted the sails and shortly thereafter were greated with 23 knot winds. Fortunately, we had a reef in the sail as the winds were about 20 knots apparent when we raised them. The strong winds brought a lot of weather helm which was alleviated by loosing the main sheet. Arriving at Rendezvous there was poor anchorage and nothing that looked too good with the windy conditions we had so a decision was made to head for Lagoon Cay. Lagoon cay is listed as a day anchorage only so yet another decision as we passed Lagoon was to continue on to the Pelican Cays for the night.
From Lagoon cay to the Pelicans we had waves coming over the bow. Not that they were so big, but the timing was such when the back of the boat was lifted, the front was dropping into a wave. Since this was a 46' cat, maybe the waves were kinda big, but very easy. On arrival at Pelican we were ready for some flatter seas! Arrived Pelican about 1:00. One other cat like this one here. They were struggling with anchoring, we were struggle to find a spot too. Everything was 50' deep or deeper. I called the base and asked if this is where we drop and was told yes.. 50 to 60 ft. It took awhile but our anchor did finally catch. We dropped the secondary anchor into the dinghy and took it out about at 45 degrees and dropped it too.
Now we've been sitting through a pretty good squal, protected on almost all sides by mangroves, and according to the GPS the anchor is holding. We both would really like this weather to settle down so we can get in a good snorkel! The rain we are getting now looks like its going to stay awhile.
PELICAN CAYS TO SOUTH WATER CAY
There finally arrived what looked like a change in the weather about noon today so we pulled up the primary anchor and were pleased to find that the secondary anchor was not entangled in it. Both came up easily and we made good time leaving Pelican Cay, a short jaunt in the wrong direction to get us out from the midst of it and then north through the inner channel until a turn into Blue Ground Range. Very interesting! Shallow and risky, couldn't trust the GPS on the boat so everything was done by sight. Sandy at the front, me at the wheel. You really need the sun overhead or behind you for this leg of the journey.
A very good anchorage here at South Water Cay. Fifteen feet of a silty sand bottom seems to be holding in the gentle wind that has now rotated from the north to the east. We had a great snorkel to the south of the island this afternoon - tarpon, lion fish, lobster, hogfish, a cod type fish we haven't seen about 14 inches long, and the rest of the reef locals.
Didn't eat at the Blue Marlin Lodge. Ouch at $35 us per person. So a drink at the bar instead.. Ouch at $6 us glass of wine and $10 us rum punch! Won't be spending much time on island here. Dinner on the boat was just fine. Next time rum punch on the boat will be fine too. Ok, don't eat at the Pelican Reef Lodge either, 15$ us per person for breakfast and very bad coffee. We'll be eating on the boat the rest of the time that we are anchored at this island. Another bad deal is every restaurant wants 1-2 hours notice to accommodate you and no one has a VHF radio to call ahead on. After a $30 breakfast with bad coffee, kinda sad they were able to make an exception for us and served us on short notice.
Such a great sail to Tobacco Cay! 8.2 knots and flat water, should have had a thousand miles to go instead of five. Tobacco was completely different after our 16 year absence. Oceans Edge resort was dilapidated beyond belief, and most likely beyond repair. We did visit with a few locals, and even some we met years ago. Snorkeling may have improved though, and we thoroughly enjoyed several hours on the reef.
North of Tobacco a mile or so, we headed west off of Galbutt and into the inner channel for a very pleasant downwind sail past the Pelican Cays and east to Lagoon Cay where we met the tech boat so some repairs could be done to freezer which had been tripping a breaker with more and more frequency. The tender boat arrived just as we did. We tied unto a frayed mooring until it as fixed and then left the mooring to drop anchor. Anchor would not hold for nothing so a bit of a scramble to decide where we would go.
Decision made, 12 nautical miles to Whipray Cay, and an arrival that would put us near sunset and 5:00. And it did. We were fortunate in that we had visited Whipray before and so had a GPS track to bring us safely there as the last most shallow stretch was into the sun. Had to set out two anchors there, that's a whole different story. Maybe later. Not much for snorkeling at Whipray, left there at noon the following day for a 12 nautical mile, 25 degrees off a 7 knt wind motor-sail to Hatchet Cay and another poor, frayed half way through mooring line. A short trip around Moho Cay in between. Moho was beautiful, but poor anchoring and no moorings. We want Moho Cay.
Now at Hatchet Cay worried about the mooring but going to shore anyway. Understand they have wi-fi, maybe music and dance. We'll see. Sandy has spent an hour preparing, me, not so much..
Just a note that at Hatchet Cay the wi-fi is strong and we were able to pick it up regularily from the boat. Also, I decided for peace of mind to put the chain and rode from the secondary anchor down to the base of the mooring for a backup if the mooring line should break. I had seen some shackles when I did inventory and one of those worked to go chain to chain at the mooring base. We didn't have trouble but one catamaran broke free from their mooring.. adrift with the ball still attached to the boat! Lucky no damage as the captain happened awake at the time, 4:00 am, just as the line snapped. The wind was blowing over 25 knots. We still sleep pretty good!
Wholly cats was that a lot of information to absorb in a weeks time! But doable. Having 2 1/2 years of what I might call more than average charter sailing experience under our belt probably helped somewhat, and being farmers helped tremendously when it came to the mechanics and workings of the boat. We have both forgotten, or maybe I never knew, what it is like for kids nowadays to be doing homework, preparing for tests.. I had no clue! I will guarantee you that if you take these courses you will be a bit exhausted and relieved after each test. Three tests, 100 questions and 80 correct to pass, one for each course, not so difficult to get 80%, but still, a person wants to do well.. and especially if your wife is taking the same tests!
