Oceanic Ventures, Inc.
The Strange Chronicles
November 2000
November 27, 2000 We have a very fast trip from southern Belize to Isla Mujeres. The distance was over 359 nautical miles. We only took 52 hours, averaging an outstanding 161 nautical miles a day. Cruising boats strive to break 100 nautical miles a day so we are very proud!
November 23, 2000 We're hanging out in the Sapodilla Cays, Belize (16*07N / 088*15W). Today is Thanksgiving so we have a huge feast planned with the other boats in the anchorage. We'll dine at the "restaurant" building of the abandoned resort on Nicolas Cay. The five boats in the anchorage will be providing the food. We'll be joined by the family of five who live on the island and three Honduran fishermen who are stranded here because the weather is too rough for them to return home in their small boat. People have been digging in their lockers and freezers and we're having a fairly traditional dinner - turkey, dressing, fresh bread, pasta salad, parmesan tomatoes, cabbage, yams, baked apples, potatoes, coconut and pumpkin pie, cranberries. Since the locals are sometimes a bit confused by our foods, we're also serving a huge platter of black beans and rice and perhaps some fried plantains.
It must seem like half of our messages are about food, but it's a very important topic to cruisers. We go weeks between grocery stores and sometimes their selections are very poor - especially compared to US standards. For instance, we walked from one tiny little store to another in Fronteres, Guatemala. visiting eight or so hoping to find some yeast. The storeowners gave us funny looks because hardly anyone bakes their own bread. You just walk over to the local bakery and buy what you need for the day. We even tried buying yeast from the bakery. We sometimes get very fresh flour or yeast this way, but this place couldn't figure out how to sell us any.
November 16, 2000 Had my first swim in Belize since hurricane Keith. The storm chewed up the Belize City, San Pedro, and Cay Caulker area but didn't do much around here. There's slight beach erosion but you'd have to know the island well to notice it. The reef was very alive with fish, small lobster, a reef crab, a friendly moray ell and a napping nurse shark. Of course, after being in the muddy waters of the Rio Dulce for several weeks, I was hunting. We enjoyed a lovely dinner of grilled snapper, red beans & rice, homemade tortillas and fried plantains.
Beautiful stars this evening with few clouds to spoil the show. Saturn and Jupiter dominate the eastern sky until the moon comes up around 9PM. Orion and his dogs are giving Taurus a hard time. The Pleades (sp?) continue to be my favorites, although it takes binoculars to see as many of the sisters as I used to see by naked eye.
November 15, 2000 The Rio Dulce is much like the Venezuela coast; but unfortunately, the crime is concentrated in a much smaller area. Much like Margarita or PLC, the morning net is introduced by sailors asking who had a problem with crime in the past 24 hours. Although we didn't have any problems, we know two boats that did. I won't dwell on the subject, however, on the day we headed down river to checkout at Livingston, the Guatemalan. navy stationed two boats at either end of the large central lake. This was an attempt to discourage or perhaps capture the four men who are making a habit of coming alongside traveling sailboats, displaying a pistol and a long knife then boarding and robbing the vessel. This had begun to happen in the middle of the day a week or so before we left. Speculation is they will one day pick on the wrong American boat and be blown away with a 12 gauge.
Monday evening we crossed over the sandbar at the entrance of the Rio Dulce [14o49N/088o45W] at high tide with an almost full moon. A two-hour motor sail took us to a nice anchorage along the Guatemalan coast. Early the next morning we headed for the outer Cays at the southern end of Belize. It was a delight to be out of the Rio. Our good mood really soared when we caught not one but two large Spanish Mackerels. By early afternoon, we were anchored [16o07N/088o16W] and Kim and Luis aboard S/V Crystal, our friends in the Rio, had already arranged a beach cookout with the other three yachts in the area. We're back in the land of clear water, reef fish, lobsters, starry nights and cooling trade winds. What a delight!
We'll probably spend Thanksgiving here or perhaps move over to the Bay Islands of Honduras. Two whole chickens in the freezer waiting to pretend they're turkeys. Roasted chickens (prepared with pats of butter, salt, pepper and lots of tarragon), a couple of pies, maybe a loaf of homemade bread and a can of cranberries will be our contribution. We'll organize the feast with kim and Luis on S/V Crystal and Bob and Lise on S/V Ayacha when they arrive. Of course everyone will eat too much and still have plenty of leftovers to share with the lighthouse keeper, caretaker and other locals who "happen" to drop by.
A couple of days later we'll sail the 300 or so miles to Isla Mujeres, put S/V Enchante' in a marina and head home for the holidays.
November 14, 2000 15o56N/088o36W It's Monday evening. We're anchored near the mouth of the Rio Dulce, off the town of Livingston. The day was spent visiting Customs, Immigration and the Port Captain to check out of Guatemala. Then we had a nice long lunch, some ice cream bars and cruised the street markets spending the last of our Quetzales on tomatoes, onions, plantains and other fresh vegetables.
High tide is a bit after 8PM. The extra high tide is courtesy of an almost full moon. Happily we have the fat moon and clear skies to light our way out of the river. There aren't any markers along the coast - certainly nothing with a light on it. We'll motor for a couple of hours and drop the anchor along a nice section of the coast called Tres Puntas.
Tuesday morning we'll head to the Sapodillo Cays, Belize. With any luck we'll catch a Spanish Mackeral on the way and get back to the serious business of grilling fresh fish on the beach. If trolling doesn't produce dinner, we know a nice section of the reef for spearfishing and there are plenty of lobster holes in the area. Certainly we'll be enjoying seafood by Wednesday.
November 6, 2000 We're still one the West side of Lake Golfete near the town of Flores. We came up here to greet Bob & Lise on S/V Ayacha and do a bit of shopping. They hung around for a couple of days then hopped a bus to do some inland traveling. Karen, Kim and Luis may be heading inland in a couple of days. I'm staying on the boat with Rebecca.
Our plans are to leave the river in a week or two. We're talking about heading over to Utila before turning north to Isla Mujeres. If we do get there, we'll certainly visit Troy at the Laguna Beach Resort.