1 March 2013 Garbutt Cay to Sittee Point, Belize
I was woken at one o’clock by a heavy rain shower. I jumped out of bed and spent five minutes removing our cockpit mosquito netting and putting up the spray hood. Two hours later, I was woken again by the strange motion of the boat. I got up and found that the wind had increased to over 20 knots from the north west, the waves were a couple of feet high with white caps and we were close to the shallows that were now behind us – a lee shore, bugger!
Was this the cold front? I turned on my laptop to check the latest weather forecast which I’d picked up yesterday. I first confirmed that it was actually Thursday night and that I hadn’t had a senior moment and yes, the front shouldn’t be here for another twelve hours. By this time, Glenys had also climbed out of bed and after a few minutes of deliberation, we decided that we’d better leave and go to a better anchorage which was 12 miles away.
This is the first time that we’ve been caught out like this and have had to leave an anchorage in the dark. Fortunately, our chart plotter still showed our track coming in, so we were able to follow it out through the shallows near the anchorage. Once out into the open water, we had 3 foot breaking waves and 20-25 knots winds, so we unrolled some genoa and set off on a broad reach into the night.
It was a bouncy ride in the chilly north wind – I had to put on fleece and a jacket because it was so cold. By dawn, we were approaching Sittee Point and soon rounded it, sailing into the anchorage which gradually shallows towards a tree lined shore and best of all the sea is very calm in the lee of the headland. We anchored in 3 metres of water and we gratefully collapsed into bed at seven o’clock.
We had a quiet day pottering about. The wind calmed down and it was a lovely settled anchorage.
2 March 2013 Sittee Point, Belize
It was a fairly peaceful night with a north-west wind gusting occasionally, but we were nice and secure in this well protected anchorage.
We had another relaxed day doing our own thing. Glenys spent quite a bit of time looking ahead at where we’re going next when we leave Belize. We’re planning to head back north to cruise the south coast of Cuba and then to Jamaica, so our main concern is where we head for in Cuba to have a half reasonable sail there and then not beat our brains out when we head for Jamaica. It looks like Cayo Largo or Trinidad are good options to clear into Cuba and then we can cruise the cays from Trinidad to Cabo Cruz. From there it’s straight south to Jamaica.
By lunchtime, the sun was starting to show its face and the afternoon was very pleasant, but with a cold wind - it was a good day for Glenys to wash our smalls. There was a nice sunset with the sun disappearing behind the mountains to the west of us.
3 March 2013 Sittee Point to Twin Cays, Belize
I downloaded the weather forecast and it looks like the wind will be between the North and the East for the next week. There’s another front coming down on the 7th, but it looks like it will weaken before it gets here. It was a nice sunny day, so we decided to move on.
We sailed out of the anchorage and headed directly east to the Blue Ground Range. There’s a very narrow channel to get into the anchorage, but it was no problem once we’d identified which small cays to go between. The anchorage is lovely, but unfortunately, it is not protected from the north winds that we had today, so we had lunch and moved onto Twin Cays. We could have stayed a couple of hours to go snorkelling on a nearby reef, but the cold north wind put us off.
It was only three miles to Twin Cays, so we motored there, weaving around a couple of shallow patches - the depth was no problem, never less than 3 metres. Twin Cays are two mangrove islands with a wonderful narrow bight between them almost like a river. We negotiated the sand bars on the bends and found a lovely spot surrounded by mangroves – very peaceful. A couple of Manatees popped their heads up on our approach into the bight.
We had a very peaceful afternoon, chilling out.
4 March 2013 Twin Cays to North Long Cocoa Cay, Belize
It was another lovely morning in this peaceful anchorage. A park ranger came along just as we were about to pull up our anchor and charged us $10 for the privilege of staying here last night – apparently, we’re in part of the South Water Cay Marine Park. We headed west, dodging shallow banks until we entered the deeper water of the Inner Channel just to the south of Ragged Cay.
It was a lovely sail down to Rendezvous Cay, going past several cays following a deep water channel between reefs – the colours are lovely, this really is a fabulous cruising area.
The cruising guide says that Rendezvous Cay has a “fine anchorage to the south … anchoring on a 10-20 foot soft coral bar…” There is a shelf there, but it’s mostly coral heads on broken coral and sand. We motored around slowly in depths of three metres trying to find a sandy patch, but couldn't find anywhere to anchor. We’d just given up and were discussing where to go, when we drifted into a coral patch and jammed solid. I couldn't go forwards or backwards – don’t panic Mr Mannering!
Glenys dropped the dinghy into the water, while I used the bow thruster to try to swivel us around. I jumped into the water and saw that we were bumping onto some coral, but at least we were now getting some water under the keel, so I asked Glenys to motor forwards, while I stayed in the water hanging onto the dinghy until we were clear –phew!
We had a vague look at the north side of Rendezvous Cay, but that looked horribly shallow, so we motored over to North Long Cocoa Cay. On the charts, the anchorage doesn't look too good, but the sea bed is sand and it very gradually shoals towards the beach – perfect! The cay and reef to the north provide good protection from the north to the east. We like it here.
After a late lunch, we went snorkelling. The reef to the south is not very inspiring, but the reef to the north is much prettier and we spotted a couple of nice large Nassau Groupers, but foolishly, I’d left my pole spear behind – maybe tomorrow. I checked the drop off, but it’s mostly sand with the occasional coral patch – I don’t think that it would be a good dive. I'm desperate to go diving…
5 March 2013 North Long Cocoa Cay, Belize
It was very overcast when we awoke, so I downloaded another weather forecast. Have I already said that I love having a satellite phone? The forecast is for a weak cold front to stall and dissipate to the north of us tomorrow night and we should be getting 10-15 knot winds for the next five days swinging between east and the north and back again. No major problems there.
We went over to Buttonwood Cay, but couldn't get the anchor to hold at all. We had three attempts and each time the anchor immediately dragged - I'm guessing that it's broken rubble and thin sand over rock. It's a shame because the snorkelling should have been good and there's a large fishing camp on this tiny cay - it would have been good to stay the night.
We cut our losses and headed back towards North Long Cocoa Cay, stopping off at an isolated reef just off the Funk Cays. After lunch we went snorkelling, which was okay - I picked up a couple of Conch.
Back at North Long Cocoa Cay, we had more trouble anchoring. A catamaran had anchored where we were last night and, in the only place left, the sand was very hard, thin and with rock or rubble beneath it, so our CQR anchor wouldn't penetrate. I had to dive in and give it a helping hand – it was holding, but I knew that if the wind veered and the anchor pulled out, it wouldn't set again. So the only thing I could do was to put our Fortress anchor out as a second anchor. It dug in straight away, but only went in about six inches.
I went snorkelling with my pole spear to try to find a couple of Nassau Grouper that we’d spotted yesterday but no luck.
Once we were settled, I processed the Conch, which is easier said than done. When we were on Glencora twenty years ago, I didn't know how to do it and resorted to smashing the shell open with a big hammer. In the process, I damaged some of our teak deck and totally destroyed the creature inside.
The instructions in my favourite fishing book were spot on and it was easy to get the creatures out of their shells. All you have to do is bash a small slot in the shell at the second whorl, slide a knife in, cut the abductor muscle and the creature slides out – looking pretty horrible, I must say. Cleaning it is a laborious process of cutting away bits and then skinning it - not easy because it's so slimy and tough. It was worth it to have Cracked Conch for dinner.
6 March 2013 North Long Cocoa Cay to Wipari Cay, Belize
The anchors didn't drag last night, thank goodness – in fact it was a very calm night. We left the anchorage at around nine o'clock and headed towards Lagoon Cays to the north. It was a beautiful day with a 10-15 knot wind from the north, the sea was nice and calm, so for a change, we sailed just for the pleasure of it. The beat upwind was sheer joy, tacking between the light coloured reefs.
We sailed very close to Robert’s Cay, which is one of the most unusual places to stay in the area. The cay is tiny and has four cabins which are built on stilts over the water – each room has steps leading down into the sea. It’s supposed to be ideal for honeymooners, but I’d probably go stir crazy if I stayed for more than a day or so.
We arrived at Lagoon Cay and anchored in 12 metres of water. The cruising guide says that there’s a sand bar with 8 feet of water, but it looked shallower than that and I've had enough of going aground for the moment. It’s an interesting place with a crescent shaped lagoon that has a very shallow bar protecting it, but the anchorage is not too good, so we only stayed for lunch.
An hour later, we were motoring down to Wipari Cay, which is a very small island that has a few rooms mostly aimed at fly-fishermen. The anchorage is (again) not the best that I’ve seen, being 12-15 metres deep and close to a reef. However, the holding seemed to be very good, so we stayed the night.
Another yacht came into the anchorage just before dark. This is only the third cruising yacht that we've seen for the week that we've been in Belize. There are a few bare-boat charter catamarans around, but I'm amazed about the lack of cruising boats. Where are they all?
Before the sun went down, we dinghied ashore to see if we could get a drink in their bar. Beverley, who owns the island with her husband Julian, was quite happy serve us and chat, but there were no other people staying on the island – only a couple of marine rangers that were staying overnight. During our second beer, it became obvious that they had been just about to sit down to dinner and our presence (and their politeness) was holding up their meal – we drank up and left them to it. Nice people.
7 March 2013 Wipari Cay to Placencia, Belize
It was an okay night, the wind picked up to 15 knots and we had some waves coming into the anchorage making us bounce around. Neither of us slept very well being a bit worried about our close proximity to the reef.
We had a pleasant sail down to Lark Cay, where we anchored in 20 metres off the entrance into a lagoon in the middle of the island. It’s a lovely spot sheltered from the north and east, but the water is far too deep for my liking. We stopped for lunch and had a quick dinghy ride into the lagoon which is (errr…) another mangrove lagoon surrounded by mangroves.
Our sail across to Placencia was very restful, drifting along at four knots with just the genoa out. As we rounded the corner into the anchorage, we could see at least twenty cruising boats at anchor – so this is where they’re all hiding. We dropped our anchor in 7 metres of water and the holding seems to be good. Within ten minutes, a dinghy approached us and Suzie from “Cabaret” came over to welcome us to Placencia. She told us that there’s a cruisers net at half past eight every morning and a pot luck was organised for this evening – it’s obvious that Suzie’s the "Queen Bee" around here.
I went ashore for an hour to access the Internet at a bar, but nothing much has happened in the past two weeks. We went to the pot luck and met a lot of new people – it looks like most people have come up from the Rio Dulce in Guatemala and then get stuck here.
8 March 2013 Placencia, Belize
It was Glenys’s birthday today, so we had a lazy chill-out day. Like last year, I’ve not managed to buy her any presents, but she had the foresight to buy herself some Mexican silver earrings and a pendant while we were in Isla Mujeres, so she opened that and wore it today.
We went for a walk around town, first dropping off a big bag of washing at a laundry. Placencia is a very, very sleepy place - originally a fishing village, it is now heavily geared to tourism. There are lots of small beach restaurants and tour guides dotted around the place. The locals have built a concrete path called the “sidewalk”, which apparently took over thirty years to construct. It runs parallel to the main street of the town next to the beach – very pleasant to stroll along with palm trees and flowering bushes everywhere.
While strolling along, we met Craig and Elizabeth from “Salida” and ended up having lunch with them at a beach bar. A few beers later, we continued our stroll around, checking out a few supermarkets and hardware stores on the way - they’re not too badly stocked. We retired to a bar that had a wireless internet connection and had a long chat with our sons – it’s the first time that we’ve spoken to them for a couple of months.
Back on the boat, we continued chilling-out and after dinner, Glenys wanted to watch more Battlestar Gallactica – we’re now on series three…
9 March 2013 Placencia, Belize
The plan was to do some maintenance jobs today, but the wind was coming from the south east and put our boat into a position where I could finally get an internet connection. Not one to miss out on an opportunity, I spent most of the morning catching up on admin – checking our bank and credit card accounts, etc.
After lunch, Glenys went into town, picked up the laundry and went to the supermarket. While she was out, I dived under the boat and sorted out our Stripper. This device fits on the propeller shaft just in front of the propeller. It has three sharp serrated blades that rotate with the propeller, so if we’re unlucky enough to motor over a rope, the Stripper will cut the rope before it has a chance to wrap around our propeller.
I serviced it when we hauled out last August and replaced the plastic bearing inserts, but the damn thing has been making a noise when we’re motoring or sailing – it’s a loud metallic rattling sound and is driving me crazy. The installation instructions specify a 6mm gap on the fixed blade which means that it’s free to move backwards and forwards. I’ve no idea when they specify this, but I'm convinced that this gap is too big. I spent an hour snorkelling down to loosen the device from the propeller shaft and then I moved it, so that there’s only one millimetre of movement now. Hopefully, that will sort it out.
10 March 2013 Placencia, Belize
I woke up this morning with my subconscious mind having worked out why there’s a 6 mm gap on the Stripper. The engine is mounted on flexible rubber feet to handle vibrations. The engine is connected to the propeller shaft, so the propeller shaft will move in and out of the boat by the same amount that the engine vibrates. Without the 6 mm gap the Stripper will hit the cutlass bearing housing as the engine vibrates – not good.
I spent half an hour, snorkelling down under the boat and removed the Stripper completely. I can attest to its sharpness because I managed to cut myself a couple of times. I looked on the internet and found out that a new Stripper is nearly £500! So I’ve decided that I’ll send it back to the UK manufacturer to get it inspected and fixed – it took me an hour to clean off the barnacles and lime scale to make it at least a little presentable.
Now that we could use the engine safely, we re-anchored because we were swinging close to another boat and (more importantly) we would be able to pick up a stronger internet connection from the Paradise Resort on shore – it’s a real nuisance to have to pack up our laptops and go ashore to a bar.
Glenys decided to do some work on the bimini, so we took it off and put up our boom tent that hasn't seen the light of day for at least six months. A couple of zips have broken – the tropical sun is very harsh on the nylon backing tape and the plastic teeth. Also there’s a flexible plastic window in the top that should allow us to see the sails, but that has become crazed and now has some cracks in it.
In afternoon, I couldn't do much because Glenys was dominating the saloon with her sewing (great excuse), so I mooched about reading and playing the guitar.
11 March 2013 Placencia, Belize
My lower back has been giving me gip for the past few months. It stiffens up and then aches when I move. I had it adjusted by an osteopath in Florida in December, but it’s been gradually getting worse again. I think that it’s caused by my poor posture - I do slouch when I'm sitting and standing, which is not helped by being on a boat with restricted head room… So I've started a regime of doing stretching exercises most mornings and it seems to be helping, but it’s a bit of a fag to spend 40 minutes each morning getting hot and sweaty.
After breakfast, I went up the mast and checked all of our rigging. I tightened our intermediate shrouds and our forward lower shrouds by half a turn because I've noticed that they’re both a bit too slack when were hard on the wind. We've also got some superficial rust appearing on the fittings, so I cleaned them up and wiped some Corrosion X on the stainless steel. Hopefully that will slow down any further rust .
Glenys spent most of the day working on the bimini – it’s all a bit complicated because it has curves everywhere and she’s dealing with a three dimensional shape. Also it’s pretty big, so it’s difficult to work with. She finished at four o'clock but when we tried to fit it, we found that she’s sewn one of the zips slightly in the wrong place, so she had to un-pick it and we spent half an hour marking it up ready to be sewn tomorrow – she was a little despondent.
12 March 2013 Placencia, Belize
Glenys finished off the bimini, which went very well and she had it all installed by half past ten – cracking job.
I spent some time chilling out and updating my website. I've just started to add a popup page which shows our anchorage location in Google Earth and decided that it would be cool to add this function to our mountaineering section. Then I got it into my head to publish a new article about when I climbed the Matterhorn seven years ago. It took a while to dig out my old notes and the photographs, so I spent most of the morning at my laptop – you know how it goes…
The weather is very strange at the moment, there’s a cold front lurking around to the north of us and it’s slowly heading our way. The wind is swirling around and it all feels very humid and muggy – very draining. In addition, there’s an irritating swell coming into the anchorage that it making us roll around. I’ll be glad when the front arrives and we have more consistent wind – hopefully it will be a little bit cooler as well.
The humid heat and the rolling was so oppressive that we got off the boat and went for lunch ashore. There’s not much to do in Placencia apart from eat in restaurants and go to the supermarket. By three o'clock, we were back on board Alba, rocking & rolling. Fortunately, it started raining at six o'clock and the wind picked up a bit, so the evening was much more pleasant.
13 March 2013 Placencia, Belize
The wind finally switched to the north and it was an overcast, but cool day. I downloaded a weather forecast and the wind looks good early next week – it’s going to be 10-15 knots from the east/south east, so that should be pretty good for us to sail back up north to Cuba. We’re going to keep an eye on it, but we’re now planning to clear out on the 15th and then sail away from Placencia on the next day – it’s about time, we've been here for nearly a week now. We've only been in Belize for a couple of weeks, but we might not get such favourable winds for a while.
We had a fairly lazy day, mooching about. We went into town and dropped off the laundry. I walked down to the hardware store and bought a new 5 gallon petrol container because one of ours has finally split. While I was near the fuel dock, I filled the container and was shocked to find that it cost me $60 Belize dollars for 19 litres of petrol – that’s £1 a litre. It’s like being back in the UK. I met Glenys at the supermarket and we lugged back some more provisions.
Duncan and Dorothy from “Hunda” came for a beer or two – they've been cruising for seventeen years, so we picked their brains about Malaysia and Thailand, where they spent a few years. It sounds like it’s a really good place to stop a while – we should get there in 3-4 years…
14 March 2013 Placencia, Belize
The front went through today, so it was overcast in the morning, but brightened up in the afternoon. I spent the morning on admin stuff. We've got to renew our yacht insurance at the end of the month and I'm getting quotes from three companies. It’s damn expensive – it’s going to cost well over £4,000 for the next year, so I'm trying to get them to reduce the premium by increasing our excess, etc.
While she had her sewing machine out, Glenys tackled the storage bag for our Series Drogue. She started making it a couple of months ago, but it keeps getting put off. We dragged the Series Drogue out of the front locker and she managed to fit another flap on the bag, before she ran out of time.
15 March 2013 Placencia, Belize
We caught a bus at seven o'clock and went into Dangriga to clear out. The ex- school bus was bit rickety and the seats were obviously designed for smaller people, but it was an interesting 90 minute journey passing by huge orange and banana plantations.
The immigration officer relieved us of $32 and sorted out our papers very efficiently, but we were told that the customs officer wasn't coming in today - bummer! We'd already got our crew list stamped by immigration, so we decided not to bother with customs and we'd talk our way around the lack of a zarpe when we get to Cuba.
We had an hour and a half to kill before the bus left at eleven o'clock, so we aimlessly wandered about, buying some street food for Second Breakfast - tamales and soft tacos. There were lots of small children walking around with their mothers, both in bright T-shirts heading towards their sports day, so we went along to watch the spectacle for a while.
Then while we were strolling down the high street, Glenys stopped to chat to a guy who was selling what appeared to be bits of dried wood, bark and roots. It turned out that they were herbal remedies and Glenys started asking what each one did. She was a bit taken aback when she pointed to a small bottle of liquid because his reply was simply, “It makes you shit.”
As we were walking past the customs office towards the bus station, the guy that we'd talked to earlier spotted us and shouted that the customs officer had now come in. We only had twenty five minutes before the bus left, so I was tempted not to bother, but decided to get our zarpe. It was a stressful fifteen minutes, while the customs guy made a big deal out of the process, but we made it to the bus with five minutes to spare.
Back on the boat, I checked the email replies from the various insurance companies and decided to go with Top Sail who gave us 10% discount because we've just bought our health insurance from them - it's still going to cost us £3,000 for the year.
16 March 2013 Placencia, Belize
It was a miserable, overcast, drizzly day, so we decided to stay another day. I downloaded another weather forecast and the weather is strange. For the next few days, the wind is south-east about 15 knots during the day, but at night is increasing to over 25 knots and backing to the east. We overheard a discussion about this weather on the VHF radio and the consensus is that the winds maybe even stronger at night - not good.
We had a good Internet connection all day, so we chilled out. I discovered that the Stock Markets have been rising recently – our pensions and investments have increased by 4% in the past month, so I'm feeling a bit flush at the moment. After surviving three years of heavy losses our pensions are nearly back to where they were in 2009 - it won’t last though, some financial idiot somewhere will screw up and the market will undoubtedly panic again…
I checked the amount of diesel fuel in our tank and we only have 280 litres of fuel left (just under 2/3rds). Ideally, we'd refuel before heading to Cuba, but bizarrely, there's only one fuel dock with enough depth of water for us in the whole of Belize and that's in Belize City, which is 60 miles away. We've got enough diesel to motor for 3 days, so we should be okay.
We went to “Samarang” for a beer with Barry and Lindy. They're trying to head north to Isla Mujeres and are as confused about the weather as we are - they actually cleared out of Belize three weeks ago and have turned around several times.
17 March 2013 Placencia to Blue Ground Range, Belize
It was blue skies this morning and the weather GRIB files show that the wind will become more southerly later in the week, so we decided to get out of Placencia and start to head North. Our plan is to go out to Lighthouse Reef and wait there for a good weather window - at the moment, it looks good to start the four day sail to Cuba on the 20th.
There was a very light east wind with flat calm seas, so I dragged out our asymmetrical spinnaker and we drifted along at 2.5 knots. It was such a calm day, that I dropped the dinghy into the water and took some nice photos of Alba under-way with the spinnaker flying.
We eventually lost the wind and motored the last few miles into Blue Ground Range, which is a lovely anchorage, but we couldn't find anywhere good to snorkel.
18 March 2013 Blue Ground Range to Long Cay, Lighthouse Reef, Belize
We left the anchorage at eight o'clock and headed for the reef entrance at South Water Cay. Unfortunately, we were heading directly east straight into the rising sun, so we couldn't see any of the shallow patches. I had thought about it yesterday, but I was too blasé and believed that it would be okay.
It was very, very fraught because there were lots of shallow patches on the route. We only had to go 2½ miles, but it took us one and a half hours because we had to keep going into reverse and backing off sand bars and reef patches when they suddenly appeared under our bow. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted by the time that we cleared the reef - remind me NEVER to do that again.
The wind was only 5-10 knots from the east, so we motored for an hour, but it soon picked up to 15 knots and we started sailing – beating upwind, of course. It increased even more during the afternoon and, by the time we arrived in the lee of Lighthouse Reef, it was blowing 20 knots. At least it was blue skies and the waves weren’t too bad.
We tentatively weaved our way through the fringing reef (getting down to 3.5 metres over coral heads) and anchored in 4 metres of sand about ½ mile from Long Cay. The water colours are stunning, the water is crystal clear and I’m very, very happy that we've finally escaped Placencia.
The wind picked up a little bit in the evening, but it’s nice to be back into “clean” trade winds. The weather in Placencia was heavily affected by the coast line - out here we can get a better feel of what the weather is doing for our passage to Cuba
19 March 2013 Long Cay, Lighthouse Reef, Belize
The wind was very light last night, so it was hot and muggy. I downloaded another GRIB file and it’s still looking good to leave tomorrow. We should have a couple of days of 10-15 knot winds, which will allow us to sail upwind and make some easting, then the wind is forecast to pick up to 20+ knots, but it should be from the south south east and we should be on a broad reach. It’s 450 miles on a course of 055°M from here, so I’m planning for a five day passage, which will get us there on the 24th March and there doesn’t seem to be anything nasty around before then. Let’s keep our fingers crossed – I’ve not been very successful at weather routing so far.
We did a scuba dive – the first one for nearly a year. I couldn’t believe it when I looked in my log book; our last dive was in the BVI at the end of March. We didn’t do any in Puerto Rico & the Bahamas. After that we had no desire to dive on the east coast of the States because it was too cold and this is the first real opportunity that we’ve had.
It was an excellent dive. We picked up a dive boat mooring just outside the reef about 200 metres from where we were anchored. We descended to 8 metres and then only had to swim 25 metres to a huge vertical drop off – fabulous. The water was very clear and there was no current making it a very stress-free dive. I even spotted an Indigo Hamlet, which I’ve not seen for twenty years.
The afternoon was spent resting after our exercise, filling scuba tanks, running the water-maker and getting ready to leave tomorrow.
This weather pattern is very strange - there was very little wind all day and that was coming from north-north-east. Then in the evening, the wind picked up to 20 knots from the north east – not a good wind direction for us, so we’ll look at a new GRIB file tomorrow morning before setting off.
20 March 2013 Long Cay to Cayo Largo, Cuba (Day 1)
We were up early and the latest GRIB file showed ESE15 today, gradually becoming more SE tomorrow and then increasing to SSE 20 on the 22nd and 23rd. It looked pretty good, but we wouldn't be able to make much Easting until tomorrow. We discussed waiting another day, but were worried that the longer range forecast is less certain, so we decided to go for it.
It took us an hour to get the dinghy on deck and prepare for five days at sea, so it wasn't until nine o'clock that we sailed out of the fringing reef and headed North. We had a lovely beat along the western edge of Lighthouse Reef in the calm seas. Once past the northern end of the atoll, the waves increased in size, but it wasn't too bad, beating into the ESE15 winds.
Unfortunately, we were only able to steer 020-030 degrees instead of the ideal course of 055 degrees to Cayo Largo. Ah well, at least we were heading North.
It was a pleasant sunny day, but the 25 degree heel and the pounding motion wouldn't allow us to do anything, but read and stare at the horizon. While I had an afternoon nap, Glenys reeled in a small tuna, but it got away when we tried to lift it on board.
I've set up our Hydrovane wind vane steering, which performs very well upwind. One of the great things is that it keeps the boat at a constant angle to the wind, which is ideal in our present circumstances because we want to go up-wind as much as possible and we can rely on the Hydrovane to alter course for us as the wind direction changes.
As night fell, the wind increased slightly and veered a few degrees. This was good news as it would allow us to head a little bit more offshore and give Banco Chinchorro more of a wide berth - we didn't want to go anywhere near this dangerous reef atoll.
21 March 2013 Long Cay to Cayo Largo, Cuba (Day 2)
The rest of the night was a matter of grinning and bearing the pounding motion and trying to sleep wedged in a berth. On one of my watches, I spotted the navigation lights of a sailboat and gave them a call to have a chat - the boat was called "Speedy Cat" from Canada en-route from the Bay Islands to Mexico.
Around dawn, the wind dropped to 15 knots & started to veer to the south-east. By nine o'clock, we were 35 miles to the west of our rhomb line, but the wind had enough south in it that we could steer a course of 065 degrees. We were still beating upwind, but the motion was much better in the calmer sea and we were finally heading towards Cayo Largo.
Glenys was woken up by the sound of me reeling in and landing a small tuna - about time; it's been months since we've caught an edible fish. I also found a small Flying Fish on our deck, so as an experiment, I hooked it onto my fishing lure and within 5 minutes had hooked a small Dorado. Unfortunately, it got away when I was trying to land it, but it looks like putting fresh fish bait on my lure will increase the chance of a strike.
I downloaded another GRIB file which had no nasty surprises. The forecast was for the wind to drop a little today and veer more south, then become stronger tonight and tomorrow.
Glenys filleted the tuna, which is a mission when beating to windward - trying to hold on while waving a sharp filleting knife around. I put a small strip of fresh tuna onto my fishing lure and was rewarded an hour later by catching a nice 5lb Dorado. Finally, things are looking up - we had fresh tuna and pasta for lunch.
One of the blocks on the main sheet traveller exploded this afternoon. I've got a spare, but the clevis pin is seized in the old block and wouldn't budge, so I've soaked it in PD Blaster and hopefully that will free it up by tomorrow. In the meantime, we can cope with the single block left on the traveller. It's not ideal, but I don't think that anything else will get damaged.
The afternoon was a quiet affair; I filleted the Dorado and Glenys had an afternoon nap. The wind slowly decreased and I had to run the engine as the sun went down. I wasn't complaining though, it was so calm that we put up the cockpit table for our dinner of Dorado with a Creamy Mushroom Sauce - very civilized. It would have been perfect with a nice bottle of wine...
By seven o'clock, the wind had picked up enough to sail again. It was still coming from the south-east, so we could just hold a course of 070 degrees M. We were hard on the wind, but with the flat seas, half moon and clear skies, it was fabulous sail.
Glenys dragged me out of bed a little early at twenty to ten, to put a reef in the main because the wind had started gusting over 20 knots. She then went to bed leaving me to enjoy the fast bouncy sail up to one o'clock.
22 March 2013 Long Cay to Cayo Largo, Cuba (Day 3)
By dawn, the wind had veered and I was able to alter course to a fast, close reach directly towards Cayo Largo, which was still over 200 miles away. The motion continued to be horrible all morning, but at least we were going at seven knots, so there was a chance that we'd get there the next day.
I downloaded a GRIB file via satellite email and there was no real change - the wind would be SSE20 knots for the next two days, it was just a matter of hunkering down and going as fast as we can to get it over with.
I had to laugh when we received an email from our son Craig asking for advice on varnishing wood and caring for the lawn in his new house, when we were struggling in horrible conditions in the middle of the Caribbean Sea - satellite phones are amazing.
Glenys went to the front toilet and, to her horror, found about ten gallons of water sloshing around on the heads floor. A bit of an investigation revealed that I'd left the toilet valve in the water flush position and the pounding motion of the boat must have been pumping water through the seacock into the toilet bowl, which had then overflowed.
During the afternoon, the wind slowly dropped to 15 knots and by three o'clock, I had shaken out all of the reefs. We now had only 120 miles to go, so there was a good chance that we'd get to Cayo Largo before dark tomorrow. It had now become a race against time because we didn't want to spend two more nights at sea.
As usual, the wind started to pick up at dusk, so I put a reef in the main and four wraps in the genoa before I went to bed at seven o'clock. I'm still puzzled why the wind always seems to increase at night in this part of the world. At the start of my 10-1 watch, we put in another reef because Glenys had been getting 25 knot gusts.
By midnight, we were going along nicely at 6.5 knots with only 65 miles to go, and were looking forward to making landfall in the morning.
23 March 2013 Long Cay to Cayo Largo, Cuba (Day 4)
The wind continued blowing 15-20 knots all night and we arrived at the entrance through the reef just after nine o’clock. We passed between two buoys and headed north until the depth dropped to six metres then turned east towards the marina. Some friends had told us that the dredged channel into the marina was different from that shown in our cruising guide, so we were a little tense as we made our approach.
I could see various marker buoys, but couldn’t make out the entrance until I saw a tourist catamaran heading out, then it all became clear. Once at the entrance markers, it was simple to follow the red and green buoys into the marina. We passed a tug towing a barge loaded up with containers, which must be one of the ways that they get goods to this isolated island.
We were soon tied up in a berth in Cayo Largo Marina, which is very pleasant, with stunningly clear water and palm trees everywhere.
We went through the usual tedious checking in process, but at least here they all came to us and arrived swiftly. We had the Doctor, Guarda Fronteras, Immigration, Customs, Port Captain and Agricultural Inspector. The only unusual thing was that the customs came with a dog to sniff out drugs - a very nice cocker spaniel. The Agriculture Inspector really gave our vegetables a good looking over with a magnifying glass and insisted that we throw away a couple of onions and eat our eggs today.
I went to bank to get some cash and then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around to see various officials to pay fees. It’s only $10-$20 for each official, but there were so many of them that we ended up paying out $115.
We had a wander around the place. There's not a lot here; just the marina, a small hotel and some tourist shops. Bus loads of tourists come from other hotels on the island to go out snorkelling and diving, so there’s a steady procession of boats moving around, packed with punters. Not really Cuba more like Disney land.
We stopped off at a bar and had a couple of beers, then retired back to boat to try to have a nap, but there was too much going on. At five o'clock, we gave up and went back to the bar with Stan & Lynn from “Homers Odyssey” and Pat & Ebba from “Melodrama”.
We had pizza and fried chicken & chips for dinner at a huge cost of $8. It’s nice to be back in Cuba where beers are only $1 at bars instead of paying $4, which we did in Mexico and Belize.
24 March 2013 Cayo Largo, Cuba
The time in Cuba is two hours later than in Belize, so the difference in the time and our tiredness made for a late start to the day.
We'd taken a lot of waves over the decks on the passage here, so Glenys was looking forward to using the free water at the marina to wash the salt off everything. Unfortunately, the water pressure was so poor that it dribbled out of the hosepipe and she had to fill buckets and lug them on deck – very frustrating.
I spent most of the morning sorting out our boat insurance. I had to use a computer at the hotel to access to the internet - $10 for an hour. After getting our email and saving the insurance proposal form to a USB stick, I wandered back to the boat. I filled in the form, scanned it and copied it to the USB stick, then walked back to the hotel to send the form to the insurance company. It took ages, but at least we're now insured.
I talked to the Port Captain and confirmed that we can’t clear out at Manzanillo, which buggers up our grand plan. We were hoping to slowly cruise east, get our international exit zarpe at Manzanillo and then sail south to Jamaica. The only place that we can check out near Jamaica is Santiago de Cuba which is 200 miserable miles up-wind and up-current of Cabo Cruz – it’s not going to happen.
We decided that instead, we’ll go to Cienfuegos, stay there for a few days and then clear out for Jamaica. We can then slowly sail east through the outlying cays and pray that nobody checks our papers. If they do, well, we had a problem with our engine didn’t we…
We dropped off our laundry and an empty cooking gas bottle and went to the bar with “Homers Odyssey” and “Melodrama”.
25 March 2013 Cayo Largo, Cuba
It was another late start to the day – still catching up on sleep. This two hour time difference between here and Belize is playing havoc with my sleep pattens.
There’s a cold front arriving in the next couple of days, so we’re trapped here until it goes through. It’s only 80 miles to Cienfuegos, but it’s a little awkward because we have to go east for 40 miles then north east into entrance to Cienfuegos. The wind will be north east veering to east for the next five days, so we’ll have the wind against us, so our only choice is to pick a day when the wind is lightest.
Glenys dug out her sewing machine, repaired our cockpit seat covers which are getting worn and did some more work on the storm drogue bag. I worked on the broken block on the main sheet traveller. The clevis pin was seized solid in the traveller, so I had to borrow a blow torch from Stan on “Homers Odyssey” to heat it up and crack the corrosion. It worked quite well and I soon had the block replaced with a spare one I had lying about.
We had another evening of beer and pizza in the bar. The humid heat was oppressive today, I'll be glad when the cold front comes through.
26 March 2013 Cayo Largo, Cuba
I managed to drag myself out of bed at eight o'clock. The weather front has arrived and the cold north wind is making itself felt – it was lovely and cool this morning.
I spent most of the morning planning ahead and looking at information for Ecuador – Stan and Lynn from “Homers Odyssey” have been there twice and have lots of information about the place, so it’s an ideal time to pick their brains for local knowledge.
It was such a lovely, cool day that we went for a walk in the afternoon. There's not much on the island, just a long straight road that connects the marina to the airport and to a handful of big hotels. We started walking, but after a mile it was so boring that we hitched a lift on one of the coaches that run tourists around. The driver dropped us off at a big hotel where we had a quick wander around before starting to walk back. Fortunately, we were able to bum another lift on a coach back to the marina.
We went to the bar with “Homers Odyssey” and “Melodrama” as usual for beer and pizza. I’m not saying that this has become a habit, but the barmaid came over and shook all of our hands when she arrived on her shift at six o’clock – it’s the fourth night in a row. It was so bloody cold that I had to go back to boat to get a fleece.
Pat & Ebba have recently spent eight months in Panama, so I picked their brains for local knowledge. They love Portobello, so we’re going to make that our landfall and clear in there. It sounds like June to August are hot and humid in Panama with frequent lightning storms, so we’re thinking of going back to the UK in July rather than September. We can then spend August and September in the San Blas when the weather should be nicer.
27 March 2013 Cayo Largo, Cuba
It was nice and cool again this morning, with a 20 knot north east wind, so we decided to stay another day – no point in having to bash into a strong wind, especially as it’s so cold.
I chilled out playing my guitar and looking at how to play one of the songs from the Buena Vista Social Club album. It would be cool to be able to play at least one Cuban song. Glenys read up on Ecuador, went to see the turtle sanctuary & played her concertina.
We went to bar again - it's definitely time to go.
28 March 2013 Cayo Largo to Cienfuegos, Cuba (Day 1)
I rushed off before breakfast to tell the officials that we wanted to clear out, expecting that they would want to come out to the boat. However, it was all very efficient - half an hour later, I'd paid our marina bill and had a Despacho to allow us to go to Cienfuegos. We took our time getting the boat ready and left just before midday.
The wind was against us as soon as we cleared the reef, but at least we were able to hold a more or less easterly course. The wind dropped briefly, but came back with a vengeance when we passed to the south of Cayo Guano del Este. Unfortunately, it was from the north east - exactly in the direction that we wanted to go.
There's a huge sunken reef called Jaguar Bank which is eight miles wide and is a nasty place with the ocean bed rising from 1,000 metres to 10 metres causing horrible seas. I decided (in my infinite wisdom) to pass to the west of Jaguar Bank between it and another shoal area called Banco de la Jarnine, so we headed north-west as darkness fell.
The whole night was horrible. The wind picked up with large, confused seas. We were having to beat to windward into 25-30 knot winds and, unless we kept the boat powered up, we'd get stopped by the steep waves. This meant that we were heeled over at 25-30 degrees, which was very unpleasant with the slamming and pitching motion.
Not only did we have to keep tacking to sail between the two shallow banks, but we also had to contend with a prohibited navigation zone around the Bay of Pigs. This no-go zone is 40 miles wide and unfortunately was directly in our way, so we were restricted where we could sail, which was not helpful.
It was one of those nights where you wish that you were somewhere else. If I tried to read, I'd feel seasick, so all I could do was to hunch up under the spray hood, which gave some protection against the walls of water that kept crashing over the deck. Occasionally, one wave would find it's way into the cockpit and then a small stream of water would flow along the cockpit seat and wet whatever part of my anatomy was touching it at the time. In addition, our spray hood leaks slightly, so drips of sea water were continuously falling down.
When Glenys went off watch at eight o'clock, things were bashing and crashing in the lockers, so she spent ages jamming towels to hold the offensive items in place. She'd only been in the sea berth for five minutes, when a load of folders and music books catapulted from one of the shelves and hit the floor with a loud bang. Then a particularly large wave crashed against our windscreen and some water found its way past the seal in the opening window. This then ran down the inside and dripped onto her head - she was not a happy bunny...
29 March 2013 Cayo Largo to Cienfuegos, Cuba (Day 2)
By midnight, if anything, the weather was getting worse. We had to tack five times to get between the shallow banks and avoid the no navigation area, so there wasn't time to get much sleep. Once clear of the dangers, we continued to tack every couple of hours, just entering the no-go zone before tacking away.
I was getting frustrated with the position of the no-go zone because it would have been a preferred tack to enter the zone, but I didn't dare, especially since Glenys saw a very fast vessel heading along the zone perimeter at about 20 knots - a Cuban naval cutter, I guess.
At four o'clock, the wind died down to 10 knots in the space of ten minutes and left us lolling about in the big seas. All we could do was to turn on the engine - at least we were able to head directly north east towards our destination instead of tacking. I went to bed and managed to get to sleep for an hour before the wind picked up again with a vengeance.
We were back to beating in 25-30 knot winds, which lessened slightly as we approached land, but we still had 20 knot winds as we sailed up into the harbour entrance at eleven o'clock.
We motored in through the narrow channel past a small castle and a rough looking ferry, before the harbour opened up in front of us. Cienfuegos Harbour must be one of the best harbours in the world, being totally surrounded by land, but with sufficient depth to take large ships. We gratefully anchored off the marina just before noon - it took us 24 hours and 125 sea miles to travel 80 miles on the rhomb line.
After lunch, I untied the dinghy from the front deck and discovered that it had been moving around in the heavy seas and the transom has smashed one of our deck vents to pieces. We now have a huge 3" hole in the deck above the front heads - another little job for me.
I went ashore to clear in, which was a little tedious because I had to see the Immigration, Customs and Guardera Fronteras even though we've already cleared in. At least they all have offices in the marina. I then had to go and sign a contract with the marina because we have to pay $8 per day to anchor. I'm afraid that I had a sense of humour failure and whinged about paying it all the time that the guy was filling in the contract.
Not surprisingly, we chilled out for the rest of the afternoon and tried to catch up on sleep.
30 March 2013 Cienfuegos, Cuba
We had a late start to the day and then wandered into town. It was a pleasant two kilometer walk along the Malecon. It's Easter Saturday and there was bike race going on, so there were lots of locals wondering around.
We walked down the main shopping street looking for the local market, but it evaded us until we started to spot people walking along with bags of vegetables. It was then simply a matter of backtracking along where they had come from to find the town market.
Glenys went into a frenzy of buying vegetables, which she hasn't seen since we were in Belize two weeks ago. None of the stalls were selling potatoes, but a guy sidled up to us and asked if we wanted "patatas". We followed him around the corner to a room down an alley where he sold us 10 kilos for $2. Are potatoes a black market commodity?
Glenys bought some smoked pork chops from a guy selling them out of a plastic bin and we bought some lovely bread from a small pandaria. Weighed down with fresh food, we walked to the main avenue and bought some street pizzas - not bad value for 75 cents each, before catching a bicycle taxi back to the marina for $3. (I should only have paid $2, but he was a nice guy.)
We chilled out for the rest of the afternoon.
31 March 2013 Cienfuegos, Cuba
We wandered into town in the morning, hoping that there would be something happening because it's Easter Sunday, but it was all very quiet. Just for something to do, we walked to the railway station, but it wasn’t very interesting – just full of taxi drivers touting for business.
We had Sunday lunch in a small restaurant behind an even smaller bar. It was packed with locals and we had a good time. The food was typically Cuban - meat with rice. The best I can say was that it was filling.
We chilled out for the afternoon. Mike and Claire from “Siga Siga” came for a few beers.