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.