2/16/2013 - Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Yesterday we made it to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Took a few hours to check in and once legal, went back to the boat and slept a long time... When we got up this morning, the cold front that had been predicted had started to hit and the north wind was picking up. Right now we have about 25-30 knots in the anchorage, hopefully it's close to max. We've been watching boats drag all around, luckily caught before any damage was done. We're well hooked but not getting off the boat until probably Monday. Then we'll start to explore :-)

Cheers,
Carolynn & Tom

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We're in Mexico

A quick update, we have gone from Guatemala to Mexico, with only a few stops on the outside of Belize. We would have liked to explore Belize further but our boat has an almost 7 foot draft and most places we can't get into. We made the decision to try to get to Isla Mujeres, Mexico pretty quickly. We just came off an overnight passage from hell! We left Long Cay (Belize) with the idea of an overnight to Cayo Norte (farthest southern atoll of Mexico) but misjudged the current and the wind. We only had a tiny scrap of jib out but had 25 knots from the south-east and couldn't keep it much below 8 knots! We blew by Cayo Norte at around 2am. Unfortunately it was not one of the better passages; we had 6-8 foot beam seas, anything that could possible be dislodged went flying, Tom broke his little toe and I have a head cold. Our exhaust system started pouring water into the bilge and one of our bilge pumps stopped working (it worked fine when tested at the dock a couple of weeks ago). But we made it safe and only a little battered into Espirto Santo. This is a big bay on the mainland of Mexico with no civilization other than a tiny Mayan village on it. We're planning on another overnight to Isla Mujeres this afternoon. Why is it we do this again :-)

We'll stay in Isla Mujeres for at least a few weeks (months?), licking our wounds and finding the best street tacos.

Cheers,
Carolynn, Tom & Ginger (who says she is abandoning ship at the first opportunity)

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2/6/13 - Back in the ocean

We escaped the river :-) We hit the bar at the Rio Dulce entrance going about 6 1/2 knots, slowed into the 2's at the worst of it, but made it over unassisted. We did have "Hector" following along side us in a big fishing boat to give us a tug if we stopped, but we were able to power through. The bottom of our keel is quite clean. We'll slowly move north/East up the outside of Belize, reaching Isla Mujeres Mexico in a couple of weeks. It's good to be moving again!

Cheers,
Carolynn & Tom

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2/2/2013 - Rio Dulce, Guatemala

A week or so ago we went to Belize for a 3 1/2 day scuba trip.  The trip was through Reef Conservational International, a non-profit organization based out in the Sapodilla cays.  We have been signed up for this trip for months and were excited to blow bubbles again.  The trip started with collectivo van ride to Puerto Barrios.  Collectivo vans are 15 passenger vans that they regularly stuff over 30 passengers in; people are sitting on each other, standing hunched over, hanging out the door, and sometimes even sitting on the top luggage rack:

It's a cheap way to travel though.  Luckily for us, it was a Sunday so the van wasn't too crowded and we each got our own seat.  After checking out of Guatemala immigration, we bought tickets for the water ferry over to Belize's Punta Gorda.  Calling it a ferry is a little grandiose, it's really just a launch with padded seats and a big motor.  They also carry goods between Guatemala and Belize, making it one of the world's smallest international cargo ships:

An hour ride later, we got to Punta Gorda, found a taxi (not easy in a little town on a Sunday), and went out to our B&B for the night.

The next morning we went back into town where we met our group for the week.  I felt a little old; except for one other woman in her 50's, the rest of the group were all 20 something's.  As it turned out, our 30+ years of diving experience made up for their youth and vigor and we were able to keep up with the "kids" :-).

Reef CI is located on a tiny island on the outer barrier reef, about 25 miles from the mainland of Belize.  The entire island is about the size of a football field.  There are several buildings, a few sleeping huts, a dock, and lots of palm trees:

The accommodations are "rustic", but everything is provided and a nice taste of the islands.

After dropping our bags and a quick lunch, we headed out for the first of many dives.   Here's Tom in his Zen diving mode:

The coral around the islands was very healthy but the fish population has been impacted by the invasion of the Lionfish.

Lionfish are strikingly beautiful but voracious eaters with no local predators,  and strip the reef of juvenile native species of fish and crustaceans wherever they have spread.  The Caribbean diving and marine scientific community is very concerned about their impact.  Every dive we went on a couple of people would take down spear guns and "get" as many lionfish as they can, but I am afraid it's too little.  We can only hope that some native species evolves (quickly) to realize how tasty these are and starts to control the population.

It was pretty much eat/sleep/dive for the 3 1/2 days!  Reef CI does a lot of monitoring the reef for specific species that gauge the health of the reef.  We learned about a few new species, like these Flamingo Tongues:

It was soon time to head back to Sunny.  We were very tired but had a great time.

The plan is to cast off our dock lines tomorrow (Feb 4th) then leave the Rio on Thursday with the high tide.  As it looks right now we'll probably have to be "tipped" to get over the bar.  We're both very nervous about that, hopefully we'll be able to plow through the mud like we did when we got in, but this isn't as high a tide :-(  Everyone on Thursday late afternoon cross your fingers for luck.

Cheers,

Carolynn & Tom