Category: 2015 March Positions

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/26 23:00
LATITUDE: 16-21.44N
LONGITUDE: 086-26.31W
COMMENT: Beach House – DOCKED – Fantasy Island, Roatan, Bay of Islands – Honduras

We decided to move on as the weather would be reasonably cooperative and Roatan is the big deal island of this group.
Still pretty bumpy out there and the wind was calm. It picked up later in the afternoon and made the ride more testy.

We\’re at Fantasy Island Marina (which is no longer a Fantasy). It\’s seen better days. We may move tomorrow to Barefoot Cay Marina after we check
Windward\’s crew into the country and see what it\’s like.

This is the daunting leg of the journey and the point at the end of the Honduran/Nicaraugan Peninsula is called \”Gracias Dios\” (Thank God Point).
Why? Because the wind and current embay or pocket us in to the Gulf of Honduras. Christopher Columbus took 90 days to get out of this bay tacking back and forth.
3 months to to 150 miles! His crew upon seeing the point, where the land again turns south said, \”Gracias Dios\” and so it was named.

That leg of our journey is yet to come and of course we have two diesel engines that Christopher Columbus could only have dreamed of!

KIT,
We\’ll update you on our tour of this island, we may be here up to a week.
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/25 17:10
LATITUDE: 16-05.66N
LONGITUDE: 086-53.86W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Isla Utila, Bay of Islands – Honduras

We had a lovely almost week in the Rio Dulce, highlighted by our visit from Carmina who drove in from Guatemala City.
With Carmina and the crew of \”Windward\”, we rented a small van with driver for a day and went to see the Mayan Ruins of Tikal.

All in all, we had a good time which included a generator scare (plumbing broke, but we were able to fix it!).

The trip through the Rio Dulce Gorge is (for my Wisconsin friends), a bit like a tropical Wisconsin Dells. Very pretty.

I will try and update the blog shortly. Just never had the time in the \”Rio\”….
Hugs and KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/18 18:04
LATITUDE: 15-39.37N
LONGITUDE: 088-59.64W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Rio Dulce – RAM Marina, Frontera, Guatemala

We had a nice anchor spot in the river mouth last night and it was fascinating watching all the various fishing boats come and go. Mostly, really small ones.

The trip up the Rio Dulce Gorge was quite spectacular – a real Disneyland \”Jungle Cruise\” including spotting a Manatee in the 7 mile gorge!

We\’re 20 miles \”up river\” and are expecting my friend Carmina tomorrow who will drive from Guatemala City (5+ hours!).

We have good power and water here and are in a nice comfy slip. We\’ve met the American owner (whose US residence is Aqua Dulce, California) and he is quite a story himself. More in the blog. We should have internet here and we\’ll be able to catch up on the blogs. We hear it rains here (El Nino) every night. Fortunately for us, the Air Con works!

We\’ll keep you posted. We expect to be here about a week, maybe a bit more as we\’ll have to watch the weather.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/18 00:04
LATITUDE: 15-48.81N
LONGITUDE: 088-45.39W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Rio Dulce – Livingston, Guatemala

We departed Placencia, Belize at about 8 am and motored in little wind directly south to the mouth of the Rio Dulce (Sweet Water River).
This is another tricky entry as there is a quarter mile long \”bar\” (mud from the river) that is only 3.5 feet at extreme low tides and was about 5 1/2 feet for us.

Dennis and Lizette on \”Windward\” came about an hour after us with a higher tide, but they still got stuck in the muck. Our Customs and Immigration agent, Raul of \”Servermar\” arranged for a small fishing boat to go out and take the halyard (line to the top of the mast) and pull them over sideways to get their keel off the mud.

This was a complete success and the fee was $50.00 USD. Well worth it! I have pictures to be posted when I post the blog (which I hope to do at RAM Marina) while we\’re here for about 7-10 days before heading to the Bay of Islands, Honduras.

The Rio Dulce is famous for it\’s beautiful river gorge where one of the early Tarzan films was done. I can just see Johnny Wiesmuller swinging through the dense jungle that lines either side now! Jane…Where\’s \”Boy\”, where\’s \”Cheetah\”? (I guess you have to be of a certain age….:-)

We\’re anchored on the side of the river for the night and we\’ll go up the gorge around 8 am for the 4 hour trip to the Marina. Long time friend Carmina Robles will come visit us in a few days. Cindy and I were hosted by her when we were at Puerto Quetzal in 2009. If I could just take the boat the 150 miles across Guatemala (you know, through the jungles and the volcanoes), I\’d be exactly where we were 6 years ago. It was the scene of our \”Apocalypse Now\” moment with the US Coast Guard Cutter.
Use the search engine on the website for the blog. It was a hoot.

All tucked in with 10 feet of water (now) underneath us.

KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/15 21:04
LATITUDE: 16-30.58N
LONGITUDE: 088-21.88W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Placencia, Belize

We had another breezy night at Glover Reef and during the day, we did one dive. We departed this morning and had a lovely sail to the Gladden Spit.
The Spit is a big entrance to the inner reef system (which is poorly charted and lots of \”extra\” reefs). This reef system reminds me a lot of the Mamanuca Islands in West Fiji.

Whale Sharks will be all around the spit at the next full moon.
We\’ll hope to catch that event off the Bay Islands of Honduras (Utila, Roatan and Guanaja).

Once inside the reef, we motored the 20 miles here to Placencia where there are about 20 cruisers anchored, plenty of room and a very comfy anchorage with a nice breeze.

We hope to go ashore and have dinner. Nikki has been storing up her \”food credits\”…:-)

We\’ll check out tomorrow and then on Tuesday head to the Rio Dulce of Guatemala!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/13 20:41
LATITUDE: 16-43.24N
LONGITUDE: 087-50.85W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Southwest Cays, Glover Reef – Belize

Well, this for me is an unfortunate day of remembrance as it was 4 years ago today I lost Cindy.
Yesterday, while diving (first two dives in a year!), I found myself talking to her and almost expected she\’d be right behind me.
It also would have been my Dad\’s 87th. Lots of feelings.

We had a lovely trip here from Light House Reef, the entry quite easy. We had a very nice 3 days at Light House with highlights of our trip to the \”Blue Hole\” and yesterday we did two dives. (Dennis and Scott and Scott solo on the second). Nikki snorkeled around the boat which we put on one of the dive moorings right next to the \”Belize Agressor III\”.

The reefs were classic Belize. Lots very healthy coral and big barrel sponges; some 6 feet tall! Barracuda, Box Fish, Scrawled File fish, Grouper, lots of schooling Parrot Fish, some very big Tarpon and the ubiquitous invasive Lion Fish. It is believed that about 10-15 years ago, people who tired of their aquariums may have released the Lion Fish into Florida\’s waters. Now, it\’s pretty much everywhere. We saw a clump of six of them together. The dive started in 35 feet (10.5 meters) and I went no more than about 23 meters (78 feet). Another boat said they saw some reef sharks hunting, but alas, non were to be seen. The overall impression however is that these reefs are in excellent shape.

We\’ll explore here a bit for a few days and give a full report before moving on to our last stop in Belize which will be Placencia. Then off to Guatemala\’s Rio Dulce where after circling the world, we\’ll again meet up with Carmina who will be driving in from Guatemala City.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/11 18:36
LATITUDE: 17-19.08N
LONGITUDE: 087-32.21W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Blue Hole, Lighthouse Reef – Belize

We decided to make the 9-10 mile trip up to the Blue Hole and invited Lisette and Dennis from s/v \”Windward\” to come along for their first catamaran ride..:-)

This is the most famous of the Blue Hole\’s in the world due to being well photographed and dived by Jacques Cousteau. It is a national treasure of Belize. At 450 deep, it\’s not the deepest, but it\’s very round shape, surrounded by clear light turquoise water no deeper than 20 feet, is what makes it a stunner from the air.

We were anchored just outside the west rim and to get the full effect both Nikki and I went up in the Bosun\’s Chair to take photos and really take in the view. It was Nikki\’s first time up the mast!

About 5 small aircraft, most likely on tours, circled over head in the 2 1/2 hours we were there. Hope one of them tries to track us down for a photo as it would be a spectacular shot of \”Beach House\” on he rim of the Blue Hole. When we get internet, I\’ll post some photos from \”up the mast\” – 80 feet in the air.
We took a dinghy tour and saw 390 feet deep on the depth sounder; the water cobalt blue. I did the dive 19 years ago with Cindy and frankly, it\’s a nothing dive.
We did do some snorkeling and that was quite nice along the rim.

A bit tricky to dodge the coral patches en route, but no real worries. On the way back, the very low sun was NOT helpful, but fortunately we had a good tight \”track\”
of our way in on our chart plotter, so it was pretty easy coming back out.

We may do some diving on the lee of Long Cay tomorrow, the \”Belize Agressor III\” has been out on various buoys behind us over the last three days. Our friends on the catamaran, s/v \”Like Dolphins\” (from Belgium) have dove every day and say it\’s fabulous.

More soon,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/09 17:55
LATITUDE: 17-12.71N
LONGITUDE: 087-35.98W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Long Cay, Lighthouse Reef – Belize

We had a big squall with about 30 knots just before we left Turneffe this morning. We tried to see if we could go ashore to the lodge and use the restaurant/bar, but despite their being very nice…no was the answer. The reef offered some, but not perfect protection. Turneffe is really a flat bottom power boat lagoon, not a sailors place due to the very shallow depths.

We had one big boomer of a squall en route here (35 knots and rain), but then it cleared up nicely. We\’re anchored in 9 feet of water behind Long Cay which runs 2 miles north and south. It\’s flat and comfy. We\’ll be off to explore after lunch. We\’ve already seen lots of Frigates and Boobie Birds (of which there is a reserve for at Half Moon Cay).

If the weather permits tomorrow, we may go over the 6 miles (via the reef system) and anchor at Half Moon Cay for at least the day to see the bird sanctuary and the dive/snorkel spots that are supposed to be quite good.

KIT!!
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/08 19:51
LATITUDE: 17-10.47N
LONGITUDE: 087-53.77W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Turneffe Reef,(Turneffe Reef Lodge) – Belize

We took advantage of a light wind day to get east which is normally against the trade winds here. It was so light, we motored most of the way.
For all you boaters who go \”far a field\”…take note! Belize and Southern Mexico\’s charts are not \”geo referenced\”. This is the process where the surveys were done
PRIOR to GPS! The surveys are pretty good (not perfect!), but the land areas are not in the correct GPS position. Why? Because they did their latitude and longitude
by sextant! Very close, but NOT exact. They were \”good\” cartographers, but NOT perfect. As such, the reef entrance here is shown 550 feet further east than it really is!. Careful eyeball navigation is essential when you know the charts are not \”geo referenced\”.

Geo Referencing is done using satellite imagery and other techniques. The first areas to be done were started about 8 years ago and of course where commercial shipping and cruise ships go – those areas were done first. As we are in a pretty non commercial area…they haven\’t caught up here yet. Just today\’s \”boating 101 lesson\”…

Turneffe Reef is one of only four true atolls in the Caribbean. The other 2 we hope to visit over the next week. Chinchoro Bank in Mexico is the fourth.
These reefs are very much like the atolls of the South Pacific in the Tuamotu Group as well as many of the Cook Islands and others in the Western Pacific and Eastern Indian Oceans.

I got great response from the Cuba Blogs, thanks for all your notes.
We\’ll head to Light House Reef (17 miles to our east) tomorrow and hang out there for awhile. It\’s the home of the famous \”Blue Hole\” that Jacques Cousteau made famous. He actually dynamited the reef to get \”Calyspo\” inside. When the Belizean Government heard he did it without their permission, they banned him from ever returning to Belize. Ironically, despite the fact that it\’s a great aerial photo, it\’s a nothing dive. It has become the number one diver/tourist attraction to this nation. Who knew?…:-)
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2015/03/06 19:43
LATITUDE: 17-44.79N
LONGITUDE: 088-01.80W
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Cay Caulker – Belize

We read in a cruising guide of ours…\”Avoid the Pinot Grigiot\”. That means, watch the color of the water to see the real shallow spots. The problem is, all of the Bahamas and Belize (so far) are Pinot Grigiot!…

It was time to leave the bumpy anchorage at San Pedro and head to our first destination inside the reef at Cay Caulker. \”Windward\”, a Norseman 447 \”monomaran\” was a bit concerned due to a shallow spot along the way. However, Dennis was confident that their 6\’4\” draft would clear the 7 foot spot as the tide would be above it\’s datum plane and rising.

Well…such things do not always work out according to plan. We led the way. Due to the nature of we \”rectangular boats\”,(as our friends Dave and Kathie would say),
we would call out the depths. Dave and Kathie have the same boat as Windward (btw!). The water was only 4 1/2 foot deep where the 7 foot spot was supposed to be.
In fact, it was that shallow for a long way – no worries for \”Beach House\”. We can get by with about 4 feet and still not quite have the rudders touch.

We showed that they should have made it okay, but Dennis found the shallowest spot on the bank. \”Windward\” was hard aground on the sand. We put a line on their bow and tried to pull them forward. No luck. Then Dennis dove the boat and found that only the front of the keel was stuck. So, we pulled from the back. A small panga went by and his wake rocked \”Windward\” around which allowed both of our boats to move him backward – all three engines (his one and our two) – full thrust!

Alas, \”Windward\” got stuck again. We tied off to the bow a second time and were able to spin him around and get him off the sand. We then picked our way \”through the weeds\” till we got to deep water. There was one more close call, but that was averted. We saw 3.0 feet for a second and aimed \”Windward\” away from the spot.

Both boats now all tied up and safe at Cay Caulker….yet another….\”Sea Story\”…:-) We\’ll be heading ashore for a glass of wine shortly…:-)

I\’ll post the last Cuba blog as soon as I get some internet.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki