Clearing Mexico and approaching Guatemala

We left with Tisha Baby at 1240 the next day planning to clear out of Mexico at Xcalak after we completed an overnight and two-day sail. A few hours out the wind turned contrary so Richard decided to head for Cozumel instead. We had heard that the weather might turn sour in a few days with a tropical wave meeting up with a low-pressure area, so we decided to keep heading south to beat it. Near sundown we heard that they were approaching the northern end of Cozumel while we, attaining over eight knots, continued on a close reach into the dusk. We reduced sail just before dark and through the night we sailed on. Each time we approached a cape or point we experienced confused seas as we were trying to stay somewhat close to shore to avoid the famous three to four knot Yucatan current. Our tactics allowed us to experience no more than a one-knot unfavorable current, but exposed us to an uncomfortable and wet ride. Twenty-six hours later we dropped anchor behind the reef in Bahia Del Espiritu Santo. In order to arrive in Xcalak with good light we lifted anchor at 0140 in the morning. Barbie’s note on the calendar spans four days – “Awful passage!” It was four days because when we got to Xcalak just after 3PM the next day the seas were very large and breaking across the reef-bordered entrance to the harbor. I used the VHF radio to contact any station that might advise us about entering and we heard from S/V Lyric that the port captain had had a heart attack and his assistant had cancer so the office had been closed for a week with no opening date planned. Furthermore, Lyric had planned to clear into Mexico, but failing that, they still supposed that they would be stuck there until the weather settled a week later. I decided to push on to Punta Gorda, Belize and beg for mercy for not having cleared out of Mexico due to the threat to our safety. By the time we neared Punta Gorda the seas were just as bad and now it was nearing sundown so the light for reading the water depths was poor. Again, I decided to push southbound and into our third night at sea. At about 9 PM, nearing Belize City I called Pearl S. Buck on VHF, but got no answer. S/V Spray answered advising us that they were anchored near Pearl off Caye Caulker so we asked them to relay our greeting. They also advised us to not try our planned route in the dark due to the coral heads that were interspersed along it, but to enter English Channel thirty nm farther south instead and then gave us the coordinates of an anchorage inside the entrance to the channel. It was not good news, but it was good information and we followed it. We anchored behind Water Cay at 0200 on the 22nd.

The next day, we awoke and played in the water before deciding to call a marina to clear into Belize. Cucumber Beach Marina was recommended in our cruising guide as a convenient location for clearance so we went there. It was convenient, but expensive. The next morning, officers from Customs, Immigration, Health and Agriculture and Sanitation all clamored aboard after coming from Belize City and charging $25 USD each for the expense of the trip. On top of that we were charged $20 USD by Customs and $30 USD by Health and Agriculture for a D-Rat certificate certifying that we had been checked for rats. They were not pleased that we had not cleared out of Mexico, but seemed to understand our situation. I guess they really didn’t like being called away from their air-conditioned offices to sit in our boat’s cockpit in the sweltering heat (even at 0900) so maybe they took it out on us in fees. Maybe not? The Sanitation Officer who checked the two houseplants that Barbie brought up from the saloon to him made the only actual inspection. Otherwise they all simply sat, checked paperwork and collected copies while making me fill out and sign and stamp some more. Then we had to go to Belize City ourselves to pick up the D-Rat certificate at the Health and Agriculture office later that day. We got a ride into the city from a car leaving the marina and they dropped us off within a block of the office. The certificate was ready when we got there so we decided we would tour for the remainder of the day. The downside of that was that it was hot. Barbie observed that where even children carry a washcloth to wipe their sweat – that’s too hot. We had a nice lunch in the breeze on a deck overlooking Belize Bay and as we ate we got some advice about repelling no-see-ums using a citronella oil fired lantern and where to find one. There are several hardware stores close together in downtown Belize City and we visited three before we found what we had been told to get. We spent $12 USD (cheap!) We rode the bus back to the marina $1.50 USD for the two of us (cheap!) and paid for the marina fee the next morning - $31.20 USD for two nights (very cheap!) E-mail, but not Internet access (I don’t know how they did that. Is it censorship?) (free!). We got caught up with our incoming e-mail and got a chance to answer a few. Several e-mails acknowledged Barbie’s birthday. Mike Nolen is sailing his S/V the Great Escape – our previous sailboat in the San Juan Islands of British Columbia. Dad is doing okay, out of the skilled nursing facility and back to the apartment after his hip replacement surgery. Even though my retired meteorologist brother was traveling with Vickie by kayak up the East coast (you must check his blogsite - http://turtletooblog.blogspot.com ), Tom saw fit to take time to e-mail us and warn us of a tropical cyclone possibly headed our way around June 1 – the official start of hurricane season.

With that in the back of my mind and our business completed, we pulled out of the marina to head about 20 miles north to Caye Caulker (Corker Key) to meet Bryan and Dorothy on Pearl S. Buck. They gave us directions on what to see and where to go on the Caye and we enjoyed a nice walk along the beach front and then back inland three blocks to the bakery to buy some fresh bread. Another two blocks inland brought us to the bay side and back to our dinghy. We returned to visit again with Bryan and Dorothy to report on the delights we found on Caye Caulker and to discuss the next move with an ear toward the weather warnings and an eye on the calendar date June 1. If a named storm occurred and we were not in a marina on the Rio Dulce, our insurance would pay nothing for loss or damage to our boat.

We left Caye Caulker Sunday morning and had a very pleasant sail to Colson Cays and did some snorkeling after we anchored. On Monday, we heard Tisha Baby getting the weather news from Chris Parker and the possibility of the tropical wave becoming a storm came up, confirming what Tom had sent us four days before. We headed for Placencias Cay arriving in plenty of time to walk through the village, enjoy a tropical drink at a beachside bar and to return to the boats along their famous and picturesque mile long sidewalk. On Tuesday, the weather news seemed to heighten the treat level so we decided clear out of Belize here at Placencias. Bryan and I dinghyed to shore at 0700, walked to the water taxi and bought a $6 USD round trip ticket. Arriving in the village of Independence we caught a taxi agreeing on a price of $12.50 USD to go to Immigration at the police station and then to Customs at the ship port and back to the water taxi. “It should take an hour tops.” The policeman/immigration officer was at his office early so we were able to get our passports stamped and drive to the Customs office by 0800. By 0830 the taxi driver was worried so while four other cruising boat captains arrived in a second taxi, our guy decided he would go to the officers house to see what was keeping him. We speculated that he had celebrated Commonwealth Day heartily and was now late for work, but he was not at home (or dead in the house.) We learned that he was on vacation instead and that a substitute officer was coming from another port “soon.” After treating our driver to some tacos and a juice at a roadside stand and getting some air in a tire we returned to the Customs office and began chatting with the other cruisers. At 1030 the substitute officer and the Port Captain drove up. We were happy to see the Customs Officer, but not so the Port Captain. If the Port Captain is not around the Customs Officer clears you out of the country with no fee. Being present, the Port Captain asks to see the ships papers, draws up a certificate that he hands to me, that I hand to the Customs Officer, that he stamps and hands back to me and I hand back to the Port Captain with $45 USD. Our taxi driver gets us back to the water taxi in time for the 1100 boat and we give him $20 USD. At 1200 we are underway in the direction of Rio Dulce. I was ambivalent about that decision because we had not really seen Belize and its beautiful cays, but with safety in mind we decided to avoid conflict with bad weather. The cays would wait until we emerge from the jungle in the fall and we will visit them then. We hear Tisha Baby on the radio intermittently and they expect to hunker down for the bad weather in Placencia and sail around, arriving in the Rio Dulce July 1.

As forecasted the winds are light, but as we approach the Gulf of Honduras the seas increase. Then Barbie catches a nice fish that we land and dispatch with a splash of rum in the gills. As Barb is filleting the fish the boat is pitching, but she manages to do a creditable job and we get several servings bagged and into the frig and the cockpit cleaned up as the seas and now the winds continue to build. We are approaching Cabo Tres Puntas and the current is opposing the wind, which steepens the waves. Once we round the cape and run a few more miles it will be dark so we anchor just beyond the cape, the surge of the swells and just before dark. The prior two nights we had been witness to some lightening flashes in the distant clouds and that night was no exception, but now we were within nine miles of our goal of Livingston, Guatemala with the last two obstacles facing us Wednesday morning. The fabled “Bar” and clearing into the country.