First letter: July 2, 2009

Hi Everyone,
 
Internet connectivity is limited in Belize, we are currently anchored off the Turneffe Island Lodge which is about 5 miles off the coast of Belize. We can’t send email from here so we’ll try to send this when we get back to the mainland in 4 or 5 days time. Belize and China are apparently two of the 5 countries that have blocked access to Skype which is a pain.
 
The attached chart is from the Pilot Guide which is the most detailed chart you can get. Navigation in this area is very different to sailing in Europe or even the Eastern Caribbean. Charts are not accurate and can only be used for ‘approximate information’. To get to this anchorage we came through the Blue Creek Channel which is marked on the chart. The track on the chart plotter shows us crossing dry land about 0.5 miles south of Blue Creek.
 
The guide says that  there are red and white marks at the entrance to the channel and you leave the red marks to Port when entering the channel. In fact the marks are now red and green and you leave the red marks to Starboard!
 
The Pilot Guide  was last re-printed two years ago but it doesn’t say when it was last updated. These reefs change so much when a hurricane comes through that it would be very difficult to keep it up to date anyway, even the shape of the Cays can change and you may have 2 Cays instead of one.
 
If we are going anywhere challenging we plan to arrive lunchtime and travel in good light so we can eyeball our way in around the reefs and coral heads. Don’t get put off, the rewards are great, there is a fantastic number of Cays, a lot of dive sites have moorings which are big enough for the boat, and there are more types of sea life here than anywhere else that we have been.
 
Hurricane Season officially started on June 1 so we are keeping a close watch on the weather. The ‘cruisers’ provide an excellent daily forecast on the NW Caribbean Net which is an informal radio Net that provides not only weather but safety and general information daily. Unfortunately they weather forecast is at 8:00am which can be a bit early.
 
Fishing hasn’t been a great success, since leaving Antigua we have caught 2 Tuna of about 5 pounds each and lost at least 3 lures to fish which were too big for the line ( actually we are quite glad the line broke so we didn’t have to land the fish). I have also been trying to catch Lobster with an improvised gaff but the lobsters are proving difficult to find and put up a good fight. Yesterday we found two good size lobster in about a metre of water, They are surprisingly strong and despite being able to hook them they fought back and got off the hook. Local fishermen charge about USD2.50 per pound for Lobster so at least we can eat cheaply even if we can’t catch them ourselves, It would be much more satisfying to eat our own catch.
 
Nothing else much to report. The sun is still shining, we are planning to leave Mainland Belize around June 21 and make our way slowly to the entrance to the Rio Dulce in Guatemala. We have to clear in at Livingstone and the make our way up the River to Fronteras where we will leave the boat until November.
 
The trip up the Rio Dulce sounds really interesting, this is an excerpt for the Pilot Guide:
 
“Follow the Rio dulce as it winds for 6 miles through a spectacular gorge of 300ft towering limestone cliffs backed by dense walls of tropical green. Bucking the steady 0.5 to 1 knot current running down the river we were in awe as we watched young children paddling their canoes across the river to sell their daily catch of fresh or fresh baked tortillas”
 
Hopefully we’ll get some good pictures to share with you.
 
All the very best
 
 Alan & Helen