Ship's Logs and Trip Diaries 

Detailed information on provisioning, checking in, marinas/anchorages, etc. is available at our SaltySailors.com website.

Guatemala & Belize 2006 - 2007

September 2006 - January 2007:  Monkey Bay Marina

I have settled down into a routine, a rut if you must.  I've been working a lot on SaltySailors.com and doing a few websites for people and managing Monkey Bay Marina.  I rarely leave the compound at Monkey Bay.  Thane goes to Fronteras to buy the groceries.  My days consist of cooking, working on the computer, a card game here and there and the occasional happy hour.  We have become River Rats! 

In October I made a quick trip back to Texas for a family emergency and had the opportunity to see some of my friends & family.  I really enjoyed that and wished there had been time to see everyone I wanted to see. 

Thane, Michael and I made a trip to the Castillo San Felipe; an old Spanish fort at the entrance to Lake Izabal.  After touring the Fort we walked into the town of San Felipe for lunch.  We had a nice day. 

In January, Michael and I made a trip to Tikal.  I had been there before, but Michael had not.  We stayed on the grounds at Tikal this time which I highly recommend.  We arrived at Tikal about 4:30 pm and took a long hike up to the top of one of the Temples to watch the sunset.  Spectacular... saw several Red Lored Amazon Parrots as well as two Toucans ... which we got to see in flight.  The next morning, up at 3:30 am to trek up another Temple to watch the sun rise.  It was very foggy so we never really saw the sun rise, but the tree tops & Temple tops covered in fog and the sounds of nature made it worthwhile. 

As much as we enjoy the river and Monkey Bay Marina, we have decided that we must return to the US to work.  Darn the "W" word, but I like to buy food so we are heading out.  Not going straight back to work though ... we have to play a little.  Will spend a month in Belize, a little time in Mexico and then head back to Florida.  Cruiser's plans are like well ... not worth much, but we hope to work for awhile and then spend some time on the East Coast of the US and in the Eastern Caribbean. 

Thank you to all the wonderful people we met in the Rio this time around.  We will see you out there somewhere again!  I've added a bunch of pictures of our new friends in the Friends Along the Way photo gallery. 

February 20, 2007:  Leaving Monkey Bay

We finished stowing away the boat & saying our goodbyes and headed out of Monkey Bay Marina at noon.  We made it about 300 yards, looked back at the dinghy only to see it had lost a lot of air and was probably going to sink soon.  Around we go, back to Monkey Bay.  The dinghy had blown a really big hole in the side about a week ago.  Finding the correct materials to repair it proved to be a challenge on the Rio.  After 3 attempts, we thought we had it whipped.  Nope.  So more glue and 4 hours later, Thane said "Let's Go".  So off we headed again.  The dinghy is still leaking, but if we pump it up in the morning and then again at night, we can still tow it along behind us.  Will try and get it repaired by a pro from the Moorings in Placencia. 

Had planned to make it to Texan Bay to anchor for the evening and see if we could get Mike & Sherri to cook us a nice Texas meal (Mike makes the best enchiladas), but we couldn't make it before dark so we pulled over in the Golfete and found a nice anchorage. 

February 21:  A Hard Day

We pulled up anchor and headed over to Curtis and Sandra's house by the Manatee Preserve in the Golfete.  They had offered to take Paco (our Red Lored Amazon Parrot) whom we had acquired while in the River.  We have been swinging back and forth on what to do with him.  He is such a great bird.  He loves us, we love him.  However we could not legally take him out of Guatemala, into Belize and into the US.  We fretted about how happy he would be locked up in a cage down below for the entire trip and then what he would do all day while we worked.  It was such a hard decision to make, but we decided to stop over a Curtis & Sandra's house and check them out as the potential new parents of Paco.  I have no doubt the we did the right thing by leaving Paco with Sandra.  She will be great with him.  Paco will now have two sister's; an African Grey and a Macaw.  And Sandra obviously loves her birds and I know she will love Paco.  We miss Paco already. 

Off down the river to Livingston to check out.  As always in Guatemala, the check out was easy and didn't take us long at all.  We watched the boat Grizzly from Sweden being towed over the bar (a ridge of sand that has built up at the mouth of the river and makes it very shallow).  They draw 7' ... we are again thankful for our 4' draft.  We crossed the bar with no problem and headed over to Cabos Tres Puntas to anchor for the night. 

We've anchored here twice.  The first time we encountered one of the worst thunderstorms we've ever been in, tonight it poured rain all night, thankfully, no lightening.  The holding is great here.

February 21:  Cabos Tres Puntas to Frenchman's Caye ... nope ... Moho Cayes

After a stormy, rolly night at anchor, we looked to the sky toward Placencia and saw dark storm clouds all in that direction.  We waited until noon and they cleared quite a bit so after looking through Raucher's for the next closest anchorage we could make, we chose Frenchman's Caye. 

We had a nice treat of a pod of 5 dolphins that entertained us for about half an hour on the way.

We arrived at Frenchman's Caye only to find that there was no protection from the NW winds.  Took off for the Moho Cayes and poked around until we found a very nice, well protected anchorage although it was in 30' of water.  Thane hauls the anchor up manually so we usually try for around 12' when we anchor.  But it was a very nice anchorage and although it stormed again all night, we were safe & sound. 

We put this video together from footage taken during this part of the trip:

February 22:  Moho Cayes to Placencia

Beat into a north wind the whole way.  What fun.  Arrived in Placencia to find our friends on Polaris, Frances V, Rasmus and we met Up Jinks & Tides End.  Our dinghy is still leaking so Ken on Polaris came and picked us up and we all went to Cozy Kitchen.  It was great to be out with friends and enjoying Placencia. 

Would have slept well except at about 2:00 am Karen off Rasmus came on the radio saying that a large catamaran had just drug into them.  Had trouble sleeping after that!

Planning to check into Belize on Monday and then will probably head out to the Cayes and work our way up to Caye Caulker where we hope to meet some of our really good friends that are fllying in from Dallas and need a little blue water break.

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