I'm happy to report that our trip from Punta Allen to Belize was rather uneventful. The biggest challenge was figuring out when to leave and how fast to move the boat. It was a 120 mile sail, and I planned on going at 6 kits, so one would just assume that this would take 20 hours. I also didn't want to pull in before 9 AM as we had to go through a cut in the reef & I wanted good light.
The above planning tends to go out the window when you throw CURRENTS into the mix. We had currents ranging from 2.5 kts against us to an occasional current with us. We would move along the coast during the day to keep out of the majority of the currents, but we had to go off-shore at night to keep away from the reefs, and then we'd see the full brunt of the current. On top of that the winds tend to be a stronger during the day and lighter at night. Thankfully BlueJacket is a very fast boat and we spent most of the time trying to slow her down so that we would maintain our 6 kt average. However, I kept looking for my crystal ball so that I could know what the winds and the currents would be doing later in the trip. Do I run at 7.5 kt during the day assuming that I'll only be doing 4.5 at night with the light winds and currents, or what?
We left at 1 PM and had wonderful winds, about 15 kts on the beam. Perfect for BlueJacket. The seas were relatively flat until we'd run into areas where the currents where mixing and then it would get choppy and lumpy. During the PM we started dodging big thunderheads and downpours (you can track them on the radar from 12+ miles away) and until about midnight they were prevalent. Amazingly the crew of BlueJacket did an awesome job of keeping the speed at an average of 6 kits. We crossed the reef at 09:03. It doesn't get much better than that!
You may recall a posting titled "Dinghy Surfing at San Pedro" last April. At that point there were huge waves crashing through the cut and it was unusable. This time we had 3-4' waves and it was MUCH better. We cleared in, bought some veggies and One Barrel rum, and then headed to Cay Caulker. That was a low tide and we regularly had less than a foot of water under the keel. Yikes! We only bumped a few times.
We went into the Lazy Lizard for a beer at sunset and then wandered around the streets looking for a place to eat. Our favorite, Habanaro's, was closed so we went to Poor Man's grill and have a decidedly average meal. Then we tried to make some phone calls, but BTL has blocked access to AT&T. After several futile attempts we gave up and headed back to the boat.
Bill is headed back to the States today and Sue & I are headed to Turneffe island and then Lighthouse reef. There's a tropical wave that we need to watch, so we may be moving fast. That's about it from here!
Geoff, Sue & Bill
Log ID: 403
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