Caye Caulker

Saturday, March 27, 2004

017-44.700 N
088-1.860 W

We've been "stuck" here for the past 9+ days due to high winds and seas. I suppose that "stuck" is a misnomer, as there are only a few places that I'd rather be stuck. Caye Caulker is a delightful island 11 miles off shore of Belize and about 18 mile NE of Belize City. We're basically in the northern most section of Belize.

This is definitely a big tourist destination, although for some reason there aren't a lot of tourists here right now. The island is covered with little hotels, shops and restaurants. For all intents and purposes there are no cars on the island. Everyone walks, rides bikes or rents gold carts to get around. That's really nice as it really contributes to the laid-back aura of the island. And I'll tell you, this island is laid back! If you want to get away from it all and just relax, this is the place for you!

The reef is about a mile to the east of the island and the water in between is shallow, giving it just a beautiful blue hue. We're anchored on the west side in a large cove. At one point I think that there were ~30 boats in here. Sue & I have been playing social director getting people together for cocktails, dinner, etc. It's been a lot of fun and we've met a lot of people.

Brandy and Lulu are anchored right around us. Brandy had planned on checking out and heading towards Isla Mujares by now, but the weather just hasn't cooperated. We went with them on their boat to San Pedro to clear out and pick up their crew. Along the way we stopped at an underwater park named Hol Chan and snorkeled. This is a huge tourist destination, but luckily we were there at lunch time and the place was deserted. Wonderful! I've never seen so many nurse sharks in on place! There were everywhere, and obviously very used to having snorkelers around them. Unfortunately I left my camera aboard their boat, otherwise I would have had a ton of great pictures. Sigh... Sue & extended our boat papers, did some shopping, and took a ferry back to Cay Caulker. The next day Brandy was forced back to Caye Caulker due to the weather.

The winds have been howling here! It really hasn't been due to fronts coming though, but it's due to a large pressure differential. The winds have been blowing 20-25 kts daily with regular incursions into the 30-35 kt range. The seas outside the reef have been in the 10' range. Yuck! There was one day that we had 2' steep waves in the anchorage and virtually no one got off their boats. However, the winds have now subsided and the anchorage is clearing out.

While stuck on the boat we got a lot of projects done. I taught myself how to do fiberglass repair. The tail of the wind generator had gotten snapped off (see a separate 7knots only report) and I need to repair it. I had all of the materials and a book, so I sat down and repaired it over the space of several days. It's much stronger than it ever was before and is working just fine. I'm still not happy with some of the generator design though.

Today we're headed off to the S end of Turneffe and then on to Lighthouse Reef. We've got a flotilla of boats following us. It seems that since we've been there before, that we're the leaders of the pack. It's a good group and I think that we'll have a good time out there.

-- Geoff & Sue

Log ID: 474