Glovers Reef, Belize (2016)

Monday, May 2, 2016

016-42.992 N
087-51.200 W

The crew of the BlueJacket wishes you a warm welcome from Glover's Reef in Belize!

We had an awesome sal from Utila, Honduras to Glover's Reef. This was one of the longest day hops that we've ever attempted. We departed from Utila at 05:15 and needed to make 74 miles before th sun was too low to go through the reef cut to get into the anchorage. Thankfully the winds were great and we were able to sail virtually the entire way and make good speed.

We arrived at Glover's at around 4:30 PM, which gave us enough light to see the coral heads and reef which line the cut. We made our way slowly though it and then attempted to anchor. The bottom is sea grass and we had a hard time getting our anchor to hold. We would slowly pull though the grass and after a while we'd pull the anchor and try again. The picture to the right shows our track and 4 attempts at anchoring. Thankfully after a few exchanges between the crew, we were able to get the anchor to hold.

Glover's Reef is the southern most of the 3 atolls in Belize. An atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef that surrounds a body of water called a lagoon. Glover's reef is 17 miles long by 8 miles wide and encompasses 100 sq miles (260 sq km) of lagoon. The average interior depth of the lagoon is 50-75', but there are over 600 patch reefs and pinnacles within it, which makes navigation very difficult. There are 3 major channels which penetrate the reef and allow entrance to the lagoon area.

Glover's Reef is a marine reserve and a world heritage site. They charge a fee to be within the reserve and if you want to dive, you need to dive with one of the dive companies within the reserve. On the Southwest cays you can dive/stay at the Marisol resort or there is one at the Northeast Cay.

We anchored off of southern most of the SW cays. The photo on the left is actually from 2004 and shows the cay much better than anything that I took this time. I took this picture from the crow's nest of boat named Cordonazo just before a freak storm formed causing Cordonazo and Lone Star Love to be grounded on the shore. It took us all night to get them freed. That was the last time that we were there. Luckily BlueJacket ended up just off the beach, as we had less chain out. What was kind of funny was that we could see the sand hole that we had anchored in (the photo below is from 2004), but another boat was anchored there this time.

Anyhow, I'll stop digressing...You can see how narrow the cay is and how close the fringing reef is to the island. The resort which was operating here is now closed and you're not allowed to go ashore. However, you can go ashore by the Marisol resort.

We stayed for 2 days to give us some time off after the long move. I tried to find a place to go diving (I didn't know the new rule) to the W, but wasn't able to find any place that was interesting to dive. We snorkeled at some of the patch reefs near the boat, but they were just OK.

From here we're going to make a 36 mile jump to Turneff Island and then head to Cay Caulker/San Pedro where we can clear in.

-- Geoff & Sue

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For the cruiser:

We ended up anchoring in 15' over sea grass to the N of the pier on the cay with the Manta Reef Resort on it. The holding in front of the pier and the the S of it wasn't good.

The fees for being the the reserve are $10BZ ($5US) per day or $25BZ per week per person. If you want to fish, it's another $25BZ per week per person.

According to the ranger that Sue spoke to, the dive resort at N Cay offers much less expensive diving than at SW cay.

Log ID: 2279