I was just off rereading e-mails that I sent from here last year and realized how much this year is like last year...just with a different cast of boats. We had a great time while we were here last year, and it's repeating itself this year.
Lighthouse reef is an atoll about 25 miles SE of Belize City. An atoll is a coral reef enclosing a lagoon. (Remember this as there's a quiz at the end of the section!) Many times these coral reefs rise from great depths, as is the case here. The waters surrounding this atoll are thousands of feet deep and the coral rises almost vertically to the surface! If you were navigating at night you could run into the reef with no warning. Crossing the reef into the atoll is a lot of fun. Basically you sail directly over the reef, which is typically no more than 12-15' below you. The water is so clear that it's hard to judge depths and all that you can see are coral heads trying to snag your boat! Luckily we have a good set of waypoints (at the end) which get you safely across the reef.
We immediately went around Long Cay to the east side of the island as there was a lot of roll on the west side. That's also a tricky passage taking 7 waypoints to get you around. At times the water is no more than 8' deep and coral heads dot the way. Brandy had just anchored there and we had a great time catching up with Mark and Carol. A day or so later two other boats (Lulu and Wet Bar) came in...or should I say tried to get in. They had the waypoints, but either didn't understand them, entered them wrong into the GPS, or due to operator error wandered around the island trying to find a way in. Eventually they made it through the normal low spot in the reef and anchored on the rolly west side for the night.
The next day Lulu tried to come around the island to the east side, but made an error following the waypoints and ended up aground on a sand bar. Mark & I spent about 2 hours working with the dinghies to get them off and finally succeeded. Lulu has the same Northstar 96x GPS that I have and they clearly need operator training to properly use it. I provided a little, but I think that reading the manual should be high on their priority list. Wet Bar made it around later in the PM.
Since then there's been a constant rotating dinner party at different boats. Lulu is a 61' Oyster, Brandy is a 47' Gulfstar, Wet Bar is a 45' cabin cruiser and BlueJacket comes in at 40'. Believe me, these other boats have much larger spaces for entertaining than we do, which is an anomaly.
We've been diving 1-2 times per day. The biggest problem is that all of the dive sites are a long way from the east side anchorage, and that's been chewing up a lot of gas in the dinghy. We've only got about 10 gallons left, and that needs to last the dinghy and compressor for another 10 days. It might be close! The dives, as usual, have been wonderful with lots of fish and beautiful fish. Some have even been invited back to the boat for dinner!
That's about all from here. Hope that you're all enjoying the start of a nice spring.
Geoff & Sue (Pop-quiz: what's an atoll?)
For the cruiser:
Waypoints to Lighthouse Reef West Side
17-12.689N 87-36.888W North of large mooring ball just before reef
17-12.695N 87-36.639W Safely inside of reef
17-12.772N 87-35.965W Anchorage
Waypoints from EAST side to WEST side. Need a lookout and good light.
#1 17-11.778N 087-35.947W
#2 17-11.380N 087-36.025W
#3 17-11.243N 087-36.161W
#4 17-11.337N 087-36.510W
#5 17-11.434N 087-36.583W
#6 17-11.728N 087-36.521W
#7 17-12.352N 087-36.262W
Log ID: 467
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