Sailing with Samson

The Governor grants a pardon

7/9/2010 With Samson's daily improvements we knew the day would come that he would be running around chasing a tennis ball, in due time. We were prepared to give him all the he needed so long as he made a few small improvements and wasn't uderly miserable. He gave us the certain hope we needed within 4 or 5 days of his injury when he moved his leg from a tight squeeze of his foot. When we headed out west his feet would only move as a reflex. After arriving to Cali, each day of water and tennis ball "therapy" Samson has made great improvements toward control of his legs. With us holding up his hind legs we first noticed his right legs moving a bit and eventually being able to stand on it for a few seconds till he lost balance and swayed over. Soon, in the pool with the water helping to reduce his body weight, he was standing on his right leg and each day that leg was getting stronger and stronger until he was hobbling around like the spokesdog for the tripod association, and today... he walks.

Samson continues to get stronger with his his back right leg which now has some movement, he can even lift him self and stand for a few seconds till he looses his balance. I attached a funny video of him getting around a little bit for the sake of pulling all of the stuffed animals out of the toy bin. If the video below doesn't load click here.

Miles of progress

We decided Thursday night that it would be good for all of us to go ahead with our plans to head west and we set out for our original plan of driving to California to visit my cousin and her husband, Mary and Marc, who last visited us in Georgetown Bahamas back in January. The trip took us 23 hours, 1400 miles and across 3 states. Along the way we made frequent stops to help Samson use the bathroom and continue his physical therapy of bicycles, leg reflexes and muscle messaging so as to not allow muscle atrophy to set in. We were eager to get him to the swimming pool at Mary and Marc's house so we could begin his hydrotherapy, said to be the best form of physical therapy for FCE. When we stopped for lunch in Big Bend country, as I acted as Samson's leg cart and carried his hind legs while he walked with his front, something he loves to do after spending the last few days mostly lying down. When I set his legs down I noticed something he hasn't done since his accident, he had pressure pushing down on his legs, almost enough to hold him the standing position on his own, except without control of his muscles his hips would slowly sway over. At this point we are certain that if Samson continues to progress each day as he has, he will surely walk again.

One day at a time

7/1/2010 Thursday. 4 days after injury: It seems Samson's progress forward always shows itself in the mornings. This morning when we awoke Liesel went to help him pee and when she accidentally put some weight on his foot, he jerked it away, something he hasn't done since his accident. We have gotten him to do this numerous times today and it gives us a boost of hope that I desperately need. Each day I go through phases of frustration where I loose hope of recovery and try to come to grips with the thought of putting my dog down just to later have the feeling of certainty that he will recover by witnessing a progression toward movement, and later have the cycle repeat itself. I can only imagine how strong parents of disabled children have to be every day just to not get overwhelmed. We have adopted the motto of "one day at a time", and if Samson can continue to be strong and make daily improvements as he has been doing, he just might be chasing those tennis balls again. I put up a video of Samson's progress on his 4th day. if it doesn't load you can click this link.

6/30/2010 Wednesday. This morning we all awoke and Samson as usual gave out a big early morning stretch and yawn, it was then that we noticed his legs stretched with him, something that hadn't happened since before his injury. Samson seems more upbeat today and back to a constant urge to play with toys, when we leave the room he give a commanding bark for return and the drops the ball at our feet, we have adapted his play routine to concentrating on catching rather than his normal fetching, he seems pretty content with this. Today was the first day he was able to go number two without an accident and he even lifted his tail when he went. I think for all three of us the hardest part of the situation is having to purge his bladder for him every time he needs to pee, something we didn't consider when all of this first happened. We found it is easier to do this while he is laying down than when trying to hold him up, by pushing on his bladder it allows him to pee, he seems to understand and we know it has got to be just as hard for him not to be able to sniff around and find that just right spot like usual.

Life's too short

6/29/2010, Tuesday. When Liesel and I made the decision to take advantage of the opportunity to go cruising two years ago we both had the opinion that things can change at any minute and that if you don't seize the moment, that moment may never come again. We had heard too many stories of friends of friends who had a sudden illness or situation in their life that changed everything. We didn't want to spend the rest of our lives saying, maybe we should have gone cruising when we had the chance. Well, on the evening of June 27th 2010, three weeks to the day of our exciting arrival home to Galveston, our crew member, mascot and best friend would be the one saying, I'm glad we went cruising when we had the chance, because it is he who may never have the chance again. It's still hard for me to speak and write the words, but as of right now Samson is essentially paralyzed from the hips down.

We were at our friends Bronc and Laura's house in north Austin and had just finished sailing out on Lake Travis, something that was enjoyable for the crew of CoolBreeze as we hadn't been out on the water since we arrived home. That Sunday evening we were grilling some chicken and as usual Samson insisted on playing tennis ball. In the middle of a normal run and roll for the ball he let out a loud and extended yelp and came tumbling to a stop. When we came over to look at him he was trying to get up but his hind legs were completely limp. We contacted an emergency animal hospital and took him in. They took him in the back, performed some tests and informed us that they believed he sulfured from FCE, (Fibro cartilaginous Embolism), pretty much a stroke in the spine that causes animals to "go down." Unfortunately, there is no modern medicines, surgery or treatment that can cure it. He has a 50/50 chance of ever walking again and with each day that goes by, so do his chances of improvement.

The first night was hard for all of us. Without being able to walk he couldn't use the bathroom on his own and although we tried to help him "go" he just couldn't, instead he ended up having accidents in his bed.

The following day we were hoping for large improvements in his situation and disappointed when the best we could get was a twitch in his foot from a tickle.

Today is Tuesday and things although difficult are becoming more routine. We have him going outside with our assistance, and he is even excitingly playing catch with tennis balls. In the early hours of the morning we awoke to take him out and after doing so he was responding very well to "toe tickles" giving multiple reflex responses. Unfortunately this afternoon we can not get the same responses from him, instead he seems depressed at his situation, as we all are. We all continue to have hope and prey for him and with any luck we can get some mild movement and control in his legs. We have read that water therapy is the best physical therapy for this injury and, of course, Samson is a superb swimmer. It's becoming more and more apparent that if we do not see signs of movement in the next two to three weeks, then we will have no option but to put him down. We have decided that Samson is just too active of a dog to be confined to the floor for months or even years just because we don't want to lose him.

We are about to go out to another vet visit for some x-rays and we will be updating the website on Samson's fight for movement.

Gulf Passage & home sweet home

6/1/2010 Day 1, Tuesday- Today is the first day of hurricane season and with a tropical storm already come and gone in the Pacific we're keeping a keen eye toward the tropics. After making our rounds to the customs and immigration we set sail around 1300 hours with light winds and sunny skys. After getting well offshore we plotted a 650 nautical mile course for Galveston and began motorsailing at over 6 knots. It wasn't long before we locked up on something real big at the end of our pole and it spun wildly until it was gone, we re-rigged up the pole and within minutes we had something smaller on the end. Luckily for us it was a small Mahi Mahi, perfect size for a meal for two and it made an excellent first evening meal. Before we left we loaded up with 60 gallons of diesel for this trip as the weather predictions are constantly changing and it's important we maintain 5 knots of speed or better at all times in order to get us home to Texas within six days, any more than that and we face a greater chance of an unexpected sub-tropical system kicking our butts. Luckily for us, we have a satellite telephone and are able to keep in contact with Richard and others who are tracking our progress and following our weather for us.

Day 2 - We motor-sailed all night and most of today, at only 1600 rpm we have burned less than half of a gallon of fuel per hour and confidence is growing that even with long periods of very light wind we would have enough fuel to get us home withing our 6 day window. It was mostly a sunny day and as evening fell, the winds built to the 20 knot range which made for fine dead downwind sailing. As some famous old salt once said, "I'd rather have gale on my butt than 20 knots on my nose."

Day 3 - Daylight came and the following winds and seas built through the night, we now had 25 knot winds and 7-8 ft seas making things a bit rolly but not unbearable. As late morning came the sun was shining and the wind got lighter, seas got calmer, we thought we would have a pleasant day, but we turned out to be very wrong. Around 1300 hours Liesel noticed some black clouds on the horizon, as we got closer the clouds grew blacker with earie looking striations of whiter clouds formed above it. We quickly decided to put a reef in the main and in the process the winds began to clock around, build rapidly, and a strong odor was smelt, almost electrical, yet there wasnt any lightning. It seemed like only seconds before the winds were blowing 40 knots and we turned the boat downwind so as to keep in control running with the storm, a tactic undoubtedly that has been used for thousands of years by the earliest of sailors. At this point we were sure that we should have put a double reef in the sail, reducing the amount of sail exposed to the wind, after the initial blow, about 30 minutes, winds reduced to still a howling 30-35 knot winds, within the hour it was down to the upper 20's and we decided we could now heave to so we could dry off and wait out this angry storm to pass. A few hours later we could see sunshine to the south and west, rain to the east, north and above ud, we knew it was only a matter of time before it was all over. We begun hanging things out to dry and had a pleasant dinner and sunset and we were also lucky enough to have clear skys all night long.

Day 4, Friday- Having passed the halfway point with less than 300 miles to go, all we can do is hope for good weather for the next couple of days. Unfortunately, things on the coast of Texas are expected to be rainy and not so pleasant, thus even less pleasant out here in the mid gulf. Around 0900 hours we spoke to Richard and he informed us of a storm out there that might give us some problems, the sky was cloudy and with a slightly darker color in the forward horizon we were hoping that it would be just a few showers with not much wind. As the hour passed by we could tell we were going to get some rain and suddenly this slightly grey horizon turned black, grew the same white striations as the day before and within second we smelt that same smell as two days prior. Liesel suggested a double reef and I agreed once again. I was up on deck securing, this time, a double reef in as the winds began to shift and grow. Again, we had 40 knot winds but this time with our double reef in we were able to hold our course and lightly motor sail upwind at about 60 degrees off the wind. At the start of this storm the straitions passed and some clouds came very low and although they didn't look like they would create a water spout, the thought was on both of our minds. We were lucky that the seas were calm before the storm as strong winds against the prevailing seas, especially in the Gulf, are often less than comfortable. Being almost textbook to what we had experienced days before, this time having the double reef in CoolBreeze, she handled the 40 knot winds with flying colors and things never got too rough down below and things were much less stressful the second time around. Maybe that will be the last squall of the trip, or not. As I write, we are 268 NM from Galveston and once again we are drying foul weather jackets out with grey skys behind us and blue skys ahead. We can't help but watch these storms with awe and respect. I think of those poor folks in the past who have unexpectedly been caught in hurricanes and tropical storms and we are so greatful of technology, such as GPS, on demand internet weather, satellite phones and weather predicions and what's it's done for the modern recreational sailor.

Day 5, Saturday - Around 0400 this morning we were alerted to the familiar drop in RPM that indicates a lack of fuel to the motor. We knew it was the fuel filter as we had the same problem in Florida 7 months earlier. With not much wind in sight, we had to get this problem fixed so it would be the order of business at first light. The difficult thing about this project is that the scuba tanks and an assortment of other cruising gear is stacked up in a lazarette blocking acess to the filter. So, after pulling everything out and getting nice and stinky with diesel we had everything back together and the whole project took about two hours from start to finish. Seconds after closing the lazarette I gave a tiresome sigh of relief that this project was done and the frustrations of projects at sea were high, suddenly we heard the familiar spray of water (and Samson's subsequent bark) that indicates dolphins nearby. As we looked around we saw about 20 or more dolphins jumping and swimming all around following us for over 20 minutes giving us the best dolphin show we have ever seen. Not a bad reward for our hard work!

Day 6 Sunday June 6th - Arrival day - The previous evening the wind had let up so much the sails were barely staying filled, and we were burning plenty of fuel to keep us moving in the right direction toward Galveston. We had gotten to the deep water rigs of the Gulf and were having to keep a sharp lookout for the ever increasing boat traffic and rig presence of this oil driven part of the Gulf. As we neared Galveston, within about 10 miles we got our cell phone coverage back and our phone soon got busy with calls and text from all of our friends and family who were tracking us on the SPOT tracker. As we entered the jetties we had a gathering at the end of the seawall to wave and greet our homecoming. We continued on to the Galveston Yacht basin where we had made arrangments for the Customs and Border Protection officer would meet us on the dock to enter us back in to the good ol' US of A. In all of the excitment we can't belive we didnt snap a photo of everyone there to greet us. With our entrance procedures completed we had enough daylight left to get down to Watergate marina in Clear Lake. We pulled up to the dock, where more family and friends came down to greet us, and we started a bucket bregade to start filling up the first carload of stuff to come off of the boat.

So now, after 4,369 nautical miles (4,980 statue miles for you landlubbers) it's hard to belive our long journey is over. We have a long week of boat cleaning and chores to get everything back in order and get CoolBreeze de-rigged from all of her heavy cruising gear of water and fuel jugs, scuba tanks, double and triple anchors, life rafts, dinghy and all the things that had her over two inches below the water line. And of course, get the a/c unit back onboard to be ready for a hot Texas fun-filled summer of Friday night fireworks and pleasant bay and coastal sailing.

For all of you who are already thinking about what you will do with your free time of not looking at SailingWithSamson, not to worry as we have a good amount of great high definition video and copious pictures we were not able to put online with the limited internet connections of the islands. So, be sure to check back every week or two to see some great videos of dolphins, diving, squalls and more that we will be putting up as well as our shutterfly albums that will start filling up with some incredible images we captured along the way through the Caribbean.

Homeward bound

5/30/2010, Sunday. Jacob has borded the fast ferry to Cancun to catch his flight home and we have begun preparing for departure once again, this time for the final leg of our journey: the 650 nautical miles across the Gulf of Mexico to Texas. We have a constant eye on the weather and with a little luck, we will be sailing out on Tuesday. Hopefully, there will be just enough wind to sail us home at a decent rate. Right now winds are predicted to be a bit on the lighter side but the upside is that seas will be mild and with any luck the crossing will be a pleasant one. We are expecting a five to six day crossing, departing on Tuesday and arriving by Monday, we hope. Be sure to track our progress through the spot tracker.

"Viva La Mexico"

Remember the volcano where we roasted marshmellows in Guatemala? Well, we read sad and scarry news that the same volcano, Pacaya, errupted and at least three people were killed, our sympathy goes out to those who were injured and its yet another reminder that life is too short to not live your dreams.

Rich couldn't squeeze anymore days off out of work, so he had to catch the fast ferry to the mainland to fly home to go back to work. But, not before he spent a couple of days exploring the streets of Isla Mujeres and getting a good taste of the Mexican food and culture scene that brings people back to this little island year after year. That afternoon the sun came out and Jacob, Liesel and I loaded up the dink with dive gear, and we set out for the Manchones reef that lies at the southern end of the island about two miles from the marina. The reef is a park and offered an abundance of fish, coral and manmade statues to see and explore all in about 30 feet of water. The reef was so pleasent we would end up coming back here at least four times while in Isla M.

The next day we spent biking around the island trying all of the great street vendor stands that Isla M has to offer and so far not a single one of us has gotten sick from food or drink, viva la mexico! We made it to the far south side of the island when Jacobs bike chain came apart, with over three miles back to the marina we talked about getting a taxi but luckly for us Jacob rides a bike many miles a day and he peddled for the both of us, him holding on to my handle bars and me holding on to his bike seat. I could'nt have done it.

Since Jacob just got his open water scuba certification we were anxious to get him out to a deeper dive and I was anxious to go spearfishing. So, we found a dive shop to give us 3 offshore dives for $65 US per person and they even agreed to pick us up and drop us off at the boat so we did'nt have to lug our gear to town. We had a fun day diving and I got the biggest fish of the day, a medium sized Cubera Snapper. The waters here are so heavily fished by the locals we had some trouble finding larger fish, but we still had a great day of diving. I'm looking forward to spearfishing the fish plentiful waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Foul weather, wet ride and projects galore.

5/20/2010, Thursday. I write this sitting on a mooring ball at the sunny beautiful Chichorono bank atoll that belongs to Mexico. Having just completed a wonderfull snorkel inside the barrier reef of the atoll it seems the weather gods are apologizing for their behaivor the last four days.

It all began Saturday when Rich was due to arrive, and we had plans to sail out to Lighthouse Atoll the following Sunday. After text messages back and forth of his waiting to see if he would make the flight at last minute he didn't get to where he was trying to go. It seemed as no problem for us as he would catch a flight the following day and things would go as scheduled with the fair weather predicted for that week. So, Rich arrived on Sunday, and on Monday, with a good amount of precious USDA beef that made us all celebrate, give toasts and have a good night exploring San Pedro.

The next morning we awoke with plans to sail out to Lighthouse Atoll but instead we had 20+ knot winds with 30kt gusts, and we decided to call it that day and wait until the following day. About 20 min. after we made the call the winds built and built to a steady 30-35 knots all day, something we have only seen once before on this trip and for the first time not predicted by any of our weather sources. As we watched the rain fall and the wind blow we were happy about our decision and sure we would make it out to Lighthouse on Tuesday. We spent the rest of the day catching up on some maintenance issues like changing the engine zincs, re-greasing winches, and fixing the remote switch for the windlass.

Tuesday morning we awoke to lightning, thunder, wind and bordome, and once again cancelled our trip offshore. I had been given a coupon for 15min. free on any water toy at the beach rental place and Rich and I used it on a hobie cat. With 20+ knot winds we power reached our way back and forth the anchorage having a blast, even getting the ama out of the water numerous times. Later that night we watched Captain Ron, and it was even funnier than usual as we could relate to so many of the quotes in the movie.

Wednesday's wee hours of the morning, we awoke to mild squalls in the 25 knot range with a plethera of thunder and such. I want to say we saw a break of fair skys in the horizon when we made the call to head out anyways, but I'm sure in hindsite that was just wishful thinking. We knew that in these conditions once we headed out of the San Pedro Pass there was no re-entering as the East winds make it unsafe to enter the tricky pass downwind. We have to admit that Liesel expresed her opinion that we should wait it out another day but Rich and I were anxious to get out , so we hoisted up the dink and prepared for departure.

We entered the pass and once in the middle the large residual swells slowed our full speed motor to a couple of knots as we towered to the top and fell to the trough of the large seas. Once outside in deeper water things settled down, and we plotted a course to the Southeast for Lighthouse Atoll. With 18 knots on the nose, it started out as a rough beat to weather, but we were making good speed upwind. Along the way the wind made it harder and harder to work to our waypoint, and we started doing the math to determine if we would make it by dark. After a bit, we felt a funny feeling in the steering wheel, and we suspected the support at the top of the rudder shaft. It wasn't long before I was crammed into the small access area in the bowels of the boat, and I confirmed that the support was loose; the same problem we had last October on the way back from Harvest Moon Regatta. Luckily, the temporary fix is just the tightening of some bolts, but since it has now happened twice the holes must have resin filled in and re-drilled once the boat gets home or to a calm anchorage. The delay cost us valuble time, and we made the decision to turn to the north and head to Mexico where the Southeast winds we had on the nose before would give us a more comfortable ride on the beam or side of the boat for you landlubbers.

Things seemed to look up as we were making good speed to the north but a few hours later some thunderstorms began to apear on the horizon and over the course of the night it would seem that everything would start working against us. First, the rain began to pour and with the heavy winds that came they would blow sideways as we struggled to keep the boat on course. With the strong winds came the large seas tossing us violently as the occaisional big one would send a mild wall of water across the boat revealing new leaks in the deck allowing everything in the cabin to become damp. As the early hours of the morning came the wind was howling at 25-28 knots sustained and things were incredibly miserable onboard as I sat awake wondering if it would let up.

It was time to start up the motor and charge the engine and after a few minutes of running we got an overheat alarm and had to shut it off. Being in the lee of the Chichirono atoll we decided to stay close for the night and anchor at the atoll in the morning for motor repairs as it was much too rough for repairs underway. We played with the idea of anchoring at night in the lee of the atoll but daytime anchoring is always a better option, so we thought about heaving-to for the night to allow us to get a bit of rest and reduce the amount of thrashing on us and the boat. Heaving-to is a great answer when the weather is just too rough and the crew is just too tired. Normally, you want miles and miles of sea downwind as the boat drifts downwind at a rate of about a knot or two. Since we were in the Gulf Stream with a 2 knot current taking us northward, we hove-to expecting to have to sail in 4 or 5 hours to prevent getting too close to the lee shore on the mainland. Well, after we hove-to with the strong north current we were doing 4 knots due north, the same heading as we were sailing getting our butts kicked. This was a great surprise, and we were able to calm things down until daybreak and we ended up 5 miles from the atoll entrance. With the sun arriving the wind let up to almost nothing and Richard got a chance to get at the motor and got the blockage (some sort of rusty sludge) in the cooling system cleared.

We motored into the atoll around 0700 and picked up a mooring ball, after a being up all night long sailing and geeting our butts kicked by the constant wind and waves, a pre-bed-beer was exactly what I needed. However, it wasn't long until the Mexican Navy showed up, and I was having to explain to them why I was drinking a beer at 0730 in the morning. They checked our documents, informed us that the atoll was a marine park, and that no fishing was permited inside the park. After the navy boys left we got the cabin cleaned up and pulled out our large amounts of wet items, put them on deck to dry out, made some of the ribs Richard brought from the USA, and we all enjoyed a much needed delicious American meal under the calm sunshine of the Caribbean waters.

After our 9 AM lunch, we got our snorkle gear out and got in a good swim at the barrier reef that creates the perimeterr of the atoll. We saw tons of nurse sharks, snappers, coral and all the other great underwater stuff that the islands have to offer. We listened to the SSB weather and saw a good window to sail the final 160 miles north to Isla Mujeres where our friend Jacob was coming to visit in a couple of days. We set sail with fair winds out of the East and except for a couple of squalls that were no match for what we had the previous days, we had a great, fast sail being carried by the Gulf Stream making 8.5 - 9 knots most of the way.

We arrived to Isla Mujeres around 9 AM, and Rich and I went to shore to begin our check-in procedures. Long story short, we spent two hours bouncing around from port captain to immigration, sanitation dept. and such until we gave up and went to a local marina (El Milagro Marina) and hired an agent to organize everything for us for $50 US. It's a good thing we did as even with our agent who brought all of the officals to us at the marina, it still took us 5 hours to get checked in, and this was with all of us sitting at the same table. The alternatvie would have been for us to go back and forth from one office to another, over and over until all was resolved. The biggest problem was for the dog as in Mexico you have to have a vet certificate from a Mexican vet and the customs agent was not convinced that Samson had been given treatment for parasites etc. It's required that animals be given a Frontline type treament as well as a heartworm treatment and Samsons flea meds are a newer oral type that has not been seen in Mexico, so the vet had to take the meds back with her and do reasearch etc etc.

While we were waiting for the vet to come back we discovered the fridge was no longer working! Yet, one more thing to add to our list of repairs for this week. We discovered the 12 volt cooling fan was no longer working which overheated the compressor and blew the fuses so now we had to get our hands on a 12 volt fan here in Mexico to get things working agian. We called a nearby electrician and he showed up to tell us that he could not find a replacment fan, but he did have a used 12 volt computer cooling fan that he would sell us for $25, a five dollar new item in the USA. Well, after some bargining back in forth, him claiming this was a "special fan", we settled on $20 US. Then after an hour or two of retro-fitting Rich and I had the fridge up and running and as I type this our ice is nice and frozen, and we reduced the amount of electricity we use as this fan draws much less than the original.

Just minutes after we finished the fridge problem Jacob sent us a text that he was on the bus enroute to the water taxi, and we all scurried to put all our tools away and get the boat cleaned up just in time for his arrival. After picking up Jacob and getting him settled onboard we all headed out to explore Isla Mujeres. The island turned out to be a lovely Mexican beach town not nearly as affected by the toursim industry as the nearby Cancun. We strolled through the square, sampled streetside food and drinks, and wandered our way around the island taking in all the sights and smells.

Tourist fun under the San Pedro sun.

5/12/2010 The last 6 days on San Pedro with Brian and Brandy turned out to be a true vacation for all of us. We spent a long weekend exploring town by golf cart, daily snorkeling trips by dink to barrier reef, lounging poolside sipping colorful drinks staring at CoolBreeze resting in the neon blue waters, indulging in all the great bars and restaurants that any great tourist town has to offer, and making friends with locals and expats alike.

B&B (Brian and Brandy) arrived on a Thursday and as Liesel and I were rushing to greet them off the plane, as they had no clue of where we would be, it turned out they took a an earlier puddle jumper flight and had been hanging out at the airport bar until we showed up. It was kinda funny as Liesel and I had been back and forth past the airport multiple times while running errands before their arrival. The first order of business was to head to the boat and get everybody settled in. I could hear the gasp of Brandy's breath as we emerged from the street side to the beach overlooking the beautiful San Pedro Harbor and CoolBreeze. It reminded us of when we first arrived to Bahamas trying to cope with the fact water can be that beautiful and blue. It wasn't long until we were toasting to being in Belize, donning snorkel gear, and then jumping into the water at the barrier reef which lies only yards away from the boat. On our first snorkel trip we saw a Spotted Eagle Ray, a Sea Turtle and plenty of coral reef and fish. After B&B got to experience the small boat shower for the first time, we buzzed to town to have a look around and work a deal on a golf cart for the weekend.

Before B&B came down Liesel and I did a bit of price shopping on golf carts, the primary mode of transportation here in San Pedro. We found the Crystal convince store rented some for over $50 us less than most of the others. Not too concerned with the quality but more with the savings, we paid for our cart for 4 days and took off buzzing around town learning all the streets and how to get from one side to the other. Of course our highly discounted cart was not without a few problems; the parking brake didn't engage and sometimes she didn't feel like going on the first try but instead would give out a sad sounding squeak, squeak, squeak. Eventually, we would always get her going, and we found that using a large rock worked just fine to keep her from rolling away. That evening we bar hopped our way around town giving Samson plenty of exercise running with the golf cart for the second time since we left Galveston. After dinner, I was in the mood for some ice cream, and we swung into the local Asian owned ice cream shop Happy Hour ice cream. Brandy had to use the restroom and a guy that worked there said she could use the one next door and showed her into a restroom next door. As soon as she entered an Asian lady started yelling in broken english "no she not, you get out here now!" We all had a good laugh about it after we eventually found a restroom, and we all slept good that night.

The next day's order of business was snorkeling the Hol Chan marine reserve three miles south of our anchorage. Like a lot of money driven things in Belize you have to have a "guide and a park ticket" to snorkel here, although we never actually saw any actual tickets. And when we went to the marine park headquarters the girl couldn't actually sell us a ticket and said its better to go with a tour boat etc. Well, we were not about to pay $55 us per person to snorkel 3 miles from the boat, and we had heard from other cruisers that if you dink there and play dumb they will let you snorkel for a bit before heading back. We loaded up the dink and with the weight of 4 people it was about an hour of wet dink riding to the park where the ranger boat quickly intercepted us. I told him I just wanted to hop in for a bit before we headed back, but he was having none of that with his persistent no, Liesel told him "I guess you have to be rich to snorkel in Belize" which would prove true time and again while here. After about 15 min of friendly debate we were motoring our way back north being wet from only the splash of the chop over the dink. As soon as we made it past the park boundary we dropped hook and went snorkeling to what would be a fine part of the reef. I saw a large Grouper and we all saw some lobsters and tons of other reef critters and fish. There were so many fish there Liesel and I would return later in the week to do some spearfishing. To finish our night, we did our usual eating drinking and tourist fun as we browsed all the beach side shops and street vendors.

The next day Brian and I wanted do some diving and the girls wanted to do some spending of money (funny how that works), so we dropped the girls in town and took just offshore in the dink to a mooring ball frequented by the local dive shops. As we broke the reef there were 3-4 ft swells offshore, but it wasn't bad at all as they were pretty far apart. We arrived to the first mooring ball we saw and there was a dive boat tied up to it with no one on board as well as another boat nearby drifting waiting for his group. From Honduras I learned that the dive boats tie up to each other front to back and when one leaves they tie up the boat behind them to their spot. Since we were the smallest boat we ended up being the third boat back. When we came up we were the only boat there as some of the other divers on one boat must have gotten a bit lost as we saw them getting picked up a ways away. Well, Brian and I made it a point not to get lost from where our little boat was and had an amazing dive on a coral crack. We dove back and forth through the sand bores and even found a great swim-through just big enough for Brian to make it through- I had a little elbow room. We saw tons and tons of nice sized Groupers, a couple of Nurse Sharks, a turtle and all kinds of great coral and fish. The visibility was about 100ft and our dive was from 60-100ft deep. Later on we found out that it is illegal to dive in Belize without, you guessed it "a tour guide." Who qualifies as a tour guide and what it takes to be one doesn't seem to be known by anyone, even the tour guides. "I guess you have to be rich to dive in Belize!"

Three nights had passed and B&B were feeling like landlubbers and were willing to spring for a hotel room for a night or two. I have to admit after a month since we traveled to Tikal the idea of A/C, hot water, and unlimited internet sounded good to Liesel and I too. So, after browsing a number of hotels near the boat we ended up at the Xanadu Island Resort with full kitchen, pool, and indoor and outdoor eating areas. We saw numerous simple hotel rooms for that much or more, the only downside it that its a bit out of town and you really need to rent a golf cart if you stay there. Since it was a bit further down the road Liesel and I moved the mother ship a bit closer to the hotel to shorten the dink rides back and forth. I think I can speak for all of us that we enjoyed the Xanadu Resort and all of their amenities. Looking back I think lounged for a whole day by sleeping in that morning, relaxing by the pool mid-day, snorkeling that afternoon, making homemade pizza for dinner, watching a movie and even got skype working for a few minutes, which is said to be blocked by the Belize telecommunication company that owns everything.

We heard that the whole country is owned by less than 10 families and that has seemed to be true since we have been here. We found the best way to judge the cost of a country is to inquire on the cost of Marlboros and a bottle of local beer. Here in Belize, Marlboros from Switzerland (said to be not as good as USA) are only sold from "under the counter" for $7 US, the same Marlboros in Guatemala are $2. Beer is only Belizean beer and it is about 9 oz instead of 12oz, and if you want a lager or a better type of Belize beer its the same price but the bottle is even smaller! They do have Heineken and Red Stripe (in cans the size of a red bull), which is distributed by the same beer company but your gonna pay about $5 US for it from a grocery store. All of the liquors are Belizean (no Honduran or other countries cheap rums) but you can buy imported premiums like Chivas Regal and Crown Royal but you better take out a loan if you want a bottle. Like Liesel said "you gotta be rich to snorkel in Belize" but oh, its worth it as the coral reefs and clear blue waters are hard to rival many of the places we have been, and it's still not as expensive as Bahamas (if you can avoid all the fees)!

Well, the long weekend came and went so fast it was time for B&B to pack up and say goodbye. After we watched their plane take off we took care of a couple of errands, turned in the golf cart and decided there was just enough time left in the day to go spearfishing down at the reef we all went to before. While snorkeling around Liesel and I both saw the biggest Tarpon we have ever seen. This thing was a monster and in the shallow waters we were in, he seemed out of place. Unfortunately, Tarpon are not any good to eat; guess that's why they get so big out here. Not long after we saw a couple of small Nurse Sharks that stayed with us the whole time and even spotted a small turtle. Just as we were about to call it a day, I went back to get one more small Blue Striped Grunt for dinner, and I got lucky enough to see a nice sized Hogfish. Although most from Texas aren't familiar with this, anyone from Florida will know them well. The whole time in both Bahamas and Belize I have been trying to shoot a hogfish due to the fact that they're a beautiful and along with Red Snapper, are exceptionally tasty. Time and time again in the islands a Hogfish had come by too fast for me to get a shot. However, this time this lucky fellow stopped for a second to forage something, and although I had one of the most difficult shots to take, from the top only seeing the skinny part of him, I got lucky and got em. He made two delicious meals for Liesel and I, and I FINALLY got a hogfish! Maybe next I can get that lucky with a Grouper.

The last two days have been windy in the 20-25knot range so Liesel and I have been doing our usual routine after guest leave: clean up the boat, laundry, fuel, water, oil changes, maintenance and catching up on fix-it stuff. This included the sudden malfunction of the starboard cabin lights. After half of a day troubleshooting and checking wires and connections with the multi-meter, I narrowed it down to a 15ft section of wire that in usual boat fashion, was well secured to an inaccessible part of the boat before they sealed the deck onto the hull. So, for the meantime I ran a new hot wire to the starboard side, and Rich and I will have to assess how much digging, fishing and removing we want to do to get to the old wire. Rich is coming down on Saturday, and we are crossing our fingers for some fair weather to get out to the famous Lighthouse Atoll. After that it will be time to head to our last stop before we sail home, Isla Mujeres, Mexico. I am looking forward to the 250 mile trip from Belize to Isla Mujeres as the trade winds will be on our beam, 90 degrees off the wind, and the 2-3 knot favorable Yucatan current will surely give us a fast and fun sail north.

Heading North to San Pedro, on Ambergris Cay

5/5/2010 The last couple of days have been frustrating as we made it to Caye Caulker and had only 10 miles more to get to San Pedro. We headed out on Tuesday after the morning cruisers net and weaved our way around the shallows of northern Caye Caulker. As we approached San Pedro we were less than two miles from the anchorage and had to cross over a shallow 6ft area. We read in our cruising guide we could make it at high tide with our draft and with a 0.7 ft "above datum" tide we thought we could make it for sure. Well, with a bump here and a stuck there, along with some difficulty getting back off we decided we couldn't get across. Belize is known for fining vessels if they run aground and being in a marine park we wanted none of that, even though it was only sand and grass we have heard too many stories on the coconut telegraph. That being said, cruisers are really bad at wild gossiping stories that have been passed around about one place to another. None-the-less, feeling slightly defeated but sure of our conservative decision we sailed south, pass Caye Caulker to Caye Chapel where we would have to stage up for an offshore trip north the next day.

Wednesday came and we set out offshore for a great fair weather sailing day about 70 degrees off the wind with 12 knots of breeze and a few feet of ocean swell. Along the way we passed an odometer milestone, 3333 nautical miles traveled since we pulled out of the Kemah channel last November, that's over 555.5 miles per month! With the sun shining it made for a great day sailing and it felt great to get offshore in that dark blue deep water, set the autopilot, plug in the I-pod, get some sun and not have to worry about running aground. After a 28 mile detour from where we couldn't go any further the previous day we arrived offshore San Pedro, The approach to San Pedro harbor is a bit of a tricky one as it entails coming in through the reef cut and making an immediate dog leg to starboard to avoid a shallow reef right inside the cut. Luckily the sun was out high overhead as we made our approach using the directions from the guidebook, a fisherman motored over just to point us in the right direction and confirm we were going in the right way. This local knowledge from a guy going out of his way just to help out some tourist was a relief in a time of stress as the water shallows to 9 feet and the dog leg brings you very near the outer reef. All went as well as planned and we made it into the shallow harbor. We were hoping to work our way in a ways but the shallowing grass kept us not far from the entrance to the harbor. Although we were hoping to scout out the harbor for a new spot it was confirmed from some cruisers we had met before that the only spot with 7.5ft was where we were and two larger vessels had just left that spot yesterday.

So here we are in San Pedro and so far we really like this quaint little beach side town with its sandy lagoon protected beach and what is sure to be superb snorkeling we are looking forward to Brian and Brandy's arrival tomorrow.

5/3/2010 The last four days since the squall have been pleasantly filled with fine strong sailing winds out of Southeast allowing us to work our way north about 70 miles to where our buddy Brian and his friend will be coming to visit for a long weekend of fun in the sun. We decided that with the winds out of the Southeast it would make for a rough anchorage in Placincia and instead would be good sailing north on a fast reach of 110 degrees off the wind. We were waiting for the wind to come in on Friday and about noon we could feel the first hint of the oncoming winds building from zero to about 10. We motored out of the harbor and put up our sails only to realize the winds were north of east giving us and upwind/close hauled/weather sail, whichever you want to call it. This point of sail is of course usually very rough but with only 10 knots of true wind it was about as good as it gets for sailing to weather. After we cleared the points of land blocking us from our destination we were able to work our way toward our destination giving us a better point of sail. By the time we arrived at Sapodilla Lagoon the wind filled in at 20knots and we had a reefed mainsail on a beam reach making great speed. Sapodilla lagoon has all around protection from the surrounding mangroves and there isn't a town for miles. As we were preparing dinner we were alerted by the sound of chain clanking down, to our surprise it was the Dutch flagged catamaran, Dual Dragons, that rode out our previous two squalls with us, was dropping the hook and Samson didn't even hear them as they motored into the mangrove lagoon. They were bound for some of the barrier islands and when they realized they wouldn't make it in time for dark, and picking the nearest place for refuge, they ended up in our quiet anchorage. We ended up having drinks and dinner together into the night exchanging sailing stories and talking boat stuff. The next day we spent a few hours dinghying up the rivers and creeks of the lagoon and then got some extra boat chores done with no snorkeling or shore exploration available. I must say that on top of the normal everyday cleaning and cooking, there is at least one boat maintenance or fix it project to be done each day as well as the usual filling water and fuel jugs, finding propane, finding trash placement, internet etc etc the list can go on and on. Although when great snorkeling and calm days are available we always find time to make it into the water. Cruising life is much more busy than I realized even though I read countless statements just like the one above in all my sailing magazines but I must say that keeping busy with things to do is only a positive and knowing all those fixed things are fixed gives piece of mind. Ask any sailor or boat owner and they'll tell you the the same thing, "its always something."

On Sunday morning we set sail north with a reef in the main and the southeast winds blowing hard around 20knots with the intention to sail as far as we could till the afternoon brought even heavier winds. Well I must say it was sensational sailing and by 11AM the wind calmed down to the mid to upper teens and we "shook the reef out" and continued north in the protected inner channel holding 7knots the whole way. Sailing Belize's Inner channel in stiff winds is superb as it runs for 60+ miles north to south, is relatively narrow (10 miles or so) and so it is protected from the ocean swell by its shallow barrier reef. By two o'clock or so the winds started building into the low to mid 20's and we altered our course to anchor behind middle long cay to give us a peaceful nights sleep as we were able to slowly motor our way right up the the mangroves of the island and dropped hook in 10 feet of clear water. Its always nice to find a secluded well protected anchorage, with plenty of room when strong winds come in, when it comes to cruising this can be a not so common treat, but two nights in a row we found what we were looking for and are starting to like cruising in Belize better and better, and we still haven't been to the atolls! Unfortunately these superb anchorages seem to be in the mangroves, closer to the mainland rather then in the gin clear coral waters of the barrier reef. That being said Belize has hundreds of islands in its 120 mile coast and we certainly haven't been to all.

Monday we set sail once again after the 8AM single sideband (SSB) cruisers net to some blustery winds in the low twenties. With the main still reefed we sailed once again at 7knots northward past the Belize ship channel toward the "ships bouge pass" and "porto stuck" where, go figure we were worried about getting stuck in water charted at 6 feet with our 6.6ft draft. With the high tide right on schedule we gave it a shot as we didn't want to go offshore with the 8ft seas and 25knot winds and also didn't want to wait around two more days for conditions to settle. Making the approach we were greeted by a pod of dolphins that of course had to give us an impressive show of their speed and swimming skills as Samson chased them from port to starboard in his usual fashion. One could watch dolphins guiding your boat through clear water every day and I don't think it would ever get old. Liesel even got some great video with the digi camera. Following our waypoints from the cruising guide book we worked our way through the ships bouge pass and right where it should be we saw 6 feet and less, we flipped around and set up for another approach, with Liesel and Samson up on the bow we managed to eyeball our way through some soft 6ft sand, let out some of the jib to help heel us over and reduce draft and we made it out to 10 foot water on the way to Porto Stuck. Although I thought we would have more trouble in Porto Stuck we had no less than 6.6 feet through and were relieved we would make it to Cay Caulker and not have to backtrack our way south to go outside. After anchoring at Cay Caulker, just 10 miles south of San Pedro we were glad the weather didn't hole us up far south too long as to not make it for Brian's arrival in San Pedro on the 6th. On top of everything else we had a wonderful sail in Belize's Inner channel for the first time and look forward to many more trips up and down her coast.

Placencia, squalls in the night.

4/29/2010 I awoke around 2AM to distant flashes of lightning slowly working their way west from the sea. I climbed up on deck to drop the windscoop before the rain came and went back to bed. About an hour later I awoke once again, this time to the sound of the anchor alarm beeping away. As this is common when the wind shifts, I rolled over to check the GPS with no alarm and rubbed my eyes to see the distance from our position growing and growing as the sound of the wind grew louder. We always joke about watching other boats crew running around in the night naked trying to re-set their dragging anchor. Well, this time it was our turn. For the first time on this trip our anchor drug and right on schedule it was at 3AM. With the shallow waters of the beach getting closer Liesel and I were soon motoring into the now 30 knot winds with sideways rain coming down in full force. Normally keeping orientation to where your going in these situations can be a problem but with the rapid flashes of lightning closer, the anchorage was alit every couple of seconds with the images of a large catamaran upwind of us dragging faster than us, right towards us. With Samson down below refusing to help, Liesel and I got the hook up and we motored out of the way of the path of the catamaran and dropped the hook. By the time we got all of the chain out and began to set the anchor again we were lying too close to the shallow mangroves. Although we were OK if we drug again we would be on the bottom. As of rule of thumb I like to anchor in a place where I have plenty of draging room for obvious reasons and for the fact I can set a wider anchor alarm to avoid those 3AM false alarm wake-ups. So, once again we went to pull up the hook and "vuurmp", the chain stops coming up with about 50 feet still out. We were stuck on a rock and couldn't do anything about it until we came unwrapped. We pay out just enough chain to keep us in 7ft of water and went down below to rest, dry off and keep an eye on the GPS. After we floated around a bit the storm passed and I went forward to check out the anchor and up it came, I called Liesel into action and we motored out to where the big cat was, and we dropped hook once again, this time with plenty of room all around so we could try to get some rest. With the anchor well set, we sat down below drying ourselves again and both gave a sigh of relief that things were under control again. We talked about all the times we watched others in the night frantically messing with there anchor, and we could only watch feeling for their situation and glad to be not going anywhere. Liesel made a comment about how it's nerve racking wondering if your house is going to move in the night. All in all it's easy to smile about it this morning and talk with all the other cruisers on the radio about who drug and how far and recount their situation like people do after any exciting moment. With strong southeast winds coming we are thinking about sailing north to a cozy protected lagoon for a few days while the wind blows so the nights are not rolly on the boat. Placencia is a quaint little town with tons of nice eateries and a pretty beach but with the wind blowing this weekend there will be little enjoyment in beach activity, so a pretty, calm anchorage is sounding nice right now. The funny thing about the catamaran that drug, they were in Montego Bay when we had the 50 knot squall, after things calmed down this morning I went over to say hi and at the same time we started accusing each other of bringing squalls. We will likely see them in San Pedro and if there is a storm it will be offical, we won't be allowed in an anchorage together again! With Brian flying down on Thursday, a week from today, were hoping for fair weather Monday through Wednesday so we can be waiting in Ambergris Cay for him and have some fun in the sun.

Ah, but what have we done since we left the beautiful Tom Ownens Cay in the outer Belize island chain. Well, we spent the last day island hoping from one postcard picture island to another. With such a healthy reef system, I could take my pick of the bigger Snappers and even shot what the locals call King Crab; it does resemble the Alaskan crab, but isn't quite as big or meaty. We snorkled every day at a different reef and saw a sea turtle, sting rays, nurse sharks, a big tarpon and all the usual reef fish. And, of course, since lobster season is closed Liesel kept finding lobster after lobster in the hiding holes in the reef, so we shot them with a camera instead of the speargun.

We sailed north to Ranguana Cay which lies about 25 miles east of Placencia, this small and simple privately owned island resort was hosting a private party on their white sand beach that day, and we took Samson to make friends and suckers to throw the coconut for him. We met some interesting people from all over whoes company sent them on a yearly outing to somewhere beautiful, this year was Belize. They all got a kick out of Samson and our stories as we answered all the normal questions land lubbers have about sailing the high seas. We did some sunset snorkling and the next morning was a day trip 5 miles north to the Pompion Cay.

Pompion was an even smaller cay with a bit of an eyeball navigation entrance, but the challenge of the approach was well worth it as we had this georgeous reef-encompassed lagoon to ourselves. We spent almost the whole day snorkeling inside and outside the reef and after a lunch break of fresh Queen Trigger fish, we jumped back in and ended up snorkeling around the entire island seeing tons of corals and fish. All of our diving was inside the barrier reef making for superb protected snorkling even when the trade winds were up.

After being out on our own for almost a week we were ready to head to a town just for the sake of it. On our sail west toward Placencia we decided to stop off at the Laughing Bird cay national park. This small park had moorings available to pick up and after paying our $10 per person park fee we were back into the water again. Well, your probably getting tired of hearing our stories of wonderful sandy islands and great snorkling but Laughing bird was one of the best. We spotted large Hogfish and Groupers that were so used to humans they let you swim right up to them along with hoards of lobsters hiding under large rocks. This coupled with white sandy beach, coconut palm trees, picnic tables and some of the best coral patches of reef we have snorkeled on this whole trip made it our favorite so far. We liked it so much we stayed two nights and had a great time hanging out with the rangers who live there two weeks at a time; not a bad job they got. Luckily for Samson, they saw the day trippers who come by fast tour boat loved playing with him and they allowed us to have him off the leash so he could further impress them with his coconut retrieving skills. Samson somehow even managed to find an old tennis ball in the sand on the remote little island, but it's now the coconut he prefers!

You better Belize it!

4/21/2010 With the stifeling hot sun and lack of wind on the Rio Dulce making each day a challenge to stay cool. The memories of the cool, clear waters of the Bahamas and the Bay Islands of Honduras helped us decide that the time had come to move on to our next country and put some clear, salty water under the keel of CoolBreeze once again. We spent two days stocking up on groceries including veggies and copious amounts of beer as it is known that much like the Bahamas, Belize is very expensive for provisioning. When we heard Bahamas was expensive we didn't consider that beer would cost $44 per case, and we didn't want to make that mistake again. With Spring in full effect, we knew that even with the cool trade winds blowing we would need plenty of beer to keep us cool. So, after purchasing nine cases of Guatemalan Brahva beer for about 50 cents a beer I found ourselves having to make a dink ride to town soley for beer. About three trips later we were stocked up on everything from motor oil to dog food with the hopes of having to make minimal groceries purchases until we reached Mexico around the first of June.

With the boat stocked up and a high tide window for crossing the mud "bar" outside of Livingston, we made our 9AM departure. Exiting through the jungle walled river of the Rio Dulce was just as spectacular as when we entered. We even stopped along the way to give away some much appreciated clothes and candy that Richard had brought down to Honduras. We anchored about midday in the Livingston anchorage, bustling with sailboats coming in for the hurricane season. I'm sure we were the only boat leaving this time of year. It seemed like the last week in the Rio there were at least three boats arriving each day, rounding out their Winter cruising season there due to the fact that Guatemala's Rio Dulce is the safest place from hurricanes in the Western Caribbean to leave a sailboat for the winter, north of 12 degrees.

After making contact with our agent who would do all of our paperwork for us we buzzed to town in the dink. We were "welcomed" by a man on the dock egerily waving us in so we assumed it was our agents nephew who was to meet us on shore. When we got close it was clearly not our agent, but a scruffy looking guy with missing teeth anxious to help us tie up our boat. I was weary to throw my painter (the line that is used to tie up a dinghy, everything has its own name on a boat) to people like this as they often pester you for money for doing nothing and usually are no good in the first place. As we got closer he began arguing with another guy who was not quite as scruffy and soon there was chaos of "throw the line, I got it, you OK here" along with yelling back and forth between the two, all in all he was much too eager for my comfort, even ending up in the water up to his chest. (It's easy to tell the difference between someone catching a line since they are there and one who wants something for it and is going to follow you around to try to be "helpful.")At this point things are a little too crazy, and I insist him to give my line back to me as I am going to meet my agent at the neighboring fuel dock. So here is this soaking wet crazy guy who is now a little angry that I don't want him to help me, and I am wondering if this town is going to be as chaotic as the public dock was. Well, it turns out Livingston is a nice little Garifuna town that has a backpacker crowd, and so it has nice shopping for local goods and quaint eateries available. After having lunch while our agent completed our paperwork, got our Zarpe (remember, the outbound foreign clearance) and had our passports stamped by immigration, we were ready to push our way over the dreaded bar once again.

We were eager to get going as high tide was at that moment and from then on out it would only be getting more and more difficult. I went to start up the motor and nothing. Livingston is know to be a town not to anchor over night as thievery is a problem. Try and try again but nothing. I go down below and have Liesel try the start button but not even a click at the starter is heard. With stress building rapidly I remove the instrument panel to see if there is a loose connection I tried wigging wires etc and nothing. After a few minutes more of checking this and that I tried it again and start she goes. So, now she's started, but we still dont know what the problem is. Wanting to troubleshoot I killed the motor and started again. After a few startings I couldnt get the problem to re-create it self. So off we went for the bar and quickly got stuck. It wasn't long before a launcha comes over to want to tow us off. The going rate is $50 US and there's no way we are going to pay that. We turn around wanting to try again the next day with a bit of a higher tide, and he begins going down on his price. When he gets to $30 I say "let's go" and he put out some fenders and side tied to the boat and started pulling us through the first part of the bar.

Well, we made it through the first part, but I knew from before the hardest part was yet to come. After tapping a few times we slowly came to a stop in just under 6 feet of water, CoolBreeze draws 6 1/2 feet. He pushed and pushed and slowly we moved foot by foot 'til we were "stuck like chuck" and not going anywhere. I told him to pull us over as we did before but he wanted to keep pulling and pulling stating it was only "un poqueto mas" (a little more). It was his gas, so I let him try and try but stuck we were. When a second boat came wanting to help pull I told our guy that it was time to do it our way using the halyard and explained to him with my poor spanish and hand gestures the signals we would use so he didn't pull too hard or not enough. The extra space created by heeling us over quickly had us on our way again in 7 feet of water and motoring in no wind to Tres Puntas again where we would stage up for our morning departure for Punta Gorda, Belize to check in. I put up a picture from Belize, this is what happens to the bottom paint goes when you drive through a foot a mud, no harm done though just means that part of the boat gets a little extra scrubbing to keep the growth off, I think of it as battle scars until her next bottom paint job this winter.

4/23/2010 Belize presents it's own challenge to cruising as there is only one cruising guide out there and it is comprised of sketch charts that are not exactly to scale. So, unlike using a normal chart you can not rely on plotting an exact course on sketch charts. The cruising guide that is available does have accurate charts of the approaches and entrances to the hundres of islands but is lacking throrough GPS cooridinates to make life less stressfull. Instead it has course lines from one island to the other with a turn to this course when this other island is on a bearing of X degrees. Luckily there are a few cooridnates to help you head in the correct general direction and then it is up to eyeball navigation to see the shallower parts through the clear waters. Fortunately, Liesel and I have had plenty of practice reading the water depths in the gin clear waters of the Bahamas. Given our deep draft and numerous uncharted shoals, we have decided to omit the most difficult parts of Belize that comprise of hundreds of scattered small islands that you must weave around with good light to see the coral heads. That being said we still have what is sure to be a beautiful trip north with stops at some incredible palm tree laden islands and excellent snorkling. We are currently anchored in some mangroves near the Southern Moho Cays and plan to head east to the southern barrier islands in the morning for some much needed snorkling and spearfishing. After working our way north along the barrier reef islands we will head west again to Placencia for some provisions and checking in back home. From there the plan is to work our way north stopping at islands near the inner channel until we get to Tobacco Cut. From Tobacco Cut we will head offshore to avoid the shallow complex inner island route and go to the famous Glovers Atoll. From Glovers we will sail to Ambergris cay where our guest will join us over the course of the month for some fun in the sun.

4/24/2010 - N16 11.213 W88 13.927 Tom Owens Cays, Barrier reef Belize.

This morning we awoke early in order to head east to the palm tree covered islands of Belize's remote barrier reef island chain. The trade winds don't usually fill in 'til the afternoon so heading east is best done in the early mornings when you can find calmer seas and light head winds. Once on our course for passing by Seal Cay ,we had about 9 knots of wind 20 degrees off of our bow, although we can't sail this far up wind CoolBreeze does a fine job of motorsailing, keeping her main filled and giving us a little extra drive and stability. We averaged over 5.5 knots the whole way. As we needed the sun high overhead to see the reefs as we eyeballed our way into the anchorage, we had a 1230 arrival right on schedule and dropped the hook in a cozy but rolly anchorage of about 8 feet of water over grass that would turn out to be full of conch, something we haven't seen much since the Bahamas. As soon as the anchor was set we were ready to cool off and swim in some clear tropical waters after almost a month in the brown Rio Dulce. After swimming the hook we snorkled toward the reef and started coming upon conch after conch in the grassy waters. We kept the largest three and after the labour intensive job of cleaning them I remembered why we stopped harvesting them by the end of our Bahamas leg, but they're so good! After our lunch of fried cracked conch we decided to check out the second longest barrier reef in the world, a first for both of us. The shallow clear waters were full of coral and fish and except for an island made entirely of giant conch shells over a hundred years old, you would think you were the only person to dive this reef. Tom Owens Cay is a tiny one and was first occupied by a british solder named Tom Owens, go figure, in the 1850's. Although I didn't have my speargun with me this time, I found lots of big Blue Striped Grunts which are excellent table fare and tomorrow will surely be a lunch of fresh fish. I haven't been able to use my speargun since we started this trip and am very excited at the prospect of being able to hunt fish speargun style once again, something I haven't done since Texas. In the Bahamas only a spearpole or Hawaian ling is permitted. Although I have my big Riffe blue water gun I think I will use my old AB Biller which is a bit smaller and will be easier to get under the rocks for those closer more confined shots. Unfortunately lobster season is closed until the end of June so I guess I'll have to wait until we get back home and get some lobster the old fasioned way, online!

Exploration of the Rio and Beyond

Mark, Samson and I took the dinghy to El Castillo de San Felipe de Lara situated where the Rio Dulce meets Lago Izabal. El Castillo is a fort built by the Spanish in the 1500's to protect their interests on the lake from pirates and English privateers attracted by rich wharehouses on the shore. The grounds were full of trees heavily laden with orchids, bromeliads, and cactus. The impressive fort contained at least 12 cannons and was complete with a draw bridge, lookout tower and even a moat full of water. Our imaginations went wild as we envisioned 14th century pirate sailing ships slowly working there way up the lake, all the while knowing a cannon battle was soon to come. The fort was overtaken, destroyed and rebuilt a couple of times while it was in use. At one point the they even strung a chain across the pass to try to prevent the pirate ships from passing. While Samson was not allowed into the fort, he was able to show off his coconut fetching skills to some locals. Our only regret during the visit was that we should have brought a picnic and blanket to further enjoy the breeze and scenery.

The itch to explore and get away from a marina for a few days soon came and the next day we sailed under overcast skies to Denny's Beach further down Lago Izabal. The anchorage was a little rolly, but we stuck around for the night. On shore, we found a couple of cold beers and Samson found a Lab to play stick tug-o-war with. Had we thought to have our swimsuits on, we would have taken a dip before sunset. When we headed back across the narrow pier, Samson's lab friend followed for quite a ways via the water but eventually gave up. The sunset was a colorful one, so I sent Mark and Samson out on the dinghy to take some pictures of CoolBreeze with the pinks and oranges of the sky settling into the mountains of Guatemala behind us. Shortly apon return, Mark opened a can of the local Brahva beer only to find a white plastic tube inside. Turns out the tube contained a 20 Quetzales note! Mark was very pleased to have won what is equal to about US $2.50 yet disappointed that the can did not contain any beer.

For our next day trip, we didn't have much wind so we motored over to Finca Paraiso (Paradise Farm). The draw here is the nearby hot spring waterfalls of the Rio Aguas Caliente, said to be the only hot springs waterfall in the world. We brought a bag of clothes and candies to shore in hopes of distributing them, but there were not many people around so we left the bag at the restaurant. A 45 minute walk later we were enjoying the warm water pool fed by the hot waterfall. (We wished we had carried the bag of goodies because there were several family homes scattered around the road.) There was a cave to the right of the falls we had read led to more falls underground, but the bats and copious guano were enough of a deterent to keep us at the entrance. At the falls we met a family of Canadian RVers that were headed to the Mayan ruins of Tikal in the next couple of days. Mark asked for a ride and they accepted. With preparations needed for this next excursion, we headed back to the Rio Dulce Marina. Samson would have to stay behind again due to the fact that Tikal does not allow pets. Back at the restaurant, Mark gave the girl behind the counter some nice shirts out of the bag for her and her brother, and she unexpectedly rewarded us with free ice cream!

On yet another rainy day, we met up with our new friends, the Willmot family, at Nana Juana Marina where there RV was parked and were soon on our way to have a forever memorable experience with our new family of friends. All in all we had Mom (Brandy) , Dad (Mark) , two teenagers (Teagan and Ryla), a five year old (Brooklyn), a three year old (Aiden), and two dogs (Keesha and Kyush), plus us and our camping gear piled snuggly into their RV affectionately named "Dirty Sanchez". Things were going well despite some mango and coconut confiscation when entering the state of Peten. Then there was a stop for Diesel and snacks. Another 40 minutes down the road, and the engine stalled. Confused and irritated after a second stall, Mark pulled over conveniently to a service station. After having the service staion pull off the fuel filter for inspection, the attendant smelled the fuel and said "gasoline!!" What should have been 30 gallons of diesel added to the tank, turned out to be 30 gallons of gasoline a very, very big problem. Mark and Mark were both certain Mark said diesel and Mark D even heard Mark W say diesel. Don't worry it confused all of us on the RV too. Six hours later after plenty of rough spanish, a determined mechanic, staggering heat, mouth fulls of diesel in the mechanics mouth and a chance to spend a little time in a town that likely hasn't ever seen a tourist for more than 5 minutes, the gasoline had been drained and replace with diesel and the bus was up and going again. Like all mechanical projects, it turned out to be a real team effort between both Marks and the mechanic to get it going again. While the boys worked and worked, the girls got to see a real Guatemalan "barrio" or neighborhood. The girls played with the piglets in the street and the young kids played and danced with the simmilar aged Guatemalans not hindered by the language barrier. To everyones excitement the manager of the Texaco where the mistake had occurred paid the repair man, replaced 50 gallons of fuel that was in the RV and gave us a free hotel room to use where we could safely park the RV and wash the smell of fuel off of the boys. The Willmots felt bad about the situation but honestly it was one of the highlights of the trip to Tikal as everything worked out as good as it could have for such a bad situation and there was no harm to anyone except for a gas pump guy who had had a bad day at work.

The next day we headed to the much awaited Tikal, stopping only for a cool dip in Lago Peten Itza. After we arrived to the park Mark and I pitched a tent and the Willmot family found a shady place to park. The park provides cement bases with palapa shelters for campers that we took advantage of due to the threat of large ants and impending rain. That evening we did some intial exploration with the whole gang, heading through the Grand Plaza to reach Temple IV, the tallest Mayan temple ever built, for sunset.

The next morning, Mark and I headed out at 5:30am to reach Temple IV again for sunrise and once again Mark had to get his now signiture picture of him with the resident armed guard, which is a staple in Central America. Much to Mark's irritation, the park is very strict about the 6am open time, despite the ample lighting as they try to sell sunrise trips at 4am for a ridiculous amount of money. So, we waited as we watched locals drive through the park entrance on mopeds (only breaking a few of "the rules"). When we reached Temple IV again, the morning fog blocked any remnants of the sunrise, but still looked quite majestic with the tops of Temples I, II, and V peering out of the fog like an old cemetery.

Next, we met up with Mark, Teagan, Rylar, and our guide Abel. For the next four hours, we hiked around learning about the local plants and the history of Tikal and it's rulers exploring the Temples, ball courts, unexcavated ruins, altars, sacrafices and stellaes. On the stella, astrological events were logged, while temples were decorated with masks carved into the stone. It was amazing to see pictures of what the ruins of Tikal were like before the University of Pennsylvania excavated and restored them. Clearly a tremendous amount of time and effort was spent clearing over a thousand years of soil and plants, logging recovered artifacts, replacing stone blocks, and then researching their findings. Tikal was one of the largest archaelogical sites and urban centres of pre-Columbian Mayan Civilization and lasted from before 500BC and abruplty ended around 750 AD. In modern times, Tikal was used by filmmaker George Lucas as a setting for the rebel base in his first Star Wars Movie, Episode IV: A New Hope. Tikal is also depicted in the movie Apocolypto but was not actually filmed there.

After all the hiking, the Willmot fam was eager to clear into Belize before Saturday evening as certain paperwork is not available on Sundays, and we wanted to check out the museums where the best artifacts and stellaes are held to preserve them. We parted ways with plans to meet up in the island town of Flores that night. The museums didn't seem like much at first, but we were glad we hadn't passed them up. They contained stellaes with very discernible Mayan glyphs and bones painted with famous images of Mayan kings and gods, taken from burial grounds in Tikal. On the bus ride to Flores, we met some guys from the US who were motorcycle touring Mexico and Central/South America. We ended up having dinner and good conversation with them. It's been really interesting meeting people seeing the world by such different means. So, we didn't end up finding our Canadian friends when we got to Flores, but we did find a clean room with air conditioner and a balcony overlooking the lake at the Hotel Peten. After a dip in the pool, we explored Flores and the nearby Santa Elena and San Benito in a Tuk-Tuk, an Indian made three person motorized rikshaw. We finished up the night with happy hour mojitos and daquiris and then grilled chicken from a street vendor with the guys on motos. The next morning we grabbed a quick breakfast and got on the bus for Rio Dulce. The weird part about breakfast was that I ordered a bean and potato burrito, and instead received eggs, rice, and plantains. I even had a conversation with her about the potatoes taking a little longer to cook. Though I was disappointed, we had to meet the bus soon, so I dug into my meal and added a generous portion of the onion, pepper condiment provided to fight the blandness. Big mistake. My mouth was on fire! I chugged water to no avail and resorted to eating sugar with little relief. With a burning tongue and an empty belly I was hurried on by Mark to catch the bus. At least he managed to grab the coffee to-go. Matters quickly improved afterwards when we stepped into an air conditioned bus :) However, when we got back to the Rio dulce the air was stagnant and blistering hot and remains so. This has prompted us to begin our planning and provisioning for Belize where we anticipate some relief from the heat by the trade winds. We are planning on really stocking up on food for us and Samson as well as beer due to rumors of very high prices in Belize. We are also anticipating some guests while in Belize so stay tuned as there will be likely many adventures to talk about.

"Redneck Riviera"- Guatemala's Rio Dulce

Click here for our Guatemala shutterfly slideshow.

Note that we have posted a link to our new SPOT tracker Richard got for the boat. We will activate it anytime we or the boat travels so check back.

So, I'm sure many of you are wondering what CoolBreeze has been up to for the last two weeks. Well, after arriving to Cayos Cochinos for a couple days of diving, snorkling, hiking, and otherwise enjoying the magnificent waters and lands the Cochinos has to offer, we sailed to Utila for the Semana Santa-Easter celebration. After spending our days diving and nights drinking and eating local cuisine we missed out on church on Easter Sunday because we set sail for the 24 hour trip to Livingston Guatemala, the gateway to the Rio Dulce.

On the way to Livingston we locked up on a large sailfish that gave us an impresive arial acrobatic show as we scurried for the line and camera, not before he broke free and swam off to freedom. It was in the wee hours of the of the morning when we arrived to the nearby penninsula of Tres Puntas (three points), and we were happy to drop hook and get some much needed rest. As the daylight arrive we got a taste of our new landscape for the next few weeks as we were greeted by lush tropical foliage that is coastal Guatemala. We set out for the much dredded "bar" that lies off of Livingston. Not the kind of bar that serves up frozen drinks in the hot Guatemalan sun, but a mud flat that lies just off of Livingston in about 5.5 feet of water and is almost a 1/4 mile wide! The problem is that we, like many other sailors, draw more water than is there and at 6 1/2 feet we knew it would be interesting getting across. As we piloted our way through numerous waypoints we had been given over our travels, we watched the depth sounder drop and drop. We slowly plowed our way through over 500 feet of mud until we came to a complete stop in about 5.5 feet of water. We had two options, pay a local $50 to drag us over or attempt to do it ourselves. Being the resilient sailors we thought we were, we first tried to heal (lean over for you land lubbers) the boat over enough by pushing the boom out and putting all of our weight onto it to reduce our draft and get us across. When that failed, we hoisted the dink off the deck, dropped the motor on and connected a halyard to a 200ft piece of line in an attempt to reduce our draft enough to get over. Well, after hours of pulling, driving and almost giving up, we made it into the deeper waters of the river and still had our $50 in our pocket.

As we waived to the local boats that were waiting for us to give up and pay them for help we hailed our agent who would organize all of the officials and our paper work to allow us to enter into Guatemala. About two hours later we had our passports stamped, our cruising permit for the boat and we were motoring up river between breathtaking limestone cliffs of jungle foliage clinging beer and rum drinks together in hand in celebration of a new country on our bow and an old one behind our stern. After a couple of hours of transiting the river we came to a sulphur hot spring that feeds into the river and along with some rocks made a natural hot tub for us to soak our sore muscles in, and I mean hot!

After checking out multiple marinas along the river we chose the small but nice Rio Dulce marina as it is owned by a Guatemalan family with two labs who agreed to watch Samson for us while we made the inland trek to Antigua in western Guatemala. As much as we wanted to take Samson the public buses in Central America are very strict about pets, we even tried to buy him his own seat! We were extremely anxious about finding a good marina where we could comfortably leave the dog in such short notice. Fortunately, we were lucky to find Ludwig and his family who served as an excellent foster home until we returned. The first day after we left we called Ludwig and he said Samson was sad and wouldn't come off the boat to play or eat, Samson's two favorite things to do. By the second day Samson was his old self again playing fetch with coconuts as well as jumping and swimming in the cool waters of the Rio Dulce.

We didn't have much time until he headed west and after making our rounds through the streets and markets of Fronteras, the town that lines the Rio, we had made arrangements for the early morning 7 hour "4 hour" public bus that takes you to Guatemala City. From there it would be an hour ride to Antigua where Rich and Charlie would spend there last days in Guatemala.

Antigua wooed us with its charm of cobblestone streets, 16th century buildings, fountains and views of the surrounding volcanoes. After spending a day sightseeing we were planning a trek up the Volcano Pacaya. Charley had a fishing expedition not to be missed back home so took advantage of an opportunity to catch a ride with an American to the airport a day early. Being in the airline business he is not bound by pre-booking a ticket. We were all sad to see him miss the volcano but it turned out for the better as we spent the first half of the day wandering the streets of Antigua until our feet begged for mercy then followed it up with what turned out to be a difficult but rewarding hike up Pacaya.

After making our arrangements for our tour up Pacaya, we were told that we would need shoes. Having brought only sandals with us, one of the Guatemalan employees pointed to his crocks and said those would be fine, the other lady wasn't too sure but we figured they would suffice. They told us to head up the road where we could buy some shoes and we stumbled upon what turned out to be the largest, cleanest, most beautiful open air market any of us have ever seen. After spending hours and hours browsing through shirts, cows feet, chicken heads, flowers, hand crafted goods and everything anyone could ever need, we gave up and got some lunch before our two o'clock van ride to the volcano.

Rich and I were both going to buy crocks for this adventure but since the sole of my shoes came off on our Cayos Cochinos hike I needed a new pair of tennies. Well, the crock shop had hundreds of knock-off crocks for about $4 and although it was clear they were not of real crock quality, we all figured they would do. After an hour and half packed full van ride to the volcano we climbed out of the van just as the rain began to fall. In typical Guatemalan fashion it turned out to be a 4 mile "2 mile" hike up the hill. About 500 feet into the hike as the hill got steeper and steeper, the back of Rich's "crocks" gave out giving us all a good laugh at the whole situation. At the start they offered a horse ride up 3/4 of the way for about $13, wanting to hike we declined and trudged on. As the hill got steeper there were more kids with horses who called out "taxi" knowing many decide it's too steep (and the air too thin) to continue on by foot. As we all huffed and puffed our way through the jungle we came to where rivers of lava flowed just 10 years ago when Pacaya had a large erruption. Being of higher altitude we all took advantage of the amazing photo-ops and scenery presented to us with the volcano and lava rock in the background.

As we passed the point where the lava had stopped flowing from the 2000 eruption we then had to continue a good ways up over the hardened lava rock. As we ascended further and further we could feel the heat penetrating through the rock. The terrane was no longer a trail but just white spray painted arrows that help suggest a not so hard route up, but it still wasn't easy. When we got as high up as we could go with without being burned alive, we came to a series of cracks in the lava rock that had glowing red, burning magma right there below. It became clear what the marshmallows I had bought from the kids at the bottom of the mountain were for. As we all took turns getting as close as we could stand to roast the marshmallows, the heat was so intense it instantly turned our marshmallows into flamming sugar fueled fire balls; what an experience! We burned countless marshmallows and whatever empty water bottles or trash everyone had.

With darkness coming we had to make the long trek down the mountain. It wasn't long into sunset that we could see the top of the volcano spitting out fireballs, lava, and steam. We were all stopped in our tracks in awe of our extremely close proximity to such an impressive sight. With our guides giving us just enough time to admire and take pictures before they hurried us down to get to the jungle trail, total darkness came making it difficult to climb down the lava rock. By the time we got packed back into our bus we were all extremely pooped and ready for a hearty meal, a drink to help soothe our sore feet, and Richard reminded us-real shoes! We wandered through the town square again and made our rounds browsing the Mayan women selling their wares. The next morning Rich would once again say farewell until his next adventure down, Belize! Liesel and I stayed an extra night and took the 4am bus back to Rio Dulce, Samson & CoolBreeze.

Cayos Cochinos, Utila and diving, diving, diving

Leaving on the heels of the cold front we had wet and rainy skies as we made the twenty-five mile crossing to the Cayos Cochinos . We picked up the same buoy as before in our "paradise cove" as we call it and spent a day diving and snorkling the nearby waters. We saw turtles and a spotted eagle ray as well as fish of every variety. The Cayos Cochinos is a place you can go to a thousand times and it likely never gets old.

In the spirit of good will, Rich and Betty brought a large goody bag of fine hand-me-down American clothes we knew would we much appreciated at the nearby Garifuna fishing village of Chachahuate. As we pulled up on the beach of the small isolated village we were soon greated by some of the elders and kids alike. After making some conversation Rich explained to them that he had some items he would like to donate to the village. We were told by and elder that we needed to give out the items one by one because if not it wouldnt get get spread evenly. So as Rich opened the bag and began handing out appropriately sized items to villagers one by one the kids and adults flocked to us and we were soon the center of an almost mardi gras combined with santa claus event. Here is the video Liesel caught of the elder informing me of this along with everyone gathering around. With Rich playing Santa and me playing a strict but smiling elf keeping the kids from grabbing arm loads of clothes that didn't fit them, we handed out our gifts to the very gratefull villagers. I think I can speak for all of us there when I say it was a special moment for us and the villagers alike.

In Utila, some of our favorite sightings while diving were a reef crab, Hawksbill turtle, and stingray. On shore, we enjoyed street tacos, Pina Coladas, pizza from a brick oven, and the overall bustling Holy Week happenings. Part of this was staying clear of scooters, ATVs, and bicycles buzzing by. The other part was meeting and chatting with Hondurans from the mainland and El Salvadorians all there for the festivities.

Wanting to head to the Rio Dulce next, we needed a plan regarding the holiday and clearing out of immigration in Honduras. Despite a warning in our cruising guide, we ended up heading for Lagoon Marina in La Ceiba with anticipation of a swimming pool and hot showers. Granted this was the Thursday before Easter, but we were greeted with less than open arms. The marina was beautiful, but the manager is not friendly at all. Anyone that knows Mark knows how friendly and pleasant he is, but even he could not get this guy to crack his frown for a smile. In fact, he called Mark a bad name with no provocation except that Samson jumped on shore (without a leash) right before we were leaving. However, this led to some good laughs later and gave me a new name to call my new husband. For fellow cruisers, the problem is options are limited in La Ceiba.

Expedition Honduras to Guatemala

Charlie and Rich arrived to Roatan with a large cooler of steaks from the land of the best beef, USA, and it wasn't long until a hungry airport offical in Roatan had his eyes fixed on those pretty T-Bones and such. With alot of argument from many sides, the steaks ended up at a Honduran B-B-Q somewhere on the island. Nontheless, we have all been having a funfilled sailing trip, without even leaving the harbour. With another cold front coming down and the anchoring situation in Cayos Cochinos, we were held up here until the passing of the northerly winds. Today the weather has passed and it turned out to be a good thing as we have managed to squeeze in a dive every day and explore the walls, wrecks and reefs of the French Harbour area of Roatan. Which by the way has been superb diving just steps away. With the CoCo view island dive resort only a short dink ride away we have been able to fill tanks with ease and enjoy their excellent facilities. If you are interested in an affortable diving all inclusive check out the CoCo view resort.

So, now we sail on to Cayos Cochinos for some nature and beauty both under and over the water, then on to Utila for Semana Santa and Easter. Being the biggest holiday week of the year, we are sure to have a good time diving and socializing on the beach where locals and tourist alike flock for this holiday.

After checking out in Utila, we will make the passage to Guatemala where we plan to explore the Rio Dulce on the coast and the Mayan ruins of central Guatemala.

Check back in a few days to see how Cayos Cochinos and the Chachahuate village went.