NEW CREW MEMBER

The season we were cruising the San Blas, we had our son Greg aboard as crew.  Jeff and our Daughter-in-law Sarah joined us to go through the Canal and have a month aboard Fortuitous.  Well, we're sorry to say that they've all been replaced.  Meet our new crew member.

Here he is hiding behind the speaker in the cockpit.  We have yet to name him and are taking suggestions...so far, none has hit the mark.

This was the easy time....he stayed in the cockpit and the greatest annoyance was when he jumped on my leg when we were having sun-downers with fellow cruisers.  Amazingly, he didn't freak me out at all...not sure why.  There's something "personable" about geckos...maybe it's the insurance ads??  Maybe it's just that they eat the bugs, that LOVE to bite me...maybe it's just he's so tiny??

For those of you who know Fortuitous, this will give you a bit of scale.

He's a big, little problem now as he no longer stays in the cockpit...he's everywhere in the salon and who knows where else...on Mothers' Day, Ralph and I were watching a movie on the computer.  Something landed right on my head, in the dark!!!  Needless to say, he wasn't there very long!  I quickly brushed "whatever" off my head...he landed on Ralph!  Ralph transported him outside.

Here he is on the cupboard behind the sink.  We are so afraid, now, that we'll step on him or crush him somehow...what a pain!  I know another cruiser friend stepped on hers, by accident...that would be terrible!!!  Others have said that ones they've had aboard have made a big mess (if you know what I mean), but we've not found anything so far.  Does that mean he's discreet, or does that mean our boat is so messy that I haven't noticed??

We are presently in Placencia and have checked out of Belize and should be leaving the country tomorrow.  So, unless I give an update from the Rio, that is it for the season from Fortuitous.

Belizian Cays

We have spent most of time, in Belize, out in the Cays that are offshore of the mainland.  Some of these are very tricky to get to as there is coral reef everywhere.  Add to that the uncharted coral heads, ...well, you get the picture.  We've had some worrisome entrances to anchorages...OK, so Ralph worries....some, I worry A LOT!!

Some are quite beautiful, and much like the San Blas...coconut trees and sand.

Others are all mangroves...not so attractive, especially late afternoon and evening when the sand fleas and every other fricken bug comes looking for me!!!

Fortuitous at anchor in Belize.

One island that had been affected by one hurricane or other was busy starting their own coconut palm nursery.

After all my crabbing, whining, and complaining, I hesitated to include this photo.  This is what all of you think comprises every day of our cruising season.

We thought this was an interesting building concept (look toward the far end of the dock)...the post is in the way, so the wharf board is too long...well, we'll just let it stick out farther than all the rest.  No need to cut it off, even with the rest of the wharf boards.

As you can see, it's not a mirror calm anchorage...none of them have been.

This is a Belizean fishing boat.  It's amazing how many men are aboard.

Tied to the dock to get water or?? Can you believe all these guys (we counted 7+ of them) sleep aboard...apparently cheek by jowl!!

Either the last guy can't get aboard, or....

Or, he's steering with his foot!!

In one anchorage, we had a nurse shark underneath the boat for a few days.  A few days later, he/she was replaced with this guy!

This is a reasonably, or unreasonably large barracuda.  I guess it depends on your point of view.  We saw a few of these guys when we were snorkelling too...a few is too many in my books!!

I think this has been our first dolphin escort in the Caribbean.  These guys were just fabulous!!

The water was just so clear and they stayed with us a long time, twirling and swimming in the bow wake.

 

We do get some beautiful sunsets!!

BELIZE, UNDERWATER

Belize has not been one of our favourite countries for snorkelling. That being said, the camera has worked well and we have quite a few decent shots underwater.

We aren't sure what this purple-blue plant/animal is.  But it was gorgeous!

Spotted butterfly fish...in Belize, we saw some of the largest ones we have ever seen.

You don't see many starfish.

Although they don't look blue in this shot, these are blue tangs.  We see large schools of these almost every time we snorkel.

Sea fans or sea ferns???  OK, so it's not such an educational blog...

Lovely fan coral

I know, I know, I should know what all of these are...but there are sooooooo many fish and so little time!!!

I got this one...a ray!!!

He looks like he's about to eat that little fish, but I believe they eat mollusks and crustaceans.

This was sooooo funny...well, for me, not for Ralph.  This is a type of remora and, apparently, he thought Ralph was a big shark because he kept trying to suck onto Ralph's leg!! 

Ralph was very concerned it would go up into his bathing trunks...what's the problem with that...what a sissy!!??

 

Ralph eventually just gave up and got back into the dinghy...it just wouldn't leave him alone!!

 

This appears to be some sort of tube worm or...I'm open to suggestions...

This is it when all the "feelers" are pulled in.

A large angel fish, not too colourful, but very large!!!

BLUE GROUND RANGE, BELIZE

OK, Campers...what the H!!!! are we doing out here???!!! Backing up a little, we left Glover's Reef Monday, April 29th, and headed to Southwater Cay. This place was quite pleasant, quiet water, but a little more humid than Glover's. However, that could just be a general change in the weather as the two anchorages aren't that far apart. The snorkelling was possibly the best we've seen this season.

Two days ago there was a warning for isolated thunderstorms posted, and this activity was to begin Thursday night and into Friday. The problem with Belize is that there is little protection from wind and wave in most of these anchorages as the islands and reefs are barely above water (there's only about a 2' max tide in the Caribbean). Add to that, that some of the anchorages are cramped and shallow (we were anchored in 8' of water in Southwater Cay), putting out a lot of chain is not possible without swinging into other boats or reef when there are storms. The best that can be offered is barely above water mangrove covered reef islets but, with those, come the bugs when the wind isn't blowing. So, you think long and hard about going there, for protection, when you aren't even sure if the thunderstorms are going to occur. It's not a lot of fun to be in 80 to 90 degree temperatures (with the same humidity) and have to be down below, in a screened up boat, with no wind to speak of. That being said, along with the possibility of 50 to 60 kt winds, the wind direction was also going to change. This meant that Southwater Cays were not going to be safe for us. We thought long and hard about where to go. We had three options within our range of travel. One was a tiny anchorage in the mangroves, good for 2 or 3 boats and already had two. Another would be on the mainland, but we chose not to go there because it was farther away, a shallower and more cramped anchorage, and it seemed there'd be quite a few boats in there. We always prefer lots of space, and deeper water, if there is this kind of unsettled weather, especially because there are lots of charter boats out here. It's hard to say how much experience these charterers have? Another of our thoughts was that maybe these thunderstorms might stay over the mainland area as we had seen thunderstorms out to that direction for several days already. This was not to be!! So, we decided to head to Blue Ground Range, a mangrove anchorage with 40' of water (a bit deep for our liking, but a large anchorage somewhat protected by an outside reef).

We dug ourselves in here yesterday afternoon, put out all 275' of chain and set about putting the boat in order in case we were hit. Things got very calm in the afternoon, so we thought we'd be OK. This lasted well into the evening, enough so that, after setting our anchor-drag alarms, we decided to watch "Lincoln" on the computer. At about 8:30 we saw some lightning in the distance. We could only see the lightning reflected off the clouds and couldn't hear thunder, so assumed it was pretty far off. At about 9pm, it was pretty intense lightning, but still no real visible forks and no thunder. By 9:15 the wind was building, so we put on the motor. At 9:30 all HELL broke loose and we were hit with up to 45 kts of wind (well above 50mph). Ralph decided to motor toward the anchor, to take the pressure off our ground tackle. We're thinking now we should maybe have first waited to see if we dragged and, if so, motored toward the anchor. Who knows?? At any rate, this storm...sideways rain and all...lasted for 2 hours. Ralph was soaked to the skin, and tired from trying to steer Fortuitous to keep her in line with the wind and away from another boat that we had travelled with. Two charter boats did drag with the cat ending up in the shallow water just outside the mangroves. We heard them on the radio last night, calling the home base. They knew they weren't going to sink, but were firmly stuck, broadside to wind and waves, because they'd dragged two anchors across the bay. They've just been pulled off this morning and, to their credit, they've re-anchored here. I'd be on the first flight back to Canada!!

So, this morning we are still firmly anchored and facing more strong winds tonight but, supposedly, no squalls (thunder clouds). Ask me if I'm having fun yet!!