To Mexico before Key West

Yes, we ended up in Mexico first, rather than straight to Key West as planned. It's a long story, so bear with me.
We headed from Caye Caulker, via ferry, and did our checkout in San Pedro. To go with Fortuitous we would have had to head out through a difficult pass in the reef, so we opted to check out of Belize this way.

These are the local ferries to San Pedro and Belize City.

Caye Caulker and San Pedro are both FULL of golf carts. One would think that would be less dangerous than cars, but not so much.

We were set to go the next day. Chris Parker gave us a thumbs up to head to Key West and so we were going for it. I (Cheryl) was still feeling quite under the weather with a sinus infection and found it impossible to go on to Key West. We had two terribly uncomfortable nights enroute now to Cozumel. The first night, a small sailboat (that didn't show up on radar at all) was approaching quickly across our bow, from the port side. It, of course, was my watch and I could see a green light, but it was low and kind of blended in with the shore lights. By the time we realized it was a boat, we just had time to put on the motor and turn to starboard. Thankfully, he finally must have seen us and also turned to starboard! When we passed we must have been 20' apart! We had the right of way, but you can still be 'dead' right! The second day and night, I was so sick that Ralph did pretty much all the day and night watch. We arrived in Cozumel at about 3am on the 31st. We were under sail the whole way and doing about 7 kts with the current. When we went to turn into the anchorage, in the dark, our motor wouldn't start. After SOME panic...especially from me since we were still drifting at 5 kts past the anchorage, we found the kill switch wasn't pushed all the way in...managed to get anchored by 5am and had a couple hours sleep before having to check into Mexico. Of course, we had a zarpe for Key West, but there didn't appear to be any problems...still took us all day and, with me still sick, it wasn't much fun. We stayed 2 nights and then moved on to the El Cid Marina, Puerto Morelos since more bad weather was heading our way.

We have no real photos of Cozumel, so I guess we'll have to go back. It was a terrible place, from a cruiser's point of view, since there was no dinghy dock and you had to land on rocks at the beach and drag up the dinghy and, hopefully, chain it to a palm tree. We went in a seldom as possible because of this. There were lots of tourist cruises and this boat was all lit up at night...too bad, a little blurry photo.

El Cid Marina resort was a very nice place. However, the birds and what they leave behind were a pain! Again, I was still sick so went to see the resort doctor who gave me 2 antibiotic shots and some cipro to cure what ails me.

No end of birds! This one's a frigate.

Here we are tied to the dock awaiting weather to head out to Key West. We arrived April 2nd and headed back out, enroute to Key West, April 6th.

It was a motorboat ride, but unbelievably calm, as you can see.

It reminded us very much of our trip down the Washington/Oregon coast in 2004. Glassy waters.

A three night passage, but pretty uneventful...thankfully!

The only problem we had was we kept being invaded by land birds. We have no idea where they came from as we were a long way out, but they were tired and needed to rest.

Unfortunately, they weren't content to stay outside, and headed into the cabin. This one is perched above our settee...we didn't let him stay long!

As you can see, several different types came and went. We finally had to screen up the cockpit to keep them out, and one or two still came in the hatches and we had to chase them out from below.

This is our chart plotter and our route to Key West from Mexico.

Sure nice to have these modern navigational aides.

Key West is a tourist haven and there is no end of sunset and day cruises for them to enjoy. Most of the boats came past us nightly loaded to the gunnels.

The lighthouse in Key West. A good view of a pretty little town.

I get dizzy just looking at this photo, never mind climbing up and down the 86 steps.

We thoroughly enjoyed Key West and walked about 7 miles that day!

Chickens and roosters are everywhere in town. We never really got to the bottom of why because some said they were protected others said no. It appears that they are all over the Keys because they're also in Marathon.

Someone told us that there's a fine if you run over one...really??

Someone's front yard, but probably not that person's chickens!

Lovely old houses and most well preserved. Even the Denny's was an old-style diner.

I'm guessing he's the reason there are more and more chickens!

Mile Zero of Route 1.

A banyan tree in front of some houses. Lovely vegetation and flowers. Very tropical but not nearly as hot as Guatemala, Belize or Mexico. Onward to Marathon in the middle of the Keys, then eventually around Miami and into the intra-coastal waterway around Ft. Lauderdale...at least that's the plan for now.

Robert's Grove, Placencia to Caye Caulker

So, here we are still in Belize. It was our plan to 'get outa Dodge' long before now, but we've had poor weather, on and off, and no opportunity to move North and on to Mexico and then Florida. At one point, another big blow was due so we moved into Robert's Grove, the marina we were in a couple of years ago when we lost our tranny. The first photos are from there. This time, we didn't inherit a rat...so it was much more pleasant. However, the expected wind didn't materialize, so we probably didn't need to move into the marina...hind sight is 20/20!

Their docks are well built, but a terrible plan in that the supports are on the outside which makes it difficult to come up against the dock and try to place fenders appropriately.

On the resort side, we went out here for drinks a few times. Met some nice tourists there, but boy...WAS IT WINDY!!

After that, we headed out to the Cayes where we finally managed to do some snorkeling.  Here's a lobster Ralph found, but they weren't in season....DRAT!!
We also ran aground in an area that, supposedly, was deep enough for us...but NOT!

Snorkeling, here in Belize, has for the most part been disappointing, but much better than some of our first attempts when we were here before.

We saw "Dorry" (sp??) but not Nemo!

We also were told about an old ship's anchor so Ralph went out to have a look.

This is me in my 'tele-tubby' suit...it's good for jelly-fish and also keeps me warmer when the water is cool. It was only 73 degrees then, but is now closer to 90!

Lots of fan coral and that is always beautiful!

A few more shots of the reef life.

We think this is some sort of sponge or ??

We have an anchor alarm program and this is what we wake up to, when it's been very windy. All those are the tracks of where we went over a few days in an anchorage in Belize.

Not a lot of height above the water in these parts. Tidal range is less than 2 feet. You can see why there is so much damage when a hurricane rips through here.

Enroute to Caye Caulker, Northern Belize, we passed 3 cruise ships anchored and ferrying passengers to and from Belize City.

This is Caye Caulker, where we currently are. Nice little town, dirt streets, and currently full of tourists and spring breakers.

We have tentatively decided to head on to Mexico, checking out of here after Easter weekend, supposing the weather holds.

Wish us luck! We have to get well up into Florida by June 1st, for insurance purposes...so fingers crossed!

Robinson Cays

Here we sit, yet again. We were trying to make it north, and out of Belize to Mexico, but another cold front is coming in, Sunday night into Tuesday, from the USA (Damn Americans)! So, we had to find a good anchorage to weather the storm. Winds are coming from the North to NW and there aren't many good anchorages in northern Belize for that direction of wind. There can be squalls, as well, and the wind is supposed to be up to 30kts, and more with a squall (mini storm often with lightning etc.) So we are in Robinson Cays. We are the only boat here, which is good in that we don't have to worry about anyone dragging anchor on us...AGAIN...but bad in that it's kind of scary to be all alone. There have been some robberies, mostly when people are off their boats, and one boarding that we know of, but not here to our knowledge. Still a little worrisome and we'll both be glad to be out of here. This season has been very discouraging because of the weather and being hit by the Moorings catamaran. We still haven't received the compensation for that but they assure us that we will. More once we get out of here.

Colson Cay

After a good sail, but very blustery, we arrived in Colson Cay after leaving Wippari yesterday. More bad weather is coming Monday/Tuesday so we have to plan where to be for that. Winds will be from the North/NE and not many good anchorages for that direction.

Roberts Grove

Here we sit awaiting the 'supposed wind storm' to come and go. We were here, 2 years ago, when Fortuitous lost it's tranny...and we gained a rat! We are zipped up, at night, to avoid the latter this time.

Placencia February 2016

So, we spent nearly a week in the Golfete, a lake on the way from Monkey Bay Marina enroute to Livingston where we'd check out of Guatemala. After getting fuel in Fronteras, we headed down-river. Once a little way down, our motor quit. We restarted but still had problems so we anchored in the lake to figure out what was going on. Turns out, our filters were plugged so we changed those. We started again, but same problem and in the end, the uptake from the bottom of the tank was also plugged solid. We remedied that too, but had now missed our tide window to cross the bar at Livingston...so we crossed on Feb. 10th and headed straight to Placencia Belize. It's a much nicer town than Fronteras and English speaking. However, it is much more expensive to enter or be in the country and a lot more for provisions as well.

This is the main street, twice as wide as in Fronteras and NO semi-trailers or tuk-tuks to deal with.

As you can see, not even many cars going back and forth.

This is one of the 3 or 4 veggie stores. Strange, in Guatemala there were mangoes galore and avocados too...here, they say they're out of season...how can that be?  Wish I'd bought more when we were in Guatemala!

This is one of the other general grocery stores...there are about 6 of these, all owned by very unfriendly Chinese folk.  We're not sure why they're so unfriendly...we speculated that maybe they've had some prejudice problems, but don't know for sure.

It's very tropical here, obviously, and when it's hot it's VERY HOT!

But, for the most part here, this is what we've been seeing.  There has been cold front after cold front coming into the Caribbean from the east coast of the USA.

Hard to see here, but it's just pouring and quite cold...for here.

This is a view of Fortuitous from a local bar where we had dinner.

So, one of the nights we had a big blow/rainstorm and this Moorings catamaran dragged anchor onto us at about 2 am (of course) in the morning in about 25 kts of wind and driving rain.

We were attached for quite a long time. The charterers didn't even wake up until we banged on the hull and woke them. Then, only the 2 men came to do anything. We didn't know how many were aboard, so asked. When they said there were 4, we were more than a little ticked off!  Told them to get them out to help fend off. They didn't provide fenders, didn't start the motor or pull up the anchor until told to do so. Doesn't look like much damage, but we are very sad about this!!!

The charter people took full responsibility and we have been dealing with Moorings for the past week. They wanted to fix it here, but then we'd be here for another couple of weeks, so we said no. We'll have it all done in Florida, if we ever get to leave here.

Lots of scratches and gouges and the teak rail is lifted, so we'll have to reseal this before leaving. Moorings settled today, and paid us out so we can have it fixed in Florida. They were pretty good about it, but it all takes time. We hope to be heading out to the cays tomorrow, although there are 2 or 3 more cold fronts coming this way...we'll see how it goes.  Still overcast and cold here.