Sailing

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July 17 - Well, the sailing trip was somewhat different than I thought it would be. I had to bring my big backpack to the dock at 8am to be packed up on the boat, and then be back to sail at 9am. In the mean time I went back to my room and repacked my bag for the next few days and watched tv (of course). We sailed a little after 9am and got under way. It was a big group on the sailboat.

Meet your Cast of characters:

Anita and Paul - young Irish couple

Rebecca and Shaun - honeymooning Americans

Ellen and Justin – young American travel bloggers

Nina – German and fellow solo traveler & teacher

Dutch family of five

Group of 7 Spaniards (one is actually German but lives in Spain): Ellie, Marta, Luis, Isaac, Victor, Ignacio and another

Boat Crew – Jerry, Ish and Chris


It was a nice group of people, and about the first time in Belize when I met non-Americans. I had never been on a sailboat before, and it was a strange experience trying to find somewhere to sit and relax with so many people aboard. There was the front of the boat, the back, the top of the cabin and inside the cabin as well. We actually used the motor most of the time, which I found disappointing. Sails were also used at that time, but it was less believable. We also had to change positions a lot when the sails were being put up or down. The first day was a sunny day most of the time. Many burned shoulders, arms and knees. Poor Irish. They suffered the most. I got some of the burning, but not too badly. I didn't know what to do with myself on the boat. I didn't take my camera out much, sadly, as I was afraid it would get wet or sunscreened. I didn't read much, because of similar fears for my kindle. A real book would have been a real plus on a boat. A waterproof camera would also have been great. I didn't think about bringing m older digital and the water proof case. Shame. My Lumix is great, but inconvenient in some situations. Some people were fishing from the boat and they did catch some barracudas and other fish that we ate at night. Some were just lying around. I wanted to chat, but there's only so long you can harass couples before you're not quite sure of your welcome. I am a bad relaxer, so this was an odd way to spend a few days. We did a snorkel in the day after lunch – much to our parent's chagrin, we went swimming right after the meal. I saw some nice coral and fish, and a huge ray. Then it was returning to the boat and being wet and salty on top of sweaty and sunscreeny. For the night, we stopped on a small island called Rendezvous Caye. Nothing much there but a line of cubby holes for your things and some benches and a toilet or two. It started to storm just after we got to the island and we waited it our for a while. Then the tents were set up and I got one to myself, which was nice. We didn't have dinner until 8:30pm or so, and then the three Dutch kids had already gone to bed. Everyone was pretty tired from being out in the sun. Dinner was good, a buffet style meal with fish and chicken and pasta. I went to my tent after dinner and read a bit, and then tried to sleep. It was quite hot in the tent, but it looked like rain so I didn't open the rain flaps. Then it started to get windy and cooled the tent down, which was great. Until I realized that the wind was a precursor to a tropical storm, or something quite similar. I have never been in a tent in these kind of conditions nor do I ever hope to again. The tent was blowing around like mad, the wind was howling and pushing the tent nearly flat onto me, the rain was flooding my tent. I was just wearing a t shirt since it has been so hot, and all of a sudden my whole body was wet and cold. Puddles were forming in my tent. All of my clothes were wet. It felt like I would never be dry again. This happened two more times in the night, and I just tried to sleep in my wet sheets and went tent on my wet mat. It was terrible. The trip is supposed to be canceled if weather like that is coming, and I still find it impossible that this kind of serious weather could just sneak up on anyone. I feel like the Raggamuffin company should definitely have done a better job at not letting this happen.

Day 2 - The second day of the tour started out with everyone commiserating with each other about their horrible tent experience. One guy, Ish, from the crew, had a plastic picnic table flatten his tent and hit him in the head in the process. Others had broken zippers and more flooding. All the tents were wet and sandy. The original plan had been to get up at 6am, breakfast and then leave the island at 7:30am before a nearby cruise ship brought people over. Due to the weather, the cruise ship canceled and we stayed on the island until 9:30am. It was boring, since we were all awake and expecting to leave, but the winds were still heavy so it didn't seem possible to go either. We did leave at 9:30am and had some gray skies, which was good as it was cooler and gave everyone a break from burning. It's hard to sit on the boat in the sun and not get burned, even with sunscreen. At least for me. The Spaniards seemed pretty good. We did some more snorkeling in the day and again, I tried to relax a bit. Not likely. We stopped for the night at Tobacco Caye, a small island with a small population of people on it. And some very cute puppies. We had some time to walk around when we arrived, and then much to my relief, we were given rooms to stay in so we didn't have to camp again. I shared a room with Ellen and Justin. We took some pictures of the island, which was covered in conch shells, like a conch graveyard. We also found a great dock from which you could clearly see at least three species of rays swimming by, including spotted eagle rays. The water around the dock was covered in lobster and crab bodies from dinners past. Some kids also showed us a hammerhead shark head that was left over from a recent catch they had eaten. It was just sitting by the water next to an old tire. We went for a snorkel and I saw an octopus hiding in a coral and several enormous hermit crabs in the water occupying some of the conch shells. We also snorkeled in the area with the rays, which was great. I even saw one of the spotted eagle rays chomping on the leftover crab bodies. Amazing. After the snorkel, I took a shower. Cold it may have been, but at least it was fresh water. I didn't have my brush or shampoo, so the hair wasn't great, but at least for a few hours it wasn't salty. Dinner was earlier tonight and featured fish and a whole lobster for everyone. I'm glad I didn't go straight to the room after dinner, because we ended up seeing baby sea turtles that had just hatched on their way out to the ocean. Very special to be there for that moment. Shame I didn't have the camera on me. Justin and Ellen came in a little after me and I think we all got some decent sleep.

Day 3 - The third day of sailing involved more sun, a couple snorkeling stops, a tuna sandwich for lunch, and more trying to relax but not doing so well. I thought I was doing well covering up from the sun, but the backs of my legs still got burned when I was snorkeling. One of the snorkeing stops was at a nice island, and after we snorkeled, Rebecca, Ellen and I sat in the beautiful shallow water and talked. It was nice. From there we sailed to Placencia, a beach town in southern Belize. I had been struggling with the next part of my trip – stay in Placencia for the night and take the boat to Puerto Cortes, Honduras in the morning, or try to get to Punta Gorda for the Friday boat to Livingston, Guatemala? Nina and the Spaniards were planning the latter, so I went with them. I said very quick good byes and then we were off to take the 5pm boat to Independence where we could catch the 6pm bus to Punta Gorda. This put us in Punta Gorda around 8pm. We all went to the same guesthouse, but there were not enough spaces, so three of the Spaniards went to another. From there the group went to dinner, but they left when I was in the room I was sharing with Nina. So I just went to a little take away and got a burrito. I ate it at the guesthouse where I met a brother and sister from Denmark who had also done the sailing trip a few days before, and had had amazing weather. I took another cold shower – with shampoo! - and repacked my things. I checked my email and let Nina check hers when she came back. Got to bed a bit later than I'd have liked, but coming into town late did not help.

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