Belize in May: Adventures during quarantine

PHOTO ALBUM –>> https://photos.app.goo.gl/hKEHCo4eywgFXVab9

Placencia

May arrived and we were lingering in Placencia, basically waiting to hear of any changes to the state of emergency in Belize and Guatemala. Belize announced a further month of quarantine with a few up coming relaxation of certain measures, which included the opening of the Immigration, customs and Port Authority offices. This told us it was time, yet again to go and get our extensions. We were fine with immigration as they had previously given us 60 days.

Re-up aka rechecking in, again.

We still had to travel to Big Creek on the Hokey Pokey water taxi for the other 2 offices: customs and Port Authority. Our friends Pam and Don travelled with us, catching the 7:30am water taxi. Anywhere on land one must wear a mask, I understand the importance, but have no idea how the health workers survive all day for hours wearing them, they are so hot and stuffy.

At Big Creek we separated from our friends and went to customs. Nobody had mentioned a change of hours and so we arrived for 8:00am opening and they arrived to open at nearly 9:30, apparently their hours were shortened. Ho-hum, it was a long time hanging around waiting, but we got our extensions and were on the 10:00am Hokey Pokey back to Placencia.

Lovely Placencia – our home away from home

One of the benefits of having stayed in Placencia off and on for many weeks is that we are now known by the locals. The fishermen, the fruit and veg vendors, the few take out places we have frequented, the Chinese grocers and their families, the Digicel worker, the various security persons, Mr T at the main dock, other cruisers and surprisingly quite a few others.

We can walk around and meet and greet friendly, familiar faces each time we are ashore. It makes us feel quite at home. We enjoy a daily walk and surprisingly I can see something different during each walk.

The story of Peanut

Now, we had a very “unusual occurrence” in the anchorage the other morning. A boat called Messy Monique had called for help on the VHF. We heard his appeal He was stuck on the reef/bottom, a boat called Chi-carne went and towed him off and in — dropped anchor behind us.

Meanwhile we heard from the VHF how he needed help! He had a dead engine, needed an alternator, fuel lines, and only 1 working sail. On top of which he had left the Rio the day before without checking out and had “crew” onboard. So, he gets on the VHF radio to everyone in the anchorage, appeals for help, (basically announces his stupidity), well understandably nobody responds, as he’s totally illegal, and a liability to us all. So, he and his “crew” drop the dinghy and go ashore.

Since we were the closest boat, later that morning John sees him floundering about drifting off in his dinghy, he felt he should “save” him. John goes and tows him back to his boat. The guy said he had panicked at being all alone in the dinghy, with the engine now not working and having no oars. He calls himself Peanut, and he said his crew have now deserted him….. John says the boat is in some state, furniture on deck, just a mess, all this rust coming from chain plates. Apparently Peanut’s plan was to motor to the USA! Oh and he can’t sail as he doesn’t know how. Goodness knows what is gonna happen to him.

Well, then 2 evenings later the authorities arrive, boarded and we saw they took Peanut away. The next day we went in to where the fishermen sell fish and the fishermen told us: The authorities told them that when they went to the boat Peanut was abusive and they ended up having a “fight” with him. They told him that they needed to take him to be tested and then he had to be quarantined for 21 days. Well, he pitched a fit as he had other plans. They took him, they tested him, took him back to his boat, took his dinghy away and there it sits on the beach by the fishermen — minus the engine which they took. So he is also facing a charge of illegal entry and will go to court after his 21 days of quarantine.

Blue Ground Range

(Yesterday, a person who has been doing the Placencia net contacted me and told me he had been approached by 3 French boats, they have been illegally in Belize since mid April – arrived from Cuba – and wanted advice as to what to do. He advised them to go to the authorities ASAP.) We returned to Blue Ground Range, a nice sheltered anchorage as I expected there will be quite a drama over the illegal French boats, we are glad we are out of Placencia for now.

It is very very quiet out in the cays, we see maybe 2 fishing boats a day, no sailboats, just nobody around. We were greeted by dolphins when we arrived, the animals and birds are free to roam. Blue Ground Range was once again good to us. We had windy nights, but were reasonably sheltered there.

What do we do?….

The few days spent there were “working” days. John did various oil changes and upkeep work around the boat.

I spent more time working on my Christmas stocking project for the Grandkids.

I also started the task of editing our Go-Pro footage from the last year or more. I found that unfortunately a certain amount of the footage had been downloaded into the wrong format, so now I need to figure out how to use iMovie to edit the clips. (however this gives me more to keep myself occupied)

Chico – grass hunting

We visited an island we were anchored off – Little Water Cay. Chico’s grass had more or less died and he needs grass to chew. Off we went grass hunting…..we pulled up to what appeared to be a landing point and waded ashore through and across mud. The cay Little Water Cay proved to be quite different from how it appeared from off shore on the boat.

Much of it was cleared, there were a few casuarina trees and a few coconut palms — unfortunately the coconuts had been harvested. I managed to pull up some very course grass/sedge grass for Chico and then walked about. Surprisingly there was a small brackish pond where I assume the mosquitoes were breeding.

Along the seaward side the trash that had been washed ashore was horrible, plastics galore! And yes, we were being attacked by no-see-ums and mosquitos so we did not linger on Little Water Cay for very long. Chico was very appreciative of the grass, he was all over it chomping away.

Tobacco Range

Our next stop was Tobacco Range where our friends Don and Pam were hiding out — aka quarantine.

John had arranged to help Don paint his boat. Don and Pam over the course of the previous month had sanded and painted their whole hull. There were just the gold stripes to go. For the 3 days we were there John helped Don and I continued with my go-pro and sewing projects.

One, very pleasant afternoon we got together on Aeeshah for a game of Mexican Train Dominoes. It was fun and a welcomed break.

Tobacco Cay

The next anchorage for us was Tobacco Cay. This island is on the outer reef, where we anchor is sheltered behind the reef as long as the wind is from the east.

Next to Tobacco Cay is a cut through from the ocean outside. The scenery and snorkeling here is absolutely amazing!

For our first evening we were treated by the visit of a school of dolphins during sunset. They were a really lively school, jumping, swimming round and round Aeeshah, splashing and blowing water. We assumed they were after dinner which they were chasing around us. I tried and tried to get photos of them jumping in the sunset, but only managed to get surface shots.

The snorkeling through and around the cut is always stunning. There are dozens and dozens of huge tarpon that frequent this cut.

They glide through and around and around the deep waters. Some of them blowing bubbles, what for we have no idea. It is an amazing sight to watch these enormous fish, some of which glide by quite close to you. Again getting photos is really difficult, their size is not appreciated by the lens.

There were also numerous rays of different types that slowly swam by; there’s beautiful reef and reef fish.

I managed to get quite close and friendly with a porcupine fish plus I was visited by a shark. It too seemed very tame, or totally unconcerned by my presence.

On our last day we took the dinghy across the cut/channel to the far side. There is no cay there just reef and what amazing reef it is…….

sheltered from the pounding outside seas but flushed by the clean waters the corals have thrived. We both found the area was spectacular for snorkeling.

Again there were leopard rays gliding by, wonderful reef fish of all types, shapes and size, plus the coral development was the best I had seen in ages. The stag horn coral was amazing!

Placencia

We could see that the weather was forecast to change, it was time to head into Placencia to restock and seek shelter for the possible squalls that might be ahead. The journey back was arduous, no wind, stinking hot! Chico became stressed from the heat, panting and crying. I had to put cold water all over him to try to reduce his heat stress, which it did, poor kitty.

The days had been incredibly hot, just sweltering and the sky had become increasingly overcast so we did know that the weather was building up and a break would come, but nothing was forecast for the night that all hell broke loose.

I was awaken at just before 1:00am to the wind and rain pelting us. It was action stations, get off the front shade cover while being blasted, engine on with John idling into the wind to release pressure off the anchor, keep watch for dragging boats, secure everything that was being thrown about from the seas which were throwing us about…. What had occurred was a system to our south, (Bay of Honduras), developed and passed northward over the area. This meant that the anchorage which is sheltered from the north, east and west by land was now being “attacked/assaulted” from the south. There is no southerly protection so the seas quickly built up causing quite large waves to roll and crash in. The boats that were at the front of the anchorage were now at the back and backing onto the land, not at all a safe predicament for anyone, but even more so for them. We peered through the dark and pouring rain and were able to make out one of the boats that had dragged back onto a dock. We could see their struggle to get the anchor in and then head out to re-anchor. Meanwhile others were very worried about the land just to the stern of their sailboats. The thunder and lightening were never right over head, but all around us, the wind reached a reported 48knots. It blew like hell till 3:30am and then eased enough for us to lay down, me below and John on watch in the cockpit. In the morning the boat was all a mess from the seas rolling us about and they were still rolling into the anchorage.

We hastily set about getting the boat back in order, getting our laundry ashore and buying supplies. I just wanted to restock and clear out for better shelter. John insisted we were fine.

That night again the weather came down on us. This time though from the north-east so we had protection, but still another interrupted night’s sleep.

Friends Michael and Rene had invited us, along with Pam and Don to lunch at the place they are care-taking. It was a very pleasant few hours catching up. We finished getting supplies, picked up our laundry and left for Blue Ground Range again.

Blue Ground Range

Blue Ground Range lovely as always, peaceful with just 1 other boat. By our second day there several more boats arrived along with our friends Don and Pam.

We had a very nice dinghy ride around the mangrove cays and fishing camps, also another fun game of Mexican Train Dominoes aboard Aeeshah.

South Water Cut

With clear weather ahead we were off to South Water Cut for some snorkeling. Our first outing was to Carrie-bow Cay where we explored some of the shallower reefs.

My great find was a stone fish, at least that’s what it appeared to be, plus an enormous puffer fish that was camera shy.

Rodney

Rodney was the name we gave a remora that attached himself to us for several weeks. He was very tame and loved the scraps that were thrown overboard. He was a super large remora, over 3 foot.

We have learned that the Guatemalan Vice President has agreed to the planning and organizing for sailboats to return to the Rio. Apparently the hotels, marinas and business owners from Fronteras formed a group to plead for the return of the boats, without which the area would economically “die”. We have no idea when this will happen or how.

The two countries Belize and Guatemala are still under lock down, so these arrangements would be “special”. Belize has not had any cases in over a month. Guatemala still has the virus, mainly in the barrios around the city. They too are aggressively testing and tracking the virus. We received documents to fill out concerning returning. The navy are involved along with the guarda.

All of these arrangements are out of our control, we await word from our agent Raul. Meanwhile we will just continue to enjoy our quiet peaceful days in Belize.