And the Question of the Day...

“Do you know where MY Boat is?”

The answer to the question was, “Yes”.    But I get ahead of myself.   We are back in Placencia sitting out some nasty weather.   Squalls and high winds.  Every night you get just a little nervous as you are wondering, will my anchor hold, will the guy next door or better yet in front of you hold?

Two days ago a little Gemini Catamaran came in.  Father and son on board.  The boat is worn and needs some work.  The dinghy davits with the solar panels look like they have been hit and are quite bent and mangled.  The first day they came in they attempted to drop right on top of our anchor.  We asked them to move and they did.  For the next hour we watched each of them jump into the water with the anchor and attempt to set it.  There was yelling and cursing and shouts about coral and slow down the boat you’re going to run me over.  The anchor is only a little danforth, much too small and only rope rode that looks much too short.  In Placencia we tend to anchor in 20 feet on average.  Needless to say we were concerned.  Their outboard doesn’t work so they swam to the bar next to them and got a ride into town with the shuttle launcha.

The next morning they were gone.  We thought they had gone in closer to town to get repaired and may-be provision. Last night they returned.  The wind is 16 knots to 20 knots with the occasional gust of 25 knots.  The anchorage is rolly and squalls are predicted.  Not a star in sight, just thick black clouds.  Sitting in the cockpit and watching the other boats to make sure that all is well and besides the bar, Tranquillos has live music that is keeping us up.  Finally around 9pm I head downstairs to go to bed when….a large bump and horrible sound stops me on the top stair.  Yes, the Gemini has drug into us and is on the move….We see that the interior lights are on and start yelling, flashing lights, and hailing them on the VHF Radio.  NO response!  They are now headed to the boat behind us.  We are hailing him on the radio and soon most of the people on our side of the anchorage are flashing lights and blowing horns, anything to get their attention.  NO RESPONSE!  We try and hail the bar, but the music is so loud that no one hears us.  Finally after making sure that we don’t have a hole in us and that we are not taking on water.  We sit down and hail the other boats to make sure everyone is okay.  We can see the Gemini about quarter of a mile off in the distance headed for Big Creek.  It looks like they got in shallow water or re-set the anchor because they appear to be stopped.

Finally the shuttle launcha comes by our boat and the son yells, “Do you know where our boat is?”  “Yes, it hit us and barely missed the boat behind us and is back there near Big Creek.”  I will spare you specific quotes of some of the more colorful language.  Fill in the blanks.  His reply to us is, “Well it just got loose.”  Not a sorry are you okay.  At least they were smart enough to tie up to the bar’s dock last night.   Hopefully they will stay tied to the dock as the weather doesn’t look good for tonight either.  Stay tuned…

Should Cruisers Race????

Eileen Quinn has a song, “Gotta, Gotta, Regatta” that sums up the events of the Regatta in Placencia. Tom and Kim on SV Miramar invited us to crew in the race. Michael wasn’t too sure and I couldn’t wait. They also invited friends of theirs, Nick and Kim.
Tom, Nick, and I went to the Captain’s Meeting. At the meeting it was decided that the race would be postponed for an hour so that we could have more wind. This put a crimp in Nick and Kim’s plans as they had to navigate the mangrove swamp to get home by launcha and they didn’t want to do that in the dark. Tom decided to call the race committee and ask if we could start an hour earlier and they could adjust our time. Not a problem.

Everything is set and we are heading to the committee boat to cross the starting line. Things are going really well right up until we catch the anchor line of the committee boat! We are also trying to avoid T-boning the small ketch that is parked by the committee boat. Tom has line cutters on his prop shaft and sure enough they work! So now the committee boat is free and alongside us. Kim and I are holding the boat off Miramar and we realize that we don’t have much left of the anchor rode to hang on to. Just as we are about to set the boat free I see a bow line and grab it. We are able to tie the boat to us though it wants to lay alongside of us. Once we get it hanging off the back of Miramar things start to calm down. Don’t think that Tom is just standing around. As we are securing the committee boat he and Kim are dropping the anchor and the sails.
All is all it wasn’t too bad. No digits were lost, no one got hurt and it only cost us the race and Tom the price of a new anchor.
So here is to Tom… the first to start and the first to finish…quickest race in history.

Just some thoughts

Salt water has a curative effect on my soul.  I love being away from the dock even though it means power and water management and a lot more planning for everything you do.

A typical day is I wake up at around 4:30 am and try and doze until 6 am.  I start the coffee and sit in the cockpit.  I survey the harbor or anchorage, adjust the solar panels and by then the coffee is done.  Pour myself a cup and read for awhile.  Michael gets up and starts the SSB.  We listen for weather and the Northwest Caribbean NET.  Usually I start cooking breakfast around 8 am while the NET is on.

If we are on a cay then it is time to think about snorkeling.  We had some really great snorkels out at South Long Cocoa Cay and at Wipperi.  Thanks to John on Up Jinks I now have an underwater camera!  My first attempts weren’t too bad and some are quite good. 

At Wipperi we are with Rodney and Katrina on Angelina.  They are from Texas and cruised with Larry and Jean when they owned Dragonheart.  We share our wine and spaghetti and they share their beer and conch (fresh caught and cleaned).   At South Long Cocoa they share their mooring ball and we raft up.

So now we are back in the harbor and we make water and shop, eat gelato, and make Happy Hour.  We get the laundry done and re-provision.  Ah, fresh  veggies.  How I crave them once we run out.

We have 30 more days in Belize and then it is back to the Rio.  I think I will go back out and snorkel some more….the Rio can wait.

Come in Mars Station...Come in Space Station

Come in Mars???
One morning while watching TV in the Cayuco Club Gerry and I saw a piece on Solar Ovens. Gerry stated that they had thought about purchasing one for the boat. When asked why they hadn’t made the purchase she stated that it would take up too much room on the deck and storage would be a problem.
Imagine my amazement when yesterday I was sitting in my cockpit and low and behold on the deck of the vessel anchored next to us they had a SOLAR OVEN! At first I thought that it might be some sort of satellite enhancement equipment. No it was an oven. All day we watched while as the boat was swinging on the anchor she adjusted and adjusted the oven. Things weren’t going well you could tell…look up to the sun adjust the oven, look up to the sun, adjust the oven. Finally it must have been hot enough to be cooking because she would taste the food and then re-adjust.

Eventually her husband came out and I can only imagine that he gave her some advice. I think that it may have been unwanted. Why you ask? Well, the hot pad glove came off and the spoon was laid down with emphasis and she was now sitting on the side of the boat. The husband adjusts the oven and disappears below.
Around 1600 hours the food is removed and the oven is closed up and stored on the deck. I must admit that several times during the day I wanted to offer her my oven. Propane is so much simpler. Yes there is the explosion thing occasionally. However, no matter which way the boat is swinging or if there is sun or not, I can cook.
Gerry I have come to the conclusion that space is not the only reason to NOT have a Solar Oven. I’ll take propane and a pressure cooker any day. Bon Appetite!

Sitting in Belize

Sitting in Placencia is always a different experience.  Never have we seen it so quiet!  The Purple Space Monkey is closed and up for sale.  There are few tourists on the streets and it looks very quiet around here.  Hotels are making special deals just to get some business.

We are having a good time though as Roger & Carole on SV Androsian is anchored next to us.  We have been catching up and having a very good time.  I think that I personally am trying to eat my weight in shrimp dinners.  I could eat it every day of the week.

There is a small pod of dolphins that come by the boat twice a day and we enjoy watching them.  Got into the water yesterday and had a decent snorkel.  Lots of fish and some very nice sea fans.  Most of the coral had grass on it so not quite as nice.

Dennis on Day Breaker went ultra-light flying and took some amazing photos of the harbor and the surrounding area.  He was kind enough to share them.  See if you can find Dragonheart.

One bummer is that Skype will not work here at all and I can’t get the phone forwarded.  So you will have to contact us by email.

How Did I Get So Lucky?

I am blessed!  I have a 13 year old on board our boat.  She puts up with my awful singing and much much more.  She has introduced me to P!NK and Nickleback, Snow Patrol, New Found Glory and so much more.

Cynthia is an enigma and the younger version of myself.  She is shy, loud, proud, timid, sure of her self and the total loss of confidence!  She is womanhood and girlhood all wrapped up into one.  She is the moon and the sun simultaneously.  She blows my mind!!  We can share a book, a movie, a song and nothing at all at the same time.

She has insight into me and my generation.  She is a child.  She is brilliant!  Right now she is putting up with me and playing her ipod at the pain level while washing dishes and when I burst into song she smiles with a smile that says it all and yet accepts me for me.  I always know that I am COOL.  The trouble is convincing her that I am as cool as I think that I am.

I am a lucky grandma.... sometime she thinks that I am as cool as I think that I am.  And when she evaluates me with her magnifying glass I may come up short, but in the end we can still stand in front of the Karaoke mic and sing,  "Build Me up Buttercup" with perfect harmony.

What more could you want?

Can We Leave Now? Please

I  am ready to slip the bonds of the dock, pull the plug on the power, and jump over the side and swim with some fish!
  The awnings came down yesterday, just in time for a gully washer of a storm.  Lightening included.  Yes, the boat leaked!  We tracked them down this morning.  Lines are soaking in buckets of  OxyClean, the deck has been washed.  The bimini needs to be washed.  Batteries are being checked.  Sails have been checked and raised.  The furler seems to be working.  The new frig system is installed and working well.  Heck I can make ice for the first time since we moved on the boat.

I have been filling the lockers with paper products, food, toiletries, etc.  There is an unending list of "should we get more of....?"

There are thousand of reasons/excuses to stay here at the dock, but my heart is always happiest on the open water.  I love my little cocoon and the time to contemplate my belly button.  I love looking out the hatch over my bed and seeing stars instead of the awning.  I love looking at charts and waypoints, listening to the weather on the SSB.  I love that fact that I can change neighborhoods by picking up my anchor and moving the boat.  I love it that when the boat is rocked by a wake at anchor we don't have to worry about hitting the dock.  I love having a glass of wine in my cockpit and watching the sun set over the ocean, while the water laps against the hull.

Most of all I love being on the boat with just us.  To Michael and Cynthia who make "Just Us" so special.