Sailing Into Freedom

We say goodbye to our friend Duane and pay a little visit to Placencia, a fishing village with a cool cultural vibe. Here we try to find a dinghy and outboard but no luck so we decide to head to the reef and explore Northeast Sapodilla Caye where we found another wreck.

Its all good and fun fun fun with the dinghy and motor….lightning strikes and we lose our wind generator and surprisingly 2 solar panels are blown as well. Our yanmar fails again just before we enter a narrow pass in the reef so we are lucky in the timing. We survive another day.As per the usual, nothing but quality people.

After our last incident where we lost our anchor we finally leave the Blue Hole and head back to Half Moon Caye for a spectacular drift snorkel over the undersea cliff of the atoll. On our way to the next piece of paradise we had a surprise visitor, a beautiful little bird. But she wans’t alone, she was mourning her partner that died on deck.

Keen to continue exploring the Belizean atolls we decided to raise anchor and the unexpected happened. We lose our chain and anchor in the middle of the reef at sunset. Watch how the crew teemed up and rescued our beloved Rocna.

We couldnt leave Half Moon Caye without first checking the Ermlund shipwreck, a ship that lost power during a storm and was thrown on the reef by a large wave. With many options to explore we take a snorkeling excursion to the legendary Blue Hole, an underwater cave and sinkhole in the middle of Lighthouse lagoon. But the fun doens’t stop there, our outboard decided to have one more of its crises and gives the Captain & Duane a hard time.

We welcome our Dear friend Duane onboard and venture out beyond Belize’s barrier reef and visit some of their outer atolls. On our first night we stay at Turneffe atoll where we are attacked by mosquitos and seek refuge in the incredibly clear water of Lighthouse Reef. At the lower southeast corner of the reef there is Halfmoon Cay an idyllic tropical island that is home to a bird sanctuary full of frigate and redfooted booby birds. Paradise again, we are finally back in our environment.

Sailing from Cozumel, Mexico to Belize, Margarida was battling nausea while we were dodging small storm cells. Finally we make it to Belize but then had to deal with random and suspect Belizean fees in our first encounter. Let the fun begin.