Moonlightsailing    

Ya man, ya gotta Belize we be in Belize. 

We feel like we have officially departed Central America and finally arrived in the Caribbean.  Belize has all the flair of the Caribbean islands and such a beautiful tropical setting behind the longest barrier reef in the western hemisphere and second longest in the world.  Ranguana Cay, our second cay that we visited, was beautiful. Greg was busy shooting commercials for the local beer companyWe had to depart Ranguana Cay due to a rolly anchorage so on to Placencia for some mainland fun.  In the village of Placencia are about twenty Moorings chatting boatsIt is fun to watch them drag when the squalls move through as we never know when the workers will show up to save them.  We already had to move out of the way of one dragging catamaran - thanks to Yen's watchful eye she saw it start to drag and within five minutes it was heading straight for us.  So I started the engine and quickly moved out of the way and let it drag right on by.  Placencia is a great little village that is growing quickly.  The charm is still here in the architecture and incredible friendliness of the people.  We have stayed here for three weeks and enjoyed every day.   We liked their effort to recycle litter and these signs appear to help. The views from the village were delightful. The local businesses had a flare for color and attractiveness.Okay maybe John the baker man did not have an attractive storefront but his bread was good.Chester was the worker in the bakery.  Christmas day was a pot luck for cruisers sponsored by Torrey and Barb on Litbe. We flew our code flags for the day so we would look so sort of official and festive. We finally departed Placencia for many little cays (keys) along the way.  Our buddy boat was Damiana But after breaking a shroud and running aground in Turneffe Atoll and viewing an approaching winter storm from the north, we felt our karma was low so off to a marina for repairs and hide from the passing front.  On the way to Belize City we rescued a stranded fisherman who had a broken engine and towed them to Belize City.  Approaching a small boat fifteen miles out to sea and no one else around with four men on board can leave you wary.  We were cautious at first but once we knew they were for real stranded then we gave them food and a tow.  Does that restore some of our karma?? 

We departed Belize City (no pictures needed for there) for Caye Caulker and San Pedro in northern Belize.  Behind the San Pedro coral reef, the water was a coral light  blue  Of course in the afternoon, rain clouds always dropped in for a refreshing shower.Then some views are best observed right on the boat.