Leaving Placencia village anchorage to Glover Atol reef – Belize
After chatting with locals, divers and looking at charts/guide, we decided that we wouldn’t go any further north than Blue Ground Range, South Water to Glovers Atol as the water gets skinny and Glovers is supposed to be the best of Belize for diving. We wanted to experience one of the four Atols so it was going to be Glovers Atol.
Rose again went via bus to Dangriga to check out with immigration/customs for 2 reasons – it was cheaper and we didn’t have to deal with possible immigration conflict. The first time was to get a 30 days extension prior to sis Dorothea and niece Mads joining us. If you recall we had sent an email to various immigration and tourism offices about us (and S/V Big Fun) being overcharged at the Independence immigration office. We just wanted to find out what the legally charged fees are. We believe that this office got spanked as our friends on S/V Big Fun had much difficulty with immigration when attempting to check out. We checked out as we didn’t want to have to come back to Placencia as the wind angle from Glovers to our next destination (Utila, Bay Islands Honduras) is MUCH better. AND we know that Utila doesn’t really care how long it takes you to get there. Instead of paying a total of $190 for 3 months in Belize, it will cost us $6 for Honduras.
So we attempted to leave early afternoon on Tuesday, January 17th but came back as the seas and wind were on the nose. We did leave Wednesday early and was able to sail (via tacking) to Blue Ground Range. We then left early Thursday again sailing, following our previous track across 10′ shallows and out the So. Water Cut to Glovers. It was awesome and felt wonderful to sail (plus saving $6 US/gallon of diesel)!! We sailed to SW Cays and anchored behind a BEAUTIFUL coconut palm, white sandy cay. It was like some of the cays in the San Blas. Most of the cays in Belize are mangrove and water clarity is not great. Now we understand that the mangroves are needed to keep the ecosystem in check so accept this but the San Blas had lots of mangroves as well and clarity was better. Go figure. But here at Glovers it was clear with lots of healthy patch reefs to snorkel. PLUS we have full view of both sunset and sunrise which makes for great viewing!
So off we went to snorkel and get some info at Marisol Resort (on the other cay within SW Cays) about diving. What’s a treat is that the resort also had internet so we could monitor weather and stay in touch with family/friends much easier. And I got permission from the caretakers Balsitar (El Salvador – only speaks Spanish) and wife Marie (Belize speaks Spanish and some English) to walk the private island and climb the light house tower. We brought them some fruit and pasta in thanks. Climbing the lighthouse was wonderful. As I’m climbing the ladder straight up with strong wind, I see the U-bolts very rusty. I realize it would be better for me to hold onto the main steel structure for safety. There are 2 viewing spots. The Belize coast guard lighthouse is maintained by this caretaker and powered by solar. Tom tells me that he has noticed, during his evening pee, that the battery lasts till around 3am. The view of all the Glover cays is wonderful, as evidenced by my photos….
You could tell that this cay used to be a resort and was told it was owned by a lawyer from Belize City. Each time we visit the island I ask him if I can walk and unfortunately it keeps getting more restricted. This happened after S/V Cordelia (Michigan) and S/V Homers Odessey (Vancouver) got here a few days later – so maybe he was concerned about too many tourists walking this cay. He told us later that the owner doesn’t want any tourists on the island. These caretakers have been here for 5 years and get provisions by going in with Marisol’s boat to Dangriga when they pick up guests. And we have seen that they go out to fish via a kayak with chair he sits on for added visual height and the trading boats discussed below.
There is an interesting cluster of independently owned wooden sailing trading/fishing boats decked with 8-10 crew and 6-8 canoes that come out from Belize City on a 6 day intensive search for conch/lobster/fish. They trade/sell while they are out here and/or bring to the Coop back in Belize City. They are about 16′ long, 10′ wide, 4-5′ deep with a double boom with sail collapsed in between. The top longer boom gets pulled up along with sail. It has a jib canvas rolled up on a stick so not sure how that it rigged. They store ice in the center of the boat to keep the fish and provisions from spoiling. The bow cabin and stern kitchen cabin each sleep 3 with the canoes stacked on each side of the boat each sleep 1 and 2 on the main cabin with a large canvas tented over the boom. Its quite amazing how they manage. These boats are quite loaded and are about 1′ off the water. Two of them came into Glovers and the one that I traded with got about 70 conch that day. I ended up with 2 lobsters, some fish and crew member Joshua that came over to Sojourn to teach me how to make conch fritters. Tom disappeared onto shore to do internet as it got pretty crowded down below.
It was quite interesting for both of us as he had never been on a cruising sailboat and I had never dealt with conch. Plus was able to learn more about their culture/religion/sailing rig…. We improvised to find the provisions needed to make the fritters. He was quite amazed when I handed him pimiento. It was a pepper grinder as I had run out of ground pepper! He looked at it and was amazed when I showed him. This took about 2 hours and with finished product and photos I brought him back to his vessel along with freshly made conch fritters for crew. Plus I shared them with S/V Cordelia and Homers Odessey. Most of the crew didn’t drink as they said “they went to church” so I traded by making them brownies, corn bread, few other provisions and 3 beers for the folks that “didn’t go to church”. I believe he said he was some form of Evangelical but used to drink/smoke pot and that ALL of the fruits/veges/milk products come from the Mennonites that came in the early 1900’s. Anglican – the Church of England is a large majority of the religious but also have a good population of Seventh Day Adventist.
We went diving twice as its $50 US per dive. You need to do it with a big boat as its drift 1-2 knot current diving this time of year. The reef is beautiful with lots of fish. More of everything than Bay Islands but then its a lot cheaper to dive there. The second dive we were blessed with 3 reef sharks, large nasau/tiger grouper, HUGE nurse shark, turtle, large barracuda and a large dolphin on the safety stop.
The Glovers Reef Marine Reserve (Belize Govt.) came over the same day to collect their $10 Bz/person/day or $30Bz/person/week. So we opted for the week. We learned that this Reserve is also part of the Fisheries Dept. and that they are housed on Middle Cay with the Wildlife Conservation Society (Internationally funded – mostly US and UK). We decided to take our dinghy the 2.5nm to Middle Cay to learn more and go snorkeling on another part of Glovers. We have seen the Fisheries do shark research like putting out long line with bait and a cage full of fish heads and a camera to observe behavior. Both organizations work together and share resources. They have a nice walking interpretive path around the island, osprey nesting and even a composting outhouse. They obtain research graduate students that provide some of the funding. The staff (rangers, chef, maintenance, diver, boat captain) is all from Belize.
We are now awaiting a Friday or Saturday departure to Utila (one of the 3 Bay Islands), Honduras. Tom decided that for his 60th B-Day he wanted to sign up for Chris Parkers weather routing service that comes on via various SSB frequencies EARLY in the morning. So hopefully our future passages don’t downgrade, as we get lazy not checking our own weather and choosing the time! We didn’t get to explore Utila en route to Rio Dulce, Guatemala due to the weather so are looking forward to another new experience. I guess that’s why we are doing this sailing thing!!!