DOMINO 20

UTILA Cays

2012-02-14T06:28:00.000-08:00

UTILA Southwest Cays

February 8, 2012

Diamond Cay (Honduras)

16º04.05N -086º57.92W

These cold fronts have been coming at us relentlessly oneafter the other and ended up making the anchorage at Utila’s East Harbour rollyand unpleasant. Besides, we couldn’twait to escape the blaring music of the Coco’s nightclub (wonder why they callit NIGHT club when they play till dawn…) So, we took advantage of a morning’s calm and sunny weather to attemptanchoring at the gem of Utila: the Southwest Cays.

WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ENTER THE CAYS WITHOUTPERFECT VISIBILITY!

Trying to anchor between Little and Belle Cays

The Pavlidis guide gives 2 anchorages at the SW Cays. We tried the southernmost one, between BelleCay and Little Cay. We tried twice,dropping the hook in two of the very scarce patches of sand, and foundourselves grinding the anchor on a coralline bottom. No sense damaging the bottom and risking todrag. As splendid a snorkeling site asthis point may be, we don’t recommend it: dropping anchor there carries therisk of greatly damaging the reef.

Sucsuc and Pigeon Cays

Off to Diamond Cay, then. Now, this is very tricky! Fromthe Pavlidis waypoint (16º03.90N-086º57.25W) enter the cays on an Westerncourse, passing north of Diamond Cay (that’s the wooded round cay). If there is no visibility, do not attempt. If there are boats at the anchorage, callthem for pilotage. The entrance is deep(25-30 feet) but narrow and tortuous. The idea is to hug Diamond Cay, keeping its visible sloping shore onportside, then make a sharp hook-turn to starboard once Diamond Cay is cleared,and head North towards the Utila Island southern shore. Avoid the reef on your starboard side (andthe buoys marking the submerged power cable) and avoid the shoal on yourportside. Drop the hook in 16-30’ ofwater, leave plenty of scope and you’ve found yourself an idyllic anchorage!

Full Moon over Utila SW Cays

I’ve tried to take a photo illustrating this route while wewere leaving the Cays, if it’s any help.

Pigeon and Sucsuc Cays are crammed with fishermen shacks andthere is not an inch of land left to build. These are the first settlements of the Bay Islands. We found the locals more than friendly, kidscame to visit, we bought fresh tuna from the Tuna Lady, obeyed Alexander’s directionsfor best anchoring, and watched the fishermen lower their canoes into theshallow waters as they prepared for their days.

But, mostly, we went snorkeling. Jack O’Neil’s Cay is a private island justoff the anchorage. Like most of the SWCays, you can actually rent the island for your own private luxuryvacation! Even though we got caught in“jellyfish soup” one morning and swam back to the dinghy to escape the stingsas if we were swimming for our lives, the snorkeling is some of the best we’veseen so far and I’m just going to stop writing and let the photos show you why,oh why we cruise!

Pillar Coral

Reef Crab

Enjoy….

dominomarie

UTILA East Harbour

2012-02-13T10:12:00.000-08:00

UTILA East Harbour

Feb. 6, 2012

Utila East Harbour (Honduras)

16º04.05N - 086º57.92W

Domino turned to on 12/22/11 and we celebrated

We’re cruising again, and it was about time! We left the Rio Dulce behind us, glad to havediscovered a part of Guatemala but not sad to leave behind the heavy rains, andstopped for an overnight at Nicolas Cay in Belize. That was just enough time to go tease a fewlobsters on the reef and buy some from the local fisherman (no harvesting inthe marine park, guys… but the rule doesn’t seem to apply to the locals.)

Our freezer-replenishing strategy was to fish along the dropthat runs along the North coast of Utila Island, one of the 3 Bay Islands(Honduras.) It didn’t take long beforewe hooked a 30-lb dorado and had it filleted and chilled, but that seemed allthat Neptune was inclined to spare that day. Until I decided to take a nap and the port-side reel hummed our favoritesound: “ZEEEeeeeeeeeee….” I jumped onthe rod while JP stopped the boat, put the engines on “warm” and reeled in thestarboard reel. Under JP’s incredulouseyes, I kept fighting that fish for 15 minutes and it kept taking my line. At last, it was level with us. “I can see color, and it’s not a dorado,” Ipropose. “No, it’s a HUGHE wahoo,”declares JP and I reckon it’s HUGE. Butsoon, a fin breaks the water, then a bill: “MARLIN!” I keep fighting it a few more minutes untilJP takes over. He thought he could bringthe fish a bit faster but it took him another 15 minutes to bring it alongsidebefore I could hook it. And then, we hadto get it on board! It took all ourcombined strengths to lift this baby up DOMINO’s topsides, securing its tail toa stanchion. Size: 2 meters; weight:between 65 and 70lbs. Net packed meat:32 lbs. We made a few people happy atthe anchorage for the next few days!

Utila east harbor - West side of anchorage

UTILA East Harbour is an easy anchorage to get into and thePavlidis guide is right on. But we foundthat the holding is better on the left (west) side of town. We’ve seen several boats drag anchor in theeastern and central sections of the anchorage, which is also the sacred domaineof the Utila Ferry who doesn’t give a hoot about the anchorage! Be warned! See our above waypoint for anchorage and try to anchor North and/or Westof that.

Clearing into Honduras at Utila is the easiest ever! A 5-minute stop at Immigration (behind Cityhall, waterfront) and a $1 (20 Lampiras) will stamp your passport and give youa crew list. The Internet shop acrossthe street will make a photocopy for a few pennies. Then, a 10-minute stop at Port Authorities (nextdoor) and a $5 bill (100 Lampiras) will give you a 90-day cruising permit forHonduras. DONE! If only all places were that easy!

Utila is bustling with tourist. Mostly backpackers and divers who take advantage of the cheapestdiving around ($60 for a 2-tank dive). Dive shops abound, as do restaurants and backpackers hostels. The snorkeling around East Bay is surprisinglygood, either the shallows on the harbour side, or the 65’ drop at the wall onthe outer part.

Parrot's: one of the many dive centers on the island

This area is all marinepark, with mooring buoys for the dinghies and ABSOLUTELY no harvesting on thereef. We delighted in free diving,encountering a good variety of fish, Eagle Ray, filefish and cowfish. The coral is healthy and abundant and we findthat Utila has nothing to envy Belize for.

Spotted Eagle Ray

No visit to Utila is complete without a visit to the JADE SEAHORSE.

A ceramic artist psychadelicdream, a cross between Dr. Seuss and Timothy O’Leary, the Jade Seahorsescintillates with glass beads structures and bottle bridges, tile waves, tiltedhouses and twisted roofs. Gaudiness anda feast for the eyes, under the wary watch of the local giant spiders. A must see!

We seem to be weathering a succession of fronts, 2 days ofweather followed by 3 or 4 days of calm, and this may well be our pattern untilthe trade winds return beginning of March. Let’s hope so. In the meantime,let’s get wet!

Until next time…

dominomarie

Guatemala

2012-01-31T06:25:00.000-08:00

January 27, 2012

Celebrating 2 years of cruising

January is not over yet, so I can still say Happy NewYear. Right, we’ve taken a 3-weekbreak from cruising and took advantage of the great prices and easy connectionfrom Guatemala City to Los Angeles to visit the family.

Celebrating 40 years of happiness together

Our youngest son, James, has grown up

And now, we’re cruising again, insearch of the ultimate island.

SKOL, Thor and Linda's boat, started our cruising dreams some 17 years ago
when we partied on board at Catalina's Ishtmus...
now 5 docks away from us on the Rio Dulce.
What an encounter!

A few words on our 6-week stay in Guatemala’s RioDulce. Marina Tortugal catered toour every need (thanks, Mike and Daphne). We noted other nice marinas: NanaJuana, AKA Catamaran Central or Frenchie Territory (enough said); Catamarans puts out the best footballparties I’ve ever seen; Mario’s ispopular with the cruisers and more isolated. However, all 3 marinas are downstream from the town and Iwouldn’t swim in these waters. Swimming in the river at Tortugal, however, was clean and refreshing andthe waterfowl is quite entertaining.

Once tucked in at Tortugal and feeling that DOMINO would bequite safe without us, we took off and toured the interior of Guatemala. Here are the highlights.

- Antigua Guatemala – A eight-hour bus ride from Rio Dulce, destroyedby volcanic activity in 1773, again in 1976, and threatened again in 2010 bylava flow oozing from the Pacaya volcan, the resilient city thrives. Restored colonial buildings house finerestaurants: Los Arcos serves incredible calamaresin su tinta, and the splendid Palacio de Doña Leonor has the best roastedcarrot soup and another great recipe for Calamares.

Volcan de Agua, from our room

- From Antigua, short excursions are mandatory.

Scaling the Volcan Pacaya, trekkingthrough the lava field and roasting marshmallows in the scalding air;

Touring Santa Maria de Jesus,mixing it with Mayan women in native garb;

Visiting the nun’s Palacio of SanJuan del Obispo and its golden chapel;

Wondering where the old city wentat Ciudad Antigua;

Weaving colorful patterns withyoung girls in San Antonio de Aguas Calientes.

- Chichicastenango is another stop, where on market day theentire city fills with thousands of locals in native garb who have no problemmixing their Mayan beliefs with Catholic rites. Be sure to see the morning offering at the church!

- Lake Atitlan – A sunken caldera filled with a lake andsurrounded by volcanoes, the site is spectacular. Make sure to take a lake tour and visit San Juan de laLaguna, its coffee co-op (La Voz que Clama en el Desierto) and its organicweaving co-op (www.weavingwomensanjuan.org). I wish I had photos, but our travelcamera died on the Pacaya…

And that was it for our interior trip. Never did we find ourselves threatenedand we really loved traveling this route. And Raul (Servamar.com) did a great job clearing us out of Guatemala at Livingstonin less than an hour!

We’re now off to Honduras’ Bay Islands: Utila, Roatan and Guanaja…

Until then…

dominomarie

Sweet Rio Dulce

2011-12-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

December 10, 2011

Marina Tortugal

Rio Dulce, Guatemala15°39 N - 89°00 W

Sweet River… Rio Dulce… JP had been adamant about spendingsome time on this Guatemalan River. But it took some convincing. I had no intention of cruising yet another river. After spending the summer on theChesapeake, Delaware and Hudson, five weeks in the mangroves of Belize, I wasweary of bugs and muddy bottoms and yearning for sandy beaches. But, JP was persuasive enough and I’mnow grateful.

What a marvelous river! A hidden gem, a presence that one would hardly suspect whenentering Livingston Harbor, the river is a succession of distinctivesceneries. First comes the gorge,from Livingston to El Golfete, a deep green canyon whose breathtaking beautyleft us speechless. Thecurtain of green descends all the way to the water, when it’s not held up bythe white shoulders of the sheer cliffs.

And the birds! The pelicansand black skimmers that greeted us in Livingston soon were replaced by amultitude of herons, great egrets, and even a few skittish kingfishers. To experience this transit fromDOMINO’s flybridge was memorable.

Then comes “El Golfete,” a wide expanse of calm watersbordered by sloping hills entirely dressed in green and embroidered withfestoons of emerald creepers.

Along the banks, under the umbrellas of fronds, fishermen paddle along in their dug-out canoes.

Here and there, palm roofs and bamboo houses spring up to signal a village. Further, a group of locals gather around a hot fishing spot, trying their luck.

Finally, at the southwestern end of “El Golfete,” at the Fronteras bridge, is the community of Rio Dulce. (Careful, the bridge may have an 80’ clearance, but the power lines only 75’) This is Marina Mecca. Hundred of boats spend the hurricane season in this area. Although the most popular marinas (Mario’s, Mar Marine, Nana Juana) are located downstream from the bridge –an area where I would never consider jumping in the water for a swim—we found the quieter marinas with cleaner river water to be upstream from the bridge (Tortugal on starboard.) Anchoring is possible in front of most marinas.

The Fronteras Bridge, viewed from upstream at Marina Tortugal

Beyond the village of Rio Dulce (Fronteras) and guarded atits entrance by the Castillo San Felipe de Lara, is Lake Izabal, the largestlake in Guatemala, 2^nd largest in Central America. Some cruisers adventure in flotillas tocruise the lake. We took the easyway: we visited the locals!

Well, not just “any” locals… referred by Bill Parlatore(Passagemaker Magazine) we connected with Oscar and Carolina, owners of a PDQcatamaran. What do powercat ownerslove to do, it seems, is to get together and talk about power catamarans.Generously, this warm couple invited us to share their Sunday family meal (wegot to take a peak at “Sea Senor”) and we were only too pleased to show themDOMINO. Yes, more friends in yetanother place.

Now, some cruising notes. LIVINGSTON: Crossing the bar can be tricky. We entered the channel on the risingtide, and had always 1’ under the hulls (we currently draw 4’8”) but boats withdeep draft may need assistance.

The Livingston Channel marker

Asfor formalities, clearing in is pretty straightforward. We called Port Authorities on VHF Ch.16and were taken in charge by the agent’s assistant (we would have loved to meetthe legendary Raul.)

Livingston Harbor anchorage

We dropped the hook way passed the gas station to avoid the shallows (I think the boat in the photo might be mark for the anchoring field, given its state of decomposition.)

Within 30 minutes,the agent was on board, accompanied by Health, Customs, Immigration, and PortCaptain. We handed them 2 copies of our crew list (in Spanish) with boatdescription, and 2 copies of boat documentation, as well as our passports. The health officer perused ourimmunization cards for his own curiosity. Less than 2 hours later, we had our documents ready to pick-up: 90-daycruising permit, 90-day stay. Bill: Q 1,600 ($210) – There will be a Q 400 /$52) exit fee.

MARINA TORTUGAL –Not every boat can make it under the Fronteras Bridge (75’ limit) and somecatamarans are too wide for Tortugal. But, for those whose who qualify, TORTUGALis a little gem. Daphne and Mikerun a lovely hostel-cum-marina, backpacker facility, bungalows, restaurant-bar,water shuttle, WiFi and 24-hour security. The service is top notch and the prices quite reasonable. We left the boat for 5 days to take atrip to Antigua Guatemala. We areso impressed with the quality of the service here that we are abandoning DOMINOto the care of Angel and Byron for the next 3 weeks for more traveling.

Until then…

dominomarie

Belize: In & Out

2011-12-11T15:27:00.001-08:00

December 6, 2011

Punta Gorda (Belize)

Punta Gorda: City dock & Port Authorities, Customs & Immigration (white building)

Before closing the chapter on Belize, I think I should try toclear some confusion about rules and regulations, fees and charges. But, is that possible? The more cruisers we speak to, the moreofficials we meet with, the more confused we get about all that is Belize. All I can do here is to report what ourexperience has been.

PORTS of ENTRY: San Pedro, Belize City, Placencia and PuntaGorda.

We entered at Belize City. We called the Belize Port Authority on VHF16 and they gaveus a waypoint at which to anchor. In typical confusion, they actually gave us 3 waypoints and we justpicked one, the closest to the Radisson hotel. That’s the only tall glass building on the peninsula. It is a better choice than entering atCucumber Beach Marina (Old Belize) where officials charge even more for theircommuting fees. We were directedto meet a Mr. Handy, the Port Authoriy Official who was waiting for us at theRadisson Hotel Pier. We weresuccessively visited (and charged commuting fee) as follows:

-Health Officer US$10

-Customs x 2 US$20 (Includes ship report and customs clearance)

-Immigration US$10 (Passport stamped)

-Port Authority US$10 (Took his report with him tothe Port Captain)

Total visiting fees: US$50

We were (erroneously) told that we were done and couldcontinue on our way, free to cruise for 30 days, and to return to PortAuthority for our exit or an extension. In fact, we should have hired a cab and presented ourselves to the PortAuthority office downtown to pay the cruising fees. We did this 30 days later, for our renewal. Cruising fees turned out to be:

- Port Authority: BZ 100 (US $50)

- Cruising fee: BZ 5/day (US $100 for 40 days)

Total cruising fees: US$150

(Note: Cruising fees are paid ahead of time and no refund isgiven if you don’t use all your cruising days, but there is no penalty if you stay longer thanexpected. The balance of yourcruising days is charged to you when you exit.)

EXIT – We exited in Punta Gorda, paying the following fees:

- Exit fee: BZ 30/person

- PACT fee: BZ 7.50/person

- Agent fee: BZ 10.00 (to type crew list and exitdocument)

Total exit cost: US $42.50

The US $250 for all Belize stay did not include access toany of the parks and marine reserves. As I’ve reported in the previouspost, most areas in Belize are protected areas and the ranger will be ontop of you to collect fees. Visitors’fees are usually US $5/person/day, unless you stay 3 days or more (but lessthan a week) in the same area and in that case you can get a US $15/personweekly pass. Of course, the BlueHole is more expensive: US $40/person/day.

NEW LONG TERM CRUISING PERMIT. A couple of weeks ago, the Port Authorities instituted a newlong-term (up to 90 days) cruising permit. We met John in Placencia who had just gone through theprocess of filling out a lengthy application and paying US $125 for the permit(half of what we paid for 40 days). He was at anchor in Placencia, waiting for the authorities to approvethe permit, a process that could last 2 weeks. Meanwhile, he was allowed to cruise to the local cays aslong as he returned to Placencia to retrieve his permit.

TO CHECK IN or NOT? Opinions differ around the cruising community. Some profess that there is no need to check into Belize ifyou only anchor outside of the outer cays. All I can share here is that we have been controlled byimmigration in several anchorages: San Pedro and Tom Owen’s cay particularly. As for the park fees, we were visitedby the ranger in every single anchorage, except Nicholas Cay.

Private Island at Gallows Point

As burdensome as the checking process may be, we encourageskippers to comply with the Belizean authorities and follow the rules. Even though the reef may be depletedcompared to what it used to be, Belize is still a wonderful destination and wehope that the authorities will eventually clear the general confusion.

Until next post,

dominomarie

Belize's Cays

2011-12-10T10:20:00.001-08:00

December 8, 2011

Punta Gorda (Belize)

Is Belize just a myth? This 190-milelong barrier reef, home to 70 hard coral species, 36 soft coral species andsome 500 varieties of fish, a prime vacation destination in Central Americaattracts a quarter-million tourists every year. But cruisers? We only met one cruising boat during our five weeks here. But that British boat was not evencruising yet. It was at anchor inPlacencia, patiently waiting for its cruising permit to be granted. The utter confusion of the Belizeanadministration when it comes to cruisers added to the nickel-and-dimingcruisers every time they drop anchor makes Belize a plus/minusdestination. Beautiful, yes;difficult, even more. I willreserve the next blog to summarize our administrative experience and try tomake sense of cruising regulations and fees.

Tobacco Cay

But,to the Cays. The stretch of outercays between Dangriga and Punta Gorda promises the most spectacular snorkelingand fishing. Most of the area hasbeen designated Marine Reserve, or Fishing reserve, or Park, all managed andpatrolled by the official from the fisheries department, preying on the touristfor visitors fees at each anchorage. It’s hard to tell where anchoring and fishing is allowed versus not. The fisheries department had no chartto share, neither did the tourist info office. Finally, we let the officials draw the marine reserve limitson our own chart. According toWikipedia,

“A large portion of the reef isprotected by the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, which includes seven marine reserves, 450 cays, and three atolls. It totals 960 square kilometres(370 sq mi) in area, including:

▪ Glover's Reef Marine Reserve

▪ Great Blue Hole

▪ Half Moon Caye Natural Monument

▪ Hol Chan Marine Reserve

Cays include: Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, Caye Chapel, St. George's Caye, English Caye, Rendezvous Caye, Gladden Caye, Ranguana Caye, Long Caye, Maho Caye, Blackbird Caye, Three Coner Caye, Northern Caye, Sandbore Caye.”

Butwe found out it was a lot more than that.

Into Tobacco Range anchorage

TobaccoRange

16°52.62N- 088°05.51W

Withthe recommendation from local professional skipper Cliff Wilson (Cat Charters Belize) we made an easyentrance at Tobacco Reef and anchored in the mangrove-lined horseshoe of theTobacco range. From this veryquiet and safe anchorage, we expected to kayak to the neighboring Man-of-warbird reserve ($5/person) or to the outer reef for a snorkeling trip. But just before nightfall, the marinerangers were on us to ask us for park fees. Yes, the entire Tobacco Range is a reserve (not justMan-of-war). And, by the way,Pelican Cays to the south are also a reserve and a fee must be collected aswell. So are the Sapodilla cays,but managed by another department, and the week pass ($15/person) for Tobaccoand Pelican does NOT include the Sapodillas.

After the ranger drew the limits of the parks and reserves, only a few free destinations remained:

- Garbutt Cay, at the northern entrance of Tobacco Cut

- Tom Owen’s Cay, at the northern tip of the Sapodilla Cays

Period.

The Mangroves at Tobacco range

Wehad come to this anchorage to see birds, but with the exception of onekingfisher and a handful of man-of-wars, there was nothing to be seen. While we were fodder for sandflies, wedecided to go to Placencia and find out where, really, we could snorkel forfree and catch our own dinner.

At last!

Fortunately, we finally caught some fish, a pair of 22-lb CrevalleJacks… and if you have a good recipe to make this fish taste a little lessgamey and a bit more tender, send it over, willya?

Placencia

16°30.66 N -088°21.95 W

Home to theBelize Moorings base, Placencia is a charming little town, colorful and withone of the very few sand beaches in Belize. There was plenty of water for us to approach from the NE,and Freya Rauscher’s notes and drawings are right on.

We dropped anchor in front of Yoli’sbar, apparently the cruisers’ rendez-vous spot. On a mission, we hit every shop possible to get informationon fishing and park regulations: gift shops, dive shops, snorkeling shops,visitors info center: nothing. Theonly map we found ($5) had only a sketchy outline of the cays and parks. Back to Yoli’s, we were saved by Britcruiser “John” who indicated the only freebee in the area: Tom Owen’s… “andit’s crawling with lobsters, lined with conch!”

Placencia's only wildlife!

Tom Owen’sCay

16°11.26 N - 088°13.95 W

Tom Owen's West Cay

What a gorgeous place! What a tight and difficult anchorage! Surrounded bycoral heads, we plopped “Big Bertha,” our 165-lb Raya anchor and set it deeplyin the sand, between Tom Owen’s west and east cays. Reef to eternity! Finally, we were going to be able to snorkel to our heart’s content and,surely, catch ourselves a lobster or a conch for dinner. But, to our dismay, we were notalone.

The Mexicans Pro fishermen are booted out by Immigration

A rogue Mexican fishingsailboat was at anchor at East Cay, complete with his crew of half-a-dozencanoes. What John had experienceda week ago, a place crawling with lobsters, had become a desert. We dove for four hours, extensivelysurveying the fish, conch and lobster population, while bumping into Mexicancanoes at each site. Not a conch!One under-sized lobster only! Precariously little fish! However splendid the coral may be, thislack of marine life was disheartening. Soon, we were boarded by the patrol boat: fisheries andimmigration. Yes, we were allowedto stay for free, snorkel and fish. But the immigration officer was on the illegal Mexicans and booted themout of the area. In the morning,they were gone, and so were we, looking for better luck. Still, Tom Owen’s Cay is a splendiddestination, but don’t expect to catch dinner!

NicholasCay

16°07.24 N- 088°15.84

Anothertricky entrance. Although the unmarked(of course!) Nicholas is wide and deep, the channel hooks between coral headsto the anchorage, the charts are not terribly accurate, and it’s all about thedepth sounder, good visibility and a lookout on the bow! But at last, we settled in 20 feet ofwater and once more plopped Big Bertha with enough chain to face ahurricane!

We expected a bit ofwind. Although Nicholas Cay is aprivate island, it is part (we think) of the Sapodilla Cays Marine Reserve… nofishing, no taking. Look, but don’ttouch! And it’s worth lookingat. Various snorkeling conditions:shallow, easy and crawling with lobster on the west end (we counted more than20 under one coral head); deeper, tonic with breaking waves on the east end,home to the biggest hogfish and French angel fish I had ever seen; or sandywith turtle grass and lined with giant-sized conch, Nicholas Cay is worth the$5/person/day visitors fee… if the patrol boat shows up and collects, which didnot happen. In the end, we had amarvelous (and free) dive in one of the best spots in Belize. We noticed that a charter boat wasstopped on the outer reef, taking scuba divers for a dip… must be a good spot!

FromNicholas Cay to Punta Gorda, fish the outer reef at the drop: we were rewarded(at last) with a 42-lb wahoo!

Punta Gorda

16°05.91 N- 088°48.12 W

The Market

Anchoringat Punta Gorda is an experience. Drop the hook in front of the decrepit turquoise-and-white fish market,take your dink to the cement dock and compete with the locals for a tie-up atthe only “mooring bit,” a broken, rotten wooden stake sticking 3” out of theground. Then, cross the puddles offish juice, look at the too few fish for sale (1 jack, a string of tinysnappers still flickering on the palm frond,) walk by the un-refrigerated meatmarket, and dive into the street.

Stumble through the farmers and their spectacular fresh produce: pineapple,bananas, passion fruit, cabbage and potatoes, sweet ginger and dry beans. You want to speak English, the officiallanguage, or Spanish because all vendors look like they come from neighboringGuatemala, but they answer in Maya dialect and you’re lost. No matter, it’s all beautiful.

Provisioning is easy, up the hill andon Main street, by the freshly-painted clock tower, there are 3 grocerystores. It’s Belize’s deep south,poor, vibrant, unforgettable.

As rolly and noisy (night club till dawn!) as this anchorage is, it provides an easy out for an early departure to Livingston (Guatemala), entrance to the Rio Dulce.

And now, toCustoms, Immigration and Port Captain for our exit…. But that’s another story…

Till then,

dominomarie

ATM Caves

2011-12-03T04:52:00.001-08:00

ATM Cave: the beautiful hourglass entrance

December 3, 2011

Old Belize Marina

Before leaving Belize City, a word about the most amazing excursionwe’ve made so far: the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave.

Ceremonial vessels, crystallized

I’ll be brief, since I couldn’t possibly put into words theintensity of the experience I felt while plunging into the watery underworld ofthe ancient Maya civilization.

Deliberate ceremonial placement

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, geologically and culturally.

Sacrificial

If you are in Belize, don’t miss it and make sure to bookwith PACZ tours: bestguides around and Bob will help you with last-minute shopping, hotel room,restaurant… great guys.

Don’t forget a trip at the Iguana Project at the San Ignaciohotel: Give Gomez a kiss for me, will ya?

This is Gomez

Iguana Mama

In San Ignacio:

Hotel: Casablanca($30/night) complete with kitchen, community dining area and foyer.

Restaurants: breakfast at Flayva, the best tortillas andbreakfast burritos ever. (#1, Trip Advisor) – Dinner at Serendib if youlike Sri Lankan Curry.

Guatemala-Belize border

We’re off south

Until then

dominomarie

Tikal: Amanecer

2011-12-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

November 28, 2011

Tikal (Guatemala)

It’s 5 AM and you sit at the top of the Pyramid of theTwo-Headed Serpent. Above therainforest canopy, in the pre-dawn darkness, you barely make out the masses ofmist drifting along the mild breeze. You wish you had notforgotten your raincoat: it’s wet but not raining yet: not quite yet.

You came here before dawn for the same reason as the handfulof tourists sitting on the ancient narrow Mayan steps did: to experience “elamanecer,” the awakening of a new day in Tikal. The mist gets thicker over the rainforest, you feel thechill and you suddenly understand the meaning of “dew point.” Rain starts to drizzle and you retreatinto the nooks and crannies of the old stones. You shiver with the sweeping wind; you shake rain rivuletsoff your brow; but you don’t leave your precarious shelter, 150 feet above thetrail.

The sky turns a lighter shade of pale, highlighting theclouds and revealing curtains of drizzle all around you. All has fallen quiet. Even the six Lithuanian who drank and holleredall night outside your hotel room door are now silent. To your left, arms outstretchedto the heavens, someone hums. Below you, the Latina who kept your group waiting 20 minutes for herdecked-out appearance whispers a prayer to the East. All heads turn to the Gran Jaguar Temple (Temple I) and waitfor sunrise.

It’s 0610 and the sun is rising, somewhere, beneath theclouds, beyond the wetness. In thepale light, shifting in and out of the rain, the great Mayan temples’ crestsemerge from the jungle. Here arethe Great Jaguar (Temple I, 47 meters, 734AD), The Great Temple of the JaguarPriest (Temple III, 57 meters, 810 AD), and the most ancient ruin of all: ElMundo Perdido (900BC.)

A new day has risen over Tikal, the great religious and rulingcity of the Maya (a UNESCO site since 1979.) You expect the rainforest to awake. You listen for the deep-throated callof the Howler Monkey, for the scream of scattering Spider Monkeys, for therustle of wings from the Orange Breasted Falcon or the cackle of parrots. But all you hear is the steady drummingof the rain on the thick canopy 100 feet below. You didn’t see the sunrise. Instead, you witnessed the rainforest and its un-escapablegrip on the earth.

Drenched and shivering, you retrace the 200 steps to theforest floor and observe the trail a bit closer. Didn’t this fern just grow? Did this moss just get thicker? This bromeliad, you swear, dug deeper into the rock. This limestone, surely, eroded just atad more. For now, the monkeys areignoring daylight, the birds are retrenched in their nests, and even the small“Pizote” tapir is not venturing out. For now, it’s the rain and the forest who play their mating ritual. Jointly, inexorably, they swallow theancient stones and deepen the Tikal mystery.

You missed the sunrise but you honored your rendez-vous withNature. The rain god Chaac has answered his people’sprayer.

You wish for a hot shower and dry clothes, yet you are ready to scale the Temple of the Two-Headed Serpent one more time: tonight… sunset!

From the Jaguar Inn

Tikal National Park, Guatemala

Turkey in Belize

2011-11-27T06:17:00.001-08:00

November 26, 2011

Old Belize Marina

Cucumber Beach

Thanksgiving is past and our son Arnaud and his family aregone, back to work and their city lives. I hope they are very tired and will sleep the whole way back. Tired, they should be, after the wildfive days we’ve just spent. Fivedays of FIRST experiences.

(Mon 11/21) Never wanting to waste good vacation time, wepicked them up from the Belize City airport with our cabbie-turned-tour-guide,Marlon, in his beat-up hatchback. The kids’ flight had been cancelled the previous day and, already 24hours late on the schedule, we all wanted to hit the ground running. With the suitcases strapped on top ofMarlon’s taxi, we rushed to our first destination: the zoo. But it wasn’t long before athunderstorm hit and all the suitcases flew off the roof. “Backup, Marlon!” we all yelled at once. Gentle Marlon did as ordered, only to roll right over thesuitcases! In no time, we had thecar re-packed, including the suitcases stashed in the boot and the women takingturn riding with the crushed luggage, in the boot as well. Cool!

The Belize zoo is a track cut directly through therainforest, and pens provide natural enclosures for wild animals. There, Caleb (8) and Jack (5) collecteda number of “first.” The big cats, of course: jaguar, puma, ocelot, and severalmore varieties of smaller wildcats; and the big birds: Jabiru stork, Harpyeagle, Barn owls; crocodiles and tapirs; and biting ants that had the boys begArnaud for a piggy back ride! That was no first…

(Tue 11/22) The next day had us running some more: Blue Hole(on land), cavetubing, ziplining and Mayan ruins were on the program. Visitors in Belize City should rememberthat cruise ships invade the region from Tuesday to Thursday. Mid-week, some 15,000 tourists want topack all the activities in one afternoon. It was no surprise, then, to float down the cave system of the BranchRiver in the midst of dozen of fancy yellow inner tubes, hallmarks of the fancyand pricey tour operators that prey on cruise ship customers. As for us, we had the cheep black innertubes, but the best guide, Georges. As we snaked down the rapids and George steered us expertly through theturns, dunking us under a waterfall on occasion, we spied lonely touristslistening to George’s commentaries: the logs implanted in the cave’s roof bysome flash flood, the crystallized Mayan family, the Eagle, and Mayan lore tillno end. Hi marks to the littleguide! The six of us, now atube-train, chugged down river and even little Jack accepted to “butt-up” inthe cold current for his first cave tubing ride.

No sooner had we changed into dry clothes that we raised toour next challenge: zip-lining. The adults were a bit stressed by the idea of hanging in the canopy, butthe kids took to it like fish to water. Even 5-year old Jack had a big smile on his face. Tarzanwould have been proud of us, swinging from tree to tree, yet another first!

But no rest for the traveler. Marlon was ready to whisk us to our next destination: The Altun Ha Mayanruins. I highly recommend to getthere as we did, by late afternoon. All the tourists have gone back to their ships and the guide gives youtotal freedom to roam as you please for an hour. We were the only ones at the site, even more grandiose whendeserted, and the kids swallowed their cultural pill: Mayan ruins! A first!

(Wed. 11/23) Morning saw us underway early as we took DOMINOback to Turneffe Island. One ofthe three atolls offshore of Belize City, Turneffe requires local knowledge anda draft below 5 feet to safely navigate its waters. Once more, Freya Rausher’s guide was right on themoney. The south cut is by far thesafest entrance, but don’t expect to find the “stake with a yellow flag,” it’sgone. Blue Creek to the NW onlyhas a 3’ depth before getting to the channel, and the SW channel by the fishcamp also has a very shallow (under 4’) access before getting to the deeperwater and anchorage. Not an optionif you draw 5’. Inside the atoll,don’t expect to see the “Blue & Yellow flag” marking the anchorage:Hurricane Richard claimed it last year. Do take extreme care in setting your anchor in the thick and long turtlegrass. Fortunately, there are afew small patches of sand to choose from. Nevertheless, it took us 5 tries before we got a good grip on thebottom. Turneffe is, no doubt, abit of a challenge to get to, but so worth it! The snorkeling is excellent everywhere, inside and outsidethe reef, at the 3 major cuts SE of the island as well as at the westernanchorage. Depending on prevailingwinds, you can always pick a protected snorkeling spot. What better place to give the kids andAnh their first ever snorkeling trip? Eagle ray, trunkfish, French angel fish, Queen parrotfish, triggerfish,Black Durgon, and a healthy variety of corals, sponge and gorgonia were at therendez-vous to dazzled the young eyes. But Arnaud got his rewardfor taking the trip: a half-dozen adult conchs were begging for harvesting…Dinner! Another first for Arnaudand Anh!

(Note: diving the “Elbow” at Turneffe is one of the bestdives in Belize. A sheer wallcombined with drift-diving, colonies of Eagle Rays and Durgons, the Elbowattracts the most discriminating divers. But don’t expect to book a dive with the Turneffe Island Resort. No longer a “lodge” with on-site divingservices and Laundromat, the resort is an all-inclusive deal, booked on-linefrom their headquarters. There isno handling of money on the island. If you want even 1 dive, you must also book a one-day hotel reservationand do it by Internet. We skippedthe dive, unfortunately. However,dive boats from Belize City do service the Elbow Reef, but this must be bookedfrom Belize City.)

(Thur 11/24) The next day had Arnaud itching forfishing. We had been skunked onthe way to Turneffe and had no intention to be skunked again on the way back tothe mainland. Arnaud was up atsunrise (0530) and by 0600 we were outside the reef and trolling the Elbow Reefand its vertiginous drop. The fisthookup took almost all Arnaud’s line and (my fault for tightening too fast)bait and tackle as well. Thesecond hookup gave Arnaud a good fight but got away when sidled to theboat. The third hookup was thecharm: a small tuna… poor little thing gave Jack his first grieving experiencewhile Caleb quipped, “Sorry, Bro, that’s what men do: eat fish!”

But the BIG First of the day was sighting a water spout…just picture it!

Mid-day saw us at Swallow Cay in the Drowned Cays NE ofBelize City. We dropped the hookjust off the Manatee Reserve (17°30.16N- 088°06.84W) and called the ranger for apick-up (Donovan: 605-5896). A fewminutes later, Andre showed up on his skiff and took us hunting formanatees. Not easy to spot, thosebig sea cows, but we a cow and her calf could not escape Anh’s eagle eye. Spotting manatees: another first forJack while caleb took a long nap through the entire trip, lulled by the peaceof the mangrove.

But ti’s Thanksgiving and I’ve got to think of dinner. Pumpkin pie is chillin’ and potatoesare boiling, the ham is in the oven and it’s time to raise anchor to our nextpoint: the nearby anchorage at Gallow’s Point (17°28.700N - 088°04.72W). Too late to go to shore, we were justcontent to watch a flight of Ibis birds crossing the flaming sky at sunset,while Jack was counting the minutes to 6 o-clock, AKA Pumpkin pie time! I suddenly felt like the iron chef,joined in the galley by JP who was ordered to throw butter in the sweet potatopuree (Yck! Cholesterol!), take the ham out of the oven (more cholesterol),plate the green beans and endives (now, that’s better diet), cranberry sauce…there, all done and jack yells: “PumpkinPie!”

We made it just in the nick of time and our grandsons give us a “10”for the pie. What a greatthanksgiving, and for sure, another first: Thanksgiving on board.

(Fri 11/25) Time for R&R. We’ve been going flat out for 3 days and today is farniente, Belizian time. Arnaud and Anh dunk the kayaks in the creek and it’s another first for Anh: kayaking. JP and I whisk the boys to Gallow’s point and gasp at the sight.

Rudy and his family are caretakers fora private island that is soon to be turned into day-trip resort for cruise shippassengers. Perish the thought ofsuch beauty being mangled by 15,000 people a week! We spent all day with the family, looking for seashells andeventually went to the boat to bake a “thank you” red velvet cake… and a pound cake for Jack!

An ideal day it was, crowned by swapping 4 beers for 8 lobsters… and while Jack had his second grieving experience at the sight of the cooked lobster, Caleb told him the facts of life: “Sorry, Bro, that’s what men do: we eat lobster!”

(Sat 11/26) Back at Old Belize marina, it was time to say goodbye toour kids… and clean the boat after five days of bliss and fun, if only marredby mosquitoes and sandflies that got under the kids’ skin… the price of atropical vacation, the welts just one bittersweet souvenir!

We’re off for a land trip: Tikal, Guatemala. Until then….

dominomarie

Old Belize

2011-11-19T14:15:00.001-08:00

Cucumber Beach, rebuilt last year after Hurricane Richard destroyed the lagoon

November 19, 2011

Cucumber Beach Marina

Old Belize

17. 28.32N

088. 14.92W

DOMINO settled in and attracting her usual crowd of admirers

Let me put away my navigation notes, charts, and allow me tonot tell you a word (yet) about Turneffe Attoll where we just spent 8 idyllicdays of snorkeling and free-diving. I’ll keep it secret for a little bit longer.

The Crazy Gringo bar and restaurant, right off the dock

Instead, let me tell you about the cute Cucumber Beach marina in Old Belize. Who knew this was here?Sure, it was in theRauscher guide book and I just added it to the Active Captain website. Just south of Belize city, this smallmarina only had 4 transient berths, so you’d better make advanced reservationif you want a spot.

Ready to weigh in

Don’t expect fancy-schmancy facilities. What you find here is a friendly staff andFrancisco, the marina’s owner, who does absolutely anything in his power tomake Belize a cruiser-friendly place.

As you’ve picked up from our previous blogs, Belize lacksaids to navigation. As such, negotiatingthe reef, the shallows and the narrow cuts is difficult. Frequent hurricanes wipe out the fewmarks and shift the bottom and shoals. Yet, for all its deficiency in marking the reef, the Belizian navy holdsany yachtie who hits a reef entirely responsible for damage to the reef. Just recently, a yachtie who destroyedhis small Lagoon catamaran was fined over 1 million Belize dollars. The case is still fought in court.

The northern part of Belize also lacks marinas andfacilities for transients. Cucumber Beach marina has plans to expand and upgrade, but this canhardly meet the needs of the high cruising season (Easter time.)

Yet, Francisco Woods keeps plugging away at it. He has built a little heaven here. A restaurant and bar, of course, butalso a lagoon, artificial beach and waterslide since there is no beach to speakof in this area. But what I admireFrancisco most is for creating the Old Belize Museum, a Disneyland-liketime-travel through the different periods of Belize. I can’t wait to take our grandsons there next week.

One boat's catch... what Belize is all about!

Yes, our family is arriving tomorrow, and I’m keeping thisblog short. Time for laundry(rustic but working Laundromat here), provisioning (taxicab Marlon has becomeour official guide) and boat cleaning.

I’m getting off this blog to go take photos of the sportfisherscoming in with their catch, competing in the BlueWater tournament this weekend. Meanwhile, JP finishes splicing the newbridle for the 3/8” chain… and that’s that!

Tomorrow, the kids!

Until then,

dominomarie

Cool Cay Caulker

2011-11-19T09:04:00.001-08:00

Different Cays

(From Ambergis to Caulker)

November 8, 2011

Cay Caulker, Belize

17°44.74 N

081°01.65 W

Three days in San Pedro (Ambergis Cay) were enough to cureus from civilization. True, thedive with Ambergis Divers was fantastic, cruising 70 feet below the surface, upand down and along the spur-and-groove canyons, coming face to face with nursesharks, giant black groupers, eagle rays, hawksbill turtles and a healthypopulation of gorgonians and corals… AND an enormous population of divers, airbubbles, kicked sand and fins. Even though JP and I got our own private guide who let us explore at ourwill, I felt cramped with this underwater crowd and longed for a more secludeddive. A snorkeling trip, maybe, onour own? The Hol Chan marine parkis extensively visited by tourists, and we were in no mood to pay $10 each tosnorkel with dozens fins splashing around us… call us spoiled, I admit.

We explored up and down the inside of the reef at AmbergisCay, all the way north to Mata cut, and got disappointed with the poorcondition of the inside reef. Outside the reef, we made it in the direction of the popular MexicoRocks and found the reef healthier, but still, we were hungry for more. We tried to book a dive to The BlueHole but balked at the $250/person price tag to dive with bull sharks, just tocheck this dive off our bucket list. We had experienced Dean's blue hole in Long Island (Bahamas) and were satisfiedwith that sight.

At the anchorage, tour boats and ferries kept zipping alongus at high speed, throwing their wakes around and making our stay not too enjoyable. Too risky to dive off the boat, youmight get run over. Karaoke wasgoing full blast all afternoon, night club till dawn, not our crowd. Watching the sunset from The Tackle Boxbar (great place to park the dink) enters American expat, John Kennedy. “Come to Cay Caulker, you’ll love it.”

But going back to Cay Caulker was yet anotherchallenge. As you probablyunderstood from our previous posts, aids to navigation (ATONs) are practicallyinexistent in this area. We hadpassed the “deep water” point in Rauscher’s guide with 0.0 water under ourhulls. So, we resorted to newmeans of navigation, thanks to our electronics.

1) We added a radar overlay to our chartplotter. Now, we could see the discrepancybetween what was charted and what was real.

2) We spotted the ferries visually and on the radar, savedthem as marks and tracked their progress: now we knew were the deep water was.

3) We spotted the fishermen planting their sticks:

crab potmarkers, not to be mistaken for channel markers.

4) Weaving right and left and observing the depth sounder,we marked a waypoint anytime we found deeper water.

We soon had a track, a bit weavy on the way south, but to beadjusted for our backtrack north when we exit tomorrow. All told, our track is 300 yards westof Rauscher’s track, with the Cay Caulker North waypoint’s long. at 88.01.71(same lat.)

Cay Caulker is our kind of place: laid back, bare-feet, aheaven for back-packers and low-budget travelers. Not another boat at the western anchorage. We tied the dink at the fuel dock bythe fisherman’s co-op (where, paradoxally, no fish was for sale) and crossedthe 3 sand-packed streets that lead to the eastern side of the island. There, at the Sports Bar, John Kennedywas waiting for us, his white Stetson firmly perched on his head. In no time, John had given us a tour ofthe settlement he called home: thebakery on Avenida Langosta (love that name) and, 2 doors down, the tortillastand. But don’t expect to gettortilla at any hour of the day.

The family bakes them fresh only twice a day: at lunchtime and at dinnertime. We got our dozen of fresh corntortillas for a buck and went exploring the dinner scene, munching on the said tortillas,compromising our appetite for dinner… oh well…

With 34 restaurants to choose from and more beachside standslike John’s (another American expat) BBQ shrimp, our search for thequintessential Belizian restaurant was a task.

Don Corleone is a favorite, but definitely Italian; Habanero’sis a pricey popular choice, with a palpable Indian flavor;

Rose’s Grill and Baron Calle del Sol displays a tantalizing arrays of seafood right on the street,very hard to resist; but ask any local and they’ll send you to Syd’s.

There we sat at a plastic table in the smallgarden, sipping an obligatory Belikin beer right off the bottle (after removingthe folded paper napkin on the top) and ordered an all-conch dinner: fried(oops) conch fingers and oven-steamed conch. Delightful, in spite of the wait while Syd’s kitchen waspacking 2 dozens take-out meals for the local lodges.

No visit to Cay Caulker is complete without landing the dinkat the Lazy Lizard lounge at “The Split.” The split is a cut created by hurricane Hattie in 1961, when the waterrushed across the island and just split it in two.

It’s a gathering place for all international travelers towatch the sunset while others brave the swift currents that run through thecut. We just loved the relaxedatmosphere there.

As for snorkeling, we were not so lucky. We were just spotting a lobster inside thereef, in an area we thought outside the marine park limits when the park rangerwas on us: Pay $10 each or moveaway… way away… south of the island, at least past the cut between Cay Caulkerand Cay Chapel. And so we did,moved the dink another mile south and enjoyed a pretty snorkel, no big fish, nolobster, no conch (only a conch graveyard), but a pretty healthy reef. At least, this was free. Yet, we were wondering where, oh where,would we find good snorkeling and free diving (in both senses of the term.)

We kissed John Kennedy goodbye (you’ll find him at theSports Bar just about any day) and are leaving for another destination:Turneffe Attoll.

Until then…

dominomarie

STUCK in Belize

2011-11-07T06:40:00.000-08:00

November 7, 2011

Ambergis Divers, San Pedro, Domino at anchor

San Pedro

Ambergis Cay

Belize

17°55.032N - 087°57.595W

First, the good news. It’s 0600 and the sun is peeking over the horizon, a salmon skywelcoming the new day. The strongnortherly winds that blew all night have died just before dawn and it’s a balmy80°F in the cabin. JP is gettingready to run the genset because, ditzy me, I forgot to flip the alternatorswitch to “ON” when we were running 2 days ago, which means our batteries didnot charge under way. Oh, well,our big 12KW NorthernLight will have to work a bit and add one hour to its puny208 hours accumulated in the last 660 days. This genset has it easy. But this post is not about the genset.

Then, the good news. Wewere just running the numbers to see how DOMINO did, fuel-wise, since we gaveher that big 2,606 gal. gulp in Myrtle Beach. So, take your pencils and calculators and double-check ourfigures. We ran the engines for132 hours, covered 1,327 NM, and burned 900 gallons. In my book, that looks like averaging 1.47 mpg, at anaverage speed of 10 knots. Thatmeans, all conditions confounded: running across the Gulf Stream at 20 knots (2000 rpm), running againstit at 8 knots (1200 rpm), running with the Cuban counter-current at 12 knots(1100 rpm), trolling at 7 knots on one engine (900 rpm on trolling mode burns1.7 gph), and even running at Zero knots and looking for deep water for acouple of hours when we got stuck.

Yes, we got stuck (euphemism for “running aground.”) As they say, there are only 2 kinds ofpeople who never run aground: those who don’t leave the marina slip, and thosewho lie. But since we travel(15,350 NM in 20 months) and I try to be candid with our experiences, well,there, you have it, we ran aground… in Porto Stuck, no less!

The inside passage from Belize City to Guatemala is deep and wide andeasy, SOUTH of Belize City. Butrunning the inside passage to Ambergis Cay by going NORTH of Belize city isanother story. Narrow passages,unmarked and shoaled up are a recipe for running aground.

Red squiggle: where we ran aground. Black/red dots: deep water channel.
The channel is actually 300 yards east of what the Navnet Chart showed.

We were well armed with charts and guides, though: the latest versionof Navnet3D and appropriate Navionics charts of Central America; the i-Pad,loaded with the latest upgrade of Navionics charts for the region: FreyaRauscher’s Cruising Guide to Belize (2007 edition) and its hand-drawnsketches. We had even talked to alocal fisherman to ask him how to clear the North Drowned Cay to go to CayCaulker. He said: west of the cay. JP fired up the engines and offwe went. But we didn’t gofar. As we approached the 2 stakesmaking North Drowned Cay shoal, we registered 3” under the hull. West of the cay was an impossible routeto the North. The Fisherman hadgiven us the route to Moho Cay, not to Cay Caulker. Where to go, then? East of the Between Sallow Cay andN.Drwoned cay? But on which sideof the stakes? We zig-zagged for awhile, looking for deep water, none to be found. Finally, we called the port captain. “Go starboard of the stakes…” Confusingto us: we leave a mark to port or starboard, but we go east or west of amark. Confirmation? “Yes, leave the stakes to port.” Finally, we find the channel, with 3”under our hulls. “DOMINO, alteryour course 5 degrees to starboard,” calls the port captain, and we do… only torun aground one more time. Pokingaround to the west, we found the channel again. By that time, the Navnet and the iPad had us navigating ondry land for some time.

Inaacurate electronic chart can be very dangerous.

The ride through the mangrove-lined waters was eerie, flat, the skymetallic gray, the shallow, murky waters filled with dinner-plate size jellyfish and ready-to-sting men-of –war. Don’t you get stuck in there and have to walk through the shallows toset a kedging anchor! The Airmardepth sounder registers 20cm under the hull, 10 cm (3”), ZERO! We’re stuck again! PORTO STUCK bears its name well. We kept studying Freya Rauscher’ssketch, looking for the steel pipe and stakes: not around us! We could see the tripod but even lined up properly, could not make ourapproach between Hicks and Montejo Cays. We zigzagged for an hour, by now disoriented a bit, when we spotted, wayto the east of us, the Belize Shuttle that runs from Belize City to SanPedro. At last, we had found ourtrack! One steel pipe and onestake is all that’s left to mark the 10-foot deep, narrow channel. It took us 3 hours to cover the 18miles to Cay Chapel where we dropped anchor for the night, short of ourintended destination.

Dropped the hook in front of Cay Chapel Marina and Golf

In the morning, we got very shallow again, clearing the north end ofCay Caulker with only 3 inches under our hulls (we draw 4.5 feet), and that’snot even at low tide!

San Pedro, Ambergis Cay

At last, we arrived San Pedro in Ambergis Cay, following FreyaRauschers detailed instructions, and dropped the hook in front of the TackleBox, with 50cm under our hulls. We’ve been here 3 days, the fringe of the reef a thin white line on ourstarboard, the vibrant settlement of San Pedro on our port, and dozens of localboats shuttling tourists at high speed at all hours of the day, throwing theirwakes along our sides. Busyplace!

The Tackle Box, Ambergis Cay, San Pedro

So, what did we learn? Never trust your electronics charts fully; sketches in cruising guidesare just sketches, not intended for navigation; be wary of the advice of localmariners; even the port authority may lead you astray; travel the shallowsslowly and at high tide; pray tothe Almighty to hold that high tide for a few hours!

Now, let’s go diving!

Until then…

dominomarie

Wavin’ Belize

2011-11-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Learning to set the AP on No-Drift setting helps!

San Pedro, Ambergis Cay

Belize

WOW! What atrip the last 5 days of navigation! From Marathon Key to Belize City and Ambergis Cay, we’ve experienced adiversity of crossings, seas and chart accuracy. Another big lesson for us (well, maybe not JP, but for me atleast.)

We left Marathon with a good weather forecast: mild winds(5-15kts) and we expected a fairly easy passage. Our plan was to coast along the Keys until the latitude ofKey Largo or until we found a strong current against, then cross perpendicularto the Gulf Stream in the direction of the North Coast of Cuba, with theintention of finding the counter-current that run westerly on that coast, roundCabo San Antonio and again find the counter-current close to shore, and crossthe Yucatan Basin (and the Equatorial Current) at an angle to the south pointof Banco Chinchorro (Mexico). Fromthere, we were supposed to find a southern current that would help us along,between Turneffe Islands and the coast of Belize, to Belize City. That’s a 650-mile crossing, and therewas a good chance that we would arrive before dawn: easy to do in Belize CityHarbor. Good, we had a plan.

Forgot to set the AP on No-Drift mode; result: XTE of a.8 miles

DOMINO’s SPEED – Once we committed to crossing the GulfStream, JP got tired of our “economical” speed of 10-11 kt, with the currentknocking down 2 knots and we were getting bored, DOMINO just crying to struther stuff. And we let her. JP opened the throttles at 75%, andDOMINO rose up a full foot, cutting the waves and gliding at 19.6 knots,flawlessly. The ride was socomfortable that I just had to shoot a (very poor quality) video… you’ll getthe idea from the clip. As expected,we only had 2 to 4’ waves on our beam and 10kt winds across. See link below:

http://youtu.be/PVWBLAe46aw

2000 rpm, 19.6 kts, 26gph

WAVES – The forecast had called for 4 to 6’ waves. As usual, I had read Steve Dashew’sblog, the latest on—precicesly—wave forecast, and I was just sitting in the aftdeck, counting: 1-2-3: 4 feet; 1-2-3-: 6 feet; 1-2-3: 5 feet…. JP, perplexed,was wondering what I was doing. “Counting the third wave,” I answered. Of course, he knew I was trying to verify the posting byDashew. But this is the differencebetween us: JP is mathematical, I’m…well…blonde. I understood the word THIRD as sequential, not asfractional, like 33%. So, I’m notgoing to bore you with the explanation, go to www.setsail.comand read Steve’s column. But,bottom line, even though the forecast was for 4-6’ waves, sure enough we had afew 8-footers with the occasional 12-footers. And, when a twelve-foot following wave starts snarling anicy-blue smile at her crest and is looking at you straight in the eye, well,that’s pretty awesome!

Small waves, big waves and bigger ones too

The first 48 hours of our trip were pretty rocky, betweenthe current and the waves, but nothing to it. On the third day, those short, big waves finally gave up,perhaps tired of trying to scare DOMINO, and turned into a lovely train oflong, following seas. We dropped 2lines astern, killed one of the engines, and enjoyed the ride. From my station by the port slidingdoor, I could not hear the engine. For a moment, there, I swore we were sailing, the swish-swish of thewaves under our hulls, the lazy motion of the boat gliding forward. Just lovely!

This gull spent a couple of hours with us, picking at this flying fish

BELIZE CLEARANCE – If you want to get thoroughly confused,call the Belize Port Authority on arrival, which is what you’re supposed todo. Three agents will answer, eachone giving you a different anchorage waypoint. Pick one, anyone will do. After 30 minutes of back-and-forth with the authorities, weanchored off of the Radisson Hotel where the authorities eventually showed up(port, health, customs and immigration) and cleared us in. By 2PM we were ready to move on.

STUCK – I must keep some writing for tomorrow. But for today, I’ll say that we wereextremely disappointed with our Furuno/Navnet 3D charts of the area (Navionicsversion). Even the i-Pad version(Navionics too) was wrong. Theclosest to reality was Frieda Rausher’s guide, but not her big chart: only thesmall drawings in the guide itself. We ran aground umpteen times, navigated with 3” under the hulls plentyof times, and it was a most nerve-wracking passage. But more on that later. I’m leaving you for now…

Till next time

dominomarie

And We're Off!

2011-10-31T10:28:00.000-07:00

October 31, 2011
Marathon Key, FL
Boot Key harbor

"Red Sky in the Morning,
Sailor Take Warning."

The ocean was beckoning this morning, the dismantled bridge open on the cut to the open sea. Our neighbor, a 50' sailing cat, was already motoring out but we still had a few things to do. Waiting for the storm to pass, for one.

Two hours of downpour later, we were able to make our way to Fedex and track our packages through UPS and the US Post Office... all had been returned to sender. So much for our sprouting seeds, seal-a-meal packaging and odds and ends. We're done!

I'm typing this while downloading our new XGate satellite communication package, so we won't be totally out of touch. The crew at the Satphone Store did a fantastic job setting us up in a hurry.

The fish is grillin', the files downloadin' and I'm off this system, a-cruisin'...

Belize, Belize, here we come!

until then...
dominomarie

Technology

2011-10-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

(or... HALLOWEEN weather map)

October 30, 2011

Marathon Key, Florida

Boot Key Harbor

Pos: 24°42.24 N - 081°06.17W

Six months of cruising the US eastern seaboard and we’ve seen a few storms. We ditched Irene in New York City, kept Rina at bay last week, and now it’s time to run, run away from WEATHER! But run safely, thanks to our our on-board technology.

HALLOWEEN's Weather Map, the ATLANTIC costume... Boohoo!

This is today’s weather map (on-board MiFi download from NOAA) and, being only a novice meteorologist, I leave it to NOAA and the veteran cruisers among us to give you a synopsis. But looking at South Florida, to the northern coast of Cuba and its western tip at Cabo San Antonio, then across to Belize, it all looks good for the next week.

Caroline Laviolette enjoys our Big D

So, we filled up with a year of NESPRESSO at the Miami store, showed to The Catamaran Company’s Caroline Laviolette what a true passagemaking powercat is supposed to be, and reluctantly left our friends Patricia and Rolando behind.

Bye, Patricia & Rolando!

TWO bags of Nespresso!

Yesterday, we left Miami before dawn, relying on the help of our FLIR thermal imaging to negotiate the McArthur causeway Bridge and the traffic in the channel. Cruiseships make a habit of arriving ports just before dawn, so that their passengers wake up in a new destination. Container ships too! It took the FLIR and both of us to keep a keen eye on the Carnival Liberty and a Maersk freighter and its stern-tug at the crossroads of Government Cut and the Causeway Island channel. DOMINO is not such a small boat, but she is extremely maneuverable and it was a cinch to stay out of the Big Boys’ way. Besides, with our new AIS transponder, we knew that they could see us and hail us if they didn’t like our position. Never too much technology on board!

Into the Gulf Stream we went, looking for fish. Our Furuno R199 may always be at work, but I reckon that a flock of birds is more telling of fish! So, we also fish with our radar on, looking for bird echo on the screens. Any fish? We were looking for sailfish and wahoo… we found a 22-lb big eye tuna on our way from Deltaville to Miami, and two 10-lb dorados yesterday. Hmm… that’s a lot of technology for not much fish, and I think the winner was the $20 stainless steel tuna stick we were trolling at 10 knots behind us!

We arrived Marathon Key after 12 hours of navigation and rocky fishing, tired and smelly, with a new challenge: navigating the minefield of lobster trap markers that pepper the key. To port! To starboard! Dead ahead! Ooops… between the bows! Hard to keep a heading in these conditions, but we made it to the anchorage before dusk.

A thunderstom greeted us and, standing on the foredeck under pouring rain, lightning striking all around me while JP was picking his spot, I felt totally safe inside the Faraday cage created by our lightning rods. Technology? ABSOLUTELY!

We’re in Marathon for a day or two, mulling over the weather charts and making our last purchases. Belize awaits! Until then…

dominomarie

Boat Show

2011-10-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

New lures!

October 28, 2011

Miami Beach

We’re stuck in Miami Beach! Granted, there are worse places to be stuck at than South Beach, but Belize Belize awaits and hurricane Rina is creating a roadblock. She’s just sitting in the Yucatan Channel, taking her sweet old time dissipating, while we’re itching to move south.

So what do we do? We go to the boat show. We had just managed to evade the Baltimore and the Annapolis boat shows, and here we are in Miami with the Fort Lauderdale International boat show waving at us: “Pick me! Pick me!” With nothing better to do, we checked it out. We’re so glad that we did. We found old friends, new boats, and a load of information to make DOMINO an even better cruising platform.

Our first order of the day was a visit with Mike Dillon at MAXWELL. For the last six years, Mike has been one of our staunchest supporters and has provided us with winches, windlasses, hatches and unsurpassed customer service. If only we had known about the MAXWELL cleats, we would not have ours custom-made in Argentina!

Next stop? FURUNO… I had just exchanged a few emails with customer support Rich Testa to update our system with the newest version of Navnet 3D. Well, the FURUNO team was only too happy to help us tweak our settings to get the best performance yet and fine-tune our interface with our SIMRAD autopilot.

Skipping along with all that knowledge, we made our next stop at IMTRA, yet another major supporter through our entire construction process. Hugging Dick Davidson who guided us through so many decisions was just priceless.

We now felt that we were on a wild victory lap, hugging all our suppliers along the way. At the HRO – Seafari booth, who else do we meet but our friend Ged, owner of our big sister ship “Rhumba,” asking about sand pre-filters. DOMINO is outfitted with one of those industrial sand filters, allowing us to make drinking water in just about any condition and reduce the load on our fine filters. Our HRO system has performed flawlessly for the last 2 years and, at 60 gph capacity, we can cruise the world for ever without docking for water fill.

We had two more stops on our agenda. Tides Marine is the quiet company that manufactures dripless shaft seals. We have so far cruised 15,000 miles without a drip! We are promised free drinks at 50,000 miles and dinner at 100,000…. And we’re up to the challenge!

Now, for the big guns! JOHN DEERE… ‘nuff said… those guys have been behind us every step of the way and earned even more kudos when they managed to order 8 oil filters and had the local dealer delivered to the boat this morning. How’s that for service!

By 4 PM, our feet were sore and legs tired, but not too much to visit a couple boats at the Trawlerport. Yes, Passagemaker Magazine was there, of course. The biggest surprise was Beneteau’s new Swift Trawler 52, with promising technology and amazing fuel efficiency. Way to go, France!

One more boat to check out: Cruiser Cat 38 Havanna… based on an early Malcolm Tennant hull, this coastal cruiser is attractively priced. We’d been missing each-other since Baltimore and all the way down the Chesapeake. How fun was it to catch up with the South Africans and relax on their airy boat for a while. Good luck with the boat! It’s for sale…

It was twenty minutes before closing time when we realized we still had an errand: finding an IRIDIUM dealer and we had absolutely no idea where to go. We entered the communication pavilion when BAM! there they were, right in front of us: the SATphone store. If you have followed our blog for a while, you might remember that setting up our IRIDIUM service has been one of our worst nightmare. When our electronics supplier in Newport Beach (Phantom Marine) suddenly closed shop and our dear Albert Talerico retired, we were orphaned from IRIDIUM. We had a phone and no service. It took me a year to connect with Stratos, only to lose my minutes 4 months later. I was running at the mouth, explaining CJ about our misfortunes when he just laughed. Yes, he had worked for years with Albert. In fact, he knew all about us since Albert had call him for help just before retiring, but we had never been able to connect. Finally, we had found help! In no time, CJ had us set up with a new IRIDIUM chip, service, and off we went.

We exited the tent with all the exhibitors, exhausted and happy, ready to tweak DOMINO for her finest performance yet. And a good thing it is. Riva is dying off in the Yucatan Channel and we’re leaving for our very last U.S. stop… Marathon Key.

Until then…

dominomarie

Fueling up

2011-10-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

October 21^th, 2011

Myrtle Beach Yacht Club

Fuel! Fuel! Where should we refuel? This usually brings a smile to our sailor friends who hardly need any fuel (so they say) to cruise. Lugging jerrycans is out of the question for us when it comes to fueling up. Our four tanks and two day-tanks (all integral epoxy tanks) can take in a little bit over 2,600 gallons.

Ridiculous? Not so. Over the last 2 years, our true fuel consumption including speed cruises, idle times, easy and hard passages, fishing and trolling, has averaged 0.66 gallon per mile at an average speed of 11 knots. Based on this history, where will 2,600 gallons take us? Some 3,900 miles at 11 knots. Well, that should take care of our next stretch, from Myrtle Beach to Miami, Marathon, Cancun, Belize City, the Rio Dulce, Panama, the San Blas Islands, and back to Colon just before embarking on the Panama Canal, or some 2,600 miles. That should leave us enough reserve to run away from any storm at 20 knots if need be. (At 20 knots, we burn 24 gallons per hour, or 1.2 gal/mile.) Really, DOMINO prefers running at 20 knots in most situation, and if our wallet could sustain her at that speed all the time, we would indulge her whims!

Finding fresh fuel at a reasonable price was a sport during our ICW run. Finally, our son Phil, who has just moved to Myrtle Beach, found what we needed. The Myrtle Beach Yacht Club had the best prices, a dock big enough to accommodate DOMINO for a few nights, and dockmaster Mark had arranged for a fresh batch of diesel to be delivered on the morning of our fueling. Can’t beat that!

The bonus? Phil and his wife Tara live just a mile away from the yacht club. Family, a car, provisioning, good times… you name it, MBYC was the perfect stop.

And so it was. We enjoyed the kids to the max, even though the weather did not allow us to take them fishing. Even the shrimpers were not going out in that foul weather. Instead, we concentrated on DOMINO, updating the FURUNO Navnet 3D with the latest software which now interfaces much better with our DFF3 in-hull fish finder.

But back to fueling. A picture is worth a thousand words. Here are some “before” and “after” pix of our “big gulp.” The “before” is with only 40 gallons left in our day-tanks. The “after” is after loading 2,606.7 gallons of diesel, and a residual 400 gallons of water (on port.) As expected, the bows’ waterline are 1” underwater while the stern still sits about 3” above waterline. (Once in Miami, after burning almost 400 gallons, we’ll be back to flat waterline.)

BEFORE

AFTER 2,606 gallons (Photo FWP)

Well, that’s the biggest gulp we ever took but since the fuel prices in Belize and Guatemala are well over $4/gallon, we decided to fuel up in South Carolina.

Photo: Finished Works Photography

But it’s time to move on. Belize awaits… We kissed the kids goodbye, wishing them luck with their new photography business (website upcoming), and are taking off for Miami, hoping to run with mild north winds against the Gulf Stream… that is, when the large motoryacht that ran aground just ahead of us at the exit of the MBYC gets towed by TowBoatUS… gotta remember to leave the red buoy to PORT when exiting the harbor!

Miami, here we come again… until then,

Dominomarie

ICW or AIW?

2011-10-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

October 17, 2011

Calabash Creek, NC

33º52.39 N – 078º34.19W

We love our family! Here we were, planning a leisurely trip down the ICW to visit our son Phil and his wife Tara in Myrtle beach when all our plans were turned turtle.

The request from our oldest son, Arnaud, though, filled us with joy. Could we meet him for Thanksgiving in Belize? Sure! Understand, we would have to arrive Belize City by November 15^th in order to settle down and get the boat ready for company. One month to make it from the entrance of the Chesapeake to Belize. So, let’s get cracking!

Oct. 13 - After many hugs and kisses, we left Bill and Mary in Deltaville, only to find out that Leo had enticed the Stepladder to travel as a stowaway! Good show, Leo! Who knows what this new crew member has in store for us?

We made Hampton Road in four hours and dropped the hook, dropped 2 crab lines and caught dinner again… probably the last of the Chesapeake Blue Crab for a long, long time.

Position: 37º00.62N- 076º18.96 W

Today’s log: 41 miles

Oct. 14 - By 0730 the next morning, we made our way through Norfolk’s warship row and reached Mile Zero of the ICW by 0830.

Now, should it be referred as ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) or AIW (Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway)? Either way, we had the choice of transiting through the scenic Dismal Swamp Canal or the faster Virginia Cut. Following the advice of other catamaran owners, we opted for the Virginia Cut, mainly because we were in a hurry to get to Belize!

With a convoy of a dozen other boats, we made the 0900 opening of the Gilmerton Bridge, the first in a long series of bridges, many of them opening only on the hour and/or the half-hour. In our rush through the industrial and recycling industries of the Norfolk area, we managed to clear the Great Lock and Bridge by 1100.

Our first (and only) lock turned out to be uneventful, the water dropping a mere 2 feet in 10 minutes: that is no Panama Canal! But what can happen at such a mild lock, you ask? Check out what happened to Bill Parlatore’s transit at the Dismal Swamp, when the lock-keeper forgot to lock the gates!

On we went, rushing to make the 11:30 North Landing bridge, jostling in the cross-wind, and the noon opening of the North Landing bridge. By that time, we were only 3 motor yachts left, all the sailboats way behind. By 1445, we reached scenic Coinjock where all the motoryachts had docked at the Coinjock Marina. Should we stop too? Have a beer? Shoot the breeze? No way! Belize-Belize on our mind, we took to the Arbermarle Sound, assaulted by 30 to 35 knots of cross winds and 4-6 foot seas on the beam. Rock’n Roll time! Fortunately, I have made progress stowing things and I no longer have to pick-up fallen trash off the galley floor, wipe-of broken rum bottles in the cupboards, or step on strewn charts all over the floor. No sir! JP steers through the bucking surf and I wedge myself on the pilot bench, safe and comfy. By 1800, we dropped anchor in the South Lake at the entrance of the Alligator River, lost in 100% wilderness, totally alone.

Pos: 35º54.96 N - 075º54.94 W

Today’s log: 85 miles,
locks and bridges included

Oct. 15 – We want to make the first opening of the Alligator Bridge, on demand starting at 0800. Just a call to the attendant, and the enormous swing bridge swallows us between its outstreched arms.

The banks are all wild grass and swamp tree stumps, the water a narrow silver ribbon, and we soon look for the hidden entrance to the Fairfield Canal.

The air is musty, the smell of rotten leaves and roots permeating the air. Domino’s props churn an amber-color wash. All is earthy, swampy, and to me: home!

It’s 1700 and the sun is already going down when, having bypassed Oriental, we enter Cedar Creek and drop the hook with only 3’ under our hulls.

Position: 34º55.92N-076º38.98W

Today’s log: 94 miles.

Oct. 16 - 0700 and it’s cold as I’m raising anchor. But wait! Dolphins are frolicking in the creek, soon to jump all over our bows as we make it towards the Adams Canal.

How splendid the fog hanging over the swamp as we glide through the Canal! It reminds me so much of the Marais Poitevin (The Green Venice) of my youth.

On the banks, shrimpers and small homes are starting to appear. Could the ocean be near?

By 0830 we reach Moorehead City / Beaufort, a bit disoriented by the docks and ships after 3 days of total wilderness. Oh yes, we must be getting closer to the ocean! As we near the Huggins Island “Z” narrows, sailboats are splayed all over the waterway, jostling with fishing skiffs that see no problem with anchoring in the middle of the ICW. But Capt. JP decides he’ll have none of this nonsense. Deftly, he propels DOMINO to the head of the fleet, tracing an opening through the skittering skiffs, and all the sailboats fall in line behind Big D… priceless!

Really, many boaters on small boats have little notion of safety. Around Surf City (and that is NOT Huntington Beach) a runabout pulling a surfer was trying to surf DOMINO’s wake (too small) at full speed across the ICW. Further down, a gaggle of PWC’s were jumping the surf at an inlet, tossing riders into the waters of the busy ICW, without any concern for the yachts chugging along. The further south we headed, the more reckless the boaters.

Rushing to make all the bridge openings (Alligator at 1300, Figure 8 at 1530 and Wrightsville at 1600), we still had time to gawk at the mansions lining this stretch of the ICW, some stately and splendid, some gaudy, and some just plain country.

At last, we reached Carolina Beach and dropped the hook next to…. JABIRU, Peter and Gail’s lovely Cabo Rico.

Position: 3º02.91 N - 077º53.36 W

Today’s log: 93 miles.

Oct. 17 - This is our last stretch of the ICW. If not for our son Phil and his wife Tara waiting for us at Myrtle Beach, we would have followed this tanker and headed straight out at Cape Fear.

But family awaits. Besides, we need to fuel up. We checked prices all over North and South Carolina. But our son Phil found the best deal at the Myrtle Beach yacht Club: $3.49/gallon (cash discounts apply!) – No quite ready for a marina, we dropped the hook one more time in the wilderness of Calabash Creek, only to be joined a few hours later by…. JABIRU!

Finally! We were reunited with our kids Phil and Tara. Bought a batch of giant shrimps at Cpt. Nancee’s dock, dropped a couple crab lines and got Phil to work while the men were monitoring the horsing around of our boats. Wind against current is never a comfortable anchoring situation, as the anchor can easily get dislodge and flipped turtle. But the current soon died down and the Aussies were able to join us on board for an old-fashion DOMINO BBQ of shrimp and crab… and a great time was had by all.

Position: 33º52.39 N - 078º39.19 W

Today’s log: 25 miles

The ICW or AIW is, certainly, an easy and scenic way to travel the East Coast. Slow, though, with lots of bridges and more and more no-wake zones as we go south. DOMINO and I, we’d rather be at sea, at sea. Give us fuel and the open sea… We’re out of here… Belize, Belize, where are you?

Until then…

dominomarie

Deltaville Refit

2011-10-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

October 12, 2011

Deltaville, VA

It’s always nice to go back to places you know and reconnect with friends. We left Annapolis looking for warmth and, if we never found it in the weather, (rain and temperatures in the 50's) we sure made up for it in friendships.

Thank you, Capt. Bill Crump and Mary, for your hospitality!

No sooner had we entered the Jackson Creek channel (without running aground) that Cpt. Bill Crump was on the VHF.

- “I’m waiting for you at my dock, with a couple of longshoremen to handle your lines.” None other than Bob Walker (Chesapeake Bay Magazine) and neighbor Todd were tying us up while Cpt. Bill was popping up a bottle of bubbly. Virginia hospitality!

The plan was to get DOMINO ready for the Panama Canal. We had originally hoped to do the work at a local boatyard, but when told that we could not work on our own boat and that the yard’s personnel had to do the work, then presented with a work estimate that would have wiped out the entire cruising season’s budget, we balked. The next two weeks, safely tied at Bill and Mary’s place, JP worked 14-hour-days at getting DOMINO ready for the Panama Canal. Thanks to Tom and his wife Dawn at the the 2 local West Marine stores who took extreme care in supplying us, JP went on an epoxy binge. Doing what, exactly?

Buck-Algonquin 12" closed-top cleat: massive!

Closed-top cleats. The vertical pull of the lines during the canal transit demands closed cleats. Lines would slip out of our regular open cleats. Work: coring and filling the sandwich to ensure strength, and adding FRP backing plates on the inside of the hulls, behind each cleat. Between prepping and curing time, a good week of work.

Railing. For greater safety while going up and down the side decks, JP added handrails on the flybridge coamings, running the entire length of the cabin. Sums up to 20 screws, which means 20 coring-filling-fairing-and-painting jobs, just in order to screw the railing in place. (Toll: 3 days of work)

The FA50's GPS unit

AIS transponder. The Panama Canal authorities require that ships be outfitted with an AIS transponder. Rather than rent one, we decided to just buy a FURUNO FA50 transponder, upgrading our current FA30 receiver. So, look on your screens and if you see DOMINO as a little blue triangle on your radar or chart, hail us on 16 or enter our MMSI into your VHF and DSC us! Of course, threading the new AIS antenna cables, GPS, and programing the FA50 took some time (toll: 2 days).

The new FA50 transponder sits in the electronics cabinet, along
all other Furuno "brains"

New Chain. One or our concerns was to have enough chain to satisfy deep anchorages. We had outfitted DOMINO with twin Maxwell 4000 windlasses, each with a ½” wildcat to run our twin set of 200’ of ½” chain, grade 40 ACCO. But when anchoring in 60’ and high winds (Isla George Grego, or even Buzios), the chain was too short and we had to go chain-to-rode, an operation that is tedious and can be dangerous in heavy weather. Getting 400’ of ½” chain was out of the question: our chain lockers are too small to accommodate the volume, and forget about the weight!

Port: 75Kg Raya anchor, 200' of 1/2" chain
Starboard: 42 kg Raya anchor, 400' of 3/8" chain
Twin Maxwell 4000 windlasses

Instead, JP went for 400’ of 3/8” chain, which meant that we would have to change the wildcat. DONE! We now can have a 5/1 ratio in up to 80’ of water (well, I should really count the freeboard height.) Between taking out the 200” of ½” and loading the 400' of new chain, gypsy and all, toll: 1 day. (BTW, wanna buy 200' of Acco Grade 40 high-test 1/2" chain? Call Cpt. Bill Crump or contact him on Facebook!

Fall prevention. We live on our boat and are pretty aware of her pitfalls (pun intended). But our guests are not. Invariably, they slip down the stairway to JP’s workshop, and it’s not intentional. A quick-fix? A stainless steel antenna mount on ratchet, back-plated and fixed to the bridge’s cabinet. Thanks to Bob Walker’s workshop and tools, it was a 1-day job. Should we add a “watch your step” sign?

Kayak mounts. While JP was into epoxy work, we splurged for a pair of ocean kayaks, which meant that JP had to build a kayak cradle on the flybridge. Left-over foam core and fiberflass roving, epoxy molded in place to the kayak's shape, a little grinding, fairing and painting, and there we are! (toll: 2 days) (Thanks, West Marine Deltaville, for drop-shipping all the stuff!)

JOHN DEERE upgrade. Our John Deere engine panel had one empty slot. What for? wondered JP. A stop at Zimmerman Marine Services
and a visit with Chad gave us the answer. We could use a transmission pressure gauge. This way, no surprises. If there ever were a transmission fluid leak, we would be warned. In no time, Chad showed JP how to install the gauge, shipped us the parts, and voila! New look to our panel, new safety check on board.

Center right: transmission pressure gauge

Repairs and Improvements. We use our boat, which means, we wear things out, break them, or want to make them better. Look around for new stuff:

<-- a searchlight to repair the broken one (fabricate a new base, toll: 1 day);

- a new WiFi "The Wirie" enhancer to replace the one that never worked (mounting a new antenna, toll: ½ day); --->

<--- a new movable cocktail table (cockpit and flybridge mounts, toll: ½ day);

<----- new towel rack and bathroom rack (fabrication and mounting, toll: 1 day);

and fixing all the small nicks and dents we’ve made in the wood and paint during the last 2 years of cruising (fairing, painting, spraying, toll: 3 days). JP even fixed the scar I’d left on our port hull when kissing Nauti Nauti, can’t even see it! ---->

Fridge: refinished frame

Speaking of Nauti Nauti, the devil showed up in Jackson Creek tonight as we’re preparing to leave Deltaville in the morning. Good to see Allen again…

I'm Sailing! (not really, just motoring)

For all the work, we did have some fun too. When Cpt. Crump asked me if I would help him deliver a sailboat from Baltimore to Deltaville, I jumped at the occasion. Sailing! It had been years… but there was no wind and we motored all the way. See why I have a motoryacht?

And then came LEO, our new crew member, rescued from the alpaca farm at the Deltaville Art Show and Farmers' Market. Between the F.D. Crockett and Capt. John Smith's replica of the Explorer, Leo got a quick intro to boats at the Deltaville Maritime Museum , and decided to hop on DOMINO...

Leo invades my workspace!

But it was, once more, meeting the locals that made this stop special. The Middlesex County Volunteer Rescue Squad is one organization that impressed us. Dozens of volunteers are part of this 60-year old organization.

Cpt. Bill Crump, a driver for the MCVRS

Paramedics, EMTs, drivers, cooks, fundraisers, accountants, a whole array of individuals contribute to the success of this organization. The “Squad” headquarters on Jackson Creek houses 3 ambulances and a crisis center complete with kitchen, laundry, and community rooms to house hundreds of people if need be. Volunteers provide round-the-clock service. Indeed, during our stay, one of Cpt. Bill’s shift as an ambulance driver consisted of responding to a head-on car accident (and helicopter medivac), transporting to the nearest hospital a cheerleader (all in back-and neck brace) who had been dropped by her human pyramid, and responding to a night call by a neighbor. No other community has impressed us as Deltaville has and the Domino Health Foundation was happy to associate with the MCVRS. Friends helping friends, neighbors taking care of neighbors. That’s the way it should be.

But we’re off again… to Myrtle Beach by the ICW and the Virigina Cut… Until then…

dominomarie

Annapolis Encounters

2011-09-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

Sunrise on Spa Creek

Saturday, September 24, 2011

On the Chesapeake

South of Annapolis

Cruising is about meeting people. Oh, sure, it’s about blue seas and vast oceans and calm passages and great fishing and new places, but ultimately, it all comes down to the people we meet.

Planing cat, carbon-fiber hulls in Spa Creek

Annapolis has been the hub of our summer tour. By the way, we finally found the best anchoring spot: Spa Creek. After suffering for days at the South Anchorage (some of those “Brave Souls” that Skipper Bob writes about,) we scouted past the Spa Creek bridge and JP found just enough room for us (past green marker 3) to swing on the hook. With the blessings from the (ever-vigilant) Harbormaster, that’s where we’ve spent the last twelve days, seeing the family off and working on boat maintenance.

Annapolis is the most boat-friendly place I’ve been to. Public docks at the end of virtually every street, water taxi, and oodles of professionals who take a boater’s needs at heart and respond with speed and accuracy; they must all be racing sailors!

Our new Sunbrella Cushions

Take Christine Roney, from Yacht Interiors of Annapolis. JP convinced her to brave cold and pouring rain, to jump in the dinghy and come on board to plan our new cushions. Armed with pattern paper and Sunbrella fabric samples, Christine alighted on DOMINO’s boarding platform, managing to stay dry. Two weeks later, she was delivering all our new cushions: the blue-striped for the cockpit and the sand-textured for the saloon, helm and pilot berth. We love the comfort of the new foam, the better leg and back support, the dry-drip foam of the outside cushions. Great job, Christine.

The Weems & Plath people had our comfort meter fixed in no time, and J. Gordon helped us with getting our new FURUNO AIS transponder and attempted the maintenance of our fire extinguishers (BTW, cheaper to buy new Halotrons than getting them refilled.) Fawcett took care of the servicing of our Zodiac liferaft and even delivered it to the closest dock. Everyone tried their best to see us off and on our way ASAP.

While our suppliers were working on meeting their deadlines, we were struggling with letting go of our guests. For the first time in 40 years, JP had had a chance to spend quality time with his two sisters and we had taken advantage of this Chesapeake Cruise to truly enjoy each-other. But now it was time for them to return to France, and on our way to Dulles Airport to see them off, we made an obligatory stop in Washington, D.C.

Once more, that day, it was the people we met that will remain in our memories. At the WWII Memorial (built in 2005), a group of yellow-clad vets were taking pictures, visiting for the 1^st time the monument erected in their honor. How gripping! Just a glance at my sisters-in-law confirmed my emotions: the three of us were in tears. Suddenly, we were hugging and kissing those old boys, thanking them on behalf of the French People who surely would be speaking German instead of French, if not for those boys’ sacrifices. Never forget!

Peter Kennedy checks out the Victron Centaur chargers

Back in Annapolis, on a Saturday afternoon, we heard a call:

-“Ahoy! DOMINO!” Some guy was maneuvering his Boston Whaler along our stern.

- “I’m Peter Kennedy, and I think I know this boat,” added the driver, grinning from ear to ear. Indeed, Peter knows a lot about our boat. Owner of PKYS, he came to our rescue when, stuck in Paraguay and trying to finish all the boat’s electrical systems, he sorted out our choices for chargers, and shipped us the VICTRON Centaurs, along with 10 miles of cable in various size and color. And when that did not quite suffice, he was ready to Fedex us more cable, even on weekends, so that we could finish the boat on time and meet our deadlines. Peter, indeed, you are part of DOMINO!

Peggy Wooldridge, Rob Dorfmeyer, JP and John Wooldridge share
a light moment on DOMINO

With time to spare, we decided to make a stop by the offices of Passagemaker Magazine. For 16 years, through 100 issues, the stories and people leaping out of the pages had fueled our cruising dreams. During our first stop in town, we had introduced Editors Bill Parlatore and John Wooldridge to our big girl, taking them for a spin under the Bay Bridge. But we wanted to meet the staff and were delighted to hug Christine Alhambra and the rest of the people who keep all of us, powercruisers, close to our dreams. Two nights later, it was just too much fun to have John and his wife Peggy, trailed by Rob Dorfmeyer, join us for drinks and enjoy DOMINO’s aft deck on the glassy-glassy waters of Spa Creek.

The name, ANNAPOLIS, has always had a magic ring to my ear. I can say now that “Sailor Town” delivered this magic during our summer cruise. As we left at daybreak this morning, while I was washing the deck from anchor mud, I still managed to glance one last time at a city that has become dear to my heart. Quietly, DOMINO glided under the Spa Creek bridge, along the Annapolis Yacht Club, past City Dock and two richly illuminated Burger mega-yachts, between the Charthouse restaurant and a few sailing yachts sleeping at the City’s Mooring Field, their reflections shimmering on the still waters, and finally took a starboard tack. Almost reluctantly, I took a last look at the U.S. Naval Academy shrinking behind our stern and said a silent goodbye to all the people who made our Annapolis stay yet an unforgettable one.

May we meet again,

Until then….

Dominomarie

One Stateroom

2011-09-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

Sunrise in Annapolis

Only One Stateroom

September 15, 2011

Annapolis, MD

Spa Creek

Last night might have brought a brush with hurricane MARIA, high winds and a chilly 60F in the cabin this morning, but the warmth of the last 10 days is far from fading away. JP’s two sisters and the new brother-in-law came all the way from France to share a Chesapeake cruise. How were we to sleep 3 extra bodies in our one-stateroom boat?

DOMINO's master stateroom

We’ve often been criticized for having only one stateroom on board. Most catamarans in DOMINO’s size range boast at least 4 staterooms and 4 heads. We could have easily fitted our cat with 3 full-size staterooms and en-suite heads but decided not to. The added weight might have detracted from the boat’s performance and I wasn’t looking forward to the added maintenance of space and equipment used only once a year… if that much! Instead, we fitted the port hull with wide bunk beds, able to sleep a couple and 3 children. The guests would have to share the bathroom… just like home. As for the VIP guests, JP and I had decided we would let them have the main stateroom for the duration of their stay: a lot cheaper in the long run.

It was without misgivings that we introduced Claudie and Bernard to the comfort of DOMINO’s stateroom (and its splendid views) while we settled Francine in the full-size bed of the lower bunk while JP and I scooted up the king-size upper bunk. And we all shared the spacious head!

Playing cards in the rain

Our guests were greeted by fine Annapolis weather: unrelenting rain for 2 days, with just enough of a break to tour the city and the US Naval Academy. But the heavy rains outside didn’t keep us from catching up with each-others’ lives, playing cards and enjoying the company while hoping for better weather. When the weather didn’t improve, we made our way across the Chesapeake to the Eastern shore.

U.S. Naval Academy: noon assembly

Wayne's crabbing boat

Oxford saw an improvement in the weather. We dropped the hook in front of Schooners, too chicken to try their unprotected dock, and had our 1^st Eastern shore encounter. Wayne and Curtis. Wayne swears he is the last of a long-line of watermen and, to prove his point, brought us a half-bushel of crab while regaling us with local stories. His buddy Curtis, shadowed by his chocolate Labrador, promised to bring us fish in the morning… fat chance, we thought. Well, early the next day, Wayne was making circles around DOMINO, his boat radio blaring (as it should on a crabbing skiff) and Curtis was backing up to our boarding platforms with 3 splendid rockfish. “You won’t get this kind of Chesapeake Welcome in St. Michael’s,” professed the watermen, eager to have us stay one more day.

Maryland Blue Crab

By the time we reached St. Michael’s, anchored on the backside at Santo Domingo’s Creek, the sun was shining and the temperature in the high eighties. The combination of the neap tide, full moon, and the release of water higher up the Chesapeake from the Conowingo dam contributed to excessively high water levels. In the morning, fog hanging above the still waters greeted us in cottony silence.

Santo Domingo Creek in the morning

Santo Domingo’s Creek remains my favorite anchorage of our entire Eastern Coast trip. The sisters were enchanted with the area: geese, ducks, egrets and herons were swimming and flying all around us, and we could have spent days enjoying the beauty of the site. But St. Michael’s was calling, with all its fun and culture: browsing the marvelous shops and antique stores, wine tasting at the Italian’s, eating soft crab at the legendary Crab Claw, and visiting the extraordinary Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Sun-drenched and tired, we repaired to DOMINO for a quiet evening and more eating!

Santo Domingo Creek at sunset

The third leg of our trip took us to Harris Creek (Wittman) where Alan on Nauti-Nauti was waiting for us. Since Alan had shared his family with us when we cruised in Antigua, it was only natural that he should share our family! In no time, we had a party on board, guitar and singing and food and drinks… and a good time was had by all.

Claudie is quite a catch!

The family had been with us for a week and they still had one trick to learn: crabbing. Early the next morning, I dropped 3 crab lines, hooked with chicken necks, and put our little crew to work. By evening, we had 21 crabs steaming in our pot! Pretty good, considering that Bernard, the new kid on the block, was intent on netting Claudie, mistaking her for a Maryland blue crab.

But even good things must have an end. It was time to return to Annapolis and cross the Chesapeake again. This time, it was an ugly trip. The bay was mucky-brown and littered with heavy debris from the Susquehanna River dam. Logs, entire trees, branches, muck, entire barrages of garbage hampered our way across the bay. At last, at anchor in Spa Creek, we enjoyed one last meal and Champagne, happy to have had this special family time together.

Hard to say goodbye... easier with Champagne!

A last day in Washington DC, a run to Dulles Airport, and we are now back to our normal routine. Yes, we have reintegrated our stateroom, but we would have gladly lent it longer, and we’ll lend it again: family, have no fear, DOMINO can accommodate you! Come and visit…

Until then,

Dominomarie

End of Summer

2011-09-04T06:13:00.000-07:00

Maddie in Newport, RI

September 3, 2011

Annapolis, MD

South Anchorage

Happy Labor Day weekend to all. Mixed feelings, I know. How can this be “happy” if we are heralding the end of summer? Indeed, we can feel it: the increased dew dripping from the coamings in the morning, the chill in the air earlier in the evening, the shorter days, the closed doors at night… Summer’s been too short, too rainy and too cold. We had come North to escape the heat, and we got what we wished for: no heat. We also got what we were trying to hide from: a hurricane.

What we got, instead, was good family time, linking up with cruiser friends along the way, and rushing through the Holy Ground of cruising: Long Island Sound and Buzzard Bay.

Pressed by Irene, I forgot to mention our stop in Newport, RI.

Never had I seen so many yachts packed together. A bit intimidated by the legendary America’s Cup City, we called the harbormaster to check in and he immediately pointed out to us two suitable spots in Brenton Cove, just east of Fort Adams. Yes, it is possible to anchor n Newport Harbor: between the mooring field and the white-and-orange sticks that mark the cable area. Just stay away from the cable area or the harbormaster will get testy. Dinghy dock at the end of Ann Street ($5/day) and provisioning up the hill, 10 minute walk.

Newport, RI, from Fort Adams

The stop in Newport was one of the kids’ favorite: visit to the Vanderbilt’s The Breakers mansion, The Cliff Walk, Fort Adams, the Museum of Yachting and the restoration of the Coronet were obligatory stops, as well as catching up with the crew of “BANANA” – once again crossing paths, the kids exchanging messages in French and English, trying to communicate, giggling all along.

The Breakers

Museum of Yachting

The kids are back to their respective parents in France and California, and we’re making our way south. Not without bumping into old friends, though.

Old Newport Home

In Cape May, who else but our beloved Peter and Gail on “JABIRU?” Another bike ride another lunch, another dinner together and who knows when we’ll cross paths again?

Peter and Gail: Goodbye?

JABIRU V

Cape May waterfront

Chesapeake City basin

In Chesapeake City, we turned to the Chesapeake City Inn for pampering. Having missed the free docking at the City Dock by a few minutes (1^st come, 1^st serve, and we were just too late) we anchored and let Tommy, the CCI bartender take care of us for a while (oyters and wine), until Chef Chris relayed him with perfect ginger-scallops and Imperial Chilean seabass. Looking down on DOMINO, with a passing cargo ship on the C&D Canal (10,000 cars in that carrier!) it was a perfect evening.

10,000 cars on the C&D

Pampered by Tommy at the CCI

Back in Annapolis, we bumped into more cruisers. Bob and Cindy on “BABOO” anchored behind us for the night.

But the great surprise came, once again, from our Balckberry’s email, sent by our son Arnaud in California: “Phil’s trying to reach you.” Serendipity again! Our son Phil and his wife Tara, on their exodus from Ohio to North Carolina, were in Washington DC. An hour later, they were on board DOMINO, eating crab cakes. What joy!

Phil and Tara join us in Annapolis

Well, there is one boat we’ve been running along with all summer but have not bumped into yet. That’s “WINDHORSE.” But who knows, the weekend is not over yet!

Tomorrow, JP’s sisters are coming from France for a Chesapeake cruise and we hope for a bit of Indian summer, not too much rain, and a lot of crab. Until then….

dominomarie

Mao at Fort Adams

Old clew: that's needlework!

Sporty in Newport

Fishing in The Rush

Fishing Fleet at Cape May

Rebuilding the windlass in Oyster Bay

Irene Post-Script

2011-08-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

August 30, 2011

Cape May, August, 30, 2011

Cape May, NJ

Coast Guard Station

Is it possible that Hurricane Irene was upon us only 48 hours ago? We left New York City this morning and had the loveliest ride south, along the New Jersey coast. A gentle breeze (5 to 10 kts) was hardly whispering behind us, and long, small, 2-foot swells were pushing us along from our port quarter. DOMINO was riding flat as a pancake and, with the temperature in the low 80’s, this was the most relaxing ride in a long time.

Atlantic City

Was IRENE really here? Undoubtedly! The ship’s radio kept broadcasting “Pan-Pan” messages all day: submerged red buoy in Barnegat, vessel and moorings adrift on the Delaware, massive debris coming down the upper Hudson. An email from our “River Rat King” Walter’s wife confirmed that the floating water chestnuts-- that had given us such trouble--had finally ripped the docks at the Coxsackie Yacht Club, piling up onto more boats at anchor. Friends are still without power in the Chesapeake. Here, in Cape May, we are the only boat at anchor.

As for dealing with IRENE, did we make the right choice? As it turns out, the storm was much less violent than forecasters had predicted. Chances are we would have been fine staying in the Long Island Sound or even only 20 miles up the Hudson. But what if the forecasters had been right? Predicting the behavior of a hurricane is still witch science. IRENE was a large storm and even if it didn’t pack the winds predicted at its center, it dumped enough rain to give nightmares to 3 states along the Easter Seaboard. And it killed 21 people.

What of our friends?

- JABIRU’s Peter and Gail watched the storm pass, safely tucked at the Liberty Landing Marina dockmaster’s home. The surge did not reach the predicted 13’ and the 20-foot waves did not materialize at the New York Harbor buoy. JABIRU is intact, on its way south and should anchor next to us at sunrise.

- RHUMBA’s Geb and Angela also watched the storm pass over Port Washington and Oyster Bay, while enjoying a hilltop Hurricane Party. Their ship did well in their absence.

- WIND HORSE’s Steve and Linda had put themselves on purpose at the predicted center of the hurricane. The wind did not materialize, but they were ready.

- DOMINO’s JP and Marie chickened out and went up-river, cooking and sleeping, watching the banks rise, all cool until fields of floating water chestnuts tried to take them down. And then, they had to go back down the Hudson and dodge the debris.

It looks like we might have made the worst of the four choices. Or did we? In the end, all boats are safe. We gained a cruise up the Hudson and meeting some fantastic people, Walter and Warren, our “Super River Rats.”

CG Cutter at Cape May

And we don't want to ever have to call the guys on this picture!

Now, time to relax before new adventures…

Until then…

dominomarie