It is overcast, a mist in the air, but we checked on our radar and it shows rain, but, no storms, so we will head out.  We have learned how to reef in a second, if necessary.

We motor-sailed for about an hour to charge our batteries, then we turned the motor off.  There was 15-20 knot winds with 5-6' seas on the beam and Valentina was sailing at about 6-7 knots.  This has been our best sailing day, since cruising. 

Great.

When you go into San Pedro, you have to pass between the reef opening.  You enter by lining up a red roof house on shore with a yellow buoy between the reef, then when you get to the yellow buoy, you head towards the light tower towards your starboard.   Anchor in 8-10 feet of water.  Valentina is 6:, so we will have 2-4 feet underneath us.   The tricky thing was, the cruising guide was 10 years old, but the most recent, and there are a lot of red roof houses on the beach now.   You definitely relax once you set anchor and breath a sigh of relief.

We went ashore to check in with immigration, but, of course on Sunday they were closed.  Monday is a holiday, so we will have to fly our yellow "Q" quarantine flag until we can check in on Tuesday.  

We walked around town, it is nice.  It has sandy streets with bright colored cottages and buildings.  Very small shops.  The locals speak English.   We ate a delicious chicken barbeque dinner at the Tackle Box where we park our dinghy.

May 21, 2006

He started tossing the stuff in his pockets in the cockpit and dove into the water.  He brought the dinghy back to the boat and then we got the gaff on the boat hook and he retrieved the hose for the air pump.   He changed clothes again.............not a good way to start your day.  But, it cooled him off, right?

We went to town and walked around.  The main event is the chicken dump.  On Wednesday nights, (we will be gone), at a local hotel on the beach, they spread out numbers and you pay $5 for a number to see where the chicken decides to "dump".  The winner gets $100.   Posters are all over town.

We went to the grocery store.   It was nice (for here)!  We found a 48-count box of M&M's for $33 and we bought Pace Picante Hot Sauce, water, juice, etc.  We spent about $100.

Belize money is 2-1 to US dollars.   So, dinners may be $20, but, actually $10 our money.

We ate a the local street vendor and had beans, rice, stewed chicken, and potato salad for $2.50 each.   It was a lot of food, we could not eat all of it.  But, it was good.

It is Tuesday!  We will head to town to immigration to see if we can get cleared in and download the website. 

We also found a place to buy Coke "Light", so we will go and stock up.  We are on our last two cokes.....oh, no!

We are cleared in and out of Mexico, so we need to "get outta here".

We ate lunch "jerk chicken" at a local restaurant.   It was hot....our lips were burnings for a few hours afterwards.

We walked around for a few hours this afternoon trying to spend our Belizean money we had accumulated.   It is hard when you "need" to buy something or spend money, you just cannot find anything.   After a while, we went by the fruit market on the street and bought a supply of mangos and apple-bananas.

We have enjoyed the mangos.  A local in Isla Mujeres showed us to put lime juice and salt on them.   It is very tasty!  We even buy Mango juice.

Today we bought apple-bananas.   They are very small bananas, but sweeter than regular bananas and kind of taste like an apple.

We went back to prepare the boat and dinghy for tomorrow's crossing.

We did make it through the opening of the reef, but it sure was a tense time.  The waves were hammering in the opening of the reef, so we gave it more gas and barreled through on our crumb trail.  All is fine.......just rough.   We are being tossed to and fro.   We put up some mainsail to help stabilize the boat.  It worked!

We tried to let out the jib, but the wind was up to 20k and the gusts were too rough on it, so we took it back in.

The waves outside the reef were at least 10' with 20 knot winds.  Not a fun way to start your day.  But, again, we are thankful for our boat and the security she gives us.  Priceless.

It started raining and has rained all day.  We can see it on the radar, but, no squalls, just a constant rain.  I think the rainy season has begun.

You could stay inside the reef from San Pedro to Belize City if you have a shallow draft boat, but, we have 6' under our boat and would possibly run aground.  So, we can duck in at Belize City and it is deep after that.  We can go all the way to Livingston, Guatemala inside the reef.

Now it is 10:45 a.m. and we have let out the jib and full main  We are going 6 knots with 16 knot wind and little calmer seas.  The rain continues.

We are 3 hours and 17 minutes away from going inside the reef at English Cay.  I am ready to be inside.

We saw two dolphins swim along with us, but, it was raining so we did not go out on the bow to see them.

It continues to rain and we thought of watching a DVD, but, then, Sonny thought of hooking up a funnel to the end of the main boom while the sail was up......to gather rainwater.  Just for fun!  I guess that is what you do on a crossing when you get bored, right?  We have enoughh water on board to last until we get to the Rio.

We have a 100 gallon tank and we are down to less than 1/2 tank now.  We filled up in Isla Mujeres before we left.  That was about 2 weeks ago, so we have used 50 gallons in two weeks.  You would not believe how stingy you can be with your water when you need to.  I wash my dishes in Joy and a saltwater faucet at my galley sink, then rinse with fresh water.

Of course, after we get the funnel rigged, the rain stopped and the skies brightened up.   The last two hours of sailing has been very nice.

We ate a couple of mangos.  We love them.

We arrived at Middle Long Cay at 4:30 p.m.

Latitude:  N 17 15.81

Longitude W 88 05.45

There is not anything much on this island.   We see a shack a local has made with  his outhouse out over the water.

We are not getting our dinghy down today, we are eating Bowtie pasta for dinner and going to bed early.

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