Cruising Notes for Belize
Overview
With 185 square miles of protected sailing, nestled between Mexico and Guatemala on the Caribbean coast. The barrier reef extends from the Mexican border to the Sapodilla Cayes, 130 miles of sun-swept cayes and coral reef that offers great snorkeling for both the novice and the more experienced. There are roughly 500 cayes along the reef line, many uninhabited. The reef is teaming with fish, coral, and creatures. The coral forms colorful, surreal landscapes with jutting heads, sand bottom canyons, arches and spires. Belize dollar is two to one US. Dollars are always welcome.
Belize is a very different sailing area from the British Virgin Islands. The most obvious thing is that once you leave the base you are on your own. There are very few boats, very few people. There are no bars, restaurants and services to speak of out there. The Moorings base has a wonderful staff and they can get to you by chase boat if you need them. Advance provisioning is highly recommended. We visited only one little market and would not have wanted to try to do it ourselves with what was available there.
Navigation / Itineraries
The sailing area is quite challenging, but sailing was very enjoyable when we got some 15-20 knot winds. So much of it is shallow that one must be very alert and many areas require to have the sun overhead and behind for navigation. Catamarans are obviously best suited for the area, with their shallow draft.
The guide book for the area will help a great deal but it isn't perfect. Many things have changed since the hurricane. Some passages that were OK before, may not be now. The book was set up with Loran so is not as accurate as a GPS.
The cayes are very low, only a few feet above sea level - one usually cannot get too close - and therefore, do not provide much protection from winds and storms. There are very few safe harbors if winds are from the north.
There is a suggested itinerary on the Moorings website. We stopped at some of the places mentioned there. Keep in mind that out in the cays there are very few places to stop where people are. We stopped at one little restaurant/bar, but they don't serve every night and were not really set up for business. The fellow was out catching fish off the dock for that night. We had to call in ahead of time so they knew how much they had to catch.
Occasionally you will find a fishing camp on some of the cays. If they are there, you can probably buy some fresh fish. We got some snapper that they had already filleted one afternoon and had two meals out of it, truly wonderful.
Anchoring can be challenging as well. We found that our boat swung 180 degrees almost every night. There are reefs all around. You cannot anchor very close to the cayes as it is too shallow, and that is a cat drawing less than 4 feet.
You'll find the thick coconut forest and cool beaches at Hunting Caye, the gem of the Sapodillas. Here, you'll also find a manned lighthouse. Lobster and snapper abound and you can visit a fishing camp on Buttonwood Caye for the catch of the day. Around the very sheltered Pelican Cayes you can explore the shallow areas in a sea kayak or dinghy.
You can also sail the length of Belize visiting the southernmost cayes and then cross the Bay of Honduras and go up the Rio Dulce in Guatemala. We would need at least 10 days to do this trip but it is worth it. This itinerary is also available as a one way excursion, which helps to eliminate the need to hurry. A flight either to or from Guatemala City would need to be arranged.
Snorkeling / Diving / Fishing / Wild Life
Diving and snorkeling are world class in pristine waters Fishing is wonderful. There are two options available for divers:
- One is that your charter company can arrange diving with local resorts and take advantage of their local knowledge of the areas and dive sites.
- The second option is that you can carry tanks on board. There are dive boats and fishing boats available if you want to go out with a guide. I would recommend it.
Dolphins joined us for two days. Manatees, schools of tropical fish and coral gardens thrive here. Everywhere you go, snorkeling is excellent but it is as good as it gets at Queen Cayes. Then there's Lime Caye, which is everybody's idea of what the South Pacific should look like.
Other Stuff
There are some nice resorts for your first or last night. We stayed at Inn at Robert's Cove, very nice, the one Moorings recommends.
We walked around the village of Placencia. The locals we met were very friendly. There are several restaurants. Hurricane Iris really hit Placencia very hard, but they have cleaned up a lot already. Most businesses are up and running. They have worked hard and it looked pretty good to us. If you look at some of the photos in the guide book you can see the devastation. So many trees are gone from shore and the cays as well. But it is still a very lovely place.
We stayed our first night at Inn at Robert's Grove. The rooms are nice, good food, nice staff, right on the water. They have recovered well from the hurricane but lots of trees are gone from the beach and the cays.
There are so many things to see around Belize that we recommend you come early or stay late and see some of those sites, including excursions to Maya sites and tours guide inside the country. We can personally recommend belize-ecotours to arrange trips for you.
Weather Patterns
A good source of information on climate is Freya Rauscher's cruising guide to Belize and the Mexican Caribbean coast.
She says there are two distinct seasons, wet and dry. The rainy season begins in late May and runs to the end of October with maximum rainfall (8-10 inches in a month) in July, September and October. Hottest temperatures are in the mid 90's along the coast and higher inland. Dry season runs from November until early May. The low temperatures do drop into the 60's after cold fronts pass through. The best times for clear weather are from February to early May.
The one reliable factor in the climate is the 15-22 knot easterly trade wind. Looking at the pilot charts for that area, the overwhelming majority of time the winds are easterly which makes cruising up and down the channel between the mainland and the barrier reefs a reach both ways. Rauscher says Feb-Sep winds are E to SE, Oct-Jan are N-NE. Usual wind pattern is 10-15 during the day, frequently rising to 20-25, dropping during the night and shifting to the SE.
"Nortes" which are cold air masses coming off the continental land mass can occur from late October to March with dramatic wind shifts and gales out of the N to NW.
Then there's the question of hurricanes. Belize has been hit twice in the last couple of years. This last one seemed to have come very close to Placentia, where Moorings has their base. There was some damage, but the hotels and diving resorts were in business within a few weeks as was the charter companies' bases.
|
