Gualby Nation : Thank You and Goodnight, Belize

After our inland trip we were winding down on Belize and started making plans to check out and check into Guatemala. Knowing we'd be on the Rio Dulce for a while, we wanted to get one last island/snorkel/fish eating fix before taking off.

So we checked out of Big Creek, about 2 miles west of Placencia, and headed to the Sapodilla Cays. The Sapodillas are at the southernmost end of the Belizean Barrier Reef, and it was an easy daysail to get there. You sail over 80-200 feet of water most of the time, but occasionally small patches of reef pop up to 20 feet, almost in a sheer wall. So we circled these for fish as we headed out. We picked up one decent cobia and felt pretty blessed to start our end with such a nice eating fish. We got out to the Sapodillas and anchored first behind Lime Cay, but then moving over to Nicolas Cay, which had a better anchorage. Nicolas Cay used to have a huge diving resort on it, but was now totally abandoned and made for an interesting place to explore.

Ted and Shannon arrived a couple hours later and we settled in for drinks and dinner. In the morning, we canoed over to Hunting Cay, which has an immigration office on it and the headquarters for monitoring the Sapodillas as a National Park. We payed a small park entry fee, were told it was a completely "no take zone", and then handed a pamphlet on catching and preparing Lionfish to eat. Ted and Shannon checked out of the country here and were told that two whale sharks were spotted the day before off of Tom Owens Cay, the next cay north of us. So we all hoped on the Salty Dog and headed out the cut hoping for a spotting. It was hot as shit, not a breath of breeze, and the ocean was a flat as a mirror, which we hadn't seen the whole time we've been in Belize, almost 2 months. It seemed like a good day to swim with whale sharks, but alas, none appeared. We'll have to save that for next time. Ted and I did start discussing the "no take" issue, and expressed dissapointment in not being able to go spearfishing one last time. This led to mulling over the Lionfish pamphlet, which reads "Belize needs the help of all fisherman, locals, and tourists in controlling our invasive Lionfish population". Our brains came together on this and Ted coined the term "Lionfish Safari", which meant destroying all the lionfish we saw and having a lionfish feast for our last dinner in Belize. I've heard they are delicious but never had the nerve to try them, until this set of circumstances presented itself. Sticking to our mantra of competition we decided it would be the Salty Dog vs. Gualby, loser has to cook the buggers on his boat. This would also give the girls some time behind the spear, to hone their bloodthirst.

The Lionfish Safari was a success, we eradicated the reef of something like 30 fish, and had alot of fun. The snorkeling here was fantastic and I shot some underwater vids I posted under the "three-sixties page." (check them out) Since Gualby destroyed Salty Dog in the tournament (of course), that meant dinner was on their boat. But the weigh-in and fish cleaning was on Gualby, so we made rum drinks and sharpened up the knives. Lionfish don't really get that big, so you have to clean alot to get enough meat for a meal. But Meg kept the rum and mango juices coming, and it sort of reminded me of when you clean a mess of crappie or shellcrakers in south Florida while your drinking beer. It takes some time but is enjoyable work. So we had a fish fry and I would never admit this if I didn't mean it: Lionfish is some of the best eating fish I've had. The meat is white as snow, has no veins or dark areas, not even the remotest smell of fishyness, and is about twice as firm as hogfish. Even Ted, who eats only the finest of the ocean's fishes, was overjoyed at the flavor. It is pretty easy to clean, almost exactly like crappie, where the fillet comes out without bones and the skin is thick enough to remove from the other side with ease. We will definitely be having another Lionfish Safari.

We woke up the next morning to another windless, glassy day, waved Goodbye to Beautiful Belize and made a heading for Livingston, on the Rio Dulce, Guatamala. As a final goodbye, allow me to list and comment on all the places we anchored in Belize:

1.)San Pedro: Fun town, very friendly people, stray dog capital of Belize, beautiful water, not the best anchorage - a little rolly from all the boat traffic.

2.) Caye Caulker: Great island, lots of young people (less the 60 gets you in this category) eclectic and friendly locals, great anchorage, water not as clear.

3.)St. Georges Cay: cool little island, not the best anchorage, but is definately worth a canoe circumnavigation. there are a couple of cuts that run through the island, and barbecues set up on beaches on the southwest side, apparently for anyone to use? Anchorage is shallow and thick grass, another boat dragged and gouged the Salty Dog here.

4.)Ships Cay Bogue: Good anchorage inside of a mangrove cut. We hid from winds here for a day and met a man who lives on one of the eastern islands for months at a time, all alone, no one around. The cruise ship company pays him to keep people from stealing the lumber off the docks. He dries fish he catches to take home to his wife when his stint is over, and grows tomatoes in coral soil. He says he is allowed to shoot people after 9pm, but he is very friendly. He is small in stature but big in heartiness.

5.)Middle Long Cay: Great anchorage, good holding, and good snorkeling around the boat. not reef but patches of coral surrounded by grass. This is one place that you can still spearfish and the fishing is good. We caught yellowtail snapper off of a half sunken barge. We also caught and ate a barracuda, which the Belizeans go crazy for. I've never eaten them before, but the sparkle in the Belizean's eyes when they start talking about Barracuda steaks gave me the urge to try, and it was delicious. The lady that dreaded Meg's hair says she prefers the head over the steaks, because the head has all the meat of the steaks, but you get the added bonus of the eyes. We just ate the steaks.

6.)Rendevous Cay: It appears that there are 2 Rendevous Cays, but we went to the northern one. It was a 3 mile paddle but well worth it, check out the post "No Fees for the Super Paddlers"

7.)Dangriga: edgy and a little dirty, we immediately liked Dangriga. But the anchorage leaves you wide open to the prevailing easterlies, so we didn't stay long.

8.)Coco Plum Cay: We anchored on the west side of Coco Plum, which is also a Marine Reserve that is grouped with Tobacco Cay. Great anchorage, good snorkeling around the boat patches - of coral surrounded by grass, very cool island to walk around. The south end has a pseudo-friendly all inclusive resort that let us buy draft Belikins at the bar.

9.)Tobacco Cay: Very fun island, lots of backpackers, pretty good anchorage, and great snorkelling. A must stop.

10.)South Water Cay: Just as pretty as Tobacco, with a better anchorage but much less populated. If given the choice in the future we would be okay with skipping Tobacco and just hanging out at South Water.

11.)Pelican Cays: very interesting chain of islands that is apparently unique in the world because here the mangrove ecosystem is intertwined with the hard coral ecosystem, they grow in and amongst each other. This is a group of mangrove islands that is ringed by a shallow coral bar. I think that technically makes it an atoll, but it is inside the barrier reef. Inside the atoll the water depth is 60 feet, and drops off almost straight down just past the coral ring. You cannot anchor in anything less than 60 feet, no matter how close to the coral bar you get. Inside the atoll are the usually shallow water mangrove fish like snapper an barracuda and schools of herring and sardines, but also ocean fish like spanish mackerel and bonita. Snorkelling here right next to this 60 foot drop off made me feel like I was involving myself in the food chain. The mackerel hide in the shadows about 15feet down the drop-off wall, then dart up and pin the sardines against the shallow bar. I was hunting the spanish mackerel in the exact same way, and the thought occurred to me that something could hunt me this way as well. A little spooky, but very cool spot. If you go there check out Dustin and Kim's bar and restaurant Hideaway Caye. You can't really see it through the mangroves but Dustin usually kayaks up to your boat to tell you the dinner specials.

12.)Placencia: Great anchorage, great town, friendly people. There was this one peckerhead who was always drunk and kind of hung around the dinghy dock, cussing generally about you and what you were doing, but if you confronted him he would usually act like he wasn't talking about you, although you knew he was. He did fuck with the girls a couple of time verbally about throwing garbage and dog shit in the garbage, but whenever Ted and I would confront this guy the other people standing around would be like "don't worry about that guy, he's always like that". It did get old after a while though.

13.)Big Creek: We only went here to check out of the country. It is basically a industrial port for loading ships, not a town or anything. But they have a customs office there, and you can walk a couple of miles to Immigration in Mango Creek.

14.)The Sapodillas: Awesome place. Very friendly officials on Hunting Cay, but other than that, nobody else around. Go there and hunt the lionfish.

So that's it. We never did make it out to the atolls: Turneffe, Glover, and Lighthouse. Sailing inside the reef was just too nice, and I guess it's good to save something for when we return with our kids. We loved you Belize, and thank you for taking care of us. We forgive you for allowing Belikin to have a monopoly on your beer situation, and only selling beers that are 8 ounces instead of 12. We appreciate you forgiving us for any faux pas we made while enjoying your waters. Thank you and Goodnight.

This is the little brother behavior Bubby does when he is nervous. Penny hates it.

more little brother interference

cobia

we had a boat full of conch and fish that kept flopping around penny's feet , so she chose this as her new seat in the canoe. She actually stayed like this for an hour while we continued to spearfish.