Belize Tuesday, February 10, 2015

In the stealth of the darkness, our good Captain David quietly swam to Restless Spirit and freed their fishing pole. Soon a trade - fishing pole for paddle board was negotiated with Restless Spirit Captain J.J.

We spent a beautiful day on Ranguana Island. It is very picturesque with palm trees, white sand and lots of conch shells. Our snorkeling group entered the rocky shore and made it to the far side of the reef to explore. We saw a large nurse shark swimming and later Lynda found one in a little cave. The water was shallow and bright, making for good snorkeling.Tradewinds took a cooler full of beer and soft drinks onto Ranguana, so it was a nice day spent on the island. David and Patries spent the morning cleaning the boat for us. 

Lunch today was amazing! Patries made a Grouper Nicoise Salad with peas, tomatoes and potatoes. David grilled some fresh grouper that was dripping with garlic butter sauce. It was so good. 

After lunch we motored/sailed to Tom Owens island. It is a very small island with a dive certification company. One can come to the island and get fully certified in one week. They also run a research group called ReefCI - Reef Conservation Institution.

For dinner we all got to eat at Tom Owens. They were serving breaded Lion fish, that was surprisingly good for such a ferocious little fish! We had fun chatting with the residents of Restless Spirit, Jim, Lynn and family.

After dinner we played Cards Against Humanity. It kept us entertained late into the night! And Ruthie was the winner!

Belize Monday, February 9, 2015

Today was full breakfast day with eggs florentine and bacon. Patries cooked the eggs in her a muffin tin, which she says is her favorite kitchen tool.

Next came my big dive! David was kind enough to take me down on a "check out " dive...just the two of us on a shallow dive of about 25 feet. I had never used a self inflating BCD, so I had to figure out which was the inflate and which was the deflate. No problems clearing. I was able to find neutral buoyancy quickly. David is a kind teacher and I felt safe with him, He pointed out an eagle ray, a baby grouper and some little critters. We came across an old lobster trap with a large angelfish who was trapped. David undid the wire slowly, cutting himself in the process. We were able to free the angelfish. She swam right out when we backed away. After the Dive, David said I could dive with the others on the next dive, which is a wall dive. Exciting! We have two more dives on Wednesday and Thursday. I am so glad I threw in my PADI card on a whim.

After our lunch of a rice lasagna, we sailed east to Ranguana Island. It is the perfect tropical island with green trees and white sand. Tomorrow we will be able to explore the island. Today we snorkeled around it. Thomas took six of us out to the reef and we snorkeled back to the boat. The water was very shallow and clear. Sightings: large parrot fish hiding in a hole, a school of needle fish, two large starfish, a small trunk fish and many of the assorted tropical regulars. As we swam back to the boat, we stopped at a Belizean fishing boat where rays were congregating underneath as the fishermen cleaned their fish. We saw three eagle rays - the brown spotted ones, and many plain rays with long barbs. It was a bit unnerving as we were in about five feet of water and the rays would swim under you, which was pretty close. 

We had a good Boat Drink today - a piña colada. Tomorrow we are having Painkillers, which we had at the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke, where the Painkiller was invented.

For dinner tonight Patries made roasted vegetables, chicken with lime butter sauce and cous cous. The excellent meal was followed by a mini lava cake.

Rick, Bruce and I went on the top deck and did some star gazing. Fun for me! We were moored near the other Tradewinds boat and we have been planning on a Pirating move. We want to swap our broken fishing reel for their good one. Well, as the three of us were chatting about how to get to their boat quietly, Bruce suggested the paddle board. We looked over and it was gone. Restless Spirit had beaten us to the punch! Revenge is being plotted!!

Belize Sunday, February 8, 2015

Our first full day! We woke to coffee and a wonderful breakfast of fruit (star anise, papaya, mango, orange, grapefruit), bagels and cream cheese. Very nice entry to the day.

We headed east and north to Moho island where we anchored and did some snorkeling. Lunch was the delicious Tradewinds curry chicken salad. Very tasty!

After lunch we moved further east to the Hatchet Caye Resort and anchored for the evening. We all took the dingy in and headed to the bar for very delicious piña coladas. I sat in a net swing and watched the pelicans dive for fish. Very entertaining!

We walked the property and found a man made osprey nest on a tall pole with a mom and chicks. The grounds were beautiful.

I caught a weak wifi signal and was able to call Sandy briefly. It will be so much fun to sail with Sandy and Victor in St. Martin in 2016 for NYE.

We came back to the boat and did a little snorkling. I saw a lionfish, a spotted ray, barracudas, two file fish and the other assorted fish. It was nice and clear. Good day in the water.

We returned to Affinity to relax a bit before Happy Hour. David made us Blue Iguanas for our daily drink. Patries led us in a game of Two Truths and a Lie. It was very fun to learn things about our boat mates.

Dinner tonight was delicious. We had bruschetta, cucumber salad, grilled pork tenderloin with apples and sweet potato dumplings. Dessert was a warm fruit concoction. We have found that the Tradewinds meals are always good. A little home style cooking and a little gourmet.

After dinner we chatted a bit and then, as Rick says, "We hit the sacarooni". And we did.

Belize Saturday, February 7, 2015

We are so excited to travel with Bill and Barb to Belize on a Tradewinds Experience luxury cruise. Bill and Barb bought into the club in the BVI's on our RCI trade cruise last February. We bought in later and here we are in beautiful Belize!

Thanks (NOT) to United Airlines we had to spend Friday night in Houston instead of Belize City as planned. We arrived in Houston and took our shuttle to the Hampton Inn. Our shuttle driver stopped at a liquor store for us and we bought a nice Malbec, which was consumed from paper cups in our room. Then we walked next door to Church's Chicken and brought our dinner home.

Saturday morning we woke early, had our breakfast at the Hampton Inn and shuttled to meet Barb and Bill at the airport in the United Club Room. We arrived in Belize City and after three separate lines, we made it to the Mayan Island Airlines counter. We were put on a different plane than Bill and Barb, although we had both booked the 12:30 flight. Funny that Bill's luggage arrived on our flight! The plane ride was awesome. It was a 10-12 seater. I got to sit right behind the pilot. Very fun to see the beautiful Belizean countryside. The land near the ocean seems semi-arid. As we flew inland, the vegetation grew more lush. The landing strip was so short that the pilot had to brake hard and then turn the plane around in a little landing stop cul-de-sac.

We were picked up by a taxi driver named Robert from Robert's Grove Resort where Tradewinds is headquartered. We had a native beer, Belikan and looked around the lovely resort. It is very laid back with plenty of space and tropical vegetation. Tradewinds failed to provide us with Squirt, but low and behold - Robert was drinking a FRESCA! I asked him where he bought it and he said Seine Bight. Rick and I took two of the resort's bikes and peddled to the tiny market. We left with 12 bottles of Fresca in our bike baskets. Yippee!

At 5:00 we boarded Affinity, a beautiful 59 foot catamaran. With Tradewinds you do not know your sailing mates until embarkation. It seems difficult maybe, but it really is pretty cool. Fun to get to know new people from all over. Our captain is David, a Belizean and his girlfriend, Patries (pronounced Patrice) is our First Mate. She is Dutch, but hails from Vancouver.

Thomas is a captain who is sailing with us so he can work with Tradewinds.

After we were shown our room and had time to unpack, we all assembled on deck for the daily Boat Drinks and snacks.

Tonight we had pineapples filled with a cream cheese dip. Yummy. The drinks were Rum Punches and Sea Breezes. 

As we were all seated at the dinner table, Patries had everyone make an introduction and tell what they were hoping to get out of the trip. It was fun to learn about everybody. Most want to meet and enjoy new people.

Our boat mates are:

Dennis and Mary Heaton from Denver

Dan and Lynda Rojics from Indiana

Bruce Chapman from Calgary, Canada

Barb Doerr and Bill Robinson our Denver friends

And us!

Dinner:

Black bean soup - spicy!

Romaine salad with balsamic dressing

Watermelon salad with red onion and feta

Local farm raised shrimp and linquine

Key lime pie

We turned in early, as we did not get much sleep the night before. Our cabin is so huge compared to our first Tradewinds cruise. In the British Virgin Islands we were on Cruise Class, which was very bare bones compared to this Luxury Class. It is a totally different experience. Although we loved our first cruise very much, this one is so much more comfortable.