Thursday, April 25, 2013

The Atolls of Belize

We are in Belize now, currently anchored off of Half Moon Cay on
Lighthouse Reef. It is stunning out here - lots of shallows and sandy
bottoms so the water colors are magnificent. We are anchored over
sand and see rays swim by fairly regularly. The Belize atolls feel
much like the Bahamas, but much more remote. We have seen two
sailboats in over 3 days (although we see a regular stream of
liveaboard dive boats that come through and then leave). And the
charts are basically just guidelines, so we feel like we are really
"out there." It's basically all visual, read-and-run navigation with
controlling depths as shallow as 5-6 feet in many places.

We are grateful to be having a wilderness experience here - it feels
like we could stay for a month (especially if we had a few more
eggs!). Making this place feel even more precious is the knowledge
that we are getting ever closer to Florida and the full-on
civilization of the United States.

We have also been having a wonderful time with guests here in Belize.
Our dear neighbor, Kate, is with us now. And our good friends Kate
and Chase Jarvis spent a little under a week with us on Ambergris and
Caye Caulker.

So, as you can probably tell, we are basically we're blissed out down
here.

Over and out for now,
Blue Kai

(And thanks to my sis, Marla, for posting this on the blog, as the
only connection we have with civilization is email on our SSB radio.)
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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Quick hola from Guatemala.

We are in Guatemala now. Blue Kai is in the Rio Dulce and we are (right now) doing a bit of land travel before Jim leaves us next week. We will update more about our recent travels, including the Bay Islands. Unexpectedly, we visited all three and Susan is now a certified scuba diver after a brief weather layover in Roatan. We then had a super brief stop in the Sapodilla Cays on the far southern end of Belize, before getting to Guatemala. It's quite hot here in Guatemala right now, but we have been VERY pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food we've been eating.

A few random pics for now (these are what is on my iPad here in the hotel in Flores - the good stuff on the cameras is yet to be downloaded).

First, Jim's two awesome catches during his time on Blue Kai. A Mahi Mahi caught between the Vivorillos Cays and Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras. And then a Cobia caught just before we anchored at Tres Puntas Guatemala (just 10 miles out from the entrance to the Rio Dulce). Yu-uu-um.

And finally, Rye at Tikal today. How can a 5 year old who is sailing around the Caribbean and seeing Mayan ruins be so grumpy?!?