Captain's Log

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July to December, 2006:  Honduras & Belize

07-19-2006:  After resolving the problems with the freezer we are headed back to Roatan to hang out for hurricane season.  We left beautiful Lagoon Marina in La Ceiba on July 19th headed for Port Royal.  About ten miles out of the jetties at La Ceiba we caught a 34 inch Wahoo.  Fresh fish tonight!

07-31-2006:  After twelve days of diving, snorkeling and fishing we pulled anchor and sailed down island to Jonesville.  There Greg will keep the boat while Judy flies back to Houston.  Roatan has a direct fight straight to Houston so that will make traveling alone much easier.  Since this is hurricane season we have arranged to keep Lone Star Love at Woodside Marina in Jonesville.  We also want to do a few projects before Judy leaves so being at a dock will help things go smoothly.

On August 5th we get an email from Rita at Lagoon Marina in La Ceiba asking if Greg would come and help Toni on some mechanical projects that he has coming up at the marina.  Toni has also just had some knee surgery and feels he need some help as the surgery was more involved then he thought and there are some projects he just can not do.  So we agree to help them out and sail to La Ceiba August 8th.

Judy is flying out of Roatan on August 19th so she takes the Galaxy Wave ferry from La Ceiba to Roatan to catch her flight to Houston.  Greg will help out Toni and Rita while Judy is in Houston and then meet her back at Roatan with Lone Star Love upon her return.

09-16-2006:  Toni recovers and Greg leaves Lagoon Marina on September 15 with new crew members, our good friends, Martha and Phil.  They sail to the beautiful islands of Cayos Cochinos, where they enjoy the beautiful water and Greg cleans the bottom of the boat.  They have a great evening meal and spend a perfect night.  The next day they have a perfect sail to Jonesville and back to Woodside Marina.  There Greg and Lone Star Love will be awaiting Judy’s return from Houston in a week.

While in Houston Judy stays with our good friends Linda and Richard, who live in Spring, which is north of downtown Houston.  She has a huge list of items to purchase for Lone Star Love and Greg.  There is some time to spend with friends enjoying Linda and Richard’s cool refreshing swimming pool.  

09-23-2006:  It’s so good to be home with Greg and back aboard Lone Star Love.  There are lots of project to work on now that Judy has brought back the items on the shopping list.  While Judy was gone and Greg was in La Ceiba, he replaced the teak wench plates in the cockpit and some other pieces of teak that needed changing.  This was a huge project that we have waited two years to do.  Teak was not allowed to be harvested for over two years in Central America so this was the first teak that was available and Greg jumped on the chance to get some.

10-19-2006:  Its Bob Lee’s birthday and we are having a big party.  Bob is the owner of the famed Hole in the Wall restaurant and bar located in Blue Rock at Jonesville on Roatan.  This will be great and Bob will make sure there is lots of food and fun for everyone.  Of course all the cruisers are invited along with many of his local friends, patrons and the local kids.  Bob loves all the kids in the area.

10-21-2006:  We have been waiting for months for our friends Bill and Nancy to arrive.  They are very good friends of ours from Houston and are going to spend a week with us in Roatan.  We have Lone Star Love at Woodside Marina and that worked out very well as it gave Bill and Nancy a chance to be on the boat, but the security of having the land very close.  This was their first ever opportunity at living on a sailboat.  They wanted their first stop to be Hole in the Wall for the famous Sunday afternoon Bar-B-Q.  The food was very good and they enjoyed meeting the locals and boaters.  We spent two days touring the island by car and two days boating around all the nearby bights.  A day of rest in the middle and the week was gone.  We want to give a big thanks to Larry, of Woodside Marina as we were able to use his vehicle and his larger skiff to get around both on land and by water.   We had a great time with them, but it passed way to fast.   

11-20-2006:  The old saying is “Time flies when your having fun”, well that also applies to when you are doing projects and staying way too busy.  Hurricane season is winding down and it has been a very calm year with only tropical stores and nothing even close to the north coast area of Honduras.

We decide that it time to leave Larry’s dock at Woodside Marina and go to Port Royal for a few days.  We will return to the safe harbor of Jonesville in a few days since a strong norther is heading our way and we will also be spending Thanksgiving with our boating family at Hole in the Wall.

11-26-2006:  We left for La Ceiba see our friends Martha and Phil before they fly to the states for the Christmas holidays and to re-provision before we head out for Belize.

12-07-2006:  We are loaded with three months worth of provisions.  We are headed to Roatan to wait for good weather the head west to Belize.  We had a beautiful sail to Roatan, arriving in Jonesville at 1:00P.M.  We are hoping to spend Christmas and New Years at Lighthouse Reef Atoll in Belize.  We checked out of Roatan on December 11th and got our good weather on the 14th.

12-14-2006:  The weather is perfect, the anchor is up and we are headed for Utila.  We will spend the night there.  Our fellow Texans, Sonny and Kay on s/v Valentina, saw us off that morning.  We will miss them, but will catch up with them when we return to the Bay Islands before heading south to Panama.

On the way the fishing was great too!  At 11:30AM we hauled in a 35 inch Dolphin fish and at 1:00PM we caught a 45 inch Wahoo.  Greg had them all cleaned and some ready for dinner and the rest for the freezer by the time we dropped the anchor in East Bay, Utila at 2:25PM.

12-15-2006:  We decided that today we would be a catch and release day of fishing since we had done so well yesterday.  We catch a Barracuda and several Bonita, but they were all sent back to the sea.  We had a good sail to Punta Sal on the north coast of Honduras.  We had dinner while listening to the howler monkeys in the jungle around the anchorage.  The sky was very clear and the stars were shinning very bright that night.

12-16-2006:  It’s Saturday, and we can not check into Belize till Monday, so we decide to stop and Ranguana Cay, just inside Ranguana Pass to spend the night and then head on into Placencia on Sunday and be ready to check into the country first thing Monday morning.  We leave Punta Sal at 5:15 headed for Ranguana Pass.  Just another perfect sailing day in paradise.

Just outside the Ranguana Pass we notice a sailboat high and dry on top of the reef about two miles south of the pass.  It looks like they missed the pass.  We got anchored and Greg took the dinghy to check on the sailboat.  Yes, it had run aground the Sunday before and was being stripped for salvage by the locals in the area.  It was a sad sight to see.  We found out that the captain had been asleep and the crew made a mistake when trying to enter the reef at night.  The boat was a total loss. 

12-17-2006:  After a very restful night we pulled up anchor at 10:00AM to sail to Placencia.  It was another good sailing day.  Good wind yet the seas were protected by the barrier reef system along the entire coast of Belize.  We were about 3 miles out of Placencia when the Spanish mackerel started hitting our fishing lines.  We got one first and got it in then we were both pulling them in two at a time.  We put the lines out again and pulled in two more.  Now that was some fun fishing!  All the fishing and fun and we were still in Placencia by 1:00PM. 

12-18-2006:  Up early to head for Big Creek to check into the country.  Went to immigrations, got our passports stamped, next to the port captain for a cruising permit and a stop at the agricultural office to declare if we have any citrus on board.  With all that completed we are back to Lone Star Love by 9:30 headed back to Placencia.  We pick up fresh produce, check land line email for the last time and took off to head for our final destination of Lighthouse Reef Atoll to spend the holidays.

We head for Sapodilla Lagoon at 1:20PM, arriving and dropping the anchor at 4:30PM.  The days are getting to the shortest daylight hours of the winter season so we are glad to be anchored well before the sun sets.  We enjoyed a beautiful sun set over the mountains of Belize.

12-19-2006:  We are headed for Lighthouse, but get a later start then we wanted to.  We had a head failure, one of the most dreaded problems on a boat of any kind.  Yuk!  That is the toilet for you land lovers.  With that problem resolved we will not make Lighthouse by sunset so we opt to spend the night at Southeast Pass at the southern end of Turneffe Island.  This is another one of the famed atolls off the coast of Belize.  The wind is out of the northeast so our anchorage was very rolly that night and the wind went up to 51 knots when a squall came thru.  That did not make for a very good nights rest.  We couldn’t wait to get underway the next morning.

After we got the anchor set last evening behind the reef at Southeast Pass, we check our sailmail.  We received an email from Rita and Toni at Lagoon Marina in La Ceiba.  Rita tells us that Toni had completely blown out his knee and will have to fly to Germany on January 1st to have knee surgery.  The next thing Rita asks, is can Greg come help her run the shop for Toni while he is gone?  But there is no hurry because the shop will be closed for the week between the holidays.  We are now stuck between a rock and a hard place.  We want to help out Rita, but we just checked into Belize yesterday.  So we decide to go to Lighthouse and spend the holidays as we planned and then we will head to La Ceiba.

Three hours later we were at Lighthouse Reef Atoll at the south end just behind the reef.  It was awesome!  We were meeting our buddy boat Kristiana there and couldn’t wait to get in the water.   It is so spectacular to be anchored behind a reef with all the beautiful shades of water in front of you and nothing behind you except the deep blue.  The breeze just has such a clean smell.  Truly wonderful!

We went fishing that day and that evening we have dinner aboard Kristiana and enjoy some wonderful fresh fish soup.  Best of all we are with our buddy boat that we plan to travel south with when we go to Panama in March. 

We spend the next three day anchored behind the beautiful reef doing our fishing, diving and snorkeling.  It can’t get any better then this.  However, the winds are starting to change and it’s time to move to a more protected anchorage.

12-22-2006:  We move to the west side of Long Cay, which is one of the islands in the middle of the atoll.  We will get out of the rolly seas that were starting behind the reef and we can spend a few days here before the weather changes again.

Once we got the anchor set we had visitors to the boat.  It was the crew from s/v KaijaSong, Gary, Kaija and Doc. Doc is their 85 pound beautiful rottweiler puppy dog.  Any one that knows Judy knows she has a big soft spot when it comes to rottweilers.   Judy was immediately in love with Doc.

12-23-2006:  After the net we decided to go around and introduce ourselves to the boats that were anchored around us that we had not met yet.  We started with Gonzo II with Bud and Judy on board and then went to Maestro with Sam, Wendy and their Daughter Sarah, who was visiting during Christmas break from college.  She is a student at Harvard.  Our friends Doug and Rayene were making a visit also when the topic somehow turned to diving.  Doug mentioned to Sarah that the guy that could take her diving was Greg.  So we put together a plan.  Sarah would use all of Judy’s dive gear and Greg would take her on a dive.  She had just recently gotten her certification in Chili of all places where the water was cold and visibility was very poor.

We got Sarah all suited up and off she and Greg went.  Judy went with Sam and Wendy to snorkel above the divers and watch from above as they made their way along the beautiful wall that they were diving on.  When they came up and Sarah pulled the regulator out of her mouth, it was so fun to hear her talk about the dive.  She was ecstatic!She could not stop talking long enough to get back into the dinghy.  It was so much fun to see the sparkle in her eyes and a smile that was from ear to ear. 

Sarah wanted Greg and Judy to come to their boat for lunch, so we got out of our gear, cleaned everything up and returned for lunch.  In our earlier visit that day Sam and Wendy were asking us what book we used as a guide for Honduras.  We told them we did not have one because the only one out was the cruising guide by Nigel Calder, which is out of publication.  We told them we had found a used one on EBay for $125.00 and for that kind of money we would just continue to use the sheets that we had copied out of someone’s book a few years ago. 

So we are having this nice lunch that Sarah is making all of us of grilled cheese with chips, pickles and fresh fruit.  Sarah tells us she has something for us.  She hands Judy a bag with what appears to be a book inside.  She took the book out and it was a copy of the Nigel Calder cruising guide.  We were shocked.  Wendy told us that they had seen the book at a used book store.  They had a copy already, but decided that for $2.00 they would take it and find someone someday that might need it.  So Sarah presented it to us and in the front she wrote:

December 23rd, ‘06

To Greg and Judy-

Thank you for an AMAZING first “Real” diving experience, here at Lighthouse Reef!

Merry Christmas 2006,

Sarah, Sam and Wendy

On “Maestro”

This was a diving experience that Greg and Judy will never forget.  Sarah’s excitement was the best Christmas present that we can ever remember having and one that we will never forget.  We hope it will always be a special memory for Sarah too and a story she will have fun telling for years to come, we know we have had fun telling it to our boating family.

The next morning s/v Maestro had to leave to head back to the main land before some bad weather sets in.  Sam and Wendy wanted to show Sarah as much of Belize as they could before she had to fly back home and go back to school.  We were so sad to see them go as it would have been fun to take Sarah diving again.  We invited her back to sail on Lone Star Love any time she could get away.   We have a special spot in our hearts for Sarah and hope to hear for her again.

We have been fishing and snorkeling every day and loving every minute of it.  Fresh fish, time with friends, beautiful water, what more can you ask for. 

While we were in Placencia, Doug on Kristiana talked to us on the radio and hinted that it sure would be nice to have a small cup of ice cream from the Italian ice Cream shop and  we thought it would be fun to get some ice cream because we know how much Doug and Rayene love that ice cream.  We got four quarts and put them in the freezer.  Just a special little Christmas treat! 

12-24-2006 Christmas Eve:  We have Doug and Rayene over for Christmas Eve dinner and for desert we all enjoy two quarts of the yummy ice cream.  It was so good and fun to share as a special present to our ice cream loving friends. 

12-25-2006 Christmas Day:  All the boaters in the anchorage have planned to have a Christmas dinner aboard Kaija's Song, but first we must move to the south side of the island because a strong norther is scheduled in today.  The winds start to switch at about 7:30AM and by 8:00 they are starting to blow up to 15 knots out of the west northwest.  It time to move.  By the time we get to the south side and tucked in the winds our out of the northwest at 20 knots.  All the boats get moved and tucked in and start preparations for our dinner that afternoon.  Everyone wants to go fishing or snorkeling on Christmas Day, but we want dinner too.  We all get it together and do it all and at 4:00 we all start congregating on Kaija's Song.

There are four couple gathered together and Doc on KaijaSong.  Gerald and Rosemarie on s/v Planitude, Doug andRayene on s/v Kristiana, Gary, Kaija and Doc and Judy and Greg on s/v Lone Star Love.  We had roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, sweet potatoes, corn pudding, cranberries, fresh baked bread, and pecan pie and nut bread for desert.  What a feast for the middle of no where!

The wind continued to blow for three days, but it did not slow down the fishing and snorkeling every day.  Finally on 29th we all moved back to the west side of the island.  The rolls had almost stopped and the wind was back to the east southeast.  That afternoon s/v Litbe with Barb and Torrey on board came in and anchored.  That night we had 30 plus knots of wind and all the boats held at anchor.  The anchorage had a hard bottom and it is hard to set your anchor.            

The next morning the wind picked up again and Litbe pulled up her anchor.  Barb and Torrey were glad it did not happen during the night.  They got it set again and all was well in the anchorage. 

Barb has brought a nice beef filet from the main land that she wants to share it with all of us for a New Years Eve Dinner.  She wants to prepare this awesome meal for the entire group anchored at Lighthouse.  Wow, what a treat.  Judy will make black eyed peas to take as all Texans must have black eyed peas for New Years for good luck.

12-31-2006 New Years Eve:  We all go on our last fishing and snorkeling expeditions for the year 2006 and spend a wonderful day enjoying the crystal waters of Lighthouse Reef.   That evening everyone is on Kaija's Song to share in the wonderful meal that Barb has prepared.  She is a fabulous cook and we are in fabulous company.  Our host and hostess Gary and Kaija, with Barb’s husband Torrey.  Guests included Doug and Rayene, and Greg and Judy. 

It seems that all sailors go to bed early and get up early.  So we came up with the idea to celebrate the New Year at 12 o’clock UTC so that would be 6:00PM our time.  We watched the sun set as we celebrated and tossed the New Year.  Then we had a meal that was out of this world, better then any five star restaurant.  The celebration was great and everyone was home asleep when the New Year really did roll by on the clock.