We were on the fast track slowly!
We left Placencia with a projected arrival 4 days later
in Ambergris Cay, and we thought, a weather window for Mexico.
We had great sailing and a beautiful day; we took down the sails,
started up the motor, no alternator. We had a choice of 2
anchorages about 34 miles from Placencia, 1 which protected us
from the Trade Winds which were blowing when we sailed in, and 1
which protected us from the Northerlies which can happen at
any time here. We anchored on battery power, thank goodness
for our new KISS wind generator, and settled down for the night.
It wasn't long until the wind started blowing fiercely
from the Northwest; the swells became really swell. We
could see the waves rolling and breaking on the shoals right
off our stern where the water quickly shallowed from 30 feet
to 2 feet. Garbutt Cay is a mangrove island which makes for
a great landing in a hurricane, but I wasn't too anxious to
end up sitting on it right now, so I slept, not, all night in the
cockpit which prevented our dragging onto it! We couldn't reanchor
because of using battery power to pull up 200 feet of anchor
rode, and the solar panels couldn't help replenish until
daylight.
Jerry worked all the next day cleaning contacts and replacing the
alternator with our spare, but it didn't work either, so he
finally narrowed the problem to the regulator. The new "Smart"
regulator came without instructions, and we weren't smart
enough to get it working, but our wind generator and solar
panels provided enough power so that we could start our engine,
pull up the anchor and move to a better anchorage where I
made tacos and we slept like babies. It was so cold, we had
to get out our longies. We almost always sleep on deck because
the stars and the moon and just everything is too good to go
below.
Today we motored north to Belize City and the funkiest little
marina which we would have missed if it hadn't been for our
regulator, so I guess it was smarter than we thought. We had
to plow Grace's keel through the mud to get in, but we are now
attached to 2 tree trunks and to a dock with electrical power, cable
TV and a great little restaurant. This has to be the tiniest marina anywhere on the tiniest, little (redundant)island. It probably
doesn't even make island status, but it does have a marine electrician and a friend of ours on another boat has an instruction book.
We are planning to leave here as quickly as we get power-then on
to Ambergris and Isla Mujeres to watch for a weather window for
Marco Island. Everytime we set our sights to far in front Grace
seems to say, "Hey, hold it", so forget I wrote that.
- February 15, 2002