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| Very protected anchorage at Drowned Cay, 5 NM east from Belize City. |
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| Guess who's living in the Caribbean and who are visiting.... Cheers! |
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| Bow watchmen, Dirk and Breda. |
At last! We have visitors! Jaco's brother, Dirk and his 2 sons, Edwin and Breda, arrived 11 am 24 June at Belize city. Jaco went to the airport to welcome them while Christelle and the dogs stayed on-board Songerie, in front of the City. By 3 pm all hatches were stuffed to the brim with luggage or food and drink supplies, we eagerly weighed anchor to leave this unprotected anchorage and motor-sailed to English Cay.
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| Looks like enough lobster for one night at Turneffe. |
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| Smoking fish at Lighthouse Reef. |
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| Brothers getting new lures ready. |
Early morning the following day, we set sail for Turneffe. Canela was out of control with 3 very keen fishermen on-board. She was terribly disappointed every time some-one reeled in line with no hooked fish, just checking for sargassum on the lures.
The anchor hardly touched ground when all the men abandoned ship, Jaco and the sons went diving while Dirk trawled or jigged from the dingy. They did not come home empty handed... conch starter and a bucket full of lobster was on the menu.
We were sailing close-hauled to Lighthouse reef while trying to dodge rain squalls. The eager young crew made tacking and reefing loads easier. Breda was the first lucky one catching a Mahi-Mahi on this stretch.
Time has come to smoke fish on the beach, after a successful dive at the reef that filled the fridge.
When Chris Parker warned us about heavy winds and thunderstorms heading our way, we sailed to Turneffe for a night, then on to Tobacco Cay and -Range, for more protection behind the barrier reef. This time Dirk was on the rod and caught a baracuda.
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| Anchor-set-rum and Jagermaeister to chase it.. |
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| Breda cleaning the conch. |
Breda learned how to clean a slimy conch the proper way, taking of the skin by his teeth! No place for sissies on board "Songerie"! (he and Edwin also learned to drink rum... straight-up...)
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| Edwin helping to clean the small type of conch. |
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| Fish and men, NOT fishermen! |
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| Mahi-Mahi Carpaccio and sashimi. |
The next few days we anchored at different islands and when the weather turned favourable we set sail again for Turneffe. This time with Edwin on the rod the reel screamed like a banshee! After 20 minutes struggle with a huge wahoo, it shaked the lure out and we lost the fish. Edwin then decided like Jaco, maybe he's better at spearing them... at least there are less luck involved!
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| Buckets full of Lobster and fish that they speared. |
When their holiday came to an end, we sailed to Placencia where we enjoyed an afternoon of browsing along the clourfull walkways, pub-crawling and enjoying a delicious pub-lunch.
We were very sad when they left early morning by bus to Belize city. They were very pleasant crew, enthusiastic about everything; handling sails while tacking or reefing, dropping anchor, diving for food, doing dishes on the swim platform, loving the dogs, and eagerly taking the anchor-set-rum.
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| Sunset colours at Placencia. |
