The Moment of Truth
[21:38] [Wednesday, December 27, 2006]
We entered the cut in Belize's Barrier Reef at around 07:00 AM, something like twelve hours sooner than we originally predicted upon departure from Isla Mujeres. Strong norther' winds and some crazy-X-treme sailing brought us into the San Pedro anchorage at a decent hour and with plenty of free time to ... well .. relax.
The past twelve days were taxing beyond belief, and spending the morning lazily preparing the boat for possible inspection, flying our yellow quarantine flag in no hurry whatever was a pleasant change. Even the cat could not help but tumble around the boat with a certain spring in his step of the sort that seems to say, "Finally, we are on vacation!"
The team headed to the island to check into Belize with way more prepared than was absolutely necessary. We waited in line to get our passports and ship's record stamped longer than it took us to actually fill out the right forms and have some casual conversation with our customs officer. Oh, and did we mention we didn't pay a dime in entry fees? Such a feat is virtually unheard of in a boater's world of cargo taxes, overtime fees, application fees, port captain pay-offs and the like. Our customs officer's casual air and good news made the happy start to our stay in Belize just that much happier.
Waiting for the last member of our crew, Blu, to arrive (he's due on Friday), we're all sitting back with Belikins in hand and fresh Caribbean fish in our bellies, being lazy in a way we thought we'd get to be from the very beginning. The journey across the Gulf and Caribbean was exhausting, but so far our efforts were well worth it.
