Water World, Cheating Death Again and The City
[21:17] [Tuesday, January 02, 2007]
8 am we raised the hook and sailed for Rendezvous Caye another 10 miles south. As we neared Rendezvous the chart showed various coral heads that we needed to dodge but the problem was our charts are not very reliable and Belize is an environment that is constantly changing. With sails down, motor on and all hands on the bow watching for shallow water we arrived without incident to find a chartered catamaran leaving. We borrowed their mooring which allowed the boat to be nearly on the beach safely.
This isle was much like Goff's but it was even more pristine and the waters dropped from a foot to over 60 feet depths providing incredible snorkeling. We spent hours exploring the underwater maze of coral and the life it sustained. The windward side of the island allowed the coral to flourish more densely and that is where I found the lobster. The tricky part in snorkeling through this is anticipating the strong current and waves and not getting washed into the razor sharp coral, some species of which sting. But at one crucial point while spearing a lobster my timing was off and I was launched into coral that quickly established I was in no man's land. Although I had got the lobster, the reef had its way with me and sliced up my left arm then my belly on top of some sort of stinging coral that was such an instantaneous shocking pain that it sent me up on top of the water, as if gravity did not exist. Payback is a bitch!
I swam for the boat in agony to pour vinegar on my stomach which relieved the pain somewhat. Welts quickly rose in the pattern of the coral and I looked for anything that resembled "Help Me" in those welts. Another movie; nevermind.
With belly afire and lobster in hand we wanted to get to Belize City before dark so Igorilla could catch his flight back home. After looking at our charts and plotting a course we attempted to go through Middle Long Caye and Bluefield Range. In between these cayes lies a sand bar that has a depth of 1-2 feet. With sails down and motor pushing us slowly forward we tried first the supposed 8-10 foot cut closest to Middle Long Caye. Watching the depth sounder, the water shallowed quickly to 5 feet and with a near 5 foot draft on the boat, I threw us into reverse and was relieved to not be aground.
We motored back around to where we thought the sandbar was and tried the other approach closer to Bluefield Range. The cut was even smaller than the other but there was supposed to be a stake marking where the cut was. We again approached slowly and as we got further in we could not find the stake. Watching the depth sounder and and trying to steer the boat by our digital and paper charts our depth suddenly went from 8 feet to 4.5 feet. We were aground. I tried to do what I had once before by going in reverse hard but with 20knot winds and waves on the stern we were being pushed directly onto the sandbar. Knowing how shallow it could get I had visions of the boat washing up onto the bar laying on her side allowing the waves to fill the boat. Emergency mode kicked in and it was "Danger! Danger!" time. That should be read with the deceased Crocodile Hunter accent.
Reverse was no bueno so we attempted to turn the bow back into the wind but we could not budge the boat except when a wave would lift us up just enough to put us up more onto the bar.
Before this happened we had prepared the dinghy to be motored alongside the boat as we sailed to get some photos of the boat sailing. As we scrambled to get the boat off the bottom we watched as the dinghy rapidly floated away from us with the wind and waves. What next?! A lightning strike? Maybe a sea monster? I handled the situation in pure professional manner by exclaiming my well developed string of curse words, which could be heard easily from miles away.
Since Igor tied the dinghy up last, he took resonsibility and jumped in heroically to swim for our potential lifeboat. I agreed with this decision, taking into account he could stand in such shallow water.
In the few minutes it took Igor to return with the dink we had not moved. Igor and Blu were dispatched in our reclaimed dink with a weighted line with knots tied every 2 feet. They motored in all possible directions we could go, dropping the line trying to find deep water. The further they got away from the boat the more shallow the water got. They then attempted pulling the bow around with our little dinghy equipped with a 6hp motor, which was way underpowered for this sort of task. With every moment that passed putting us even more aground, they returned to the boat for help in our next steps: to drop anchor to keep us from moving further onto the bar and to raise sails in attempt to heel the boat over far enough to get the bow into the wind.
Just as they were getting ready to climb back aboard a skiff from out of the Bluefield range mangroves sped toward us. On the skiff were 2 locals and a sailor from a 40 foot ketch that said he had been aground twice and I presume was pulled off by these guys.
With me at the helm and Tanya at the bow, she threw a line to the 3 good summaritans. They tied off to their stern and began trying to pull our bow around with their 40 hp outboard. Sol Searcher remained in the rut she had created inthe sandbar and refused to turn.
Next we tied to the stern and they began to pull us out backwards. We slowly backed out maybe making 5 feet backwards then our progress stopped finding a previous rut we made minutes before to settle in. They tied up to the bow again and while they were at full throttle Igor and Blu pushed the other side of the bow with the dinghy. Within a couple minutes, our dink pushing, these guys pulling and me with rudder hard over and all our engines maxed out we spun the bow around and began to move forward back in the direction from which we had come. As suddenly as we were aground we were freed and into 13 feet of water in a minute.
Not only did Team Sol Searcher really come together but these guys that came to our aide were key in getting us off that bar. I did not get their names but we rewarded them with cold Belikins and $60 US. They came without us asking for help. They helped us without asking first for some sort of payment. They pointed to each other our Earth flag flying and God who was on deck supervising and they laughed and smiled. I had a sort of restoration in my own interpretation of humanity. They motored ahead of us finding deep water safely for us and then pointed us in the right direction. Wish I had got their names, but there are a couple of pics of them in our photo gallery.
After all that had transpired, we ditched our plan to take photos from the dink and sailed into Belize City, arriving about 10 pm to tie up to the Raddison Fort George Hotel dock. We do not recommend this dock for staying the night. It is unprotected from the elements and is a potential hazard to boat and crew.
Won't dwell too much on the City ... The dockmaster/night watchman was basically the only friendly face, though the live aboard dive boat, the Belize Aggressor III, tied up to the opposite side of our pier saved us some grief on a rough night in unprotected waters. Against all odds, managed to locate some Chinese on a Tuesday night (equivalent to Sunday in Belize), and collapsed.
