St. Patrick's Day, Buffalo Style
Placencia
[03:47] [Sunday, March 18, 2007]
We sailed hard yesterday all the way from Hunting Caye. The storm let up just before sunrise, and Sea Dragon called us at 6:30 AM telling us they were weighing anchor. Having spent the better part of the night not sleeping but cleaning, we followed immediately and drank our coffee underway.
By the time we rounded Seal Caye and prepared to raise sail, the wind picked up 15 - 20 kts, and a dark sky seemed to herald rain. Then Sea Dragon, who had slowed down and been moving off course, radioed to say their engine wouldn't start. Thank God for wind and sails!
Still, our wind hit us on the nose right out of Placencia, so we beat our way through several tacks to get back. The sky cleared up and the wind blew steadily. Sol Searcher sails beautifully to windward, so we hauled ass across the Inner Channel.
Sea Dragon, on the other hand, cannot sail nearly as close hauled as we. Her working jib was also in no condition to sail, so despite our best intentions, we left Rick and his crew in our wake, maintaining radio contact as we were able.
In the heavy weather (20 - 25 kts by the evening, when we reached Placencia) it took us 8 attempts to set our anchor. We finally set on our 20 lb Danforth, which the Fortress we usually use resembles, but its 11 lbs are too light to fight a windswept current all the way to the bottom. The Danforth set on the first drop, and we scanned the dimming horizon for Sea Dragon's approach.
They had to sail into the harbor and anchor without a motor. Brady gave them navigation advice over the radio and used our spotlight to provided points of reference in the dark. We watched Sea Dragon's tiny masthead light skim behind the "super yacht" anchored at the back of the harbor, and Brady jumped into the dink and motored over to meet our incoming buddy boat and lend them an extra set of hands.
What should have been a 7 hour sail turned into 14 for poor Sea Dragon. Jeff and Nicky, who've never been aboard a sailboat before this trip, were exhausted by the hard sail, but be damned if they weren't going to spend their last night in Belize partying!
We started at Yoli's, a popular cruisers' hang out right off the harbor. They were preparing to close -- Allen, our bartender, already had his shirt off -- but pulled out the tap handles and stayed open for us! Rick and Kathy are good friends with Yoli and her husband, Regan; Yoli made us dinner even though she'd already cleaned up enough to wipe down the specials board.
Our stomachs sated and our heads buzzing, we set off with Yoli and Allen to join the party at J-Byrds, usually the place to be on Saturday.
Not this Saturday!
After knocking on the door for a couple minutes, someone poked their head out and told Allen we'd have to go to the Tipsy if we wanted an open bar. As we made our way through town, we couldn't help by notice how quiet -- how sleepy -- it was. What happened to the weekend? Even the Tipsy was deserted; the bartender smiled lazily at us as we passed him on the corner. He followed us in when Brady asked, "The bar still open?"
If not for the size of our group (eight), we might have been turned off by the distinct lack of a party. Jeff had the bartender pop in his Jack Johnson CD, we all shared a round, and a couple pool games ensued. Somehow we managed to shut the place down (it had to be almost 3AM). A group of playful stray dogs led the way back to Yoli's, from which we bid Yoli and Allen goodnight and headed to Sea Dragon for a nightcap. hahaha!
Despite the day's rough sail, Jeff and Nicky seemed to have a great time in Belize. On a sailboat with good friends is, we think, the best way to vacation here. There is so much of this gorgeous country easy to miss when you are stuck on land or are even just as the mercy of a dive tour schedule. It was a pleasure to meet people becoming familiar with the cruising dream.
We will spend the rest of this week sort of recup'ing from our trip with Sea Dragon. We also have a few repairs to attend to concerning minor leaks brought to our attention by the hard sail. If nothing else, a good beat into the wind does the best job of bringing problems -- and potential problems -- to our attention.
PS: We wanna send out a very special thanks to Sea Dragon and her crew for drinks, dinner and fun times on St. Patty's Day. We're still recuperating two days later!
