Traveling To San Pedro

It was quite the adventure traveling from Isla Mujeres, Mexico, to San Pedro, Belize. We cleared out of Mexico easily enough, first stopping in at the Immigration office and then getting the final paperwork completed with the Port Captain. He issued us our all-important Zarpe (clearance document). We had estimated two long travel days, the first to be about 18 hours and the second to be about 24 hours. After lunch, we got underway,  and with the steady trade winds, the sailing was good. There is a two and sometimes three-knot current flowing south to north. The only hope to minimize the impact is to stay close to shore, which is often close to a reef. It turns out this is easier said than done.

We always carry paper charts, but navigate with electronic charts. The electronic charts are made from the same data used for paper charts, so they are no more accurate. We found very little in the way of depth soundings along the Mexican coast, and some that we observed were wildly inaccurate.

During daylight, we attempted to maintain a depth of 60 feet, which put us in close but not so close that we would get into trouble. At night, we moved out to 100 feet. The continental shelf is very close to shore, so often we were in very deep water (too deep to get a sounding) and, of course, running against the current. We arrived at our planned stop behind Culebra Cay in Bahia de la Ascension at 8:45 am. It was a very quiet, isolated location and a good place to rest.

The following day, we left right after listening to the cruiser's net on the SSB radio. We continued to use are same strategy using the depth sounder to keep our comfortable distance from the shore. During the night, the winds began to build, and with that, the seas became a little rougher. We both got unexpected soakings whenever a wave would hit the boat at an awkward angle. These were not light showers; these were full drenchings.

The entrance to San Pedro through the barrier reef is very narrow and requires executing a right-hand turn immediately after clearing the barrier reef to avoid running up on the drying reef. We began to expect it would not be possible with the heavy waves to enter, but pulled in close to have a look-see. The yellow buoy, which marks the entrance, was out of sight behind the rollers more often than being visible, so it was not a hard decision to pass on that.

The bad news was that the next safe entrance was an additional six hours away. We have learned to take these things in stride, so we just picked a new waypoint and pushed on. We entered the main channel, which is very wide and deep. This is the way the cruise ships enter Belize. We anchored behind Water Cay, the first available place to stop. We were anchored at 3:30 pm. We had to clean up the boat, especially the cockpit, which was sticky from all the saltwater. We actually waited for our first Belize sunset before retiring to bed.

The next day, we left at 6:30 am so we could get to San Pedro in plenty of time to check in. We didn't realize it at the time,  but it was actually 5:30 am Belize time. They do not have daylight saving time in Belize. Keeping track of time has been more challenging than expected. Mexico just switched to DST on April 4.

Our charts are much better in Belize waters, which makes sense since Belize was a British colony and the charts are British Admiralty. Traveling back to San Pedro inside the reef was an entirely new experience. Even though the charts were better, it would not be prudent to attempt travel in some of these areas without Freya Rauscher's Cruising Guide. The water can get very skinny. We traveled for miles with depths of around six feet. Your whole perspective changes, so when it goes to seven feet, you feel you can now relax, now that the water is deep again. I thought I was slightly off track at one point, steering by headings and sightings on objects (no GPS waypoint), and in correcting, found ourselves rubbing the keel on the bottom for a while. No harm,  as it is all sand, and we don't think there is any paint left on the bottom of the keel anyway. Luckily, we were able to push our way back to deeper water - ah,  now six feet sounds good.

Finally, at 11:15 (10:15 Belize), we were anchored in San Pedro. We finally became aware of the actual time when we got to Immigration and had to wait for them to return from lunch. Several people were waiting. Belize only grants 30 days at a time, so everyone else was there to renew for another 30 days. You can easily get additional days, but it requires a visit to Immigration every 30 days. The first 30 days are free, but after that, it is $50 for the next 30 days and every 30 days thereafter.

Checking into Belize was very straightforward. We first went to Immigration and then next door to Customs. Each charged us a boarding fee of $20 US. (In Belize, either currency can be used, and they can be intermingled in the same transaction. The ratio is $1 US = $2 B. After completing the paperwork at customs, we took a customs officer out to Ariel in our dinghy for his cursory inspection.

Now to enjoy Paradise