The Beautiful Belize Barrier Reef

Sunday 3 April – Belize has three offshore atolls which offer some of the most sensational diving in the country.  This morning we were up early and set sail for a day of snorkeling. 

The sea is the most incredible colour, different shades of blues from cobalt to light turquoise, I have never seen such clear water.  It is very shallow around the reefs, sometimes only just over two metres deep so we had to sail in very slowly, fortunately we have plenty of crew aboard to keep watch for all the rocks.    We anchored in the southern lagoons of the Turneffe Islands and spent a fabulous day swimming, snorkeling and generally lazing around on deck with the odd dolphin nudging the boat.  We are the only boat around and with this view, I feel like I am in the middle of a travel brochure!

Monday 4 April – another day in paradise.  After breakfast we sailed to another atoll, home of the Belize Dive Haven hotel, where the guys hoped to be able to organize a scuba dive.  We arrived at the dock to be met by Sean who told us that the hotel was closed, the aftermath of covid, but we were very welcome to have a walk around with him.  What a beautiful place it is, the most gorgeous tempting swimming pools, gardens full of palms and colourful hibiscus leading to a fabulous beach – and all totally empty except for us!  Sean even kindly organized a lunch of local beef and rice stew which was delicious. 

After taking advantage of the wifi we walked back to the boat and en route just happened to spot a crocodile lazily swimming around in the water (glad I wasn’t snorkelling around there then!).  Now we’re sailing towards Half Moon Cay – it’s tricky, slow, sailing around here with so many reefs and many of them unchartered – fortunately we have the 4 guys on lookout helping Geoff to navigate through all the rocks – it’s very slow going but we were rewarded with the most beautiful sunset when we anchored. 

Tuesday 5 April – 7.00 am and we’re up bright and early to investigate Half Moon Cay a small atoll where there is a shipwreck to be snorkeled around!  We all climbed into the dinghy and headed off towards the shipwreck.  I’m very proud of myself as I did manage to snorkel around there, didn’t quite reach the wreck as the current was so strong and I am not a good swimmer, but it was marvelous seeing all the fish and coral and a little bit weird being able to stand up in some parts of it – in the middle of the sea! 

We then took the dinghy into Half Moon Cay which was the first Natural Monument to be created in 1981.  It is beautifully maintained, and we were able to walk the trail to see the colony of 4000 red-footed booby birds and frigates and passing some other interesting friends – an iguana and lots of land crabs scurrying around and stopping dead and retreating into their shells when we got nearby.  Endangered sea turtles have also chosen this atoll as their nesting ground. I just can’t get over the pristine azure seas surrounding us, you can see right down to the bottom.  Salanjo looked so elegant moored off the cay – it actually looked suspended over it! Dinghy photo here too

We’ve reached Lighthouse Reef – home of the famous Blue Hole – this is a Natural Monument and where New Zealander William Truebridge attempted to do the longest free dive.  We came in the Eastern entrance and are anchored on a mooring on the edge, surrounded by miles of virgin coral reef! 

The Blue Hole is a sink hole and the sheer walls of the hole drop more than 430 feet into the ocean.  Its depth creates a perfect diameter of 1000 feet across and the hole has a dense forest of stalactites and a few reef sharks.  You aren’t going to believe this – but with Geoff’s help and encouragement – scaredy cat Ro managed to snorkel around the reef at the Blue Hole – I am so proud of myself.  The coral was beautiful, and I was well rewarded with three different purple types of it.   The days not finished yet either, we’re now heading off to Caye Caulker.

The whole of the outer cays of Belize, mainly Turneffe and Lighthouse Cay are unchartered, other than some main channels.  The rest rely on the local cruising guide, last updated in 2007.  It is little wonder therefore that we did find some of the people and places that were described in the Guide as having changed.  Turneffe Lodge which formerly welcomed sailors and walk-ins, were particularly short in getting rid of us.  But worse, was the fact that where the author of the cruising guide did not go, there is little or no navigation assistance at all.  The captains’ of the local dive boats in Half Moon Cay (who use 60HP outboards and draw 18 inches) were very helpful.  We needed a 4-foot draught, and this led us to some problems.  As advised by the captains’ we followed the white sand in the general direction of where we wanted to go, avoiding the coral heads and reefs strewn about.  We had got to the Blue Hole unscathed, but it was leaving there and trying to get out of the shallows of Lighthouse Cay we had problems. 

We successfully maneuvered our way toward the Outer Reef dodging reefs and coral heads and were within 50 metres of passing into deeper waters when, following the white sand at the bottom, we became grounded on a small sand bar.  A strong wind was behind us blowing us on and although some crew got into the water to lighten the boat and two crew were pulling the boat with the dinghy and outboard, try as we might, we were unable to get ourselves free.  Every time we made some progress, the wind blew us sideways and back onto the sandbar.  The sun was going down, and Geoff was worried that we could be stuck there, dancing around all night and exposed to a strong breeze blowing into our stern.   There were two reasons why we couldn’t get any assistance to pull us off, firstly, there was nobody around and secondly, it was too late to get a boat out from Belize City. 

Having snorkeled around and checked out the area it seemed our only option was to try and force the boat over the sandbar with the engines.  Again, with all extra hands in the water to lighten the boat we tried this, the boat started to move, and it was exciting as it looked like we were going to get through.  But as I said, the wind had turned us sideways and was pushing us ever closer to the coral heads as we moved forward.  We had no choice but to carry on.  We pushed forward over the sandbar and into the coral head and you could head the grinding and screeching noises as the keel scraped its way over and around into deeper water. 

A quick snorkel dive to assess the damage showed no hull penetration, only substantial superficial damage to the feet at the bottom of the keel and the front edge of the starboard keel, but we were lying in 7m plus of water and just so happy to have freed ourselves!  Unfortunately the time it took us to navigate out of coral and extricate ourselves from Lighthouse Reef, meant we would not get to Cay Caulker in daylight.  Cay Caulker has three entrances, two of them narrow with rocks, but all three have no lights, no lead buoys and Geoff considered it too dangerous to undertake on a lea shore in the middle of the night, so the decision was made to cruise up and down the coast awaiting daybreak.  (Please note, due to the stress of the reef situation, much as I was tempted to take a few photos for this blog, I felt that perhaps it wasn’t in my best interests!!!).

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