A Steger Sojourn

Joyce and Claire had only been waiting for us for around 8 hours. As it turns out, they had arrived in Placencia only minutes after we had left with our sailing day guests. They took time to move in to their rental condo and get settled, waiting for us to show up. After only several hours of waiting for us to show, they went down to the main pier on the idea that it was the closest location to where we were theoretically supposed to be on Leap. Minutes later, I miraculously appeared with a boat full of PA students from Madison and the mystery was solved.

And then we had a Claire's birthday/1st wedding anniversary dinner

Joyce and Claire had found a very nice rental just off the pedestrian path in the heart of town. The location was fantastic, just down from the bar where we met our new PA friends, and just up from the best breakfast and coffee shop in town. They were set back from the beach, so there was some separation from the Sargasso Smell. That's right: the sargasso weed followed us over from Honduras. The neighbors told the tale of the brown mats rolling in merely days before we arrived. The resorts on Placencia beach took a step to combat the weed that we hadn't seen before. On Roatan, they raked up the weed and trucked it to the island interior. On Placencia, they buried it. Each resort hired a crew of workers to dig a large hole in the beach and rake all the rotting weed in for a live burial. I was mildly concerned that this would create a rotting-cesspool-of-quicksand effect. This neurosis was quickly resolved with a walk on the beach.

Our favorite amenity of the rental condo, however, was the pool. We thought we had grown completely accustomed to swimming in the ocean, and become hardened salts. A clean pool in the afternoon sun proved us wrong on the first day. We spent most of our afternoons for the rest of the week going to coffee shops in the morning, exploring the town, and relaxing in the pool in the afternoon. Thanks to the Lifeproof case on the iPad, we played many a game of Settlers of Catan while lounging in the pool. We were playing tourist to the best of our ability after two solid months of self-reliance, and it was glorious.

We knew from the start that we would not feel comfortable leaving Leap at anchor unattended for hours while we went for walks and dips in the pool. It was important that we spend as much time as possible with them while they were in Belize, so we looked at our options for dockage. The main town pier was solid concrete with some small wood rub rails. It didn't look like the best option in case of wind or waves, and we noticed it was not a popular choice among the cruising set. This could also have been because the main pier was a public amenity, with no secure access or dedicated security of any kind. Privacy and security were of paramount importance in Honduras, and although we knew Belize was more stable with marginally lower crime rates, leaving Leap in a public place was simply not an option.

We researched marinas in the area, and we're not impressed with the options. We would have to take Leap into the lagoon behind the peninsula to reach the most promising option, but we ultimately decided against this. For one, the marina seemed designed primarily for power-boaters, as though they were trying to appeal to the jet-set resort crowd. For another, we had been through that lagoon in the public shuttle boat on the way to check in, and while a high-powered longboat was right at home among the mangroves, a wide and heavy sailboat going through at 2 knots was likely to get into trouble.

We found out that plans were in place for a super-marina to be built just off the north end of Placencia town, but this didn't do us any good at the time. The plans for this marina were ambitious, and far beyond the scale of any building project we had seen in Belize. For one, this marina was going to have room for yachts up to 200 feet long. Clearly, the goal was to attract the 1% crowd, though it was honestly difficult to understand what else the 1-percenters would see in Placencia. It was certainly a very nice place, and I would never try to discourage anyone who wanted to go there, but it was also not exactly set up to compete with Monaco in terms of lifestyle. We also soon became aware of intense public distaste for the project. In their minds, enormous private yachts and small cruise ships will not help the reefs, and will not actually bring much additional prosperity to average workers. The prevailing public attitude was that the massive sum of money required to build a cruise ship dock and a super-marina would be much better spent improving the national infrastructure and education systems, and for what it's worth, I entirely agree with the locals on all counts. I have been to dozens of Caribbean islands from one side to the other, and I can say with some authority that the only jobs cruise ships and yachts create are bar servers and trinket sales. The locals really do not see any of those piles of money collected by officials, and don't derive anywhere near the benefits they would if the same amount of money were spent on real local economic infrastructure.

We finally settled on Tranquilo as our best choice for docking. There were daily docks in front of the bar/restaurant, and long permanent docks extending into the island down the little canal. The spot was not especially popular with the cruisers, but for the life of us we couldn't understand why. We struck up a conversation with Jeff the manager, and after getting to know us a bit he offered us dockage for the week at $5 per day. Total. There were marinas in Roatan charging that much per foot! We quickly accepted, thanked him profusely, and pulled Leap into the canal. We set her up with bumpers and spring lines as we had learned on Bounder, and left knowing that she was as snug as we could possibly make her. Leap was secure, and we could enjoy our time on shore with Joyce and Claire with a clear conscience.

Not that we left Leap alone all week. We convinced Claire to come out for a day sail to some of the inner islands after outfitting her with a life jacket and explaining the emergency procedures. The weather all week was 76 degrees and 8 knots out of the South, so we would have been crazy not to head out for some day sail fun!

Getting Leap off the dock and out of the canal was another story all together. The canal was so narrow that there was only enough room to sneak another boat past Leap when she was secured at the dock. With her generous turning circle, the canal was definitely a one-way street. And with her vague-to-nonexistent reverse steering, a 17-point turn wasn't going to happen. We didn't like the idea of trying to take her all the way through the canal and out the other entrance, since we hadn't been that way and we didn't know the depth. We came to the conclusion that what we really needed was bow thrusters, so we found a way to simulate them. Bryna would stay at the wheel and hold the stern line, while I got in the dinghy and took the bow line. I would cast off the bow and push Leap's nose around while Bryna kept her in forward idle. This way we could spin her around 180 degrees in half her own length! Bryna would drive her out into the mooring field while I followed behind in the dinghy. When we had room to work, I would catch up and secure the dinghy for a tow and hop right on board without slowing down, and we were on our way!

Seen here

Claire had enjoyed her first day sail, but one was enough for her. We took Joyce out for a second trip, and this time decided we would find an out-island to anchor and do a bit of snorkeling. Joyce was really getting the hang of steering, and had her boat-handling pretty well down. If we had more time, we would have started sail trim lessons! We picked out a promising island a couple hours outside of Placencia, and worked our way into a little bay on Freia Rouscher's guide tracks. The island was a small temporary fishing habitation with a gorgeous half-moon bay and a sandy beach with locals going about their business. We found that the shallow sand bottom we had expected was really more of a deep bowl, so we had to hunt around for an anchoring spot. The first try was a no-go, as the anchor clearly had tumbled down the slope of the bowl and was sitting on the bottom. We tried again, pulling more to one side of the bay. We thought we might have a set on the second try, but soon realized we were slowly inching away. I went up to the bow to retrieve the anchor for another go. Bryna out Leap in forward to reset, and got nothing. She tried shifting back into neutral and then into forward again. Still nothing. We knew right away that the transmission plate had spit its bolts out again. This time, though, were 100 feet away from a reef and slowly drifting into it with no anchor set. I let out another 30 feet of chain in the hopes that the pile on the bottom would help slow the drifting. Then I ran back to the cockpit, jumped into the cabin and pulled the stairs and engine cover off faster than I ever would have thought I could. Two bolts were still hanging in the transmission plate by their last thread, and thank goodness, because if I would have had to fish in the engine compartment by hand for a bolt we may not have had a hope. I lined up the plates, got both bolts in finger tight (I have pliers for fingers), threw open the tool compartment and found the wrench. As I was tightening the first bolt, Bryna shouted down stairs "I JUST NEED ONE! GIVE ME ONE BOLT!" and half a second later I shouted back "YOU HAVE IT! GO!" By now we were only 30 feet from the reef. Bryna out Leap in forward and eased the throttle on, and we moved safely away from the reef. Once we were clear, Bryna out it back in neutral and I went down to tighten the second bolt. We went as far to the other side of the bay as we dared and dropped the anchor in very shallow sand right off the bow. This time, it held. I jumped in to verify the anchor set, and were dug in tight. 

I found the other two bolts down in the engine compartment, and we tightened them in so we were back to a 4-bolt connection. We needed a good swim after all this excitement, but Joyce would be staying on board. We showed her how to start the engine, and explained the concept of finding two fixed points on land to check whether she was drifting. We explained that in case she was drifting while we were gone, all she had to do was start the engine and put the boat in forward idle. She could stay in one place just by shifting back and forth in idle, and we would be back before long. Thankfully there was no need, but I think she appreciated the safety procedure talk all the same.

Bryna and I snorkeled for a few hours around the corner of the bay and back. The soft coral population was thriving and various, probably some of the best we had seen during the entire trip. The fish population was another story. We had rarely seen so few fish on an otherwise thriving reef. This may be the counter-point to Belize's extensive park system. All the locals seemed to intimately understand the value of the marine national parks for tourism and ecology purposes, and they appreciate the value these aspects bring to their economy. On the other hand, with so much marine territory reserved for parks, there is even less available for subsistence fishing. Tourists on the resort islands still demand their snapper fillets and conch fritters, and those are certainly not going to come out of the park just off the beach. Combine this with the catastrophic loss of reefs across the entire Caribbean, and it's difficult to envision a bright future for Belize in the decades to come without significant advances in local fish farming technology and affordability. If I were ready to retire to the Caribbean, I would set my sights on designing and building efficient small-scale fish farms from recycled materials. Any hydronic engineers out there want to move to the western Caribbean and pursue a semi-philanthropic career in food systems management and zero-budget urban design with us?

In any event, we arrived back at the boat safely, and cruised straight back to Placencia without incident. We found Claire thoroughly relaxed after a full day of beach walking, reading, and napping, and she was extremely happy that she had not been on board for all the excitement in the anchorage. We snugged Leap back into her dock at Tranquilo and went in to have a beer with Jeff and our favorite bartender Dillon. If you ever find yourself in Placencia in need of a beer, get yourself straight to Tranquilo and Barefoot Beach Bar. Anywhere else, you'll waste your time at best or end up being yelled at by racist old expats who fled the Obama presidency at worst.

In all, the dock at Tranquilo was the best place we could possibly have left Leap for hours at a time. It was there, however, that we had our first true unwanted visitor. We came back from Placencia town in the late morning, eager to head out for a couple hours of day sailing. I jumped on board and started to open the companionway hatch, when Bryna started yelling "BEHIND YOU! LOOK BEHIND YOU!" I jumped about three feet in the air, and turned around to see this:

Pictured: not rubber.

Not being well versed in snake lore, I jumped straight off the boat. Then we realized I had left the companionway hatch wide open in my haste to get away from the serpent. We had seen a dead Fer de Lance snake in Guatemala that had been hiding out below decks in someone else's boat, so we knew that we weren't dealing with that highly venomous and aggressive species. None the less, we knew that we definitely did not want a snake below decks if we could help it. I climbed slowly back on board, retrieved the companionway boards, and set them back in place. The snake wasn't getting below that way at the very least.

Around this time, Dylan had heard the commotion and came down the walkway to see what was going on. We (completely calmly) pointed out the snake and asked if it was poisonous. Dylan didn't say a word, but steadily crept on board and worked his way around behind the snake. He reached out to grab the snake by the back of the head, but realized at the last second that it was wrapped up around the helm and he would have a wrestling match on his hands.  Instead, we took a couple PVC pipes off the foredeck and used them to whack the deck and the helm near the snake's tail. This scared it enough to slither out of the cockpit and out onto the dock.

Dylan chased it out into the trees, and so departed our first and only unwelcome intruder. We researched local snakes in Tranquilo that night, and we discovered that we had seen a Parrot snake. These arboreal serpents aren't poisonous, as we feared, and don't usually feed on parrots. What they do subsist on is primarily tree frogs. As far as we can tell, this one was hanging out in the trees on the island minding his own business. It was then that he spied an absolutely enormous frog perched on Leap's bow. He got himself into a strong position in the cockpit and planned to wait until the Leap decal walked back into the shade! We almost feel sorry for him in retrospect, for depriving him of his culinary jackpot.

We spent the next few days partaking in the culinary delights of Placencia, of which we can particularly recommend the Secret Garden restaurant.

Soon, however, it was time for Joyce and Claire to head back to Wisconsin, and time for us to pack up to head back to Guatemala. Our time with Leap was nearing its end, and we had a returning schedule to keep.

Next Time: Back the way we came