Sailing Central America/ Belize waters

Sailing Central America/ Belize waters

Boy do I have a story to tell about sailing in Belize. If you ever have boated in the backcountry of the Florida Keys you’ll know what I’m talking about.
I was asking the local captains about the inside the reef route (San Pedro to Belize city) because the outside of the reefs had 6 to 9’ swells and I didn’t want to fight them for 5 hours or more. They were giving me guidance through some of the more hairy sections of the inside reef route passage. One Captain said if there are two trees keep them to your port and three trees to your starboard. Then he said when you get there you’ll know what I mean. This is almost like doing the backcountry in the Keys but someone has put white pipes to mark your way. So I’m off and doing great time and I come to my first “hairy passage channel” remember to keep the two trees to port Well I almost s**t my pants because I had less than one half foot under my keel going through but I made it and at the same time laughing my ass off because they put palm trees stuck in the water for markers. Two of them each in a row of four so you won’t go off course. Sorry no pics because I was worried about going aground. But you can see how deep it was when I was going through this channel.
Now in order to stay on course they put skinny sticks in the water so you will not go aground I hit one and it scared the shit out of me. 8 hours later I made it halfway to Colson Cay Bay. Dropped anchor for the night my final destination was 90nm away Placencia Belize. BTW I posted a pic of one of the passages Happy sailing everyone

Turtle Speed