To say we had an exciting few days is a major understatement. It actually started Tuesday when our three-day sailing, snorkeling, camping trip was postponed until Thursday. The postponement was a great call. Tuesday night it poured and Wednesday it was gloomy all day.
Luckily it starting on Thursday was just barely enough time for my friend to go and still make her flight home easily. Or, so we thought. We planned to come back with the crew Saturday night, but after boarding and not have any contingency plan we found out the crew might need to stay in Placenia overnight which would cause major havoc in our plans (more about this later…it gets interesting).
The weather was just a tad windy and partly cloudy when we lifted anchor Thursday morning. Our first snorkel stop of the day was English Caye. I opted to stay on board and fish for our dinner since the wind was strong and I thought I’d have plenty of other opportunities to snorkel later in the trip (the trip usually includes two snorkel stops a day and then snorkeling around the islands at night).
It wasn’t long after the first snorkel stop that the wind really started kicking up. The crew decided to skip the afternoon snorkel and head straight to Rendezvous Caye (our first scheduled overnight stop). This was the point that the crew also decided “happy hour” needed to start earlier than planned. The rum punch flowed freely.
Docking in the strong wind wasn’t easy and we nearly took out the dock. Luckily the crew was fast on their feet and got things under control quickly. We all worked together setting up our tents behind the only structure on the island so that we had a shield against the wind that was due to pick up even more by evening. Although the wind remained strong we were still graced with a beautiful sunset that we all enjoyed while the crew made us dinner.
We sat down for a lovely dinner of Jack Fish (caught by a fellow traveler earlier in the day), curry shrimp, potatoes, salad, and other vegetables. Shortly after dinner I decided to call it a night. There is something about water and sunshine (even though there wasn’t a ton of it) that exhausts me. I believe everyone was in bed by about nine or ten o’clock.
That night was long…strong winds and cool air. I may have been the only one who slept well.
Actual conversation between two guys the next morning…T from Wyoming: “I slept like a baby.”
R from Idaho: “So, you woke up every two hours and cried?”
T from Wyoming: “Yep.”
I woke up early the next day in hopes of capturing an amazing sunrise like the one I got the last time I visited Rendezvous Caye, but the storm was still lingering. Once everyone rose a couple hours later, the crew presented us with a feast for breakfast. Then while the crew slowly (because they needed to waste a little time to see if the weather would clear) cleaned up the rest of us investigated the island, which was only about a football field long. Needless to say, I pretty much stepped on every grain of sand.
All that and the adventure wasn’t over yet…I’ll post more tomorrow…stay tuned.
