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Sailing Around the World

March 2022 - June 2024
Kendra & Carson's sailing adventures from Florida through the Caribbean! Read more
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  • TravelerSailing Around the World
    Day 71

    Bahama Mama came and Conch-quered

    May 27, 2022 on the Bahamas ⋅ 🌙 61 °F

    On May 24th, mama Pat came for her 1st trip aboard the Salty Clam! We picked her up from the dinghy dock and took her out to where the catamaran was parked. Shortly after, we had some dolphin fiends arrive right by the boat, a mom and baby! I hopped in the water right away and they got within a foot from me! That afternoon, we had a great sail to Lee Stocking Island, Exumas. The anchorage we were at felt like we were in another country. Huge hilltops with coconut palms all over the beach line.

    The next morning, we went on a hike to the top of the hilltops right in front of the anchorage. The hiking was some of the best we had. Saw huge blue crabs, wild rosemary and the abandoned airstrip. Apparently Lee Stocking Island was left abandoned. We wanted to go into the abandoned town to check it out because people say its like walking into the walking dead movie. They say it looks like the people had an hour to pack up their items and leave the island. Still don't know what really happened but when we tried to explore it there were workers fixing it up. I heard they are trying to make it a sustainable living area for workers. That afternoon, we went diving for conch at a spot our friend Sascha told us about. She said the conch were just everywhere in this cut and they were! Carson and pat hopped in the water and said right away they saw 20 but not of size to keep. It wasn't even an hour and we had already got 6 conch, one of them being the biggest one we got yet! That evening we moved closer to the North end of Great Exuma where we adventured into the town called Barretarre. We went to dinner at a place called the Same Ole Bar where there wasn't one tourist in sight. We got the true Bahamian experience and met some awesome locals that told us all about their town. We got fresh cracked conch, HUGE coconut shrimp and Carson and I got the best chicken sandwiches we had ever had. Like better than Chick-Fil-A...

    Day 3 of Mama Pat's trip, she was ready to get back in the water and watch Carson do some spearfishing! There was this cut that Carson and I had our eyes on when we were moving anchorages that we went to explore. At first there wasn't much there and they were ready to call it and move spots. As they were about to get into the boat, Carson yelled hand me my spear! He took off on a monster grouper that led him to a rock ledge that had the most beautiful life. Instead of coming back up with a grouper, he came up with the biggest lobster any of us had ever seen. The tail alone was a foot long!! He shot the grouper but he was so buried in a hole that it was the first time Carson had to leave a fish behind.. Luckily, it was dinner for a 12 foot nurse shark that was waiting patiently. For lunch we ate the legs off the lobster, they were the size of a king crab leg. To top off the end of the trip, we got to see some amazing blow holes on this beautiful beach and for dinner that night we made conch chowder and grilled lobster with Kendra's fresh french bread.

    We hope we showed mama Pat a good enough time to come back. We loved every second of having her out here. Until next time... :)    Read more

  • TravelerSailing Around the World
    Day 73

    Sail from Great Exuma to Long Island

    May 29, 2022 on the Bahamas ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    We are now on full sailing mode after our last visitor left. Our boat insurance wants us to be in a certain area for hurricane season by July 1st and so do we. The last thing we want is to get trapped by a hurricane when everything we own is on this boat. The second we dropped mama Pat off at the airport we set sail for Lond Island. We had horrible winds but we made the best out of it with lots of reading and naps. Thankfully, weather conditions were perfect so we really enjoyed it. Right as we were coming into our anchorage for the night, there were like 30 birds diving hard in front of us. We circled around to them and caught a couple Bonita. We decided to try to pass by them one more time and we caught a TUNA! This was in the same area we caught the Wahoo a couple weeks back.

    The next morning we woke up early and started sailing for Clarence town which was on the other side of Lond Island and farther south. Right away we hooked a little mackerel which in our opinion is some of the best sushi. After 5 miles into our 30 mile sail the winds started to die again which was to be expected. We had to leave this day either way with storms pushing through the next couple days we may have not made it until later next week. So we motor sailed the rest of the way and followed the coastline where there were some major drop offs. We had both lines out, hoping to land some more fish to make the trip more thrilling. A little over half way there and our big rod gets slammed with a fish! Carson comes down to fight it while I lay off on the motors. All the sudden, we see a Blue Marlin jump several times out of the water!!! We couldn't believe it. He almost completely spooled the line before Carson was able to get him to swim towards the boat. After 15 minutes of fighting we got him to the boat where we had to try and revive him for a few minutes before releasing him. Carson was holding him by the bill swaying him around to get him back to normal again. You could tell he was exhausted. We were able to release him safely and he swam off.

    We landed a 200 lb Blue Marlin while sailing 2 miles off the coast of Long Island!! Still in total shock! Not even 30 minutes later, we hooked another one, a bigger one! Saw him jump a couple times then he came off. We were actually happy as we may have not won that fight lol.

    SAILING IS FULL OF SURPRISES!

    Ended the day, with homemade tuna and mackerel sushi rolls. NOM NOM    Read more

  • TravelerSailing Around the World
    Day 74

    Kindest Island, Long Island

    May 30, 2022 on the Bahamas ⋅ 🌬 82 °F

    Arrived here a couple days ago. Dove in right away to find 30 beautiful sand dollars underneath the boat. They were dead so we were able to scoop them up and maybe do something cool with them one day. 😊

    Next morning we woke up to a nice calm anchorage. Only three sailboats surrounding us. We decided to hit the spearfishing spots our friend Steph gave us. Within an hour I got 2 hogfish and Carson got a nice tiger grouper! The ledges and ocean bottom floor here are incredible. We were within a 5 minute dinghy ride to the boat, the diving was in our backyard!

    Went into Clarence town that evening to walk around only to find the guy that we met a few weeks back that works on a sports fishing boat at Flying Fish Marina. He invited us to have some Kalik's. We got to meet the other fisherman on the dock that we’re around our age and hear what their stories were. These guys bosses pay them a nice income, benefits, food/drinks, stay, etc to stay on their boats while they are away and then when they come around they take them fishing for big game fish like blue/white marlin, yellowfin tuna, etc. They were telling us that catching a blue marlin the way we did the other day is unheard of. One guy gave us a couple lures to test out during our travels because they said what we were using is ok but not great. Obviously it’s been working for us though! Such generous guys!

    Baxter, the guy we met last time, let us use his mini van the next day to visit the Shrimp Hole, Max's conch bar and the grocery/liquor stores. The shrimp hole was breathtaking. Super pink/reddish shrimp everywhere, blind cave fish swimming around, bats flying across the caves roof and not a soul in sight but us. We had the whole place to ourselves. The cool part is to get to the cave you had to park in front of this old abandoned church. The walls on this place had to be over 2 ft wide. Max's Conch Bar did not disappoint either. Met some locals that insisted on buying us a round of shots and drinks. They were called the Rowdy crew and things did get Rowdy! Everyone on the island is SO excited about the sailing regatta happening this weekend. It'll be the 53rd regatta they have had on the island but the past few years they cancelled it due to Covid so they are thrilled for it to be back. Heck, their already starting the party! They said vendors and DJ's are coming in from Nassua to help throw on the party. Yes, we will be staying for this fun-ness and we cannot wait!

    Time to learn how to party like a Bahamian!    Read more

  • TravelerSailing Around the World
    Day 78

    Crooked Islands to Inaugua

    June 3, 2022, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 82 °F

    Hard to say goodbye to Long Island but it was time to go.. we had been there for a week due to the tropical storms that were building up. We had such a great time there. The sailing regatta was something to see!! We thought there would be more sailors there but it was mostly local Bahamians which was really cool because we got to see their culture. Local music, food and races. We got the mutton meal which in Bahamian terms that means goat. It was bomb! Friday night we went out with our new sports fishing friends to the local bar where the regatta night life was happening. These people know how to party! & the women really knew how to shake their booties. Honestly it was a talent the way they could move their hips and butts. I was so intimated by their dancing that I didn’t dare step into that dance circle. One booty bump and I would have been tossed to the ground.

    Our sail from Long Island to the Crookeds was LONG but great. Seascape was calm but winds died out in the middle of our sail and we had to motor sail majority of our trip reaching the Crookeds at midnight. During our trip we landed a nice Sailfish! Another sports fish for the books. Really don’t know how we continue to slam these monsters but I hope we can keep it up! During the sail, we pulled our spinnaker sail since we have dead down winds. When we tried hoisting out the sail we realized the dial was mangled around itself in both directions in several areas. There was no fixing this underway. After an hour of trying to get it untangled we pulled it done and stuffed it into the forward hatch. That was a project for the next day.

    The next day we went to do some diving with a couple Australian teenagers we met in Long Island. Super cool guys and decent divers too! We landed monster Nassau groupers, a couple conch and two yellow jacks in no more than 20 feet of water! The one boy that shot the monster grouper said it was the biggest fish he had ever shot. If it wasn’t for Carson sticking his body half way in the rock he was stuck under I don’t think the boys would have got it out. It was so worth seeing their excitement and taking them diving with us!

    Today we set sail for Inaugua, Bahamas. Our last crossing in the Bahamas before we take off to Jamaica then Guatemala for hurricane season. It’s going to be so hard to say goodbye to these amazing islands, waters and people. In just two months we have made more memories and new friends then we could have ever imagined! Just can’t wait to see what these other countries have in store for us!

    80 miles to go still.. wish is some good winds! First all nighter sail 👏    Read more

  • TravelerSailing Around the World
    1
    Day 83

    Goodbye Bahamas, Hello Jamaica

    June 8, 2022 on the Bahamas ⋅ 🌧 86 °F

    Left Inaugua, Bahamas this morning at 6 am to make our way to Port Antonio, Jamaica.

    Inaugua was full of the happiest Bahamians we have met yet. Which we found surprising since it was really a nothing town. The only big operation there is a salt production factory, Morton Sea salt. We took our one wheels exploring around the island to check out of customs, go up the beautiful lighthouse and see if the grocery store had anything fresh. It was sad to see they had absolutely no produce left. They said their mail boat hasn’t come in a couple weeks and they weren’t sure when they would should up but that didn’t stop these people from smiling and waving every time we went by. When we were coming out of the grocery store there was a little Bahamian boy staring at the one wheel. He asked to ride it so Carson held his hands while we guided him through how to do it. I swear it made this little boys day, he couldn’t stop smiling and staring as we took off. The past couple days we did some quick dives about 50 yards behind the boat where there were drop offs that went from 30 ft to 1000s of ft. The reef there was so alive and beautiful! Monster fish everywhere of every kind but we struggled getting a good shot on any of them. They had reef and holes to hide in all over but we had fun with the challenge. Yesterday I finally got a shot on a nice size strawberry grouper and within seconds there were 3 8 ft reef shark circling around us. When we got the fish back to the boat and started swimming again I looked behind me and the sharks had surfaced and were within 10 ft from me. Carson guarded them off and we jumped into the boat. We weren’t ready to end our last Bahamas dive but after that we called it for the day. They were getting pretty aggressive.

    We met some amazing people in the anchorage during our stay. All of them were heading to rio dulce too so we decided to meet up at the lighthouse restaurant to talk over our plans. Some of the most amazing people. We loved hearing all of their stories. These people were from all over. We all took off this morning in our own little sailing regatta. There is 7 boats in total. We decided to compete to see who makes it there the fastest and can bring in the biggest fish in. We started in the back of the crowd and have blown past all of them to the point where we can’t even see them behind us anymore. It’s safe to say we have won one of the competitions. We knew our boat could sail but really didn’t think it could sail this great! Hopefully we can get the biggest fish 🎣 too!

    We are approaching Cuba now. We can barely see the huge mountainous tops. Wish we had time to stop by but we should get some good views from our pass by.

    Another 24+ hours to go!    Read more

  • TravelerSailing Around the World
    Day 88

    Adios Jamaica, Hola Guatamala

    June 13, 2022 in Jamaica ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    Jamaica was everything we thought it would be and then some. All rasta hippies preaching their one love mon! We loved hearing what they said about their flag colors. Green is for the land, yellow for the sun, black for the people and red for the blood because we all bleed red making us all the same. Funny thing is there’s no red in their flag but that’s where the one love comes from.

    We got to visit three ports while we were there. Our first port was Port Antonio which was all locals and a few sailors. It was a small but busy town so it was easy to get turned around. The locals were all friendly and helpful. They made it a point to tell us they were looking out for us. Of course we thought the they just wanted our money but it wasn’t like that (only a couple people here and there). They really wanted us to feel comfortable so that more people would hear about their town and come back to visit. They had little grocery stores in town but where we got our produce was in this alley way where each farmer had their own small fruit/veggie stand. All grown from their own lands. I thought this was pretty special. Carson kept getting suckered into buying Jamaican weed at the market. Haha yes. It’s exactly what you would think, literally people all over on the streets are smoking joints and carrying their weed around. I didn’t think it was that open to smoke everywhere there but it definitely is! I thought it was neat that the school the kids went to was right on the water and all the kids dressed in a very formal dress code. The boys were in collard shorts and pants and the girls in collard shirt and skirts to their calves. For lunch, we went to a place called Piggy’s that all the locals recommended to get their Jamaican jerk chicken and festival bread. Apparently the most recent James Bond movie was filmed here and that’s where they would all get lunch. Piggy’s burned down at some point after the movie was filmed and the James Bond actor found out and started a fundraiser to rebuild it. Apparently him and the owner, Piggy, became very close. The food was delicious paired with a cold red strip! One night we grabbed dinner with our new friends on catamaran Waterlust. It’s a family of four sailing around the world. Everyone we meet becomes your sailing fam for life out here which makes all of this so special. It’s like an instant bond. We have been sailing with a family on a catamaran called Matilda Mia for a almost a couple weeks now which are making the crossing with us to Guatemala right now as I write this. They have the cutest little 2 1/2 year old girl that handles sailing no problem! I guess she really doesn’t know any better since she’s been on the boat since she was 6 months. I love seeing these kids we meet interact with all the kids in these different countries. Kids are so simple out here.

    The next port we stopped into was discovery bay. Much Smaller, richer town. Mansions all over the bay and mountain and a huge mining site for box-site which is found in aluminum. Our first morning here we went for a swim because the water was crystal clear. We missed seeing clear waters since we left the Bahamas. Right under the boat laid several conchs! I couldn’t believe it. Shortly after our finds the fish and wildlife preserve guys came up. Apparently it was a protected fishing zone and I wasn’t allowed to have the conchs. They didn’t look very official. I thought they just wanted some of my conch so I offered them one. They got a laugh out of that. They were nice enough to allow me to keep one. I was a little bummed but happy we didn’t get in major trouble! Should have checked the rules prior. Not everywhere is like the Bahamas. Although, later on we found out from a local that if you have to swim for the conchs you can keep them. You just can’t take the ones right on shore. Those guys probably went and took my finds when we left! Later we dove off the reefs behind the boat. The reefs were gorgeous but there wasn’t any fish to shoot. We were lucky enough to swim with two spotted eagle rays though! On the bay we’re these plywood beach bar shacks that we went with Matilda Mia to grab drinks, let Pia (their daughter) play on the beach with the Jamaican kids and eat dinner. There wasn’t one local in site. In fact, we were the only two boats in the Harbour. This was the true small town local feel. Apparently the people in the mansions on the bay (literally next door neighbors to the them) won’t go to this area. It’s a shame that some people think their too good for others. It’s not like this wasn’t a safe place to go. Some people just think their so entitled. It’s sad because the people I’m talking about are Americans. They were so shocked we came to visit their beach bars and treated us like family the entire time. Part of the reason we wanted to leave our own country was to experience REAL life and REAL people. Not just this fantasy we all seem to live in. Anyways…. enough with my rant. We ended up having drinks and dinner at this place called Highrie where they offered to smoke us out for free before dinner started. Ivone, the owner, set up the hookah and everything. Lol. She crafted us some nice cocktails, her husband prepared us Jamaican jerk chicken platters, put on a movie for Pia and fed us homemade ice cream at the end. They had rum raisin ice cream that was out of this world! It felt like we were in someone’s home! Ivone wants to host our wedding there whenever we decide to have one again 🤣

    Next and last stop in Jamaica was Montego Bay. This is where allll the tourist go. It felt like we were back in America. We felt quite culture shocked with all the busy traffic and resorts everywhere. Thankfully we were only there for a day.

    Now we are off to our hurricane hole, Rio Dulce, Guatemala! The things we have heard about this place are incredible. Not to mention our $1 is worth $7 in their country! Time to brush up on our Spanish on this 5 day crossing. Our longest voyage yet ✌️ Is it good luck if we were greeted first thing this morning with a pod of 20-30 dolphins surfing the front of our boat?? I don’t know but I sure hope so!    Read more

  • TravelerSailing Around the World
    Day 107

    WE HAVE ARRIVED! Rio Dulce, Guatemala

    July 2, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    113 Hours, 730nm, 50+kts of wind, multiple thunderstorms, 5 pods of dolphin, 1 Blackfin tuna, 1 Mahi Mahi, 1 Yellowfin Tuna & 1 blown out spinnaker!

    The experience of a lifetime! All I can say is what an epic adventure. Day 1 & 2 went by like a week, days 3, 4, 5.....like hours. From magical nights to desert heat days. By magical nights I mean a night sky filled with more stars imaginable and then looking into and ocean filled with bioluminescence as the boat wakes it up to a spectacular light show....and if that's not enough add in a pod of dolphins playing off the bows creating what I honestly don't know how to describe but magical! Dolphins zooming left, right, up (out of the water), down leaving nothing but a trail of sparkling light in the pitch black ocean water. Nature is more spectacular than anythings humans could create. There was never a night without Mother Nature showing her true beauty and power. Her power came in the form of intense lightning storms that turned purple & blue lightning strikes into a orange & red sparks as they met the water (yes the strikes got that close to the boat) . Her power also came in the form of intense wind gusts that showed no mercy on us! One gust hit us at about 3 am that turned a beautiful 10-12kt breeze into a 50kt nightmare in a matter of seconds showing us just how quick a sail can explode & turn an epic night sail into an unforgettable experience & lesson. RESPECT the ocean & Mother Nature at all costs because her fun comes with a cost! But hey, there's no excitement to life if you can't push it to the absolute limits!

    As we quickly close in on Guatemala, its hard not to fill up with emotions thinking we left Fort Lauderdale less than 3 months ago with zero plans or expecations except to sail wherever life (and the wind) took us. And here we are finishing our final sail for who knows how long to explore a jungle filled country with a native language that neither of us can speak...isn't life something?    Read more

  • TravelerSailing Around the World
    1
    1
    Day 138

    Rio Dulce Pro's & Con's

    August 2, 2022 in Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 73 °F

    Been a little MIA on here as we settled into Rio Dulce after sailing our butts off for a couple months.

    The ride through the Rio Dulce gorge was something neither of us have ever seen before. Absolutely break taking. Huge mountainous cliffs and walls surrounds us on either side. It reminded me of when I went rafting in the Grand Canyons but instead of Canyons is what all jungle. You could hear exotic birds whistling from the tree tops, monkeys hollering and the vegetation looked like live wall art. The Guatemalans past us on their pangas with the most welcoming waves and smiles. The fisherman were throwing huge cast nets into the gorge and hand lining for fish. The houses on the river were all tiki hut cabana's with not much to them but they were so unique and beautiful. It was humbling seeing how these people lived but that didn't stop them from giving us the warmest welcome smiles as we cruised by. The people here are the happiest and most hard-working people we have seen yet.

    As we approached the Rio Dulce town you could see the hundreds of sailboats surrounding the shorelines. Most are tied up at these bungalow looking marinas since its so affordable. We have been anchored up the entire time since we constructed our boat to be self-sufficient.

    This town was created for sailors. Locals come to our boat every week trying to sell us local produce, cheese, jumbo shrimp, snook, lobster and more. The town is hectic and takes some getting used to. There is a 1 lane road that runs through the main town with huge truckers that plow through with no sidewalks so you have to be extremely careful to not get ran over. There are vendors everywhere alongside. Little dollar store looking shops, hardware stores, agricultural stores, plenty of produce shacks and local street food everywhere. Everywhere you look there are women making fresh tortillas on the side of the road & everything is SO cheap compared to the states! You can go out to eat for drinks and food for $15-20 US for two people and labor is $4/hour US!!

    So now getting to the not-so-great part. After being here for a week, we learned quickly we were in a third world country. We both caught the case of what the sailors call the Rio runs... basically what felt like a week long stomach flu. We didn't know that you are supposed to soak your produce in a vinegar solution prior to eating it since they don't spray their produce with pesticides here so that is what got us sick. In the magoes and cauliflower we could see little worksm crawling around! We were afraid we had parasites but fortunately testing came back negative for that. It must have been a bacterial thing. We both had to get on antibiotics to fight it off. Within the same time frame, Kendra bit into a frozen banana breaking one of her front teeth off so that has been a fun process trying to get that fixed in a country that doesn't have the best dental practices but thankfully there is nice place in town that could help put together a temporary fix until we go back home.

    All of that craziness set aside, we have been enjoying our time here. We have been able to settle down and focus on our work. One of our Gautemalan friends let us borrow his motorcyle one Sunday to go see the hot spring waterfall about 15 minutes outside of Rio Dulce. The waterfall poured scolding hot water down into a pool of cool water. The cruise on the motorcycle was beautiful. We got to see all the little towns in surrounding valleys and mountains. We have done a couple amazing hikes during our stay as well.

    As much as we are happy we have been able to experience Rio Dulce, we are anxious to set sail in October for the Bay Islands of Honduras to see crystal clear waters and reef life again. Thats where our love and passion lys and why we set sail in the first place. From there we will travel to Belize, Mexico and then do the big crossing over to the Florida Keys, up the east coast for Florida and cross over to the Abacos, Bahamas for another long season in the Bahamas and make our way down to the BVI's. Going to be a fun year ahead!    Read more

  • TravelerSailing Around the World
    Day 196

    Recap on our time in Rio Dulce

    September 29, 2022 in Guatemala ⋅ 🌙 55 °F

    Today we get to part ways with a place that taught us more than we could have ever imagined.

    Rio Dulce became our home for the past three months as we moved through this years Hurricane season. We made some of the best friends in our little sailing community. Some that we hope to meet up with again in the Bahamas this next sailing season and some that we hope to cross sailing paths again. I will always love the part about meeting other sailors doing what we do and how quickly we become family friends. Our favorite part is hearing everyones stories about where they come from. We now have friends from Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Canada and list goes on and on...

    The locals of Guatemala and culture was unbelievable. These people have very little yet they are always happy and helpful. Our favorite weekend in Guatemala was when we traveled out to Antigua to hike and camp on Volcano Acatenango with views of the active Volcano Fuego. Hands down, hardest hike we have ever done. We hiked over 10,500 feet up a straight vertical volcano. Once we got to the top, it was absolutely breathtaking. Fuego was erupting every 20 minutes. We could barely sleep through the night it was so loud and not to mention how chilly it was too! Fortunately, we had a campfire with hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows. The next day we hiked down the volcano and got to spend time exploring Antigua which Carson and I both decided is our favorite town we have visited so far. The town is completely surrounded by volcanoes, cobblestone roads, historic sites on every corner and the people and food are incredible. We fell in love with this town.

    The past month our boat was pulled out on the hard. The laborers were incredible and the work was affordable and they did a fantastic job. We discovered several nice cracks on the sides of the boat that they have to cut out and re-fiberglass. During that time we stayed in a little jungle cabana that literally was floating over the river water. It was nice to live in a house for a little bit but after a couple weeks we really missed out boat. Not to mention we really missed exploring in the open ocean. We have been itching to get out!

    During our time here, we learned something new about ourselves. We have realized how much traveling completes who we are. There's nothing we enjoy more than completely immersing ourselves into culture. Before we would talk about how we needed to make money to buy the next best performance catamaran but now all we talk about is where we can travel to see more culture. We now know thats just how the American culture is. We always want the next best thing in life and Americans will work their entire lives to get there. You meet other sailors out here and they don't have the nicest sailboats or nicest clothes. They have what they have and that allows them to see the world and meet new people. That resonated deep with us. We feel we have everything we need in life right now. We feel so fortunate.

    We have set sail to Belize in the midst of Hurricane season. WIth only being 30 miles away from Rio Dulce still we felt comfortable leaving knowing we can always go back to our safe little hurricane hole. We are so excited to be in the islands again and get back in the water to do some spearfishing!

    Honestly, it has been hard not feeling a sense of guilt living our lives out here while we watch family and friends suffer through what hurricane Ian did to our hometown. We will be back in a couple months and its going to be even more heartbreaking to see how things have changed.    Read more

  • TravelerSailing Around the World
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    Day 239

    Do You Belize in Magic??

    November 11, 2022 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    It's been awhile since I have recapped on our travels but honestly its been the last thing on my mind with how much fun we have been having. Plus we had a big secret to keep... The past several months we knew Jes, Carson's sister, was going to Tulum, Mexico for her 30th Birthday at the end of October. We always planned to surprise her there but knew we were pushing our luck with it being the middle of hurricane season. When we arrived to Belize our travels got delayed a week or two due to a hurricane that was heading our way. We thought we were going to have to turn around and head back to Guatemala. I was NOT happy about this but it is the safest hurricane hole in the Caribbean. Turned out the hurricane turned and started heading towards Rio Dulce! We still got some pretty narly gusts from the bands but nothing we couldn't handle and wait out in Belize. We were still on track to surprise Jes so I had to turn my Find Penguins tracker off that way she would believe the BS we were telling her when we would catch up on the phone. Fortunately, the trustworthy sister believed everything we told her and her trustworthy husband kept the secret safe until the surprise weekend came. I will write about this in my Mexico recap next. :)

    So back to Belize. Once we left Guatemala and entered Belizean waters we were sailing almost every other day, exploring new anchorages a couple times a week, seeing new island towns and saying hi to our fish friends on the reefs. We were able to visit Placencia, South Water Caye, Caye Caulker, Turneff Atoll and San Pedro. It felt so good to go spearfishing again!!!

    The towns in Belize were by far the coolest island towns we have ever been to. They are TRUE island towns and people. We loved how there wasn't any high rises (except for in San Pedro) or huge resorts. Everything was wooden shacks with bright tropical colors and the roads were just sand. The people had a lazy, laid-back mentality. When we would ask them if they were excited for their towns season to begin, they would respond with an absolutely not. Haha. All they wanted to do was chill, hangout and drink some Belikin beers. It's nice to be somewhere where time isn't always a priority. Us Americans are always in a rush trying to do the next best thing or make more money. We are so guilty of this. These people are just plain simple. Happy with what they have.

    We were so impressed with the clarity of the water in Belize. We dove a few reefs, one that was just absolutely beautiful. The coolest part was being surrounded by huge tarpon and permit and everywhere you looked there seemed to be eagle rays sweeping the ocean floors. They were so curious and would stick around during our whole dive.

    Turneff Atoll was the only place we slayed the spearfishing! When we started our dive there was nothing. It was pretty and clear but there wasn't much reef. Then all the sudden we start seeing conchs. Not just a few, there were hundreds!! We scooped up 12 to stock up our freezer then we took off to the ledge to see if we could find some fish. RIght away, Carson nailed a hogfish and within 5 mintues i shot two huge black grouper! Carson shot one too but the spear tip went in and out of the fish. Bummer but really we had plenty of fish to eat...

    We were in heaven. Only an hour or two dive and we loaded up the freezer with fresh seafood! It took us hours to clean all the conch and fish but we weren't bothered by it. Sunset was beautiful, we were the only boat in the anchorage and life couldn't get much better. While we were cleaning and cooking fish, a boat came up behind our boat. We couldn't see who it was because it was pitch black. It was the park rangers informing us that there is a daily per person fee to be there and that the whole area is a protected park. Oops... we had no idea. There is absolutely no information online about rules and regulations in Belize waters. You don't even need a fishing permit there! We had all of our dive equipment laying out to dry, Carson was at the fish cleaning station. We were caught red handed. Fortunately, they never asked if we caught anything but we knew they knew. They saw all our stuff laying out on the boat. We got lucky!! They were coming back the next morning to collect the park fees so at the crack of dawn Carson jumped in the water to scatter the conchs away from under the boat that way they couldn't see the shells. No wonder why we had the best day diving. Those fish are never hunted!

    Belize was amazing and we will definitely be back to have more time there. A few weeks was definitely not long enough.    Read more

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