Anchorage off Long Cay 
White areas on map (sorry hard to see) indicates above water island. Purple line points to a blue hole. The brown indicates coral heads w/in the lagoon. One can go inside the lagoon but VERY carefully! 
Limestone barrier reef 
Barely above water reef by the breaking waves. One could see why there are so many ship wreaks on reefs.
Our thoughts were to move up thru the lagoon over to anchor at Half Moon Cay which is a National Park Reserve. Unfortunately Pocaterra developed a windlass problem (motor which pulls up the anchor) making getting the anchor up difficult. Needs to be done by hand; doable, but not fun. Half Moon Cay is a kinda-gotta-see it type of thing so Krista had a great idea. Maybe the resort could take us by launcha. Went to the resort to meet w/the owner Elvis to work out a plan. No problem. Had some VERY expensive beers at the resort and planned to go to Half Moon the next day.
Having to cram in all that one can, we set out to go snorkeling the morning before we went to Half Moon. This was the most spectacular one of my existence. We went around the reef edges teeming w/fish and soft corals waving, water clarity was superb, me seeing reef shark #2 (nobody else). Then chose to go out to the ‘wall’, where the reef edge plunges from 20ft to 3500ft. That was the most exhilirating, awe inspriring, creepy thing I’ve done. To swim over coral then over ‘nothing’ seeing the light reflected thru the water, hundreds of fish hanging at the edge. Just WOW! Pictures, nope, wouldn’t have even come close.
Half Moon Cay in pictures:
Our last nite together as a 6-some. Tony & Lucie were heading off to ‘dock hop’ their way back to Placencia to get their windlass fixed. Phil, Krista and ourselves were heading to Cay Caulker, a supposed touristy but fun island. Last evening’s meal, sunset & look at anchorage.
Next morning was bittersweet. Had to leave Lighthouse (winds were to be coming from the N in a couple days) and losing Pocaterra. Sigh, that’s how boating goes. Most ‘stuff’ is out of your control so you just roll w/it. Phil, Krista and ourselves decided to break up the 58nm trip to Cay Caulker into 2 segments to hit the entrance back inside the reef system at higher tide where depths were skinny. Sailing was great, then went to washing machine mode once we were out of the wind protection of Lighthouse. We anchored in a cove in the northern part of Turneffe reef and went to bed early, even for us.
Cay Caulker was touristy and fun. Many more restaurants & shops than Placencia and along w/that more people. And younger people, I have not seen that scantily clad women in a l o n g time. Didn’t know that fishnet was back in style. Yeah, I’ll bet you want pictures! Krista, Phil, D & myself had a good time wandering the town, running errands and trying restaurants/bars out. Spent 4 days here.
We split up from Harmonium Cays and Rory was by herself for the first time in forever. We had 6 days to get back to Placencia to clear out of Belize. We took 4 days to get lazily back. Harmonium Cays was a day behind us. We made a date to go to the new brewery in Placencia. Hobbs. The best dark beer I have had in a long time. Killer nachos as well. Perfect way to end our time in Belize.
What an incredible time in Belize Rory, Bo, D & K had.
