And hands down the best low key restaurant we’ve been to in a while was Sandy Buns. Known for her cinnamon rolls but everything else was spot on. More of an American comfort food place, D & I split the biscuits and gravy w/brisket and it was out of this world. AND plenty for the 2 of us. The woman who owns the place is from Texas, hence large portions. Just Yum!
With the blow over, it was time to sail west to Belize. Checking out of the bay islands from Roatan is not the easiest but is doable. One needs to take a bus to Immigration in Coxen Hole, the supposedly treacherous main town; then take a taxi to the north side of the island to the Port Captain to procure your Zarpe which is the official boat clearance document which you need in order to get into the next country. Period. No Zarpe, no get in. Immigration was tougher than most, needed to be finger printed! Guy did not like his job. Port Captain was wonderful, in an area w/low cell coverage so getting some of the previously filled out online documents to him was a challenge. We were all standing outside holding our phones in the air. It worked. A bizarre people story: waiting in line at immigration D notices a couple outside the office and did the context alert, ‘where do we know them from’. The previous season we ran into them en route to Belize immigration, then took a river tour w/them. Weird how that happens.
The next day with the predicted winds as they were we chose to leave around 3:00pm, and actually did so. Going back thru the cut in the reef was still stressful but at least this time we had our own track on the chart plotter to follow. Got out, put the sails up, put the headsail on a pole and took off. Huh, the wind was not quite coming from the forecasted direction (really) and made the headsail on the pole flop around, a lot. So, took the pole down. Winds were in the mid to upper teens, the forecasted waves were 2 ft higher and we were flying. D was loving it; me, took an adjustment period. We were going 9kt for a bit. Unfortunately Harmonium Cays just can’t keep up w/Rory and we blew away. Which became problematic for us at about 2 in the morning. Calculating Rory’s speed we were going to get to Southwater Cay in Belize WAY too early, ie in the dark. Again, entering a narrow pass thru a reef IN THE DARK is not cool, or actually safe. Problematic because unlike when we went to Utila motoring only, we could slow down and go 2kts. Here we were sailing, flying downwind between 7-9kts; ya just can’t put on the brakes! So, we took down the headsail, put the main to center (I know, TMI) and zigzagged. It worked, 1-we slowed down enough to enter Southwater Cay Cut at just after sunrise and 2-Harmonium Cays caught up to us. We entered the reef, put the anchor down, ate breakfast, took a nap, went snorkeling, then planned to get to Placencia, 30nm away to check in the next day.
Whew!!! And I thought I was going to be brief, Hah!
