The Milky Way, The Southern Cross, and Shooting Stars

Wow, what a beautiful night we had! We had half a moon until about midnight and then just "billions and billions of stars" (I can't ever look at a star without thinking of Carl Sagan, the guy who had the great TV show about the Universe on Discovery Channel. His favorite saying was "billions and billions").

They were ALL out last night, every one of them. When you live around lights, you forget what the heavens really look like. If everyone went on top of a mountain somewhere and looked at the stars every now and then, NASA wouldn't have any funding problems for space exploration...

We had a good 24 hours, though we did have to motor for quite awhile to keep a reasonable speed up. It seemed to go on forever though (more than 24 hours between waypoints!) We passed close by the southeast end of Chinchorro Bank about 4am. I remember having a "Pizza Cookoff" there with 3-4 cruising boats 10 years ago, on our way back to the States from our Caribbean trip. My favorite was Conch Pizza. There were lots of conch at Chinchorro. (Dave promises fresh seafood soon, but we haven't
had any luck with the fishing pole yet).

Anyway, we are about 25 mile east of the north end of Belize. We are aiming at a pass in the reef about 35 miles ahead of us (north end of Long Key), and we expect to arrive there about 3:30pm. We'll stop somewhere between there and Belize City for the night, and get into Belize City fairly early tomorrow morning. We have a lot to do once we get there (Customs/Immigration, fuel, water, laundry, groceries, INTERNET) and we want to get out of there by Sunday and get out to the outer reefs.

Weatherwise, it's nice now. 10-15 kts out of the East. Typical 'tradewind' day. However, a Tropical Wave is forecast to come through here tomorrow, so we expect some showers in the next 2-3 days.

Current Position: 18-01N 087-32W

Are we there yet?

Yes, we are definitely to the 'are we there yet' stage. The passage has been pretty nice, but we are both getting a little tired of standing the middle of the night watches.

We are motorsailing SSW and are currently located about 50 miles east of Cozumel Mexico. We are currently motorsailing due to light winds, and may have to continue motoring for the next 24 hours (or slop around out here forever).

Looking forward to Belize. We have booked 2 nights at the Cucumber Beach Marina in Belize City to get checked into Customs, get fuel and water, and do some grocery shopping. Then we'll head out for the offshore reefs about Sunday.

On Passage to Belize, Day 3

At 0700 this morning we are just clearing the western tip of Cuba and headed south. Our original plan was to go straight south for 80 miles and then angle over toward Belize. This was to minimize Gulfstream effects. However, the weather forecast is for good winds today and lighter winds tomorrow and Thursday. So we're thinking we may crack off soon and make some westing and do more south tomorrow in the lighter winds.

Right now we are still feeling the effects of the Cuba land mass. We were able to sail nicely all day yesterday, but had to motor sail most of the night in very light winds. But as we clear the western tip we expect the wind to settle in at 15 kts out of the East. Right now we have huge swells from the Caribbean wrapping around the S coast of Cuba. Hopefully these will ease off as we clear the coast.

Other than that, can't complain. We're having a ball!
ETA Belize is still sometime Thursday.

On Passage to Belize, Day 2

We finally left Dry Tortugas about 2pm. Wind was SE 10Kts. Our first hour was exhilarating... we turned off the engine and were making 7 knots.

2 hours later, we were drifting along at 3 knots and Dave suggested we motorsail for awhile. The wind finally came back and about midnight we turned off the engine. It got boisterous enough that we reefed the main (more for comfort, and for Janet, our autopilot, than anything else).

It is now 5:45am and we're jogging along at about 5 kts making good 210 degrees. We are definitely in the Gulfstream... and trying to cross it quickly by heading south more than west. Our plan is to go as close to the Cuban coast as we dare (12 miles out) and try to pick up a counter current. Someone told us you can't find the counter current without going closer in, but I don't think Dave will go in closer.

The stars are finally out... we had a funny high overcast all yesterday afternoon... a very uniform gray... almost like fog. But it looks like it has cleared out and will probably be a pretty typical tropical tradewind day.

We saw 3-4 ships about 20 miles out of Dry Tortugas. It seems that most of the traffic is headed into the Gulf, and so they were all rounding the end of Florida and heading NW.

0500 Position: 23-34.6N 083-50.4W "All is well on board"

Leaving for Belize Today

The weather has cleared. We are leaving Dry Tortugas today about noon.
Destination: Ambergris Cay, San Pedro, Belize

Planned Route: Leaving Dry Tortugas headed S and SW toward coast of Cuba. Plan to stay 12 miles offshore and follow the coast of Cuba to Cabo San Antonio, then drop about 60 miles straight south, before angling off for a direct route to San Pedro Belize. Total distance: 531 nm, approximate time enroute: 4 days.

General expected waypoints & progress:

Leave Dry Tortugas 1200 17-June
12 miles off coast of Cuba 0900 18-June to 0500 19-June (Tuesday)
Due south from Cabo San Antonio Cuba 80 miles (to 20-30N 85-10W) arrive abt 2000 19-June
Sail straight SE from there direct to Ambergris Cay
Off SE Tip of Chinchorro Bank, Mexico 0400 21-June
Ambergris Cay, San Pedro Pass, 1200 21-June (Thursday)
(all times EDT, and assuming a 5.5Kt average speed. We can go 6-7kts if wind is favorable)

Our bailout plan for bad weather or problems will be as follows:

(a) Back to Dry Tortugas or Key West if in the first day
(b) Coastal Cuba for a temporary severe weather or mechanical situation, when along the coast of Cuba
(c) Isla Mujeres or Cozumel, once south of Cuba
(d) Chinchorro or maybe Xcalac once near Chinchorro Bank

Expected Weather: Current weather forecast is showing SE and East at 10-15 for the foreseable future.

General Communications:
Northwest Carribbean Net at 1000 EDT on 6209 or 6212 USB
We may listen daily at 2000Z to Herb's Southbound 2 weather net on SSB 12.359 MHZ USB.
We will listen to Chris Parker's Caribbean Weather Net. 0630 4045 USB
We will attempt to check in on the Waterway Net at 0815 EDT 7268 LSB
We have not been real regular on the Ham/SSB freqs yet, so if we're not there, don't worry!
We will be doing daily updates to our website (http://www.svsoggypaws.com/blog2008/) and we'll send a 'we've arrived' message out when we get there. (assuming email/computers still working).

Our position is updated and displayed at the following website each time we communicate ashore via the WINLINK system (at least daily when weather an propagation permits);
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=KN4TH

However, lack of an update should not be grounds for concern!! We may just be too tired or have equipment problems.

We have worked hard over the past few months, and Soggy Paws has never been in better shape for going to sea. Weather looks good. We hope for an easy trip!