Belize Cruising

[keioki]

We found the chartplotter of our SunSail catour cruising around the islands off of Placencia pretty accurate. There were two areas where they had waypoints entered. Getting into and out of the inner lagoon, and getting into Pelican caye. The highlight of Pelican Caye was dinner at the Hideaway Cafe. Great meal for $22 US per plate.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by keioki

We found the chartplotter of our SunSail catour cruising around the islands off of Placencia pretty accurate. There were two areas where they had waypoints entered. Getting into and out of the inner lagoon, and getting into Pelican caye. The highlight of Pelican Caye was dinner at the Hideaway Cafe. Great meal for $22 US per plate.

There are recent surveys around Placencia for expected cruise ship traffic. Also in Belize City area.

[sfca12]

Belize novice here. Appreciate any input on our decision for sailing this holiday season 2019. We will be taking a charter out for a week.

From what I can see most charter boats depart out of Placencia - but a few out of Belize City. We've bareboated all of our trips to the BVIs, but got a captain in Croatia (Med Mooring) and are planning to get a captain here from what I read in the notes on this thread (thank you BelizeSailor and others). We plan to cruise to the cays, snorkel and some Scuba.

Question is: It seems easier to take a boat out of Belize City if we can find one vs. having to get down to Placencia? Or is all the good sailing south and its just best to start down there? After the connection flight we have to Belize I was hoping to avoid another small plane or drive if we could but perhaps that's a small price to pay for a better charter. Thanks for any input.

[keioki]

We took a Moorings cat out of Placencia as part of a sailing club flotilla. It's a short puddle jumper flight down to Placencia and the area is very nice. We spent several days in town and found it to be very tourist friendly, unlike Belize City. Lots of cayes to visit close to Placencia and we didn't cover a third of the islands in the 8 days we had the cat.

[model 10]

I would go with BZ city for a charter. I love to fly but enough is enough. Unless the boats in Placencia are better, sail down there. Shopping might be better in BZ City too.
I've heard that charter boats are limited in where they can go but the southern reef area is very nice. Say east and south of Placencia.

[belizesailor]

Re holiday season charter: book very early as this ultra peak season. Between Xmas & NY is crazy with every boat and captain booked solid very early. I once spent a very fun NYE on Tobacco Caye with almost every charter captain in Belize in attendance...we were all there working charters.

There are basically two charter options now in Belize: Moorings/Sunsail in Placencia and Belize Sailing Vacations (BSV) out of Cucumber Beach near Belize City. BSV offers full service charters only and does a first class job of those.

Moorings/Sunsail offers mostly bareboat charters, but also offers full service charters or captain only. All the above options are good ones, all the above charter bases are well run.

The flight from Belize City to Placencia is short and scenic, but at the end of a full travel day many are not thrilled about another flight.

Alternatively you could sail to Placencia:

BSV will do one-way charters to Placencia or as far south as the Rio Dulce, but of course there is some extra cost as the boat & crew must return to Belize City. Moorings/Sunsail has allowed bareboat charters to the Rio before, but I dont think its the norm.

Belize to Rio Dulce (Guatemala) is one of my favorite charter routes in the region because Belize & Guatemala are so radically different in every possible way...guests are always blown away by the transition from barrier reef to jungle river. An option worth investgating.

There is good sailing, exploring, snorkelling, diving from one end of Belize to the other. The only down side to going N from Belize City is there are a few tricky bits to navigate like the aptly named infamous "Port O' Stuck". Plenty of tricky bits in S Belize too, but you dont have to navigate them if you choose not to, no such choice going north.

Charter boats cannot go outside the reef without a local captain aboard. Moorings/Sunsail does prudently prohibit some routes inside the reef, but there are still extensive options.

[belizesailor]

Related thread:

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...8&share_type=t

[IndecentExposur]

We just finished up our second Belize charter out of Placencia. Much better weather this time and explored the southern parts of the reef. A few things we found.

-More beaches to the south: Hunting Caye, Moho, Ray Caye.
-Most interesting place: King Lewey's Island. What a fun little caye if you're getting tired of quieter places. If Chris Farely owned an island, this would be it.
-Spent a little time in the mountains of Belize before our return, check out Gaia resort outside of San Antonio.

A few new things we learned:
Most (if not all) beer is in bottles... and are 9 ounces.
Early June was very pleasant, but a little hot on land. except for the mountain area.

[IndecentExposur]

BelizeSailor: We heard of a monohull that had run aground in the blue range group. Talked to a Moorings captain on Ray Caye about the emergency communication that was occurring. Two days later a bunch of fishermen were talking about the boat during lunch at King Lewey's. Maybe happened around June 10th or 11th? Heard rumors it might be a Moorings vessel, but wasn't able to confirm it with the Moorings base.

Heard they got pushed up onto a reef within 2 ft of water. Did you hear anything about this? Was curious if this was true.

IE

[belizesailor]

Ive not heard of that particular event, but its not uncommon for charter boats to end up on the reef.

[model 10]

There was a boat on the reef last year and it was being parted out in place.

[JBas]

I talked with a friend recently who told me about the possibility of
A week check in sapodilla permit does anyone have anymore info on this ?
Is it a legal passport stamped checkin, does it exist ?

Thanks

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by JBas

I talked with a friend recently who told me about the possibility of

A week check in sapodilla permit does anyone have anymore info on this ?

Is it a legal passport stamped checkin, does it exist ?



Thanks

Not entirely clear on what you are asking, but "yes" you can check into the Sapodillas, but its not a full check in. It exists mostly for boats coming up from Guatemala who spend a little time in the Sapodillas and then return to Guate. Passports are stamped and you can stay in the area, but as the boat is not fully cleared in you cant legally venture further afield except in transit to a port of entry to clear in..the nearest is Punta Gorda.

If coming from Guate then they will issue you a Zarpe just to go to the Sapodillas.

[JBas]

Thanks for the extra info

[belizesailor]

De nada