Cruising Southern Belize, Post 26-20
- Jimmy Lee
- May 17
- 5 min read
We stopped at Placencia to replenish Utopia’s stores and then moved south in our final days in Belize.
Friday, May 8 through Thursday, May 14, 2026
Placencia, Belize
Friday - Monday
The main reason we stopped in Placencia was to replenish food on Utopia, but we did have a couple more tasks to take care of.
The last few days in Belize has been very hot and rainless (although still comfortable at night), and we did not relish a long walk in 90F+ temperatures, so we planned to go for a walk first thing in the morning on Friday, and head back to town after lunch to out to start our reprovisioning. The walk was nice, and we found a small bakery, which was really someone's house, where we picked up some sweets to bring back to the boat.
As a side note, I have been in contact with the agent that checked us into Belize to make sure we had all paperwork in hand, and that had enough Belize dollars to cover any check-out fees. After our morning walk, we found out that they had sent our documents via plane to Placencia and that the package was at airport, three 3 miles from the municipal dock.
Cue Friday walk # 2. Most of our exercise while cruising is by walking so we decided to get additional exercise today by walking to the airport, and defer the main part of grocery shopping for tomorrow. Outside of the downtown area there was no sidewalk, so we were committed to road walking until we got close to the airport where there was a new sidewalk available. Except for the heat, the walk was not too bad. Once at the airport we got our package and had a cold soda before hoofing it back. Back at the boat we cooled of with a swim.
That evening we visited Yoli’s (a cruisers hangout) for a happy-hour drink before heading to dinner. Sondra had picked out a small restaurant that was interesting, but when we arrived, they were closed, which is weird on a Friday. We ended up at a nice spot called Rumfish and had a very nice dinner.
Since we won’t have a chance to get gas for the dinghy until we get to Guatemala, we decided to top off the fuel Saturday morning. On our way to the fuel dock, we saw a boat that was at Red Rock Marina, and stopped by to talk to its owner, Glen. He indicated he was heading back out to meet up with some other boats and then head onto Guatemala (or maybe Honduras first). Since he will be at our marina Guatemala we will see him again.
The fuel dock was a few miles away, so we got a tour of Placencia’s canals along the way. It was neat seeing by water what we were experiencing on foot up to this point. The canals were quite shallow so there was no way Utopia would make it to the fuel dock.
Fun in Placencia
After lunch we went back out to do our final reprovisioning. We may have touched on this before, but the grocery stores don’t really carry too many vegetables, instead there are many vegetable stands around town. We got vegetables first and then went to a grocery store to pick up dry goods and frozen meat. Once back at the boat we did our normal swim to cool off.
New Haven
Sunday - Tuesday
Placencia to New Haven Sunday, May 10 | 28 miles | 24 NM After a morning walk, we prepared the boat for sea and weighed anchor a little before 10 am. What started as a downwind motor sail in light winds steadily turned into a great downwind sail. Once the engine was turned off, we sailed wing on wing for some time and then as the wind increased, we went on mainsail alone (still going 5-6 knots). With over 20 knots of wind on the beam the main needed to be reefed to depower us a bit. It was pretty spicy as we approached the New Haven lagoon, but as soon as we rounded a headland the seas and winds died down (even though it remained breezy). The anchorage in New Haven is super protected in almost all winds (except a strong southwest wind which is rare). Overall, it was a great trip, and we had the anchor down around 3 pm.
There really isn’t a lot to do at this anchorage and it was quite breezy Sunday and Monday, so we stayed on the boat and did chores. Sondra took a quick dip in the water but since the mangrove-lined lagoon was a bit murky, the water was not overly inviting.
Tuesday, we decided to head south to a set of islands called Mangrove Cayes. It is offshore so the water should be much better.
Mangrove Cayes
Tuesday - Thursday
New Haven to Mangrove Cayes Tuesday, May 12 | 9 miles | 8 NM We did a morning dinghy ride around the anchorage before getting the boat ready for a short trip and were underway around 9:30 am. We left the anchorage with the main up and motor sailed the 9 miles to our anchorage. There were some shallows coming into the cayes, with the depth going from 30 feet to 3 feet in a noticeably short distance, but the shallows were easily seen with polarized sunglasses and good sunlight. The anchor was down by 11:30 am.
Since we will be in the anchorage for the next week soaking up the last of Belize, and there is no land access, there probably won’t be an overabundance to talk about (but we will see).
We ended up going on an early dinghy ride around the area on Wednesday morning seeing several birds and whatnot. After lunch we swam out to a shoal and saw the water depth was less than 3 feet. A few fish and starfish were seen but it was not reef you would want to hang out and snorkel for a lengthy period of time. Other than that, it was an easygoing day.
Exploring Mangroves Cayes
Thursday morning was very calm, so I decided to go ahead to change the sacrificial anodes on the boat before we head into Guatemala. Right now, we have zinc anodes on our prop shaft and on the refrigerator keel cooler plate on the bottom of the boat to keep metals under the boat from corroding. Since we are about to go into freshwaters in Guatemala for many months, we needed to change our anodes to another material since zinc will not work in freshwater. Aluminum or magnesium are needed for freshwater. Since aluminum works in both salt and fresh, I chose that (even though magnesium is better overall in freshwater it does not work in salt).
At the Annapolis boat show I purchased a little dive compressor so we can do underwater projects without holding our breath and constantly coming up for air. The compressor is very small and runs on lithium batteries. We have two batteries and each one will give 30-40 minutes underwater time (at about 10-foot depth). It was very handy for changing the anodes! While I did that, Sondra looked out for me from above while cleaning stainless steel.
After lunch we went on another dinghy ride around the area and explored many of the mangroves among other normal boat activities.
Always projects to be done (reapplying our blinds, changing media in tank filter, old and new anodes)
This is probably one of the most extended off-the-grid experiences we have had on Utopia, and we are really enjoying solitude especially since we are about to be thrust back into civilization for many months at a marina.
Stay tuned next week since in theory we are supposed to check out of Belize and into Guatemala!
Post 26-20
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