Familiar Cruising Grounds, Post 26-17

Jimmy Lee
6 days ago
8 min read

Updated: 8 hours ago

We visited some locations that we saw when we chartered another boat in Belize in 2018. We also try to tackle a solar issue and extend our Visa.

Friday, April 17– Thursday, April 21, 2026

From Lighthouse Reef Atoll to Placencia

79 miles | 68 nautical miles (NM)

Lighthouse Reef to Southwater Caye

Friday, April 17

44 miles | 38 NM

We left our anchorage about 7 am and started heading southwest away from the atoll and back to the barrier reef proper. We had high hopes that we might get to sail but unfortunately it was pretty windless, so we had to be satisfied with motor sailing in pleasant seas.

It was a pretty uneventful crossing except we caught our first keepable fish on Utopia. When we have a sizable passage, we set out a hand line with a lure and hope for a catch, but other than the barracuda last week, we haven't had much luck. This time we caught a small Mahi-Mahi, but it was enough for us. I cleaned it in the cockpit and sliced off a piece for Sondra and me to have with some soy sauce before puting the meat into our fridge. We were very happy with the catch.

The three stages of our fish catch

As lunch approached, we could see the barrier islands and mountains on the mainland. I forgot that Belize has some pretty big mountains (highest point is around 3500’ above sea level). By 1 pm we came in through the very wide Tobacco Reef Entrance and around 2 we were tucked in behind South Water Caye. This was a spot we visited back in 2018, and it was very much like it was back then with small changes. Instead of going to shore swam around the boat and relaxed some. For dinner, it was the Mahi Mahi we caught just a few hours earlier!

Southwater Caye

Saturday & Sunday

After coffee on Saturday, we dropped the dinghy and went to the island to stretch our legs. South Water Caye basically consists of three resorts of varied affluency, a restaurant and some housing for staff. We landed the dinghy at Blue Marlin Resort (on the north side) and walked through their grounds (consists of bar, restaurant and various types of cabanas including little igloo things for guests) .

Heading south, we walked past Margarita’s restaurant (more on that later) and the International Zoological Expeditions (IZE). The IZE is a really cool place that is a biological field station where students can study abroad but it is also a resort you can stay at (at relatively reasonable prices) that has a restaurant and bar (with a pool table!).

We proceeded south from the IZE and ended up at the Pelican Beach Resort which is probably the most exclusive and expensive resort. All the resorts had their particular charm and were well kept. It was really neat to revisit this island after 8 years.

The island is only 0.6 miles away so it did not take us too long to then reverse our path and head back to the boat for a bit.

Back at the boat I discovered one of our solar panels was not charging and that the disconnect breaker was tripped. This had happened before so I went to reset the breaker, and it would not reset. After a bit of troubleshooting I somewhat concluded that I might have a bad breaker, but I wasn’t sure, so I needed to ruminate on this some more with internet research. Since the sun was up and the other panel was producing power, I really didn’t want to mess with an active panel (lots of sun = high voltage = need to be careful and disconnect lots of stuff) so I kicked the can down the road to work at it in low sun (no sun=no voltage=little danger).

South Water Caye

We decided to go back to the island for lunch with a plan to eat at Margarita’s, but (here is the short story,) the cook not available, so we proceeded on to the ITZ. There was one family eating lunch and we walked back into the kitchen and asked if we could buy lunch (we could!). They provided yummy enchiladas with dessert and a pitcher of fruit juice at a reasonable price. Since we did not have excact change to pay they asked if they could give us our change at happy hour that starts 4 pm which was fine for us. We spoke to the family before we left, and they indicated they had the whole resort to themselves.

Around 4 p.m we ended up back at ITZ and had a nice time chatting with the other family and saw a new group had arrived sometime in the afternoon. After that we headed back to the boat for dinner and TV time.

Sunday morning we made some water and I troubleshot the solar panel a bit more. It turned out that I could reset the breaker before the sun came up, and the panel started producing power. Before the snorkel I messaged Margarita’s to check to see if they would be open tonight and they said dinner would be at 6:30 pm.

We dinghied to caye to the south to see if we could snorkel there, but it was a bit too bumpy, so we came back to South Water for some snorkeling. When we returned to the boat around 11:30 am we found the solar breaker was tripped and could not be reset. I wrote an email to the panel installer (The Yacht Rigger) to ask for some input.

We ended up going back to ITZ at 4:30 for happy hour and after a pretty substandard happy hour drink and vibe (what a difference a good bartender makes!) we proceeded to dinghy to Charles Bar at Blue Marlin resort where we had a nice time walking the grounds and having a good but expensive drink. Afterwards went to Margarita’s. Some of these small restaurants make a single different item every day so there wasn’t any ordering involved. Our surprise dinner was an awsome Belizean fare consisting of roasted chicken, rice and potato salad with flambe bananas for desert. The restaurant was not fancy, but it was very authentic and we had a great time chatting with the cook about what their goals for the restaurant are.

Dinner at Margarita's

Southwater Caye to Placencia, Belize

Monday, April 20

35 miles | 30 NM

Since we are now approaching the end of our first thirty-day visa here in Belize and want to stay longer we need to extend our visas before Sunday April 26. Instead of going back to Belize City, we opted for Placencia since it’s a great cruiser friendly place and we can get some needed provisions and laundry taken care of. The immigration office is not open on the weekend, and Fridays are questionable for extending visas, so we planned to request the extension on Thursday, April 23.

We weighed anchor about 8 am and we wound our way west to the Inner Channel that runs along the mainland and is about 8-12 miles wide, making it a great protected area to sail. There was not much wind and only sailed for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon, motoring the rest of the way. We ended up anchored around 2:30 pm, made a trip into town to get a few groceries, and went back to the boat for dinner.

Placencia

Tuesday - Thursday

After Tuesday morning coffee we did what we normally do when we arrive at a new place: go on a long walk while combining it with reconnaissance and chores. As a little window of a typical chre day, here is a little bulleted list of tasks (cue "Day in the Life" by the Beatles):

Gathered a large amount garbage from the boat (13 days worth!) and placed it in the dinghy. There is an art to it to keep it not disgusting, covered in the "Utilities Aboard" post. At the municipal dock you pay for dinghy parking ($2BZ/Day) and garbage ($5 BZ for large bags).
Walked the main road with the plan of finding a circuit breaker for the solar in area hardware stores with no luck. One of the workers gave us directions to a guy’s house that did solar. But while in the hardware stores, we picked up a new dinghy lock and material to re-caulk the shower stall and kitchen.
Withdrew BZ from an ATM to pay for our visa extension since they only take cash.
Found the solar guy’s house, but nobody was there. A woman walking past lady said he had just left, so we would have to come back.
Scoped out some vegetable stands and tortilla shack to visit on the way back.
Continued up the road to one of the lager grocery stores and bought some miscellaneous items (farthest point north for the day).
Started walking back and purchased a Jonny Cake with ham and cheese from lady on the road.
Purchased some vegetables from a stand and some tortillas from a another stand(they were hot and we ate a couple right then and there).
Found a dinghy dock listed on Noforgienland, but it was in significant disrepair and way to shallow. No Bueno.
Walked past the Hokey Pokey Water Taxi station that we would need to take on Thursday to get our Visa extended and checked their schedule and fares.
Walked past a bakery in hopes for fresh bread (John the Bakerman). No one was there.
Came back to the Placencia Sidewalk and walked to its northern reaches.
Decided to head back to John the Bakerman on the way to a lunch spot. On the way to John's a tiny food shack caught our eye and we purchase lunch to take back to the boat. The onwer, Ms. Busy was great and gave us a contact for a taxi to help with getting our visas extended.
Passed by John the Bakerman and this time he was open so we got some fresh bread and a sweet roll.
Went to pay the dinghy/garbage guy and he did not have change. Told him I would take care of it later this afternoon.
Back to the boat by noon (with lunch in hand) completing 4.5 miles walk around town.
After lunch, we went back to town for a short walk and an ice cream at Tutti Frutti. Some of the best gelato I have had since we visited Italy. And we paid the dinghy/garbage fees.

It was so neat seeing Placencia again after 8 years. Lots of stuff was the same but the creep of modern development was there too. Overall, a great day ending with dinner and a show on Utopia.

Views around Placencia

Wednesday started off with breakfast at the Cozy Corner (a place we visited with the Whitlocks back in 2018) and a more attempts at finding the solar guy at his shop (no luck). We dropped off some laundry to get washed (it will be ready Friday) and then went back to the boat and swam from the boat. A low effort day.

Thursday morning was a busy one getting our visas extended for another 30 days. We started out by taking our dinghy to shore and walking the half mile to the water taxi. The taxi is called the Hokey Pokey and goes from Placencia on the penisula to Independence on the mainland several times a day. We got on the 7:30 am taxi and took a 15-minute ride to Independence. It was a nice ride through mangroves and it was neat to see morning commuters and school moving back and forth. Ms. Busy's contact named Qua-Qua was there amonst several other taxi drivers, and drove us to the immigration office about 10 mintes away.

At Immigration we paid an extension fee and got our passports stamped. Qua-qua then took us to the Port Authority to extend our cruising permit (i.e. visa for the boat itself). There was some confustion here, but Port Authority said we can sort it out upon exit after (we need to contact the agent that checked us in). Next up was walking to the next office: Customs, where they logged our name in an extentions book and took no fee. After that Qua-Qua took us back to the water taxi where we hopped the next boat. We were back in Placencia by 10 am. Very smooth.