Season 3 Recap
In our third season of sailing, we did not accumulate as many sailing miles as our second, however, these sailing miles were certainly novel to us as we traveled from Florida to Guatemala, visiting Belize on the way. Then we did a road trip in the States visiting family and friends and also did some backpacking on the Appalachian Trail.
November 2025 – October 2026
Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
to
Río Dulce, Izabal, Guatemala,
plus some land travels
Here in Río Dulce, many cruisers are starting to take off for another season of sailing now that hurricane season is coming to a close. Before we share what is in store for our fourth season of cruising, we wanted to do a recap post, which includes the following:
Quick Data
Sailing | Season 3 | Season 2 | Season 1 |
Total Days Underway | 37 | 111 | 45 |
Total Nautical Miles | 1390 | 4138 | 950 |
Total Statue Miles | 1598 | 4756 | 1092 |
Avg NM per day underway | 37.6 | 37.3 | 21.1 |
Avg miles per day underway | 43.2 | 42.8 | 24.3 |
Engine Hours | 241 | 676 | 185 |
Longest trip (NM) | 653.8 | 337.9 | 110.1 |
Longest day trip (NM) | 60.00 | 68.15 | 42.67 |
Number multiday trips | 5 | 8 | 2 |
Multiday trips
| |||
Backpacking
130 trail miles
140 total miles
17 days of backpacking
2 states
Road trip
14 Eastern states
2 Western states
3 rental cars
Florida & Mechanical Problems
November 2025 – March 2026
578 NM
The 2025 holiday season was spent at a marina in Daytona Beach visiting family, friends and doctors while we had some engine work done on Utopia (Post 26-05). The plan was to depart early February right after attending a presentation by Jerome Rand at a Florida Water Resources Association workshop. However, our refrigerator stopped working right after we provisioned with a month’s worth of groceries (Post 26-06). The departure was delayed for attempts to repair the fridge, in which all failed, and decided to order a 12-v fridge-freezer unit for temporary use.
Once the fridge arrived, it was finally time to depart, then just two hours after leaving Daytona Beach our alternator belt shredded to pieces. We managed to get it changed and we exited the inlet and made it to Marathon without incident. However, in Marathon, the new alternator belt slipped from the drive, so we spent a few days trying to get the belt system properly aligned and the fridge fixed. While all that was taking place, we visited with Hemlock and received a shipment of donated goods from Hope Fleet to deliver to Guatemala (Posts 26-07 to 09).
Thinking we had repaired the alignment issue, but not getting the fridge fixed, we took off for Dry Tortugas to stage for a jump to Mexico. After enjoying our time there and about to weigh anchor, we found that our alternator belt slipped again and a tightening of it caused the alternator to smoke and die (Post 26-10). After a moment of panic, feeling stranded in a remote location, we managed to sail north to Fort Myers Beach.
While there we had a new alternator installed and found a technician that could actually fix our refrigerator. Once all that was completed and the weather appeared to be favorable, we decided to skip Mexico, to head straight to Belize (Posts 26-11 & 12).
Belize
March – May
989 NM
A Superlative Passage
From Fort Myers Beach, we sailed overnight back to Dry Tortugas to spend one night at anchor. In the morning, we began a wonderful 104-hour passage all the to Belize City. It was the longest passage that we have ever completed, and had reached new furthest points west and south aboard Utopia. This was the most amount of time we have gone without touching land. We saw our biggest waves at sea and had our first sighting of bioluminescence! (Post 26-13)
Cruising Belize
The next several weeks were thoroughly enjoyed while cruising around Belize as we slowly worked our way south from Belize City and Caye Caulker, to the Offshore Atolls (Posts 26-14 to 16), down to the central coastal areas, Placencia and all the way to Punta Gorda (Posts 26-17 to 21). We also did a couple of land excursions to the ATM caves used for Mayan rituals (Post 26-14) and Monkey River where we saw howler monkeys (Post 26-18).
Arriving in Guatemala
May
31 NM
In late May we checked into Guatemala in the town of Livingston before entering the canyon of the Río Dulce (Sweet River) which was an incredible experience as Utopia worked upstream between very tall jungle habitat covered cliffs (Post 26-21). After spending a few days in Cayo Quemado, Utopia finally reached her new home at the Hacienda Tijax Jungle Lodge next to the town of Río Dulce (Post 26-22). Once settled into the slip, we spent the next few weeks getting to know the area, working on projects and preparing to visit the United States for two months (Posts 26-23 to 25).
Livingston, Guatemala Rio Dulce Canyon Hacienda Tijax
Visiting the USA
June – August
In June we traveled to Guatemala City to catch a flight to Boston, Massachusetts. From there we traveled up to Gloucester to spend time with our friends aboard Quest II before picking up a camper van for Jimmy to follow Sondra on her backpacking trip (Posts 26-26 & 27).
Backpacking in NH & ME
Sondra backpacked north along the Appalachian Trail from Pinkham Notch in New Hampshire up to Stratton, Maine. She started on Independence Day with a group of women while Jimmy followed them up the trail in a camper van. After completing 130 miles of the Appalachian Trail over 17 days, we drove from Maine back down to Massachusetts to trade in the camper van for a car (Posts 26-28 to 30).
Eastern Road trip
Now in our rental car, we headed south from the Boston area down to Mississippi visiting family, friends and other sites in North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. After a few days at a family member’s house in Mississippi, where Baxter now lives, we drove east to Florida to spend some time with family, friends and the usual doctors’ appointments. From there it was back to North Carolina, then up to Pennsylvania to see more family, wrapping up our eastern states’ road trip (Posts 26-31 & 32).
Western Road trip
Returning the rental car in Boston, we then flew out to San Francisco. Inside a new rental car, we drove north to beautiful Oregon to visit family for a few days before returning to California to visit more family (Posts 26-33 & 34). From there, we flew back to Guatemala.
Exploring Guatemala
June & August – October
Before flying to the states in June, we spent two nights in Zona 10 of Guatemala City (Post 26-26). Upon return to the airport Guatemala City in August, we decided to visit Antigua Guatemala for a few days instead of heading straight back to Utopia in the Río Dulce (Post 26-34).
Once back home on Utopia, we made couple day trips away from Río Dulce, like to Siete Altares (Post 26-39) and to Cascadas Agua Caliente (Post 26-40). When not traveling, our time was spent on projects, and diving into what the Río Dulce area has to offer (Posts 26-35 to 44).
Utopia will remain in the Río Dulce area for the rest of the year, but more on that in next week’s post.
Post 26-45
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