March 16

March 16, 2007
Spruce Cay, Belize

Aahh, so this is cruising.

We spent another day at Southwater Cay, relaxing in the morning and going ashore to explore in the afternoon.

The island has two lodges – Blue Marlin and Pelican – on opposite ends, and a private homestead for the Bowman family, an outpost of the IZE (International Zoological Expeditions), and a station for Southwater Cay University in between.  All of these facilities exist on an island that is barely ½ mile long and about 100 yards wide, situated right on the barrier reef, and are connected with a one-person wide footpath.  Everyone we met along our walk was lovely, friendly and welcoming.  After our walk, we ended up back at Blue Marlin, and waded out to the top of the reef for a look.

We opted to dinghy ashore for a decent, family-style dinner in their lovely restaurant, where the only other patrons were the family of four that we had met the day we arrived. We can’t say the prices were exactly reasonable, but considering that every single item on the menu or in the bar has to come in by boat from 20 miles away,  it wasn’t too dreadful, either. 

We called it an early night, in order to get ready to cross about 10 miles over to Spruce Cay this morning, arriving about noon. 

Spruce Cay is yet another ¼ mile-across mangrove island, but its redeeming feature is an almost circular surrounding reef, which required some zigzagging to get through safely.  Once we anchored, we took the dinghy through the lagoon to take some soundings, as we are not yet too adept at matching up what we see with the depth sounder with what we see over the side.  Reading water colors is an art that requires much practice. 

Once we decided we had enough depth and swinging room, we loaded up the snorkel gear and headed for the southwest side of the island where our cruising guide said good snorkeling was to be had.  We were not disappointed.  This was the best so far, with plenty of colorful corals – red, purple, mustard and orange – with quite a few fish and startlingly clear water.  This is the snorkeling experience I have wanted Ole to have – like being in a dentist’s office aquarium.

This notion of nothing to do but swim and snorkel and have cocktails on the aft deck in our skivvies and watch the sunset is exactly what we had hoped for!  Even the cats are finally chilling out, but we need a lock on the fridge…

We’ll spend another night, and head for Placencia in the morning.