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A short but eventful sail to Cay Caulker…

On Dec. 28th, we finally left San Pedro for Cay Caulker with Eric and Greg onboard, which was a short 10 miles away. We decided to go there via inside the reef. According to the charts, it should have been no problem. Just 10 miles from San Pedro, it should have been an easy hour and a half to 2 hour sail. That is, if we had not run aground on the way there (with our sails up!), and lost a throttle cable while anchoring. Other than that, the sail was no problem. B)

shoving off from the yacht club
Eric on deck
hanging out in the cockpit
Raf keeping a bow watch
a shot from the deck
us trying to fix the throttle cable

La Isla Bonita…

From Punta Allen, we sailed straight on to San Pedro, Belize, getting there in the 1st week of December. About a 1-day sail in pretty excellent conditions. San Pedro’s tricky, because you have to go in through a cut in the barrier reef. We made it in with no problemo, and dropped anchor. When we anchored there, San Pedro didn’t look like all that much that would interest us, to be honest. Little did we know that we’d be there for the next 3 weeks and pretty much love every day of it…

 A shot of Front Street in San Pedro.
Another street shot
Here are few shots of San Pedro's beachfront. You can pretty much walk up the whole beach unfettered, so they call it the 'boulevard'.
another shot of the boulevard...
Raf and Anne-Marie
poweryacht with chicks... cool...
Eric and Greg
One of San Pedro's colorful anti-littering signs that cover the whole island.
me saluting...
Andiamo docked at the yacht club.
us at the pool.
Howard, Bonnie and Vanessa, our new pals from Iowa
Raf at the yacht club
Eric, snorkeling off the yacht club dock
The marquee at the yacht club dock
One of our many dinners aboard during Eric and Greg's visit.
Cocktails with Howard, Bonnie, Vanessa and the whole gange after Xmas Eve dinner.
Eric recovering on Xmas day...
Bonnie and Vanessa bringing us a Xmas plant.

Not so Fast Times at Punta Allen…

As I mentioned in my posting, Punta Allen was a complete surprise to us. We almost missed it. Thanks to a migraine headache I had, we didn’t. It’s the first time I was GLAD I had a migraine! These are just a few of the great shots we got while we were there. This place was definitely a highlight of the trip thus far…

Raf, sailing at sunset on our way to Punta Allen
Cosmo and Lucy in the cockpit
Dinghying our way into Punta Allen
A shot of the beach at Punta Allen.
Here we are hanging out at the beach bar at Punta Allen.
me buying lobster
entering the mangroves...
Local kid hamming it up...
Roos, Bob and me walking down main street.
us anchored in Culebra Cay for lunch.
Roos, lounging out during our lunch anchorage...
Roos, hanging out at the beach in Punta Allen...
Bob's damaged trimaran on the beach.
Locals dancing with pigs' heads...
another pigs' heads dance pic
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Next stop, Cozumel…

Our next stop was Cozumel, which ended up taking a little longer than we would have liked on account of us needing to get a new outboard and our engine-driven refrigeration fixed. Still, we managed to have a decent time there, and even took a few good shots…

Here's us sailing on our way to Cozumel, while I show Roos the finer points of steering the boat under sail.
Me catching a barracuda.
Raf and Roz manning the bridge...
Raf, catching a huge hermit crab.
Raf and his crab.
Raf rowing the dink...
Typical Cozumel sunset...
Typical Cozumel pelican...

Puerto Morelos, our first stop out of Isla, woo-hoo!

After a stop in Cancun to complete our checkout, we headed to Puerto Morelos for our first stop on our southward trip. New onboard was Roos and Raf, so I thought we’d take it easy and take a short 20 mile sail to Puerto Morelos for our first leg. All went well, and Puerto Morelos was a great first stop… (all pics are by Raf)

Andiamo at anchor in Puerto Morelos
Local bird hanging out.
Hurricane damaged light tower
Me and Roos, enjoying a cool beverage in town.

Andiamo’s final days in Isla Mujeres…

After a 3 month long and (hugely taxing) stay in Isla Mujeres, it was time for Andiamo to head out into the wild blue yonder, so to speak. Thanks to good friends like Steffen from “La Boheme”, and Frederik from “Jeri”, I was able to stay sane enough to get Andiamo ready to head onward… (mouse over the photos for comments.)

Frederik
Final night before leaving Isla
Me sleeping.
Our last sunset.
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Let the pics flow… and many, many thanks.

Ok, we’re back from some inland traveling around Guatemala. I had an absolutely wonderful and even somewhat therapeutic time, which I’ll talk about on an upcoming post. But for now, I just wanted to announce that I’m finally getting some updated pics posted in the “photos” section. I’ll try to be as chronlogical as possible.

And thanks so much to everyone who’s emailed me with their thoughts and best wishes after Pop’s passing. I was really moved by all the love and support. I really appreciate each and every note, and comment. It’s been a tough couple of weeks for me, and you guys have no idea how much your kind thoughts have helped me through the worst of it.

Muchas Gracias!