Sailing in the Caribbean - Part II
Trip Start
Apr 05, 2008
1
43
102
Trip End
Mar 20, 2009
Tobacco Caye,
Belize Cayes,
Belize
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Raggamuffin Tours
. It's pure paradise, that is until we have to put up our tents. What a mission! My experience of camping being three times in my life, I was secretly hoping that a). they would put up the tents or b). they were the 'throw up' self erecting tents. Fortunately after Kevin gave us a quick demo it was pretty easy going (okay so Rastaman was also helping Gareth and I, that certainly helped). Having got the hard part out of the way, happy hour was announced and we all quickly scrambled back to the boat to make the most of the rum punch. From there it becomes a mystic blur. The music was rocking and I (apparently) got the party started. It was all dancing, a bit of bad karaoke and disco lights (strobe provided by a head torch and some innovative moves by Gareth). I also decided that I quite like the crews t-shirts and set about challenging Miguel to an arm wrestling competition. To my credit I held out pretty well but I guess a life at sea is no match for the life at a desk. So then I challenged Rasta man (yes the Monica streak of being determined to win was coming out in full force). I'm proud to say I won, and Rastaman put up a good fight (Gareth reckons he let me win). I'm now the proud owner of a fabulous red t-shirt - so exciting to have something clean! Most of the group had gone ashore to roast marshmallows round the beach fire so it was the crew, Sarah, Wendy, Josh, Taylor, Gareth and I as well as the three teenage boys left rocking the boat. Those onshore enjoyed the entertainment we all provided back on the boat
Our boat the 'Ragga Queen'
. A night on the rum punch certainly makes camping so much easier, I could have slept anywhere. Looking at the amount of sand in the tent it wouldn't have made any difference if I just passed out on the beach. Needless to say 90% of the boat awoke feeling very sorry for ourselves and sworn to never drinking rum punch again!! I woke at sunrise to the sounds of Gareth out on the beach hurling. I on the other hand felt surprisingly good. It was a very quiet trip that day. The snorkeling just increased Gareth's headache so he was down below for most of the day feeling very sorry for himself and hoping he'd be able to keep lunch down. The teenage boys on the boat set about trying their luck again fishing. Their dad soon had pulled in a 6lb Barracuda and we were all excited knowing that this would be dinner. A few hours later though his older son Dash was truly showing him up. With a bit of help from Miguel who set out in the dingy to help pull in the Barracuda we soon had on board a 12pound fish. We pulled into Tobacco Caye in the early afternoon. Everyone staggered off the boat to the main bar on the island in need of beer, a welcome change to rum I suspect. Tobacco Caye is inhabited by about 30 people, made up of five families. There are five hotels and restaurants and two bars. It was so nice to also have a clean loo to use too. After getting the arduous task of setting up our tent (I had thought about bribing Rastaman with beer to put up our tent) we then set out snorkeling
Rendezvous Caye
. Again lots of coral and fish in picture postcard Caribbean waters. It was just nice to cool off as the breeze had dropped considerably. Not too surprisingly it was a pretty subdued evening. After a dinner of fresh barracuda followed by a couple of games of cards we hit the sack. Our final day on board the boat with no breeze and tones of sunshine we slowly melted away on deck. The snorkel stop was definitely needed to cool off as was the final swimming stop just before lunch. A little too near a small island covered in mangroves it was a bit disconcerting as we're swimming round when everyone started talking about saltwater crocs and then moved on to great whites (a few were keen to do the cage diving with the great whites in South Africa so Gareth was reliving his experience). We pulled into Placencia around 4pm and said our goodbyes. Rastaman presented me with my hard earned t-shirt and let me into his little secret.....they were too small for him so they needed a good home so I guess he did let me win after all. Sadly for me though the t-shirt fit Gareth perfectly and with no clean shirts left he quickly robbed me of it (not fairly though, he was too scared to challenge me to arm wrestling ;-)
