Middle Long Cay, Belize

We are anchored at Middle Long Cay, N 17.16.608, W 088.05.273. We are waiting for some high winds to hit and this island offers great protection from E-SE winds. We had been alone for a day and a half, now another boat has come in and anchored at the other end of the island. So far the wind has not hit it is supposed to pick up tonight and stay until Wednesday. The cold front that is coming off the US coast right now is pulling the air from down here and that causes us to have high winds. They could get up to 30 knots, but we are hoping they are only 20-25 knots.

We sailed from Cay Caulker to Water Cay and stayed overnight then made a short sail over here to Middle Long Cay. This island and Water Cay are a lot like the Florida Keys and the mangrove islands. The water is very clear and lots of star fish and a few coral heads. We have seen lots of large turtles while sailing in Mexico and Belize and we saw a smaller one in this anchorage. They were mostly Hawksbill turtles. We are very close to a fishing camp and yesterday as we were checking out the shore line we saw a fishing boat with what I thought was ten guys slowing down and coming close. It is very normal to have these fishing boats approach you and offer to sell fish, but there are usually 2-3 not ten, so I got a little nervous and we headed back towards the boat. As they approached the boat we saw that it was a family, three adults and about 5-6 children...boy was I relieved. I waved at the kids and they were very excited, they just wanted to sell us fish of course. While in Water Cay we also had the guardian of the fish camp and self appointed Harbor Master approach us to sell some fish and lobster, but we told him no lobster it is out of season. He said okay and did we have some rum to quench his thirst.

As soon as weather permits we will start traveling south to some more tropical islands and snorkeling and diving we hope. We don't have much time left before we have to head up the Rio Dulce for Hurricane season so we are trying to make the most of it. The islands out here are deserted except for fishermen and a few resorts so not much in the way of supplies. We also have not had internet for quite awhile so we will be catching up on emails as soon as we can. We will also have lots of pictures to post!

We are happy, healthy and living well! Cheers Mike and Kim

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