USA
Chapter 29

Copyright© 2016 by Old Man with a Pen

Yes, we bought the boat. It was, to us, more like a small ship than a large boat. An island trading type ... of the kind used in the South Sea islands, in and around Tahiti. The type of ship that carries small shipments to and fro between small islands; what ever needs carrying and is too heavy for a catamaran but not big enough for a steamer.

To get out of Belize City we had to sail south until we came to one of the few access points through the barrier reef.

The Barrier Reef is a series of coral reefs straddling the coast of British Honduras, roughly 980 feet offshore in the north and 25 miles in the south within the country limits.

The Barrier Reef is a 190 mile long section of the 560 mile long central american barrier reef system. It is continuous from Cancun on the northeast tip of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico through the Riviera Maya up to Honduras making it one of the largest coral reef systems in the world.

In 1842 Charles Darwin described it as "the most remarkable reef in the West Indies."

In the 1930's barrier reefs ... coral reefs ... were in the way. Explorers hated them, shipping feared them, builders used them. Hard hat divers desiccated them for fancy coral.

"Cut us a passage to that place because we have miraculous things they will want to buy."

"That coral is an impediment to commerce!"

Wars are fought due to commerce.

It's all about the money.

So, a path was dredged, dynamited and cut through the reef so shipping and the rich could continue to prosper. There wasn't a channel directly opposite Belize City ... we had to sail south so we could sail north.

That's not to say there aren't places where a shallow draft boat like Vellamo II couldn't sneak across. Smugglers and pirates have been doing it for years ... we didn't know where those places were and it's not worth adding our corpses to the thousands who made that same mistake ... the coast of British Honduras is littered with the wrecks of ships whose Captains thought they knew better.

The channel we used exits about six hundred yards south of Goff's Caye. The channel is well buoyed and wide ... safe ... as long as some crazy helmsman on some monster timber hauler stays on his side of the cut.

The oceans floors are littered with small craft run down by much larger steel hulls. Even the Great Lakes are no stranger to collisions and sinkings. If it's foggy the safest place is inshore or ashore in safe harbor. Exiting the passage we were careful not to go too far from the reef because the Turneffe Atoll is pretty darn close at that point ... and the atoll is shallow.

So on exit we turned to port and sailed past Belize City and on up the coast to Cancun.

Cancun is a little sleepy coastal town with very little attraction ... but we did top up at the Texaco dock. The macerator was doing a fine job of dealing with our solid waste.

 
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