Wippari Cay, Belize trip - Day 2 - August 14, 2013

Last night we had our usual rain storm, but out here in the Cays, we were more exposed.  Luckily we were on a mooring ball, with our secondary anchor out for safety, so after closing all of the hatches and checking all of the lines, I went back to sleep.

This morning we went for our first snorkel on the reefs at Wippari Cay.  Our boat was about 100 meters from the reefs, and besides being a long swim, we had to be careful of the local fishermen heading out to fish in the boats.  The snorkeling was very nice with many fish and coral.  I was able to try put my new Sea Life camera, which worked very well.  Mom also did very well and we enjoyed our snorkel for a couple of hours.  I saw a couple of barracudas, and took some pictures of them.  I guess I was following one of them too closely, as he started opening his mouth and showing his teeth, and he started the slow exaggeration swim that I have seen sharks do on Shark Week, so I backed off and let them go on.

 

 

 

The rest of the day was very relaxing and I watched a movie on my laptop, while mom took a nap.  I did start the engines to charge the house batteries, and the port engine was not spitting any water out of the exhaust port.  I quickly shut it down, and cleaned out the raw water filter, which had some seaweed inside.  Still it didn't spit water, so I guess the impeller is bad.  It would be an easy change, but I don't have a spare.  Actually, we don't have any spares, so that will be a priority for future trips.  Also, the new seals for the sail drives both had come unglued from the drives and were getting chopped up by the props.  I took some pictures to show the Moorings, and will have to figure out a repair once we get back to port.  This may mean a trip down to Guatemala, to the travel lift, but that will have to wait until later in September.  I guess this is what shakedown trips are about.  We should have no problem getting back to port tomorrow, as we will be sailing downwind.  We should be able to run one engine though the lagoon area, and then start the port engine for docking.  Tomorrow we plan to snorkel in the morning, eat lunch, and then head back to port.