Belize 2010_14

The wind banging the hurricane shutters around woke us up this morning, what a fabulous wake up call. Matt went to investigate how windy it was. We knew that we would be driving the boat into town today to pick up me madre' from the airport. We were all very happy. Matt told me that the wind was pretty light and he suggested we kite into town. He went out first to test the waters to see if it was worth Karlene trying. He was able to get back and yell from the water that it was on and off and it would definitely be a downwinder. In laymen's terms it was to light for Karlene. I packed a bag for dad to bring into town for us. I was soon on the water and glad that we were doing a downwinder because I don't think I would have been able to get back. We putted around for as long as we could to make sure dad and Karlene would be docked and positioned to catch us.

While on the water I suddenly realized we did not pick a meeting place. I just put two and two together and decided that they would dock at BC's where we dock to get or drop anyone off at the airport. They took their sweet ass time and there was a couple of "kite please don't fall out of the sky" moments of such light wind. There were also moments of "ok, thats more like it" random gusts of wind. It was very relaxing in the fact that it was just a cruising session but stressful that I didn't know if there would be anybody to catch us in town (the docks in town are even closer together than the ones up north).

All is good, I finally spotted the boat with Karlene perched up on the front of the boat like a mermaid on a big sailing ship. They cruised right by us waving and docked right at BC's. I gave them as much time as I could to dock and I did my best to stay up wind so I didn't pass BC's. I came in slowly and dad was there to catch my kite. Matt was in right behind me. There was a man at a bar/restaurant on the dock that they came from and he warned us of the little Spanish sting rays that lived in the shallow grass. This was new to us this year, dad got stung on his toe by something near a dock by our place and we saw two small sting rays that looked camouflaged like rocks. I told him thanks for the warning and put on my sandals that I strapped to my harness for just that occasion.

They caught our kites and we wrapped up while they went to the airport to pick up madre'. We took all our stuff back to the boat and waited for them there. I flagged down Jay as he was riding up the beach on his bike. He rode down the dock to chat about the wind, Gwynne joined us. The crew showed up with madre' in tow we had our hellos at moved the boat outside of Estel's to have breakfast. It turns out that dad and Karlene took so long because they ran out of gas in front of Grand Carib just south of our place, thankfully dad had a spare gas tank and it got them to the gas station to fill up.

After breakfast we went home to nap and read books by the pool. Matt decided to try and kite again, the wind was still light but he made it work. He made it look a lot winder than it was so I decided to go out. I have to give it to him he is extremely efficient in light wind. I went straight down wind and tried so hard to get back but it wasn't happening. I had to come in at Grand Carib and pull my safety because no one was there to catch me. I was wrapping up and Karlene comes jogging down the beach to help me. She took my board and told me she was running her lines to go out but I told her don't even bother, as Matt is out there kiting away. We got back just in time to catch Matts kite that almost fell out of the sky when I caught it.

We cleaned up, I painted my nails and we had beans on cheese toast for dinner and called it a night.