Court Short

…. with Belize!    Phew, we hear you say …  thought we were on to the mushy stuff!   We have really loved our time in Belize, which has come to an end after 7 weeks, 407nm of sailing with visits to 3 offshore atolls and 26 islands.   The variety here has continued to delight us: we […]

Thanks to our friends on the catamaran Makani we, plus 2 other Suzie Too OCC Rally boats sailed on Makani up to, and anchored beside, Belize's world famous Blue Hole.   We snorkelled the adjacent reefs and dived as deep as we dared into The Blue Hole and Claire swam right the way across.  It was […]

We’ve been out of touch while we’ve been exploring these amazing atolls off Belize.   At Turneffe we had another ‘squeaky bottom’ experience as we entered the astonishing lagoon inside the reef.   We anchored with 30cm below the keel and had some fantastic snorkelling off the eastern side of the reef.   We also snorkelled the ruined […]

Yesterday we took C&J from Makani for a ‘jolly’ on Ocean Rainbow to Ho Chan Cut (aka Shark Alley).   It was another ‘squeaky bottom’ ride using satellite pictures for navigation as we made our way through the reef.   A fabulous sail up doing plus of 7kts but a much slower sail home … a good […]

We have now been on Ocean Rainbow for a year with only 5 nights spent ashore (1 night in Suriname, 2 nights in Panama City and 2 nights in Belize interior).   We have sailed 4900 nautical miles, visited 53 islands in 22 countries.  We’ve anchored on 88 occasions, taken up mooring buoys on 11 occasions […]

What a magnificent prehistoric creature and what fun it was to be able to swim along with one – this time with the camera!   Totally untroubled by human curiosity and camera, our friendly manatee ‘pottered’ along hoovering up the turtle grass in his path, occasionally coming up to the surface for fresh air before returning […]

That just about says it all!  Cays might look much the same but each has its own appeal and we have experienced everything from Colson's sink holes to Bluefield Range's Ospreys.  We continue to be captivated by this country's reef system.

On the trip from Garbutt Cays to Colson Cays we organised a ‘wife swap’!   The Two J’s were to be on Ocean Rainbow and the Two C’s on Makani.   It was a lovely sail with no mishaps and lots of laughs.   The verdict from Claire – sailing’s far less work on a catamaran!   […]

The last week has been full of wonderful sailing around Belize and anchoring off lovely Cays; we’ve had dolphins playing off the bow of Ocean Rainbow and swum with nurse sharks in both South and Long Cocoa Cays; we’ve seen myriads of colourful fish and some beautiful coloured corals.    The navigation around the islands is […]

Only a 5 minute walk from our hotel was the ancient Mayan site of Cahal Pech (meaning City of Ticks!).  We had an excellent guide for our visit who brought the settlement to life as we walked amongst the ruins.   Earliest evidence of Mayan settlement here dates from 1200BC, starting as a solitary forest farmstead, […]