Belize Blog – Belizeadventure.com

Every year in September Cully starts to order new gear for the island. For weeks cool stuff pours in to our Moab shed. This year we had to order more than usual; with the new wind center we had to invest at least $20K in kite and windsurf equipment. Cully was in heavan! Here are some shots of our new truck and trailer being loaded, in my front yard in Moab.

We bought many new kites, and several kiteboard and windsurf boards. We also got a whole new quiver of sails.

-Visit our Belize kitesurf school page for a list of all of the new kitesurf gear on it’s way to our island.

We also send down a whole pile of cool new stuff for our island kitchen: fantastic new orange juice squeezer, super cool stainless steel strainers, knives, wisks, and ladles. I went a little crazy at the restaurant supply store in Grand Junction. Every year, without really knowing how he does it, Cully manages to order just the right amount of gear for whatever van/truck/trailer combo we have going down. When it was all loaded up, everything was completely full.

It takes Cully 7 days to drive to Belize. As he always says, he drives “like a grandmother”. He left this past Tuesday, and should arrive in Belize City next Tuesday. I believe he crosses the border between Texas and Mexico today, at Brownsville. This is something like the 34th year he has driven down to Belize! We’ve come a long way from the old “rattle van” we used to drive both down and back up, since we couldn’t afford to leave vehicles down there back in those days. Here he is last Tuesday morning, before driving out of Moab for the fall and early winter.

All packed up and ready to go.

For years we have been frustrated with the resolution of Glovers Reef Atoll on Google Earth. It has always been too blurry to be able to even see the islands. We just realized that it has finally been updated and you now can easily see our island, “The Wall” dive site, the patch reefs where we snorkel, our surf zone and even our docks! Long Caye is the island on the left in the image below. The channel between Long Caye and nearby Northeast Caye is one of our favorite snorkel spots.

Here are some more comparisons of before and after Tropical Storm Matthew. First, the incredible disappearing sand bar! Next, a good example of typical hurricane beach cleanup. and finally, our surf dock and what can happen to it in a storm. This is nothing… this is our 3rd surf dock, the other 2 were completely wiped out in past storms.

We have had 2 hurricane scares this hurricane season, and both have left us fairly unscathed, much to our relief. When you own an island resort in the Caribbean, you don’t look forward to hurricane season. Each July we start to get nervous, and don’t feel completely relaxed until November 1, when I proclaim hurricane season officially “over”. Only 4 more days to go!

Tropical storm Matthew passed very near our island on September 25, with sustained winds of 40 miles an hour. The most profound change was to the small sand bar just off our caye. Past guests will remember this sand bar because we conduct snorkel orientation just off this small bit of land. Well, this sand bar is no more! Damage during that storm also included damage to our surf dock, damage to the foundation on 2 cabanas which need to be re-cemented, and sand moved around and lots of seaweed washed up on the beach.

Hurricane Richard passed on a similar track, within 50 miles of our island, on October 24. This Category 1 storm had sustained winds of 75 mph. We were very surprised to learn that the damage from this storm was not as bad as the damage Matthew caused. In one instance we actually gained beach by cabana #6 that has been gone since 1998!

Our kayak beach by the sea kayak palapa lost a lot of sand with Matthew, as the storm surge washed away a lot of the beach, exposing roots. Richard put the sand back! (see photos.)

I will be posting other before/after shots over the next few days.

Slickrock has designed a custom raft from which we will conduct our kitesurfing lessons from Long Caye, and it has just been completed (shown here in Cully’s yard in Moab, Utah). Since we do not have ideal conditions right off the island, we will travel to nearby sandflats for these lessons, where wide open spaces, shallow water, and the sandy bottom will allow students plenty of room to master kitesurfing. The motorized raft has a platform from which to rig the kites, and folding steps into the water for easy access. The raft will anchor on the sandflats, and after rigging up the kites the students will be able to spread out while the instructor gives directions. We will also have a waterproof radio helmet which advanced students can wear and receive instruction while they practice drags and short rides away from the instructor. We will be posting more about our new kitesurf gear soon!

Read more about kitesurfing lessons on our website.

We just talked to Kendra from Long Caye, the owner of the dive shop on our island. She and her husband Jim just arrived on the caye, returning after they evacuated on Saturday. They brought our construction crew out and our groundskeeper, Apolitico, as well. She reports that she is amazed at how good everything looks. She estimates that the wind blew about 60 mph, with winds coming from the West, which is super good news for us because we are on the east end of the island! She said that there looks like there was very little storm surge (this is what we were worried about), and that in fact instead of losing land, they gained more, because the storm piled up more coral rocks on their east side. A few trees are down, but none of their buildings or roofs are damaged. They will contact us again later after they have had time to walk around our property. HOORAY! A giant relief.

Hurricane Richard hit central Belize yesterday afternoon as a Category 1 storm, making landfall about 20 miles south of Belize City with 90 mph winds. The strongest winds were confined to a 30 mile radius from the storm’s center, so very few areas sustained damage according to preliminary reports.

We are happy to report that everyone we know in Belize is fine. Our island base at Glover’s Reef was evacuated on Saturday, and since the storm passed 40-50 miles north of there we know from past storm experience that the island probably did not receive much in the way of wind damage, but a storm surge and high surf probably eroded a little more of the east side of the island and damaged our docks. Our friends at the dive shop will be going back out today and we’ll know more details soon.

In contrast, on October 28, 1998, Hurricane Mitch arrived near the Bay Islands of Honduras and ultimately eroded at least 50 feet of our shore. This Category 5 storm sat and churned over Guanaja for 4 days, sending huge waves our way. Although it never hit Belize, the force of this large, sustained surf (2 full days) did great damage to the islands at Glover’s Reef. We were able to clean up and open on time that season by hiring 30 men who worked at a frenetic pace for 5 weeks!

We will be posting updates as we receive them, stay tuned!

Our paddleboard instructor and trip manager Victor Myers was a winner in the Werner Paddles Catalog Photo Contest. Victor created this self-portrait just off our island with a surfdeck mounted, waterproof camera. You can see videos he made with the same camera while paddleboarding off our Belize caye in an earlier blog post.

To obtain your own copy of the Werner Paddles catalog, visit their website: wernerpaddles.com.

We’ve been working like mad to get the details figured out. Check out our new kite school page to read all about our new wind center on the island!