Lovely Belize

 Ava and Evie enjoying sunset on Hunting Cay. 

 John at the BBQ. Yummy!

Me lovin' on our new Genni. Have I mentioned how much I love our new sail? She's so soft and nice. 

 Queen's Cay where we swam with Tiger Sharks, giant Rays, and huge Sea Turtles. Exhilarating!

 Ava and Soli in their matching suits. See the zinc on Soli's face? That's because she had that severe allergic reaction to the Trimethoprim and her skin was really sensitive to the sun.

I love this gorgeous picture of Amy enjoying some quiet time in the shade of the Genni.

Emerson making pancakes from scratch! He is so hired. 

Darling Placencia architecture. 

We love our beverages. And our Happy Hour. 

The whole scurvy crew including Amy, Ava, & John Cawrse. 

If you look closely you can actually see raindrops hitting the water just past the dock. 

One of the many charming sand pathways running through this little town. Have I mentioned how darling this village is? I may never leave...

How guapo is my capitan? See Balance in the background? 

An ugly storm front blowing in. We barely made it back to the boat and took the laundry off the life lines before all H-E-doublehockystick broke loose. It was a doozy. 

I love trying to identify islan' fruit. These are sea grapes. 

Exploring the mile long side-walk that runs parallel to the beach in Placencia. 

And the adventure continues...

Semana Santa in Antigua

During Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Antigua residents make these amazing Alfombras (carpets) out of dyed sawdust, pine needles, and flowers. They are created as offerings to Jesus as the story of his crucifixion and death are recounted. Purple robed cucaruchos carry huge, heavy floats bearing statues of Jesus in different stages of his ordeal through the streets adorned with the alfombras. The mood is festive and somber at the same time. The making of the alfombras is festive as families and neighbors work tirelessly (and often well into the night and early hours of the morning) to complete their intricately detailed carpets. Some alfombras include fruit and breads as offerings. As the processions go by the mood becomes somber and some people dab their eyes with hankies as Christ's ordeal is displayed. Starting on Thursday around noon and completing on Saturday morning, the processions move through the labyrinth of streets in Antigua on a predetermined route. The people of each street know when the procession will be coming and prepare their alfombras in time for it to pass by. So at any point in time lookilu's like us can walk around town and see alfombras in varying stages of completion. My understudying (which is slightly fuzzy) is that different churches around town are responsible for different stages of the story. For example, La Iglesia San Francisco started on Thursday with the carrying of the float depicting Jesus bearing the cross. The next day, Iglesia La Merced (with cucaruchos in black robes) carried a float with Jesus in a glass casket. The processions were very moving and I found myself getting choked up now and again not only in response to the processions, but also in awe of how lucky we are to be able to share with Soleil a little of the magic that is her birthright. 

Waiting for the procession with our friends the Cawrses. 

The Cucaruchos carrying the wooden float with Jesus bearing the cross. They burn incense and pound bass drums as they march across the Sawdust Carpets. Beautiful and quite moving.  

The kids were excited to get their hands on some sawdust after the procession went by. See Volcan de Agua in the background. I love that volcano. It's so majestic. 

Neighbors and families join forces and spend hours to create masterpieces in the streets as offerings for the coming procession. 

Nearly too cool for sawdust carpets: my darling first born. 

Beautiful Mayan women outside the market on Tres Avenida hard at work on their sweet smelling alfombra of pine needles and flowers. 

The statues on the floats are incredible detailed and realistic.


In front of our casita in Antigua. Then...

...and Now. 

P.S. Since this picture was taken in Antigua we returned to the boat, which was docked at Tijax Jungle Lodge, traveled back up the Rio Dulce, and explored the southern Cays of Belize with our friends, the Cawrses. We had a great time with our friends, but it was a stressful week for me as ALL of my kids were sick with different ailments. Fevers, stomach pain, colds, coughing, barfing, delirium, staph infections (you do NOT want to know where), and one severe allergic reaction to sulfa drugs. Being on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean with no internet and nary a clinic in sight was just about more than I could handle. Because, you see: I'm not a doctor! (Although you would think I was studying for the boards with all the medical books I have on the boat. Who says I never read?) Thanks to my Mama (a P.A.) for all the time on the phone helping me to get everyone sorted (and for interpreting those pics of the staph infections. Gross, I know. I'm sorry.) And I owe a shout out to our dear friend Dr. Ron who not only took my desperate satellite phone call from the middle of the ocean and had all the answers, but who had recommended that I have prednisone in my medicine bag just in case of "severe allergic reactions".  Thanks, Ron! You're a life saver. 

So except for a few more gray hairs and some scaring in several unsightly locations, we're nearly 100% recovered. We've been relaxing here in Placencia, Belize for the last several days. What a darling little beach village! You must visit if you ever get the chance. Our friends left earlier in the week and as much fun as it is to share the boat with friends it sure is nice to have it to ourselves (and cruise around naked to our hearts' content). Next stop: (if Dave is successful in tearing me away from this darling village with unlimited ice cream, lattes, and a clinic) is the islands of the Belize Barrier Reef (second in size only to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia). Stay tuned...

Reflections (on the Sea)

Six weeks after leaving the comfort of our heavenly bungalow style abode with flush toilet in California, we have safely arrived in Antigua, Guatemala for Semana Santa and the famed sawdust carpets. It is so absolutely marvelous to be "home" and the sawdust carpets are every bit as enchanting as I'd hoped. You may recall that the kids and I lived here five years ago at the end of Soli's adoption. Read more about those adventures here. 

 The first chapter of our sailing adventure was a relative success, all things considered. We dropped our dear friends, the Culbecks, off at the airport in Guatemala City a few days ago. I’m happy to report that after a month of sharing 38 feet of sailboat amongst the 10 of us we still consider each other “dear friends”. I won’t lie; it wasn’t always pretty. 3.8 feet of personal space doesn’t leave a lot of "breathing room", if you know what I mean. There were plenty of melt-downs. I mean red-in-the-face, knock-down, drag-out, foot stomping, door slamming, hair pulling, mast climbing, teeth clenching, screaming, pouting, hitting, cussing, biting, spitting, crying, full-throttle freaking out melt-downs! 

And that was just me. 

Add to that, 6 kids in the throws of varying stages of puberty, and let me just say...it was one spicy boat. Throw in 50 hour crossings with no land in sight, large quantities of barf, sweaty hot days, biting bugs, sub par refrigeration, the permanent smell of fish guts and absolutely no ice for beverages to numb the pain. In retrospect, it’s a miracle we survived it. 

But survive we did. And with our sense of humor mostly in tact. Thanks for cruising with us, Culbecks! Next year, let's just meet at the Ritz in Panama City and call it a day. Nah! Who needs breakfast buffets when you can eat rice? Again. Love you guys! 

Now. It’s always more entertaining to hear about the tribulations of any adventure, but there were plenty of highlights, too. Namely:

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time, you understand now why you came this way. (But then you barf.)

Sharing the magic of phosphorescent algae on a sunrise watch with an nine year old daughter. 

Jibing the genoa all by yourself. 

Scopolamine patches for sea sickness found at the bottom of the medicine bag. Expired in ’03. Still work. Gracias a Dios. 

Fireflies and Schnitzel sans kids at Manati, the German restaurant on Guanaja.  

Snorkeling with a five year old daughter and having her tell you through her snorkel, “Ahm, ook! Een Ajel Ish”. (Mom, look! Queen Angel Fish). Good work, Amma Onnie. 

Watching the sea pups climb to the TIPPY TOP of the mast (Do you have any idea how high that is?) and SLIDE down the head stay. (Actually, I couldn’t watch that. I just know it happened. I'm still not sure how I feel about it.)

That heavenly spit of land, Water Cay (so apropo), and walking the length of it, hand in hand, with your honey. South West Cays off of Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras. 


Seeing the sparkle in the eyes of a five year old daughter as she sets sight on her beautiful birth country for the first time in memory. 

Telling the kids the story of “how I met your mother” while eating pizza at the very restaurant on the Rio Dulce where it all began 17 years ago. 

The beautiful sight of Guanaja on the horizon and dolphins on the bow after an all night  crossing.

Watching with pride as a 15 year old son and an 11 year old son thrive in this life on the sea and fall so naturally into their places as “son of a son of a sailor”. 

A freshly caught mahi-mahi and a thoroughly entertaining game of chess. A typical scene in our cock-pit whilst underway. 

 Is that fresh sushi? Yes it is. 

 Banana boats and a beach bon-fire on Vivarios. 

 Hand dumping the port holding tank. Oh, the joys... 

 A ginormous barracuda that we reeled in. But not before a shark had made lunch of the rear section. We felt like we were paying off the mafioso of the ocean, "Take the barracuda! Just don't harm the children!"

 Emerson keeping an eye for coral heads on the way in to Albuquerque Cays. 

 Anchor Drill. 

 Evie, so happy not to be barfing on this crossing. 

 Land Ho. Look at those happy faces. Glad to be on solid ground in San Andres. 

Sunrise watch with Soleil. 

 Dolphins off the bow. 

 They had such fun surfing the wake of our boat. 

 Cay and gorgeous waters off of Guanaja. 

 We call this Engine Yoga. 

 Guanaja settlement. AKA: The Cay

Charming neighborhood on "The Cay". 

Carver on his way up the mast.


We squeeze in home schooling whenever (and wherever) possible.

We're heading back to the boat and the Rio Dulce tomorrow with our new crew, The Cawrse's. Stay tuned...

Sail on the Wild Side

We may have a budding cinematographer on our hands. Now that he's not bogged down by such pesky things as...school...check out this cool trailer Emerson made in iMovie:

Click Here

(Be sure to make it full screen and turn up the volume.)

Invasion of the Microorganisms

We have successfully arrived in the Bay Islands of Honduras. Phew! And only 3 weeks behind schedule. We've spent the last couple of nights anchored off of the east end of Guanaja which is the eastern most of the 3 main islands in the chain. The island is tall and green and lush with buildings reminiscent of the Virgin Islands. Originally settled by the British, the island is home to a delightful combination of people descending from pirates, freed slaves, and European colonists. Enchanting! The language is primarily English (Island English) although the schooling instruction is all in Spanish since the islands were given back to Honduras by England in the mid 1800's.

The snorkeling on the reefs around the island is magnificent! There was a dolphin cruising around our anchorage this morning. The kids jumped in and tried to play with her. She wasn't interested. And I just heard hollering from the for deck that there is a nurse shark under our boat. (The friendliest of sharks - not to worry, Mom.)

We'll be leaving the Bay Islands on Friday morning (March 30) and heading for the Rio Dulce of Guatemala (24 hour crossing - downwind). Our crew is holding up fairly well although we have recently been invaded by microorganisms. Fungus, Viruses and Amoebas are staking claim in all the nooks and crannies of our boat and crew. I won't go into all the gory details, but, let's just say, I've never been so fond of bleach. Love that stuff. I may start brushing my teeth with it.

 Carver, making friends with the locals. 

Evie and Mama up with the sunrise for an early morning watch off of Albuquerque Cays. 

In front of our new genoa. 

 Is it lobster season? As far as we know it's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Season. 

A mahi-mahi that Evie reeled in. The ceviche was delicious and so were the fish tacos the next night.


One of the two Columbian islands making up Albuquerque Cays.

The kids were happy to be ashore for an ice cream on the Columbian island of San Andres (off of Nicaragua). 

Balance Weight Loss Program

We left Bocas del Toro at noon on March 17 (Saturday) at which point 7 out of 10 of us started the Balance Weight Loss Program. It’s a simple method really. Just head out into the open ocean with “6-8” foot seas (we all agree they were more like 10-12 feet), barf intermittently for the next 50 hours, and voila! A new thinner you. I’ve never been so glad to see land. Oh my heck. Whose idea was this?

participant of the Balance Weight Loss Program (actually Cole, Dave & Courtney were the only 3 non barfers on the crossing)

So after our 50 hour orientation course on “Open Ocean Crossings with Kids” we spent two heavenly days recovering at the Albuquerque Cays; two tiny little Columbian islands off of the coast of Nicaragua (far off the coast, btw). One is a Columbian marine outpost of sorts with about 6 Columbian boys playing in the water and “checking us in” on the VHF radio. The other is home to a little “village” of fishermen who by day take their skiffs and fish the deep water off the island and then return to sleep in little lean-to’s made of cardboard and fishing net. The snorkeling off the islands was excellent and absolutely perfect for the kids. Tons of beautiful live coral and lots of gorgeous fish. We speared the biggest lobster I’ve ever seen and enjoyed him thoroughly along with the tuna we had caught on our crossing, and Captain Dave’s conch fritters. Yum. The next day we spent some time dressing our boat’s wounds (both trampolines and the main sail had blow outs on the crossing) and cleaning puke out of cracks and crevices. Then we made hey for the beach. There is nothing more satisfying than feeling sand between your toes after having been sequestered on a boat with 6 barfing kids for 72 hours. Ahhhh. The adults walked the entirety of the island while the kids snorkeled in the super warm, shallow waters off the most quintessential white sand Caribbean beach. They were happy for hours chasing rays and making pets of the baby octopi that they found in empty conch shells. That evening, the hunting faction of our tribe went on a dinner expedition and came home with more lobster and conch. We hated to leave. 

But leave we did. And after a pleasing, “puke-free”, 6 hour crossing we arrived at the Columbian island of San Andres (no, not really near Columbia). To us, it seems like a metropolis of sorts with high rise hotels and honking cars. We docked the boat at Nene’s Marina and took the kids on a walking tour of the water front, stopping at the first pizza place we found. Oh heavenly pizza. And then we had ice cream. 

We aren’t staying long as we are on a time line to get to Guatemala for Semana Santa in Antigua. So we’ll leave later today or tomorrow and head down wind (thank heavens!) to Cayos Vivarillios. Then on to the Bay Islands of Honduras arriving at the Rio Dulce of Guatemala by the end of the month. We have quite a few miles to cover between here and the next time we’ll have internet (Bay Islands) so keep us in your thoughts (puke free, strong boat thoughts, if you please). 

Fair Winds,

The Skinny Crew of Balance

Stranded in Paradise

After two weeks at the Bocas Marina...here are the developments:

Our friends, the Culbecks, have arrived, and although there are now 10 people on board Balance, it's awesome to have the extra help with boat maintenance and kid management.

The Sail Doctor gave us the sad prognosis that our wild black jib has to be put down. Although somewhat rowdy and unruly, he flew true and stout and carried us safely across many an ocean passage. It's sad to see the day that a sail comes to the end of its flying career. May he rest in peace in the sail locker.

We were lucky enough to find a used jib here in Bocas. She's an older genoa but still has lots of life. She's a lovely shade of white, makes a pleasing little nicker when luffing, is slightly larger than our last but gentle and friendly. Great with kids. We're lucky to have her.

The local diesel doctor has been working on our port engine for the better part of a week and with the critical components sent by the Miami Grandparents, he was successful in getting it running!! Yeah! So yesterday we pulled off the dock to stretch our sea legs for the first time since arriving two weeks ago. It was exhilarating! The kids were ecstatic to be "under way", jumping up and down on the bow with the waves and "catching air" like in an elevator. We tacked our way out of the Bocas cut, then turned around and, with the wind on our stern, jibed our way back towards the dock. About halfway back we lost power on the starboard engine. Bummer. So for the second time in the same number of weeks, we limped back to the Bocas Marina on one engine. We're hoping it's something simple, and that we'll be able to fix it easily.

Our weather window for heading north (initially to La Isla de San Andres and then on to Honduras, Guatemala, and the Yucatan) is looking like late this weekend. This is perfect as it will give us ample time for additional "shakedown-breakdown" day sails around the excellent cruising grounds surrounding Bocas.

Courtney and I took the kids to La Finca de los Monos Botanical Garden. It was an adventure. The perfect opportunity to get off the boat and check out the local flora and fauna. Highlights were the wax ginger flowers and the howler monkeys that we got to see up close. Fantastic!!

Being stuck in Bocas del Toro has it's perks. Namely, the surf, which is some of the best in all of Central America. Our surfers have been enjoying it. 

Here are some pics for your viewing enjoyment.

 The whole scurvy crew waking up slowly whilst listening to the Bocas net. 

 Give this mama another pina colada! 

 Make it two. Soli slipped on a rock and sliced her leg on a crustacean. Ouch. 

 The kids have been having a blast fishing with little hand lines off the dock. This is one of Emerson's catches. This fellow made it back to the bay after his photo shoot.

Bocas has several well established surf breaks with consistent waves for all levels. Happy surfers when they're able to tear themselves away from boat work. 

 Wax Ginger at the botanical gardens. Exquisite. 

 The CUTEST baby pineapple ever. Seen hear next to Soli's little hand.


A Mama Howler and her Baby. I love how she's keeping her eye on me. And I love my camera. This was difficult lighting and I didn't have my telephoto lens. In the original shot you can't see the baby at all. But when I cropped, this fabulousness appeared. 

 Out for our first sail. "Why did I just lose power on starboard?"

 "I content myself with a humble (floating) cottage and a simple kitchen garden." This is my favorite quote.  And you can imagine I was over the moon to find aloe and an orchid at the botanical gardens. Then right here in Bocas I was lucky enough to find herb seedlings: basil, mint, oregano, thyme, rosemary, and peppermint. Ahhh. Happiness. 

More happiness. Soli was so excited to be "sailing down da waves". 

Thanks for checking in, 

Heather and the Stranded Crew of Balance