The second longest barrier reef in the world extends from Cancun south along the east coast of Mexico and Belize to almost Guatemala. We are sailing south along the outside or Caribbean Sea part of the reef. To stop or anchor in a bay, we have to pass through an opening in the reef. Most of the bays have a place on the reef were it is not continuous and is free of coral heads. Sometimes this pass is a half a mile wide and in other places it is only 300 feet wide. The trade winds here blow continuously from the east at between 15 and 25 knots and the waves also move from east to west (with wave heights between 4 to 12 feet). All of this means that you approach the passages with the wind and big waves behind you moving very fast. You usually have to commit and do not get a second go at it. You should do it during the day between 10 and 2 so that you can see the waves breaking on the reef and the coral in the water. After we left Puerto Aventuras headed towards Belize, the weather became very squally with heavy rain and strong downpours and wind in the squalls. We decided to sail into and anchor behind the reef in Bahia del Espiritu Santo to wait on the weather to improve. On the morning we were planning to leave, we were listening to the radio net (on our high frequency or long range radio) for the northwest Caribbean. They were reporting that a sailboat had gone up on the reef (trying to enter late in the day in squally weather) the evening before in the bay north of us. Both bays are mostly uninhabited and part of a huge Mexican biosphere park. Looking at the charts, it appeared that we were only about 20 miles from his reported position so we volunteered to try and raise the Mexican navy or someone else on our VHF or short range radio. We were able to raise the Casablanca bone fishing lodge in Bahia de la Ascension. They dispatched one of their bone fishing boats with a guide and a contingent of Mexican soldiers from a local outpost. They located the boat on the reef and found the sailor (he was single handing) who had boarded his life raft. It turned out he was fine and the Mexican marines took him to Cozumel (probably to fine him for damaging the reef). We spent most of the morning communicating between net control (in Honduras) on our SSB radio and the fishing lodge on our VHF radio. The boat remains partially submerged on the reef.
Cayuse 