From Baja to the Caribbean — Don’t Stop Belize’n
Originally from the Pacific Northwest, I am used to exceptional cruising grounds with destinations only a few miles apart, each offering its unique characteristics of a common theme. After the Baja Ha-Ha, several of us who had sailed on the mothership Profligate decided to do a charter boat trip to some location. After a few group text messages, we decided on Belize.
A couple of people in the group had been to Belize several years ago, but no one was really familiar with all that it had to offer. So our friend Jennette organized the trip, and before I knew it, I was committed to taking off for two weeks, only a week after returning from the 2025 Baja Ha-Ha, where I happened to be crowned the “New-Bah” for future Baja Ha-Ha’s.
Getting to Belize was easy from Southern California, with a direct flight from LAX landing in Belize City five hours later. At LAX we met up with our friends, who had flown in from Seattle. In Belize City, we stayed in a great little hotel on the water in rooms that looked as if they should be in a Disney scene, with a pleated, diamond-tucked headboard, and a hot tub in the bathroom. The outside rooftop dining was a little more mainstream and offered traditional Belize menus.
The following morning we got onto the puddle-jump airplane for a half-hour trip to Palencia. It was a small single-engine prop plane, and the lady sitting next to me decided not to put her seat belt on, because, she said, “It really won’t make any difference in the end.” The pilot did not look as if he could see over the dash, but he said it was his 12th flight of the day.
It is probably important at this time to mention a few interesting things about Belize that make it a great destination for US citizens. First, the official language is English; second, the Belize dollar is locked at 2:1 to the US dollar. This makes it easy to get directions and understand other things that cause issues when traveling in foreign countries.
We then stayed at a very nice beach resort for the night before we got onto our Moorings-chartered Leopard 4500. I was very impressed with the boat. It has four full cabins, each with its own head and shower, three large outdoor sitting areas — two of them covered for shade and one with pulldown shades — a watermaker, three refrigerators, and a freezer. The boat was in great shape, and everything worked perfectly. As boaters, we were very impressed that we did not have to conserve water at all!
