Customer Reviews

Cruising Guide to Belize and Mexico's Caribbean Coast, Including Guatemala's Rio Dulce

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We had a wonderful time cruising Belize for 3 months (2009) with this great guide never far from our side (along with paper charts, chartploters, gps and binos). I have no idea what the gentleman from Colorado was talking about with all the problems as we never saw or heard rumor of such nonsense. We found the Belize government the easiest, least bureaucratic and least costly country we've visited. The sailing was fantastic provided you sail a catamaran or shole draft vessel. MiKat draws 3.6 feet and we spent a lot of time in water 4-6 feet deep inside the reef and you will have to be aware of underwater hazards but its hardly a "coral head infested minefield of groundings, sinkings, and multi-million dollar fines". This is sparsely populated country with few facilities or coast guard. This is why Captain Freya's guide is so valuable here. If you love the BVIs then you may not like it in Belize, its totality different culture. You won't find many navaids, so do your homework, buy this cruising guide and explore the Monkey River but don't expect to find a Hilton resort!

Can't imagine sailing in Belize without this resource! It's really the only one out there. That said, one must rely on their own navigation skills along with the advice in this book--things change every year... Great book!

Freya's blue book has been my Bible while sailing in Rio Dulce and Belize for the past 8 years, you can imagine what one or two sailing trips a year can do to a book up on deck, some times in the middle of a tropical storm. Yes there are updated charts and new GPS every year but neither does justice to Freya's detailed drawings and written information. While ordering a replacement guide I was very SURPRISED AND EXCITED to know there is a new edition! My copy is on the mail as we speak!

Bought this book to head down to the Rio Dulce and I have no idea how any one could not leave with out this book. It has realy great Waypoints that were right on. Definitly use your own eyes though, but every time I tested her way points they were great. I even emailed her with some updates and she was very greatful in getting any new info in the area. I was recommended this book when I had no idea what to use down here. Oh yes. I am still down here.

I am sailing in Belize this year as skipper of a Bareboat. This is the textbook cruising guide that is a must to understand a complex cruising area. The charts are valuable for planning your trip. I will sit on my couch and study it as the bible before I skipper my friends and family in a pristine wonderland that has some hazards for the ignorant. Well written and also a good read for you sailboat yachties.

Amazingly, this is the only guide book and set of somewhat update charts for the entire country of Belize, a coral head infested minefield of groundings, sinkings, and multi-million dollar fines by the Belizean government. You want to sail there because of the barrier reef, of course. But touch the coral with your boat and you will be hit with fines that will bankrupt you and they also confiscate your boat immediately.

At the time I write this, there have been five such cases since the beginning of 2009 (five plus months). One American just had a $1.7 million fine imposed for accidentally hit the reef with his 37 foot sailing catamaran 2 years ago. His boat has been held by the government since then and now he's ruined, unless he ignores the fine. But then the boat is forfeit.

So, Belize does all this but makes up for it by never having made any charts, current or otherwise, for the coral infested shorelines or atolls. Until Captain Freya wrote this guide, British Admiralty charts largely based on surveys made over a hundred years ago were used. Only one of the incredibly treacherous cuts through the barrier reef is marked by a single buoy, that in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye.

Avoid Belize. My credentials? I own a 47 foot luxury cruising cat that I have had in charter in Belize, and I have sailed there extensively, including in and around all three atolls. I am moving her to the BVIs later this year due to the actions, and inactions obviously, of the Belizean government. I've never run aground or hit coral in all this time, but I know it's inevitable, and although it will be accidental, it will also be financial ruin due to the Belizean government fines. All groundings are accidental, of course, so they don't consider that an excuse.

Now about this guide. This is an excellent and wonderful book, although Captain Freya has missed some things that long time sailors there will have learned, some the hard way. A work like this will need someone who has sailed Belize all their life to write, a local in other words, because of the unique nature of these coral infested, very shallow waters. But the routes are accurate, and her descriptions of the country and the diving and sightseeing are right on and entertaining reading. But as she warns, don't count on it for navigation. And since there are no charts for Belize otherwise, good luck, because you are going to need it.

But the book is great for just learning about Belize. It was obviously a labor of love for her and her husband Tom. I've met many of the people she mentions in the book. Her feel for the country is right on. She sailed everywhere, more than once it seems, and made meticulous notes, diagragms and hand drawn charts with coordinates, waypoints, routes and tips. It's a great read even if you never go. But if you do, and try sailing there despite my warnings, the book is a necessity.

The problem again is the Belizean goverment and it's decision not to chart it's incredibly treacherous waters, or mark the few and narrow cuts through the reef with buoys. When I said minefield, I meant it. There are innumerable isolated coral heads that will get you everywhere. The large patch reefs can be seen as long as you sail between 10am and 3pm in good light. But the stand alone isolated ones look to be bottom coloration at times, and vice versa. As Nigel Calder wrote in his book about sailing Belize, you have to watch every second. Never relax.

And isn't never relaxing what sailing is all about?