The weather has been wonderful these past 2 weeks. Maybe it’s to make up for the tropical storm and 2 near misses. Days around 90, nights around 70 (nice sleeping weather), sunny skies, not much wind, and not too many bugs. We had about 10 minutes of rain on Saturday but nothing since. I wish it would stay like this forever! Now that I’ve said that we’ll get a hurricane…
And now for the hurricane I mentioned above! Belize and I are now making preparations for the arrival of Tropical Storm Richard on Sunday. I’m at Thong’s Café using the internet to try and get rainfall predictions so I can make plans to move to my high water spot if I need to. I’ll need to buy a couple of gallons of gas for my generator and a new 5 gallon bottle of drinking water to replace what I’ve just emptied through normal usage. I’ve plenty of food, plus I keep a hurricane larder of canned food in a plastic storage bin on the right side of my bed. At the moment it’s sunny and bright but we’ve had a period of windy rain this morning. I’m sure this is just the calm before the storm. This will be our 4th storm warning with Alex (the day Dave arrived), Karl, and Matthew the last 3 storms. We’ve been lucky so far and I hope our luck isn’t running out. The TV news outlets will broadcast out fate and I’ll update this after the storm passes with how we made out.
We’ve had 3 guests at Kismet since Wednesday and they left today (a scheduled departure) for their homes in Humble TX (near Houston). Two of the ladies, Sheila and Denise are frequent visitors and will be back in late November and both are wonderful people. Sheila brought her son Kenny with her and it’s his 1st time in Belize. More on him later. Denise and Sheila both work for Continental Air Lines and Sheila plans to retire in February and spend a couple weeks each month here in Hopkins.
Since the fishing has been so poor at the mouth of the lagoon I took a canoe trip into it this morning (Saturday 10/16) at 6am to try my luck. Well it was my lucky day! I went about a ½ mile in to where there is a canal that stretches out through the savannah to Hopkins Road (about a ½ mile further on). I’d fished there before and had a bit of luck. This morning though things went my way. Three catfish, 2 snook, 2 snapper went on my stringer, and my 1st brown stingray. What a fight he gave! It was actually pulling my canoe and anchor (well not so much an anchor as a gallon jug filled with wet sand) around the canal. Too cool! It was 16” across and about 3-1/2 feet long. I wasn’t sure if it was edible though so I threw it back (and they aren’t). Hey! I’m up for eating anything new! I gave the 2 snook to Peter and will have the snapper for Sunday dinner. The catfish are in the freezer with my last catch and will make a good southern fried dinner later in the week. Since then I’ve been taking my canoe out every morning and doing quite well, catching lots of snapper and catfish. On Wednesday afternoon I got a new fishing buddy. Kenny brought his fishing pole with him so I invited him fishing in the morning. Needless to say he jumped at the chance. We had a great time, coming back with 6 nice snapper and I got another catfish. He and I had the snapper for dinner that night. Nothing like fresh caught fish on the grill! Peter has been fishing later at night lately, around 8:30pm and doing pretty well each night with a mix of stone bass and snook. Tuesday (10/19) night he netted close to 40 pounds and I managed to catch a couple small drum. Wednesday he netted around 25 pounds. Thursday was another 25 pounds but Friday was a bust with only about 8 pounds. Hopefully things on the fishing front are turning around after the storm. We need some cloudier water to get the fish close to shore for his net. It’s a tough way to support a wife and 5 kids!
Trish had to extend her stay in the states. Steve called her and told her he was having a medical problem and asked that she come out to LA to help him. Not the best reason for an extended stay but you do what you have to for friends. She’s due home now on Wednesday 10/27.
And life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
