We paddled out to the reefs surrounding the island (and often beyond), using the Pakboat as a platform to snorkel, diving and climbing in without difficulty.
Ranguana Cay, Belize 2001
Hey Alv,
We bought our 16 foot Pakboat specifically for running rivers in Nunavut and points north, but wound up assembling it for the first time on the beach at Placencia, Belize, right outside the Sea Spray Hotel. (By the way, it flew as luggage with the paddles packed in the duffle, at no extra cost.) It drew gawkers, especially among the locals, who still use dugouts both inshore and off. That time it took Sue and me working together about 45 minutes to put it together. Sue wanted to launch it immediately on the bay. I objected due to wind and 3-to-4-foot breakers, but she kept the pressure on and eventually shamed me into it.
Launching into the surf we took on about a cup of water and after that just kept rolling over the waves, upwind, downwind and quartering in both directions, making good headway and never a question of broaching. The flexible hull formed to the waves. We stayed dry.
The next day we got ferried out to Ranguana Cay, a small island of about an acre, 20 miles offshore, where we stayed in a one room cabin for the next eight days. We assembled the Pakboat immediately in about half an hour and it stayed assembled for the remainder of the trip. We paddled out to the reefs surrounding the island (and often beyond), using the Pakboat as a platform to snorkel, diving and climbing back in without difficulty. (I also was able to mount a seat in the solo position.) Every evening local conch divers – separate boats of Mayas, Belizeans, and Mexicans – anchored off the island, and we paddled out to buy fish and conch from them. They marveled at the Pakboat. On each of their decks were stacked four to six dugouts, ten or twelve feet long, resembling in design Rushton’s “Wee Lassie.” Each diver used his own canoe, tying the boat by a line around his waist while he dove, a technique we emulated. It came in especially handy the day a shark loomed into view over the reef directly beneath us, and we scrambled back into the Pakboat, exhilarated.
Christopher Shaw, Vermont