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Posted By: debvznj raggamuffin sailboat trips - 11/23/09 02:09 AM
anyone have interesting info on the raggamuffin sailboat tours?
any info at all will be appreciated
Posted By: Richard Chambers Re: raggamuffin sailboat trips - 11/23/09 03:35 AM
Made the 3 day trip to Placencia back in 2004 and would do it again. I'll try to paste the report here.

Thursday, May 13.
Our trip started out on a bad note due to the Houston weather that kept us on the runway for nearly 8 hours before arriving in BC at 10:20 PM!
We had also gotten the bad news a couple days prior to departure that Japs' boat had developed a rudder problem preventing us from going on that adventure as well.
So after the first nite at the Raddison we took the water taxi to CC and arranged for the "Raggamuffin Tours" trip to Placencia. The weather kept us from that one too until the following Wednesday! So we did the natural thing and polished the barstools at the Lazy Lizard,Oceanside,and Rasta Pasta for those few days with a side trip to AC for the Sat. nite performance by Dennis Wolf at Coconuts. Good to see Margie again. Got to meet Marilyn there too.
For those of you that may not be familiar with the Raggamuffin operation it is similar to Japs
But the boats are larger, 37 & 42 foot as opposed to 23 ft ,if i remember correctly. And, they sail the opposite direction, but on the reef as well. We made 2 overnite camping stops at a small coral sand spit just south of English caye and east of The Bluefield Range group, and Tobacco Caye. They provide the camping gear including foam matresses. I think someone else provided the rain storms at nite!
The first nite we were visited by a group of college kids who were on a Marine Biology research trip. They nite snorkeled with the hand held chemical lite strips, that was beautiful as they lit up the emerald sea in the dark!
There were 12 passengers and 3 crew. My friend and i were the only folks trom the U.S.. There were 4 from Switzerland, 2 from Denmark,1 girl from France, 1 guy from Toronto, and 2 from Ontario Canada. All good folks i might add, even that they were considerably younger than me and my buddy! Actually except for the Captian, we were the old timers at 60+! that didn't seem to bother anyone though,I know it didn't me.
Needless to say, we weren't very far from the dock at CC when we looked at each other wondering if we needed to check the expiration dates on our Boy Scout ID's for this trip!
The boat is an open cockpit best suited for probably 8 comfortably, maybe 10 max. But plenty of space to hang around the sides and bow areas.The boat had a porta-potty that was not enclosed, but was made somewhat private with a tarp, sorta! I think this was more of a problem for the ladies.
There were facilities the second nite at TC.Also a Bar! But not to worry in the booze dept , they kept plenty of Rum punch flowing the whole time.
They fed us well too.Plenty of cevechi(sp?) and fish.
Numerous snorkeling stops along the way.

I consider that trip the highlite of my vacation, especially considering that i had no idea what i was in for!
We flew back the next day to BC with stops at Muni, Caye Chappel, then to SP.Plenty of good sight seeing on that trip for sure.
We had 2 days of hanging out there before heading back home.
Posted By: Beliznadian Re: raggamuffin sailboat trips - 11/23/09 03:42 AM
Check them out on facebook and their website....great crew...great time.....

http://raggamuffintours.com/
Posted By: debvznj Re: raggamuffin sailboat trips - 11/23/09 11:59 AM
very helpful...thanks
Posted By: Cooper Re: raggamuffin sailboat trips - 11/24/09 12:27 AM
We have lived on Caye Caulker now for over 7yrs..and still I think my most memorable adventure was the Ragamuffin trip to Placencia....its been on my do again list forever. I have promoted that trip to many, many tourist and have never heard a negative word about the trip......
Posted By: CCsoon Re: raggamuffin sailboat trips - 11/24/09 07:48 AM
wtf Japs???
Posted By: Richard Chambers Re: raggamuffin sailboat trips - 11/29/09 04:27 PM
Japs is a fellow that operates a smaller, i think ~27 foot, sailboat out of Placencia. It was a 3 day sail to Caye Caulker that we had planned earlier and had to cancel for the stated reason. His boat would only take 2 guests which would have been
lots more adventurous for us 2 guys. I would consider him again too.
Regards...Richard
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