WINNIE ESTELLE GOES FULL CIRCLE AFTER NEARLY 50 YEARS IN BELIZE, BACK TO THE CHESAPEAKE BAY AREA.

 WINNIE ESTELLE is back in the Chesapeake Bay area of the USA, after spending 42 years of her 112 year old life, in the country of Belize, running lumber from Honduras to coastal villages in Belize and later rebuilt completely by Captain Roberto Smith and Simeon Young in Haulover Creek in the port Belize City, for the tourist trade, out of San Pedro, Ambergris Caye.
 
The boat was delivered to Florida by Captain, Roberto Smith, who reports a quick trip in June, with no problems and handed over to the new owners, for the voyage up the INLAND WATER WAY, to the Chesapeake Bay dockage.  Roberto, known as Chinaboat to his close friends, from the time he imported a Chinese Junk from San Francisco overland, with young wife and child and cruised Belize in the late 60's and 70's; then left Florida without Winnie Estelle,  for Cartegna, Colombia, to Captain a sailboat yacht to the nearby San Blas islands, a remote Indian reservation area, off the coast of Panama and delivered the boat to Panama.  Last I heard, the intrepid Roberto was back in Guatemala, ( without boat now, searching for a new chapter in life ) where he and theWinnie Estelle, had spent the last three years, more or less retired, at Susana Marina, in the fresh waters of the Rio Dulce, across from the famous Spanish Tourist fort there, protecting the entrance to Lake Izabelle.  Fresh water is needed for wooden boats, to keep away tropical toredo worms and barnacles.  Roberto is one of those half dozen close friends, you keep all your life, whom you can trust and keep in touch, that most people have.  Roberto is one of my half dozen close friends. My wife Silvia and I used to spend a long weekend with him occasionally, at the Marina, sleeping on board and swimming in the fast moving Rio Dulce, sweet cold fresh mountain water, heading out to the Caribbean Sea.

 TOP PHOTO, Auxillou children playing on the Winnie Estelle in the Caribbean Sea enroute from Belize to Puerto Cortez, Honduras, to bring a cargo of 18,000 feet of pine lumber siding for sale to coastal village of then British Honduras.

Middle photo, is shown with cargo of tourists, out of San Pedro, Ambergris Caye.

Bottom photo: is Simeon Young, one of the most famous shipwrights and marine architects in the history of Belize, from Caye Caulker by the great Barrier Reef.  Some famous yacht designs were stolen from his HALF MODELS, by New England famous marine architects.