Bay Islands of Honduras

4/13/2018 We left Linton Bay, Panama on Friday, the 13th with a tight weather window to get to Honduras. We had originally planned to stop in Providencia, one of the islands about half way up to Honduras from Panama. However, given the length of our weather window, we decided to go straight through to Honduras. Overall, we had an uneventful 5 day passage. Greg became seasick the first day and was sick for the first 3 days. His inner ear problems seem to be getting worse and the meds took longer to take effect. That meant I did most of the watches although he took at least one 2 hour watch each night and helped out during the day when he could. Anytime we needed to reef or change sails he did the hard work. That experience really opened my eyes to what it would take if I had to do this solo. Not a comforting thought. I admire the women and men who do this alone. It is not for me!

By the fourth day we were able to resume our normal watch schedule and Greg was regaining his strength. We only had one occasion where we saw a vessel nearby that wasn't on AIS and we couldn't tell what their intentions were. We stayed in contact with SV Lequesteau and used the engine to move out of their range as fast as possible. We stayed 150 miles offshore of Nicaragua to avoid any pirate attacks as we had read of them as far out as 80 miles. We made it to Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras on 4/18/18 at 1600; 5 days and 4 hours after we left Linton Bay, Panama. It was a really good experience and confidence builder that we could do longer passages and get into a rhythm at sea. It is nothing compared to many cruisers out there we have met, but a new milestone for us.

In one area, there was so much Sargasso that we could hear it scraping the hull as we sailed through it. By the time we realized what a large area it covered, we were in the middle of it and didn't try to navigate out of it.

It took over 24 hours to get officially checked in in Guanaja. Finally, we were able to move the boat to a nice anchorage in El Bight on the 20th. We met Hans who has a little pizza joint on the main island and had a nice supper there. We did laundry and  re-filled the propane tanks and then began exploring reefs. We dinghied over to the north side of the island through the cut and snorkeled there several times. The purple fans were plentiful but not so many fish. We did see reef sharks though. Pretty scary!

Pizza from Hans'

Snorkeling around Guanaja

Vase sponges

We saw many of these bluish purple tube sponges

Purple fan coral everywhere we looked

Queen angel fish

Blue chromis

Rock Beauty

More blue tubes

 



We found a nice little beach on the north side and had a picnic lunch there and did a hike to a small waterfall.

After several snorkel trips on the north side, we explored some of the reefs on the south side. Again we saw sharks near one reef and barracuda at another. A storm started to head toward us one day while we were snorkeling. A waterspout formed in the distance so we hopped back in the dinghy and headed to the boat. It all passed without incident but reminded us we still have to be watchful of the weather even when under the water.



French Angel Fish

An interesting fan coral with little branches coming out on the surface



Nurse shark

Clubtip finger coral

Sea rods

Lavender finger coral

Blue Tang



The water spout coming toward us while we snorkeled



Spanish hogfish

Juvenile Clown Wrasses



Rock Beauty

Indigo Hamlet

We met Tanya and Jay on the catamaran, Take Two, with their 5 children and visited with them some. We walked around the main town, Bonacca town, which is on a little cay just off the larger island of Gunaja. Most of the people live on the little cay in Bonacca town. We used wifi in the library and met a couple of resident expats. One of the local guys who kept hounding us to have him "watch our dinghy" was now in the jail and he kept calling Greg from the cell window (he heard us talking outside) and would call, "Greg, my friend", asking us to bring him food. They only have two jail beds and if they are full and someone else gets arrested, they tell them to report in a few days when one of the cells will be empty and then they "do their time." We also met a local guy who does "sidewalk school" to help some of the kids with their reading. He gave us a tour around the town including the school and several churches. The town is just all sidewalks with houses right on them. There are no real streets and no cars. There are a few waterways between buildings sort of like Venice, but not as nice. At least not as nice as I imagine Venice is since I have never been there.

Sitting outside the library waiting for them to open after lunch

Getting a tour of Bonacca town

Big white resort out on a rock all by itself

The cay of Bonacca town

We had dinner twice at  Mi Casa Too which is up on the hillside, requiring one to walk up about 270 steps to get there. It was obviously well worth it, as we went back a second time. The food was delicious, inexpensive and the view was amazing. The proprietor was friendly and we enjoyed it tremendously. 



Mi Casa Too is the red building with the white roof above the sailboat masts.

  

Hiking up to Mi Casa Too

 

Lots of steps but it was entertaining and the view was great.

 

You can even see Lagniappe out there with the dark green canvas.

 


Beautiful flowers on the table



Even the ceiling was decorated



Unique light fixtures too

5/1/18 We left Guanaja and motorsailed while making water over to Roatan. We caught a small mahi on the way and the crew of Lequesteau and we enjoyed that for supper. We picked up a mooring ball at Mango Creek Resort near Port Royal. The resort is mostly for fishing charters but they have a few moorings for the occasional cruising boat. They only charge $10 per day and they have a nice restaurant. We had dinner there one night with the fishing charter people and met some Chevron people in the group. We also met Judy and Rob from Houston and she came snorkeling with us one day while her husband was fishing. The snorkeling here was not great but the water was clear and no sharks. 

The main (pink) building at Mango Creek Resort



All the brightly-colored cabins for the fishermen.

A delicious dinner at Mango Creek with Greig and Caroline

 5/5/18 We motored over to Jonesville Bight and anchored off the marina there. We were able to get laundry done at the marina here and enjoyed their pool. We took the dinghy up the creek to the Hole in the Wall restaurant. It was quite unique and full of unique people, staff and customers, alike.

Anchored at Jonesville Bight

The school "bus" boat in Jonesville Bight, Roatan

5/9/18 We motored on over to French Harbour so we could go to the big Eldon's grocery store where we heard we could provision well. We ran aground trying to get into the harbor. Fishing boats were in the way of the course we were trying to follow and we got stuck pretty good. After using our dinghy and Lequesteau's dinghy to pull us off, we were finally able to move and found another route into an anchorage. There weren't many boats here despite the fact the guide books said this was the big cruiser area. (We found out later that most people go to West End.) We made a trip into the grocery, which was the closest one we had seen like an American grocery store since Bonaire, and stocked up for the next few weeks.

5/10/18 We threaded our way out of French Harbour and headed to Utilla, the westernmost of the Bay islands. We really enjoyed Utilla. We ran into Take Two again and they told us about their whale shark trip so we decided to go too. We booked a trip with Denny at Bush's and he took us around to the north side of the island in his powerboat. We looked for the water being roiled up by the tuna. When we finally spotted an area with tuna, he made a beeline for it and spotted a whale shark. We all jumped in and swam around the whale shark. He was lovely. So big but so graceful. The whale sharks are filter feeders so I was convinced it was safe to swim with them. However, I did see some black tip reef sharks nearby and immediately got back in the boat. We also saw some beautiful rays. The whale shark would dive down deep every so often and we would get back in the boat and look for the next area where the water was roiling and then go jump in again to swim with the whale shark. It was a really great day and we would do it again without question.

Heading out to find the whale sharks

Finally spotted some roiling water which means the tuna are feeding and the whale sharks are close by!

So Beautiful! And Huge!



One of the Manta Rays

Greig from Lequesteau gets up close

We also snorkeled in several areas around Utilla and visited some beach bars and little shops in the town. They have a public beach area with restaurants and bars nearby and a cute little town. One of the bars is named Relapse and the other is Rehab. You can get it all taken care of here! There is a great bakery up a side road that is definitely worth the walk to find it.  This is a place we definitely plan to return to.  We didn't have enough time to explore the town and two guys Greg worked with in Angola live here but both were gone on rotation to work.

A dinghy ride through the mangroves to a snorkel spot on the other side. Quite a pretty ride.

Though we really have enjoyed Utilla and would stay longer, the weather gods are telling us it is time to move...…