The Bay Islands of Honduras are located north of mainland Honduras, on the route between Rio Dulce and southern Caribbean Sea, and make for some good stops on the way down to Panama. On our passage, we visited The bay Islands of Utila, Roatan and Guanaja.
The sail from Rio Dulce to Utila was our first overnight sail with only the four of us onboard. Accompanied by a buddy boat, Wanderlust, we set out on a fairly good weather window. Elliott had prepared food in advance. Martin, Elliott and I did 3 hour shifts during the night. We had down wind. We set up the parasailor and flew all the way. The waves were a little too steep. After 4 months at dock, we had to get used to sailing again. We got a little seasick, but we managed.
Utila
Coming from Rio Dulce, Utila is the first of the Bay Islands. Checking in was a little cumbersome. First of all, the dinghy dock at the port captain/immigration was very high, and with relatively high waves it was difficult to get up at the dock. Above all that, it also started raining heavily and it was an adventure to just get in to land. Second of all, we had some trouble checking in. Since we had overstayed our 90 days permit in Guatemala, we had to pay a fine upon departure. In addition, Guatemala and Honduras are both a part of the C4 countries (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua). That means that we had to exit the C4 region and check in and out of a non-C4 country, ie Belize in order to get a new 90 days permit for either of the C4 countries. The agent in Guatemala had warned us, but we had heard from other sailors that officers in Utila are nice, and once you are there, they will find a solution anyway.
Well, first they said it was a big problem. Then after talking together they did let us check in, with a “fine” of 120US$, and told us that we couldn’t check out on the other Islands, and we had to come back to Utila to check out. When we asked for a receipt of the payment, it wasn’t possible to get one from them. A little sketchy, but it was our only option other than sailing back to Belize, where check-in costs are 600US$.
After check-in, we took a walk along the main road, which was very touristy with many cafés and bars. In one of them we met an English guy visiting his son, who had moved to Utila to start a company of tea with alcohol. Apparently there are many expats in Utila.
Utila is a paradise for divers. Rumor has it, that it’s the cheapest place to take a dive course. It was obvious by the anchorage. Diving boats coming in and out all day long, creating wake around us.
Our buddy boat got tired of the anchorage after a nights stay and we decided to sail on to Roatan the day after.
Roatan
We had waves from the side going to Roatan. Although only a days sail, it was unpleasant. We anchored at French Cay behind a reef in very shallow water. The depth data on the plotter was not very precise. We could see reef and rocks in the shallow water and we held our breath going behind the reef. At the anchorage we saw that our American friends from SV Pelago, whom we have crossed paths with regularly more or less since Isla Mujeres in Mexico, were also anchored there. We caught a mooring ball right next to them, and spent some days in the calm anchorage.
The Yacht club near the anchorage was expensive, but with good drinks and view over the bay.
Cruiseships would come in, crowding the anchorage with tour boats filled with tourists, snorkeling by the reef close to our boat. Right by the reef was also an Island with a resort and a Zoo like theme with animals in cages. It was peculiar to see that it was a tourist thing here. We dinghy-ed by and saw the tigers in cages from the waterside. They seemed huge. There were also many peacocks walking around the Island.
One of the days, we had visit from an iguana on the sugar scoop, probably swam from the nearby iguana park, and climbed up our boat to take a rest.
Electrical issues
While anchoring in French Cay, the Solenoid on the Generator burned, and Martin had to start the generator with a screwdriver every day. Also the power cord for the watermaker burned taking with it other electrical wires aswell. The switch for the charger is still acting up. It has a shortcircuit somewhere.
Snorkeling
We did some snorkeling by the reef. The water was clear, but most of the days were cloudy. We saw some large turtles, langusters, conchs etc.
After about a week in French Cay, we decided to go further east to Guanaja and wait for a good weather window to head south to San Andres.
Guanaja
Guanaja is mainly a natural island with sparse settlement. The town of Bonacca itself lies upon a small island by itself, built on the water with narrow pedestrian streets without any traffic. Goods are delivered to the stores with wheelbarrows. The town does not have much to offer tourists, other than the local supermarket and greengrocers. That’s exactly why it seems super charming to be in. Parts of the city is closed for 3 hours at a time and the electricity is turned off due to insufficient power supply. We can gradually relate to that with life on the boat. North of our anchorage, a big solar power plant was being built to accommodate the increasing demand for power in town.
At the anchorage there was a bar/pizza place where we met other sailors. It turns out that there are two Germans who bought land here many years ago and run farms according to more or less traditional methods. For workforce, they hire locals and also young guys from WorkAway, where you are allowed to stay for free with locals for helping out on the farm in return. There was a young Dutch guy running the place while the owner was on vacation.
We also met a Canadian sailor, who had stopped by here while sailing. He found a good deal for land and decided to settle down there, and is now building a house on the Island.
A little walk up the hill there is a restaurant at the end of a very snorkeling staircase, inhabited by the biggest toads we have ever seen. One of them sounded like a goat! Surprisingly, at the restaurant they served the best steak we’ve had in months.
Guanaja is a tricky Island, but out of all the Bay Islands, it’s probably our favorite. There is nothing nice or solemn, or tourist sights, but there is an unpolished peace, which we have not felt to the same extent before.
Sickness and dragging
For a couple of weeks, we were a little stuck in Guanaja. Martin got sick with a bad flu. A few days later I did too, and we missed a couple of nice weather windows to continue south to San Andres, Columbia.
There were some brand new mooring balls at the anchorage. We chose to take one mooring ball in front of Pelago, since our anchor chain is very rusty. We had ordered a new chain to be delivered in San Andres.
The first 2 days, it went ok. The third day, suddenly at night, Elliott heard a loud bang and came in to wake us up. Out on the deck, we realized that the mooring ball had de-attached and our boat had dragged into Pelago, that was anchored 100 meters behind us.
With a fever and now an adrenaline rush, Martin got up and maneuvered us free without further damage. We sailed back to our spot and dropped anchor. Fortunately, it held.
Next day, we inspected the boats. No damage had occurred to Pelago, and nothing major to our boat. We felt so lucky that we had hit them, because behind them was a big reef, that could have caused major damage to our boat. We were also glad that if we had to hit another boat, it was one with friends.
Planning the next stretch to San Andres, Columbia
The stretch from Guanaja to San Andres is quite demanding. There have been many pirate attacks off the coast of Nicaragua, and the weather is mostly challenging with winds and high waves from the easterly trade winds. So we were very keen on planning it thoroughly and find a weather window with light winds to avoid rough seas, and also stay at least 100 miles off Nicaragua’s coast.
We teamed up with two other boats also going around Nicaragua. Martin spent a lot of time in the bar with the other captains, looking at different weather forecast apps, planning the passage, drinking beer and exchanging stories.
We were set to sail off in very little wind, and hoped the waves would be small as well. The passage was scheduled to 4 days til we arrived in San Andres, Columbia.
Read how it went in the next post, Guanaja to San Andres, Columbia.
