The sail from Guanaja to San Andres took us 4 days. We had set off from Guanaja in Honduras with two other boats, Sirena and Huntresse 1, both monohulls.
The passage around the tip of Nicaragua is known for being challenging, partly because of the strong trade winds that create high seas, partly because of the many pirate attacks on sailing boats along Nicaraguas coast, over the last few years. There is a large shallow area around the tip of Nicaragua, filled with local fishing boats which we had been warned against.
The first two days of the passage were calm. All three boats kept close together. On the third day we lost sight of Sirena and could not call them up on the radio.
During the night on Martin’s watch, a horde of fishing boats with powerful lights came by. Nervous by the encounter, he turned off all the lights on the boat, hoping they wouldn’t spot us. Some of the boats came very close to us. One of them lit up their flashlight and started talking wonderingly about “Another boat”. Martin gave the engines full throttle and luckily the fishing boat turned and sailed away from us. For the next few hours we sailed completely without light, and saw no more of the fishing boats.
The next day we hit the wind that had been promised in the weather forecasts. Unfortunately, it was much much more than the forecast had shown, and the waves were also much bigger than in the forecast. In the afternoon we got a call on the radio from Huntresse 1, which was 2 nautical miles behind us. Their engine was dead. We sailed back against the wind and the waves. When we got there, we realized that we couldn’t really do anything to help them. They lay in high waves and rocked as they repaired and got their engine running again, though only at low revolutions. We tried to keep close behind them, but we found it difficult to keep our speed down, and after some time we lost sight of Huntresse 1.
Martin and Elliott did the night watches. After a very long night we arrived in San Andres on Martin’s 42nd birthday. We could not reach Huntresse 1 over the radio, but we heard from the port captain that they had received help from the coast guard. Later they had help to be dragged to the anchorage. Sirena was already at anchor. They had come in during the night, and were well.
We were all battered, but happy that all three boats had arrived safely.
