One of them, the smallest (only about 5 acres) is home to several
hundred
people who fish way out to sea in old dugout canoes. There is
no
electricity, or, for that matter, fresh water on the island, so they
were
all desperately poor but quite friendly. Some of the Bay Islanders
speak
Spanish, some English, but with very upper class cultured British
accents,
just like the queen - quite strange. We could never tell until we
spoke to
them which language we would have to use.
Because of what we
had heard, rightly or wrongly, we missed out stopping in
the main Roatan
harbours. Instead we stayed in Old Port Royal at the
island's east end. We
were the only cruiser anchored in a very safe bay,
with only one house
visible on shore. Roatan is suffering an influx of
(mainly American) ex pats
and we had passed a long ribbon of big homes
along the water front, just like
in Florida. We stayed a couple of days,
basically until the rain stopped -
for it had rained on 10 of the 12 days
since leaving Guatemala.
In
1998 Honduras was hit by hurricane Mitch. Ten thousand people died and
much
of the country was destroyed. Particularly hard hit was the next
island we
visited, Guanaja. Even 6 years later dead trees and destroyed
homes were very
much in evidence. But things were looking up. Guanaja is a
pretty island with
friendly people, and not much spoilt by
wealthy
newcomers.
We spent a couple of days on a mooring at Grahams Place on Josh's
Cay. This
was a true Caribbean dream island. Better still, it's owned by an
American
whose hobby seems to be running a hotel without guests. It was great
for
cruisers; we had free water, free moorings, free ice. And since we
were
there for Thanksgiving he even supplied us cruisers with a
free
Thanksgiving dinner! Definitely a "must visit" place for anyone in
the
area.
Unfortunately, the weatherman on the 8am cruisers net on
8188 said that now
was the time to head east as the tradewinds would only be
15 knots. So we
motored back to Bonacca Town for some last minute shopping.
The vast
majority of Guanaja residents live on this offshore cay. Even so,
it's a
tiny town with no cars or roads, just walkways and canals, like a
mini
Venice. Clearing out was as easy as clearing in and at only 2USD was
the
cheapest we've found so far. Honduras certainly knows how to make
cruisers
welcome!
I guess the weatherman was right, as we never
saw wind over 25 knots as we
beat for 44 hours to the corner. But it was not
a nice sail! Still we did
better than Columbus, who took 4 weeks to sail
along this coast. Not
surprisingly he named the final headland Capo Gracias a
Dios (Thank
Christ!) once he'd rounded it. We didn't go as close inshore as
he did,
instead we headed for the Vivorillo Cays, 35 miles off the mainland.
Two
little deserted coconut palm treed islands inside a protecting reef and
a
favourite resting place for cruisers and shrimpboats.
Next stop, 190 miles south of here, is the
Columbian island of Providencia.
Moderate NE trades were forecast for the
next few days so we were hoping for
a nice beam reach.
But of course that's not what we had...
It all started off well enough, maybe even a bit too slowly to ensure a
daytime arrival
in Providencia. However, by late afternoon we were sailing in a big
cross sea towards
an unmarked, barely awash, coral reef which on the chart had the
ominous words
"position uncertain". We would be rounding it in the dark, and with no
moon,
we made very sure we kept well away!
All went well for Jetti's night watch but by dawn it was clear that the
weather had changed.
Big black cloud banks stretched from horizon to horizon and the wind was
beginning to
gust strongly. As the day wore on the clouds got more menacing and from
time to time
big squalls came racing towards us. In one the rain was as heavy as we've
ever seen it,
the whole sea flattening and turning white. We even saw a waterspout,
fortunately a
couple of miles away.
In the next squall the anemometer high wind alarm (set at 30 knots)
went off repeatedly,
despite the fact that we were sailing downwind at 8 knots. Reefs in,
reefs out all day
and then about 2pm we saw the high hill of Providencia appeared dead
ahead (these days
gps landfalls are always dead ahead - a nice change from days of
old!). Nearly there we thought!
But we had one last squall to contend with, which was the worst of the lot.
One big wave hit us
broadside and everything went flying. Even a cup broke, the first
time that had happened since
leaving the UK. Fortunately, as often happens, after the squall passed to
wind dropped to nothing
and we motored the last 5 miles into Catalina Harbour at the north end of
Providencia.
This has an easy entrance with lighted buoys (that makes a change!) and is
very protected from the
prevailing winds. We anchored in 8ft next to 3 other yachts, determined to
have at least a week's
rest before sailing on to Panama.
The map below shows the route from the Rio Dulce to Providencia
