“16:21.342N 86:26.454W”

 

At 3am last night all was peaceful in our little bay on the west coast of the tiny island of Cayo Cochino Grande......until wham, a large squall howled in from the west and within minutes ‘Moonstone’ was pitching heavily to her mooring.   We started the engine and cleared the decks ready for a quick exit but it wouldn’t be an easy solution if the mooring failed as we were surrounded by vicious coral reefs.

 

At about 3.30am we saw the lights of our Dutch friends’ yacht Rafiki veering wildly towards us and we realised immediately that they had broken their mooring and were fighting to keep themselves off the shore.....fortunately they got their anchor down quickly and it managed to hold.    It was a couple of hours before the squalls reduced and by then it was daylight.   The Honduran Marines arrived in their big dory and insisted we follow them through the reefs to the east side of the island as the forecast it for three more days of strong squalls.   It was a short but unpleasant and rough trip over a shallow patch of water covering large coral heads but they guided us to a safe anchorage and we wished them mucho gracias.

 

I sent an email to the weather guru Chris Parker and he suggested the squalls, probably due to the Tropical Low ‘Colin’ could come in any direction until Friday so we decided to leg it back to safety!