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So what have we been doing during December? After Ethan left we waited for a nice high tide to get us over Porto Stuck the only possible channel south on the inside of the reefs and cays.
We sailed successfully passing over the shallows with the lowest water under the keel being approximately 2 inches and arrived at an anchorage in the Drowned cays. Louise and Gary also came with us and there we sheltered for a few days from a northener that blasted down. It gave us a chance to catch up with getting the boat back to travel mode and cleaning some locker space.
We then set off for Placencia, stopping over night at Blue Ground Range where it is fairly sheltered from the winds.
Once in Placencia we again waited for another north wind to blow through and then checked out of Belize. We left Placencia and motor-sailed to Ranguna where we headed off to Utila.
Utila, Honduras
Our destination was Utila, Honduras which we reached after a very calm overnight motor sail and a lovely sunset and a brilliant sunrise just off Utila.
In Utila we checked into Honduras and had a walk around reacquainting our selves with the island. It had been about two and a half years since we had last visited Utila, but little had changed.
The streets are exactly the same, the same stores, same bakery, etc…. It is quite a charming islands and very much the backpacker diver destination.
Helping Island Girl
That 1st evening while chilling in the cockpit with our cocktails we heard a commotion over the radio. Upon recognizing the voices and boat names we realized that there was a boat, Island Girl off shore in difficulty. We responded along with another boat in the anchorage, Haycon. John in our dingy and Brit and Sandy in their dingy set off in the dark off shore, in rough seas to assist. I stayed and monitored the radio while contacting a fellow ashore who raised some local help too.
John told me that when they arrived at Island Girl she was floundering in rough seas, with no engine and a damaged inner foresail Bert the skipper was exhausted after struggling for many hours and was in real need of help. He and his wife Dorothy had left the Rio Dulce the previous day after crossing the bar. During the passage they had lost the engine, could not restart it and had encountered head winds. With little sleep, heavy seas, no engine and a damaged rig they were in real difficulty.
So Halcyon – Brit and Sandy, plus John boarded Island Girl and set about sailing her with the reefed jib into the entrance between the reefs and to the anchorage. Meanwhile I did manage to rouse some help from the land, a man called Richard heard the call and arranged for a friend to take his boat to the entrance between the reefs. As it turned out the vessel was not needed as John and Brit sailed it right in and dropped anchor with little difficulty. Everyone had just arrived from a day/ overnight passages and so by the time the rescue was over and some dinner was had our beds were just so welcoming.
We had planned to set off for Roatan the next morning, but decided to stay and see if John could do some sort of fix on Island Girls engine. We had a pleasant morning walk along Utilas Main Street this time towards the lagoon and then in the afternoon John set to on the engine.
What he found was what he expected, the fuel tank was full of gunk, that had grown while the boat had been laid up in the Rio Dulce. The seas being rough had stirred up the gunk which had vowel led the fuel which had bunked up the filters and clogged up the system. He cleaned the filters and ran the engine, but warned Bert that he needed to get the fuel changed and the tanks cleaned. Everyone was mighty relieved especially Bert and Dorothy as they had feared their engine was shot.
Roatan
Off to Roatan we sailed on the 21st …. After a fast passage we arrived and entered French Harbour – the anchorage off of French Cay. There we found other cruisers boats including Halcyon.
The few days before Christmas we spent visiting the wonderful grocery store- Eldons, where we could buy just about all the supplies we needed and hadn’t had in quite a while.
We explored in the dinghy, had a few walks around Fantasy Island and to the various nearby shops.
Plus we had a lovely Christmas Eve evening aboard Haycon along with other cruisers.
Christmas Day
Christmas Day was another day of excellent weather. We had arranged with Sandie, Pam and Lynne to visit the iguana sanctuary. This was established years before when the iguana was threatened by the locals hunting them as food….I personally can not imagine being desperate enough to eat iguana meat.
Anyway a gentleman had rescued several species of iguana including the very rare mangrove iguana. Thus the iguana reserve.
We visited from their dock and it was free. We took all our vegetable and fruit scraps to feed them. Arriving at 8:30 meant that we arrived before the visitors and were free to roam around, in fact we were welcomed.
The iguanas were quite incredible, just all sizes and kinds and dozens wanting our scraps. Apparently there are 3,000 of them now. They do breed them and so the real bay ones are kept in a cage till they are safe to roam. We really enjoyed ourselves and it was a unique Christmas morning.
We enjoyed a quiet day and had a lovely Christmas get together at Fantasy Island marina tiki hut.
There we quite a few of us and everyone contributed several dishes to create a wonderful lunch.
After lunch John and I had a walk around the resort and a relaxing evening on Aeeshah.
West End
We headed to the West End – an area in Roatan famous for its beaches, snorkeling and diving.
The sail was an easy and smooth along the shoreline, arriving in 2 hours, through the cut in the reefs, we went into the anchorage and found that there were no mooring buoys so we tried to anchor.
After 8 attempts we just dropped the anchor, knowing it was temporary and decided to attach our own lines to the mooring screws. We were told by Halcyon that the parks had been in the middle of renewing the buoys, the screws were in place in the few sand patches, marked by plastic bottles, so we attached our own lines, took Aeeshah and tied her up and finally we were secure – one and a half hours later! However it is a wonderful anchorage so the fuss was well worth it.
While in the West End we had a fabulous time. We snorkeled, had a few dives,
walks everyday around the area and along the shoreline to the very end.
Again we got together with Haycon for drinks on their catamaran, and drinks on ours, plus a Sunday afternoon playing Mexican Train dominoes.
The reefs are beautiful so the snorkeling and diving is excellent and just so easy. There are parks buoys one can tie the dinghy to and dive or snorkel from, the fish are plentiful, the corals numourous plus there were giant sponges- we both had a wonderful time. And of course the sunsets were amazing nearly every night we were there.
