Journey from Roatan to Panama

So, the last blog covered what we’ve been doing since arriving in Panama and the one before that got us as far as Roatan.  This one will cover our voyage between the two.  We ended up staying in Roatan much longer than originally anticipated.  The seas and wind were nice and calm when we arrived and then the wind blew steadily for over a week.  We stayed for 10 days and then decided it was time to go.  The wind had started to die down and we knew calmer seas would follow.  Most of our time in Roatan was spent snorkeling in the lagoon next to the marina, swimming in the pool, walking into town and generally relaxing.  We have been studying Spanish using Rosetta Stone on the computer with each of us doing about 30 minutes per day.  Our plan is to sign up for lessons now that we have arrived here in Bocas.



Dave studying Spanish



Puddy on the settee

 






Doofus guarding the pan cupboard

In case anyone is wondering, the cats are doing great.  They have settled back into life on the boat, although they do still get seasick when the seas are rough


Dardanella departing Barefoot Cay

From the last Roatan blog, you will remember our “big sister”, the aluminum hull trawler Dardanella.  She left the marina a few days before we did and an Oyster 62 sailboat, Talisman, from Florida joined us. 



Talisman at Barefoot Cay

We heard a rumor that there was a lion fish living in the lagoon near the marina and one of the guys from Talisman hopped in and speared it with his spear gun.  Lion fish are an invasive species not native to the Caribbean or the Atlantic.  The general attitude is that if you see one, get rid of it.  Some of the guys in the marina here this morning saw a couple of lion fish under the dock and dove in to get rid of them.  Rick cleaned them and Mary made ceviche out of them, so that was a nice treat for happy hour tonight.

Lion Fish, Barefoot Cay Lagoon

Lion Fish Ceviche, Happy Hour
Marina Carenero

 

Our favorite waiters at the marina restaurant were brother and sister, Carlos and Jordana.  They were extremely pleasant, taught us a few local tricks and made sure the rum punches and pina coladas were cold and tasty.

Jordana and Carlos



Rum punch

We finally departed Roatan on Sunday morning, May 26 and did a short day run to Guanaja, a small island about 40 miles east of Roatan.  We pulled into an anchorage called “El Bight” and dropped the hook.  It was a very peaceful spot with only 6 other boats anchored.

El Bight anchorage, Guanaja, Honduras
Looking southeast

El Bight Anchorage, Guanaja, looking east

El Bight anchorage, Guanaja
Looking North

 

Monday morning we left Guanaja for an overnight trip to Vivorillo, an island and reef about 150 miles east.  The wind had been coming mostly out of the east for over a week and the seas were rough with wave heights of 4 to 6 feet causing a lot of pitching (or hobby horsing).   We had a visitor, a brown booby, join us for part of the trip. 

Brown Booby on the starboard bow rail

 

When we arrived at Vivorillo, we were the only boat in the anchorage.  We did pass two sail boats headed west as we were entering, but didn’t see any other boats for the two days that we stayed.  We did manage to finally get the dinghy motor running while we were there although we only tested it in a bucket and didn’t launch it to go ashore.

Vivorillo, Honduras

Vivorillo, Honduras

We left Vivorillo early Thursday morning, headed to Providencia, Colombia.  We wanted to make sure and arrive there on Friday morning, so that we could clear customs during normal business hours.  The first 6 hours of the trip were semi-rough as we were still headed almost due east.  After passing the northeast corner of mainland Honduras, we turned south and were no longer headed directly into the waves which helped smooth out the ride some.

View from the pilot house
Heading east from Vivorillo Cays

Sunset, Vivorillo to Providencias

Rainbow, Vivorillo to Providencia

We arrived in Providencia on Friday morning, anchored and went into town to find the customs agent and to do the paper work cha cha.  Mr. Bush has been the customs agent in Providencia for many years and is well known.  We weren’t  sure where his office was, so we asked several people for directions.  Probably like most people who live on islands, nobody was able to give us clear, concise directions.  We heard things like, walk up the hill and you will find him.  We did find him and without any issues.  It was lunch time so he recommended a local place to eat and asked us to come back at 2:00 p.m.  After getting cleared in, we checked out the local grocery and hardware stores and then went back out to the boat.

View of Providencia from the channel entering the anchorage.
Officially called "Split Hill".  Called "Morgan's Ass" by the locals.
The pirate Capt. Morgan used Providencia as a base.

We had heard about several good places to eat on the island so on Monday we decided to try out the seafood mixed plate in Southwest Bay.  We found out that transport in Providencia is not easy to come by.  We were told to take the blue bus to the restaurant and went to sit on the benches near the public park to wait for the bus.  After waiting a while, we were told that it was a holiday and the bus wasn’t running.  Our options were to take a car taxi or a moto-taxi (a motor bike with the driver in the front and you on the back).  We waited for more than an hour for a car taxi and finally gave-up.  Not being sure how far the restaurant was, we decided to take the dinghy part way to the fisherman’s co-op and then walk the rest of the way from there.  After walking up one long hill, a young man on a moto-taxi came by and asked if we wanted a ride, so both Dave and I hopped on the bike with him and off we went to the restaurant.  Not sure if we would be able to get a ride back, we asked him to return and pick us up again later that afternoon.  The walk and the excitement of the ride were well worth it and the mixed plate lived up to its reputation.

Mixed Plate at Southwest Bay.  Notice the fancy beer.

The next day, we set off to try another restaurant.  We had been told that it was near Sweetwater Bay and we went to the park to catch the blue bus.  Once again, after waiting an hour, no blue bus… but a car taxi was taking another lady in the same general direction, so we hopped in with her and asked to be dropped at the restaurant.  When we got to Sweetwater Bay, they weren’t sure where the restaurant was and let us off at the north end of town so that we could find it.  After asking around, we learned that is was in Southwest Bay, another 2 kms down the road, so we set-off on foot to find it.  Again, it was worth the effort and the food was great.  After our lunch, we walked up to the bus stop to wait for the blue bus to take us back into town, but, you guessed it, no blue bus.  After declining several offers for a moto-taxi ride, we gave in and got a ride back into town.

Dave waiting for the blue bus at the Manta Ray bus stop.

Our next destination was Albuquerque Cays, a reef about 85 miles south of Providencia and east of Nicaragua.  An 85 mile journey is a long day for us.  We were unfamiliar with the entrance to the cays which we heard were tricky and wanted to make sure we arrived with enough light to be able to see the entrance, the coral heads and the water depth as we made our way to the anchorage.  Dave set his alarm for 5:00 a.m. and when it went off we got out of bed, brushed our teeth, washed our faces and fired up the main engine.  About that time, Dave looked at his watch and discovered it was 1:30 a.m., much earlier than our planned departure time.  Since we were both awake and ready to go, we decided to pull up the anchor and head offshore.  As we were passing the south end of the island, we saw a cargo ship flashing a flood light on and off.  We called him on the VHF to make sure everything was ok and he informed us that he lived on the island and liked to shine the light when he was passing by to show his wife that he was onboard and ok.  We asked him if he could see our AIS signal and he confirmed that he could.

We arrived at Albuquerque Cays about 12:30 p.m. with plenty of good light.  One sailboat was anchored near the north cay and they radioed to let us know where the water got shallow.  They also informed us that the Colombian Navy is based on the north island and they would want to see our boat papers and passports.  After dropping anchor, we settled in to wait for the Navy to come out and greet us.  While we were waiting, our sailboat neighbors stopped by in their dinghy.  They were headed to one of the shallow coral areas inside the reef to do some diving.  They told us that the Navy didn’t have a boat, so that we would need to dinghy ashore.  We gathered up our paperwork and our snorkel gear, went to shore, answered the Navy’s questions and then did some snorkeling off the beach.  The north island is a low sand island, covered in palm trees and the Navy had a very nice base set-up with raked paths around their complex, fresh water pits and a generator.  Apparently a group gets dropped off and they crew change every thirty days, with the Army and the Navy alternating troops.

North island at Albuquerque Cays with the catamaran "Always"
anchored.  Notice the changes in the water colors indicating the
depth changes.

Thursday morning, we left about 9:00 a.m. for the overnight voyage to Panama.  The seas and the wind were extremely calm and we were averaging over 8 kts at our normal 1600 rpms.  We didn’t want to arrive at the marina too early, so we pulled back the throttle and slowed down.  During the day, Dave put out some fishing gear but didn’t catch anything.  After dark, we saw numerous falling stars and bio-luminescence in the water along with a few dolphins playing in our bow wake.  The water was so clear and calm that you could see their wake glowing in the water.

Roatan, Honduras

Location:  Roatan, Honduras

If you can believe it, we’ve been here a week already.  We’re moored at a small marina/hotel/dive center called Barefoot Cay on the south central side of Roatan.  We arrived here last Wednesday morning after doing an overnight cruise from Xcalak, Mexico.  The seas and wind were both calm, so we made a decision to skip Belize and head straight for Honduras while the weather was good.  The wind has been blowing quite strongly since we arrived with gusts up to 25 mph at night, so we are waiting for another good weather window before we head further east and then turn towards the south. 

We left Isla Mujeres after staying there for a week and did a day cruise to Puerto Aventuras.  Puerto Aventuras is like an all-inclusive resort in the Mayan Riviera; they have a marina, lots of condos, restaurants, shopping, etc.  One of the big attractions there is the “dolphin experience”.  They have several pools with dolphins where people can get in the water and interact with them.  We didn’t try it, but did have a good time watching people who did.  We did some swimming and some grocery shopping and walked into the small town outside of the resort to go to the hardware store.  We broke our refrigerator latch again ( I broke it while we were crossing the GOM; we had a spare latch on board so Bob repaired it with that, but it broke again enroute to PA).  We bought a few nails and Dave fixed it using those.  Dave also got his first haircut using our new hair/beard trimmer.

Dolphin Experience, Puerto Aventuras

Dave's Buzzcut

Isla Mujeres, South End

Dave Boroscoping Swim
Platform Gas Tank

 

Here are a few pictures from Isla Mujeres that didn’t make the last blog.  One is a picture of the south point of Isla Mujeres where you can see some Mayan ruins.  The other is Dave, using a boroscope to look at the inside of the gas tank in our swim platform.  We haven’t used it and wanted to make sure it was clean with no cracks.  One of our marina neighbors loaned us his boroscope and in order to see the screen, Dave draped a blanket over his head. 

Sunset Bahia Ascension

From Puerto Aventuras, we did a day trip to Bahia Ascension and anchored out there for a few days.  Then on Sunday, we did a short day trip to Bahia Espiritu Santo and anchored there overnight.  On Monday, we did a long day trip to Xcalak, our last port in Mexico.  On the way to Xcalak, we had a pod of 6 dolphins catch a ride on the bow wake, you can see them in the picture.  On the way down from Espiritu Santo, we talked with the sailboat Ace and Outlandish, a catamaran that was at El Milagro Marina with us in Isla Mujeres.  Both were also headed to Xcalak, with Outlandish scheduled to arrive there first.  While enroute, a Mexican Navy boat approached us and radioed with all kinds of questions, name, how many people aboard, where are you going, where are you coming from, etc.  They finished with us, then moved ahead and questioned Ace and then moved ahead and questioned Outlandish.  By that time Outlandish was close of the entrance of Xcalak and they asked the Navy if they would escort them through the reef and into the harbor.  The Navy agreed and once safe inside, Outlandish came out in their dinghy to help Ace and us enter safety.  It was a bit disconcerting as there was a sailboat aground on the reef and it looked like it was a recent event.  Our chart plotter had some offset in it and if we had followed the path it showed into the harbor, we would have been aground next to the sailboat.  That’s why they call them “aids” to navigation; no one aid is foolproof and it is important to use all the tools available... even your eyeballs. 



Dolphins surfing the bow wake



Sailboat on the reef, Xcalak, Mexico

 Tuesday morning, we pulled up anchor and were planning to head into San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, but decided to do a longer cruise and thought we would stop at Lighthouse Reef, an offshore atoll, anchor out for the night and then continue to Roatan, but as the day went on, and the seas remained calm, we decided to carry-on.  As we were nearing Roatan, early, early morning Wednesday, we could see the glow of two cruise ships coming over the horizon, one from our port side and one from our starboard side.  Both ships were Carnival Cruise ships, lit up like Christmas trees.  They over took us as we neared the island and we followed them around to the south side.


Carnival Cruise Ships, Roatan



 

Upon arrival, we were faced once again with the paper work cha cha to clear into Honduras.  The process here was much simpler than in Mexico and we had time to enjoy the Wednesday lunch pig roast while our clearance papers were being processed.  Since we’ve been here, we’ve done some chores, swam, snorkeled, went to town, went to the beach, etc.  We have been having some problems with our dinghy motor, so Dave has been working on that, so far she’s still not running quite right, but we haven’t given up yet.  

 

Dave unlaxing, Barefoot Cay

Seabiscuit at Barefoot Cay

A few days ago, the superyacht Dardanella pulled into the marina next to us, so it is like having a big sister looking over our shoulder.

Dardanella at Barefoot Cay

 



We’ll probably stay here a few more days.  The wind is supposed to start dying down on Friday afternoon.  We’ve started doing some re-provisioning and will finish that up over the next few days before we take off.