It's been nearly a half year since I've updated out blog. We've been cruising in the
islands of Belize, Honduras and Columbia and are just about ready to head to Panama for
hurricane season.
In December, we were in Belize where we enjoyed a visit from Frank Walker and Annie
Cosho. We brought them from Belize City down through the outer Cays to Placencia. From
Placencia they took off inland and toured ruins before returning to Boise.
From Belize, we made an easy overnight passage to the Honduran island of Roatan where we
anchored in French Harbor to check into the country. There are a couple of dive resorts
in French Harbor as well as a teeny seaplane doing scenic tours. French Harbor is one of
the more popular anchorages on Roatan due to it's close access to shopping and good
protection from winds and seas.
Pami started hosting the Northwest Caribbean Cruising Net one day a week. Every morning,
many cruising boats from all over the 413000 square mile area from S Florida to Honduras
tune their SSB radios to a particular frequency for the net. Someone gives the area's
weather report and boats underway and anchored can check in and stay in touch with other
and ask important questions like 'where can I get parts for a 30 year old Perkins
diesel' or 'how much does it cost to check into Belize on a Sunday'. Since only one
person can talk at a time on the radio, there needs to be a net controller who
coordinates all the radio traffic. Now everyone in the entire area knows Pam on Tisha
Baby as the friendly voice on the morning radio net.
While in the French Harbor area we attended
several fun social events including a dinghyraft-up where cruisers get together in their dinghys for appetizers and drinks. My
brother David came to visit and we spent much of his visit holed up in French Harbor
waiting for the rain to stop and the seas to go down outside before we could finally
sail to the West End. Better luck next time, David. John and Marion Fordemwalt had
better luck with the weather when they came a few weeks later.
Back on our own after the Fordemwalt's visit, we explored the Cayos Cochinos, the pig
islands which are part of a marine reserve fairly close into the mainland. We were
greeted by three little 14 year old boys who sailed out in their dugout canoe with black
plastic sails. They were looking for candy or whatever they could bum from the visiting
gringos. Pam told them in Spanish that if they brought her a coconut the next day, she
would make them cookies. The next morning while Pam was on the net, they boys showed up
with coconuts and I fed them a big plate of cookies. While chowing down, they commented
several times on what a big motor we had for our dinghy so that I was sure to know they
wanted a ride. Since Pami was still doing the net and could use some quiet, I took them
all out in the dink and one by one let the drive. There is no speed at which the ride in
a 9 foot boat gets too bumpy for a 14 year old. Whichever one had hold of the throttle
held it wide open while we bounced over the tops of the waves and the other two hooted
and hollered at the top of their lungs. It was wonderful to remember how fun it is to be
14. After a bone jarring ride and a quick tour of the island that they lived on, we
returned to the boat to get Pami so that we could introduce her to the boy's island and
all their families. It was a delightful day and we were relaxed, happy and totally
unprepared for the disaster that was about to strike. (I should write a melodramatic
novel some day). That evening I broke the pull cord on our Honda generator. We usually
rely on our solar panels for our power source, but when it's overcast, we get a boost
from the little Honda 2000i. It's compact, reliable, easy on the gas and quiet, but what
a bunch of stuff to take apart to get to the pull cord. We were up until after dark
getting it all back together.
While in Honduras, we decided not to return to Guatemala for the summer, but to work our
way down to Panama where it's close enough to the equator that hurricanes can't form. To
get there, one has to travel Eastward around Cape Gracias a Dios on the Honduras-
Nicaragua's border. Columbus named it Gracias a Dios : 'thanks to God' after spending
months trying to get around it. The Caribbean trade winds blow pretty consistently from
the East and one has to be patient to wait for a Northern winter storm that has enough
strength to change the wind direction to something northerly. We waited and started
motorsailing ENE in light winds as such a weather pattern was approaching.
Unfortunately, it was stronger than we had anticipated and by the time we understood how
strong it would be, it was too late to go back. We finished the trip in 30 knot winds
with 10 foot seas. Quite a bit bigger stuff than either of us had been in before. It was
pretty nerve wracking. After 30 some hours, we arrived in the Cayos Cajones well off the
coast where we spent nearly two weeks snorkeling, fishing, socializing with friends in
the anchorage and waiting for good conditions to continue our trip South. The Cajones
are mostly reef, with only a few tiny islands. Pami was ready for land by the time we
left.
Our next stop was Providence, a Columbian island nearly 400 miles from Columbia. It's
much closer to Nicaragua and Panama and is populated mostly with people of English
heritage, descendants of Henry Morgan and his crew. It is an island that has resisted
tourist growth for the most part and is a unique place to visit. There are no large
resorts or extravagant, rarely-occupied vacation homes. Just a lot of locals who have a
simple existence doing a little fishing, a little farming and a lot of partying on
weekends. We took a land based tour of the island one Sunday, ending up at a beach where
the locals have a weekly horse race on the beach. Two horses is enough for a race and
many more wouldn't fit on the strip f beach. We later gathered a bunch of our cruising
friends for a day trip around around the island on Tisha Baby. Our big deck space makes
it a good tour boat. We filled out our visit with lots of get-togethers, good meals -
mostly cooked on the boat, and a hike to the top of a hill with a large cleft known
locally as 'Morgan's Arse'.
From Providence, we've moved South to Isla San Andres which is more like Columbia's Hawaii. We've had a week of ding out, shopping, getting ice cream and even going to movies. Real civilization. From here we'll head out to two more isolated, unpopulated reef systems and spend a few weeks there before entering Panama.
Bye for now... Richard and Pam
