Sailing to West End Roatan Bay Islands Honduras

What a difference a bit of sun makes!

The fishing fleet…..still in port

Saturday 1 March dawned bright and sunny and we made a prompt departure (0800hrs) from Jonesville.  We knew that several yachts in French Harbour (about 5nm closer to West End than us) had been at West End before the cold front arrived and we suspected that a good number of them would have plans to return now that the weather had improved.  There are a limited number of mooring buoys available in West End [Ed: 21, it turns out] and we weren’t sure whether or not we would be permitted to anchor if there were no buoys available [Ed: Answer: yes, but only on sand and most of the area is covered by eel grass], so we wanted to arrive early enough to beat the rush and get one of the moorings.

Trico’s Marina and Bar glowing in the sun

The bright sunshine put a much rosier glow on Jonesville and after 3 days of rain and overcast skies we were very appreciative of it.

Top: Looking back into Jonesville. Left & Right: Views left and right as we transited through the cut in the reef

It also made getting out through the reef less daunting than it would have been on any of the previous 3 days. In the bright sunshine the shallow areas were clear to see.

Once clear of the reef we hoisted the main and genoa and had a nice downwind sail westward, with the genoa poled out to port.  We passed French Harbour and were pleased not to meet a steady stream of yachts heading the same way as us.  At the west end of the island we came across a number of dive boats anchored on or drifting over the underwater ridge that extends out to the southwest; something for us to look forward to.  We gybed and started to head north towards the entrance to the mooring field at West End but the wind dropped away so we started the engine and motored after the yacht ahead of us.

During the time we had been sailing the sky had clouded over again ….

….and, by the time we came level with the channel entrance, the morning’s bright light had dulled considerably.

We made a very cautious entry through the reef.  There are 2 small pillar buoys marking the entrance but we knew that the reef cut is shallow and is not necessarily best taken straight.  Happily, the sea was flat calm so BV wasn’t bobbing up and down at all.  Despite this, and despite it being nearly high tide (albeit the range was only 0.25m) we still saw a minimum depth of just 2.8m.  One to file away for when we leave, particularly if we need to leave in a hurry to avoid bad weather from the west.  Friends of ours (on a deeper draft yacht than BV) have told us that they have touched bottom on 80% of the times they have entered or left through the cut.  So, they always transit at high tide and take it very slowly but they love the diving at West End and feel that the risk of scraping the bottom of the keel is worth the diving opportunities staying here brings.

Once through the entrance and clear of the reef we made our way to the mooring field, stopping briefly to say hello to Suzanne and Dave on Suzie Too, before picking up a buoy a short distance into the field.  There were plenty to choose from and we needn’t have worried about the buoys all filling up quickly either as there were still several empty buoys available until nearly a week after we arrived.

West End, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

Jonesville Bight Roatan Honduras

En route to Jonesville Bight

In the early afternoon we moved on to Jonesville Bight, a couple of miles further west.

Looking west towards the entrance to Jonesville Bight 

We found this area to be far more populated than New Port Royal…..

Top: View west as we entered Jonesville Bight.  Bottom left: Looking southwest towards the Trico Marina and Bar.  Bottom right: Looking back towards the Trico Marina and Bar from our anchorage

Trico Marina and Bar

……and here we also found more cruising yachts – one even anchored just where we had hoped to drop our hook.  The cheek of it!

Blue Velvet at anchor.  Note the large fishing fleet alongside on the northeast side of Jonesville Bight.  However, the only movement of the fleet that we saw was 3 vessels returning on our first night

Trico Marina

The entrance to the bight is quite straightforward but not particularly well-marked, certainly not when you consider the size and number of fishing boats that are based here.  We were surprised to see a sizeable fleet of such large vessels but, given how well-protected their quay is, I suppose it should be no great shock.

Parts of Jonesville Bight are very deep, 15m or so, and the drop-off into the deep area seems quite steep-to – not good anchoring territory.  Other parts are too shallow and, not knowing how busy the fishing fleet would be, we also didn’t want to anchor in the obvious routes in and out of the main fish quay and into the arms of the bight where we could see other fishing vessels.  So, it took us rather longer than we would have wished to locate the ‘Goldilocks’ spot (just right, not too hot, not too cold).

Trico Bar

Once settled we headed ashore to the Trico Bar at the small marina hoping to get internet but it wasn’t working.  So we had a beer instead and talked to the lady at the bar about where we could top up with basic provisions.

Oakridge

She recommended that we visit a small restaurant and fuel station a short distance away on the ‘inside the reef’ route towards Oakridge and Calabash Bight.  So we headed over, found what we needed and then continued with a stroll along the road to Oakridge.

Oakridge

Oakridge

There were a few small stores, often associated with other businesses, along the road, all selling variations on store cupboard basics.  Bread, apparently, arrives in every 3 days or so.  Fresh fruit and veg once a week on the veg-van.  We returned to BV and enjoyed the last of a goulash for dinner before a deafening (and unexpected) stillness for the first part of the night.

Fine weather for ducks

We woke on Thursday 27 February to overcast skies, squalls and heavy rain.  The dinghy, which we had hung alongside BV on the spinnaker halyard as usual, was heavily laden with water.  We put it in the sea and baled furiously and then repeated the baling at frequent intervals throughout the day as the rain hardly let up at all.  It was just like being at home except that the rain was fairly warm.  With provisioning options poorer than we had expected, we briefly toyed with the idea of moving on.  But the idea of running the reef cut out of Jonesville in such poor light was not a pleasant one.  Even less attractive was the thought of attempting the cut into French Harbour in similarly dreadful visibility.  The entrance there has a nasty hairpin turn in it and you really need to be able to read the water the first time you attempt the entrance – that or follow a good friend in a boat of similar draft.  Neither of these were options and, anyway, it would have been a miserably wet transit, so we stayed put.  Huddled down below, listening to the wind howling and the rain pouring down, we worked on the blog backlog and made a pleasing dent in the number of outstanding entries.  We celebrated with a pulled beef dinner, whilst contemplating our fresh food supplies.  They were by no means critically low but not exactly healthy either.

Friday 28 February was no great improvement.  The wind dropped a fraction but the rain didn’t let up.  We took a damp trip to Oakridge, a couple of bays to the east, in the dinghy for fresh bread and wondered about the shopping and socialising opportunities in French Harbour.  We could see on Marine Traffic that Willow, an OCC yacht with Steve and Cindy on board whom we had met in Cape Lookout Bight and Beaufort NC in November 2019, was anchored there, but it certainly wasn’t the weather to make a first entry and join them.

And the rain continued….

Frequent bailing required!

By Saturday 29 February the wind was still blowing briskly but at least the rain took, well, a bit of a rain-check.  Chris and Bill Burry, who had spent some time in Jonesville earlier in the year when they had visited sailing friends, recommended a local taxi-driver to take us to one of island’s main supermarkets, Eldon’s, in French Harbour.  Miguel picked us up from the Trico Bar, drove us out to the supermarket, waited whilst we shopped and returned us to Jonesville.  All very civilised and surprisingly economic.  The drive out and back was great as the road runs along the ridgeline in the centre of the island so we had some great views out both to the southeast and the northwest sides.  The shopping at Eldon’s was generally very good but the meat and veg were rather disappointing, primarily, we think, because the main produce ship arrives on Tuesday and we went shopping on Saturday.  So we asked Miguel to take us to butcher which he duly did and there we bought some beef to add to the chicken that we had purchased at Eldon’s.

Taking the inshore route towards Calabash Bight

Bored of sitting on the boat, we spent the afternoon in the dinghy (even smaller!) doing the run up to Calabash Bight and back.  We had great fun running though the narrows some of which are like streets with houses on each side….

Running through the mangrove channels

…..and some of which are channels through the mangroves.

It was lovely to get out and about again after 2 days of rain and we very much enjoyed our exploration of the several bights we visited.  It would be quite easy to spend an extended time in the area, using the local shops and small travelling fruit and veg trucks but we were beginning to feel that we needed to make tracks towards West End.  We’d spent longer than we had originally anticipated in Guanaja and in St Helene and we had plans for a couple of weeks in West End doing some diving before exploring parts of the northwest coast (weather permitting) and then moving on to Utila.  And all before the beginning of April when we wanted to be heading north towards Florida.

These ‘streets’ provide everything from spiritual support from the church to spirits support at small bars

A slow day at BJ’s bar/restaurant

On our way back to BV we stopped in at BJ’s for a beer.  BJ’s is a popular bar with cruisers and American ex-pats who have homes in Roatan and Bill and Chris had also mentioned the live music lunches held there on a Friday.  Clearly, we were a day late for the music but we enjoyed a quiet beer at the bar and chatted to the owner (BJ).  It sounded as if they had had a good gathering the previous day despite the heavy rain.

Trico’s

We finished up at Trico’s once more, again trying to access the internet to save some of the data on our phone sim card, but to no avail.  The bar was busy with ex-pats who live conveniently close by.  It was clearly a normal Saturday late afternoon gathering, marred rather by the weather – no-one seemed inclined to use the swimming pool.  We stayed a short while and then returned to BV where we prepared for an early start the next day, on the promise of good weather, bound the 20nm or so to West End.

Jonesville Bight, Roatan, Bay Island, Honduras