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