Mangrove Bight Guanaja Honduras Bay Islands

Motoring around Michael Rock inside the reef.  Nicky on the bow looking for rocks, coral and shallows

Passing the End of the World – the rooms have fabulous views

The forecast had strong wind from the northwest through north and around to the east for the few days so on Sunday 16 February we decided to move north to anchor in Mangrove Bight.  From the chart it was clear that it would provide better shelter from the north quadrant winds than our current location off Michael Rock and we thought that, with lower land to the east of the Bight, we would have much steadier winds from the east.  At Michael Rock, the steep, high ground to the east causes strong downdrafts to affect the anchorage when the wind is from the east.  Couple this effect with very strong easterly quadrant winds and we thought that the downdrafting would be unpleasantly severe.

We waited until late morning before lifting anchor as, though we had the chart plotter’s GPS ‘snail trail’ of our route in to follow, we wanted to have the best of the light to see into the water and so avoid any possible obstructions we might not have seen on our way in.

But our transit out from the anchorage, around to the cut and through the reef was entirely uneventful and we even had time to take pictures, which is more than can be said for during our entry [Ed: in our defence, the light and the visibility were pretty dreadful then].

Clear of the reef and heading north

When we were clear of the reef there was still very little wind, so we motored the 3nm north to the entrance to Mangrove Bight.

Entrance to Mangrove Bight.  The reef isn’t at all clear in this picture, though you can see a wave about to break on it to the right of the shot.  But it was very clear to us in real life – the benefit of good light (high sun) and polarised sunglasses

Mangrove Bight is protected by the reef to its west and, as at Michael Rock, we needed to work our way in through a narrow cut to the anchorage.  The light was good so we could, in general, see the reef and the shallows around it quite clearly.  I stood on the bow for that extra bit of forward vision which was definitely worthwhile as, at one point, the reef on our port side extended further than Nicky had realised and I had to warn her to turn to starboard or risk running aground.

Making the approach through the reef with me on the bow this time

Again, we found our electronic Navionics charts to be very poor here and the sketch maps in our pilot book to be of much more use.

BV at anchor in Mangrove Bight

We anchored in about 5m of water in the wide, shallowly shelving bay and laid out plenty of rode in anticipation of the forecast strong winds.

Over the next few days we had winds from the north around to the southeast ranging from 15 knots to 25-28 knots, gusting to 35.  There were squalls and heavy rain but also long periods of bright sunshine.  Usefully, we had internet access at anchor so we were able to track down the problem with the Raspberry Pi.  We discovered that there is no internal clock but helpful feedback from Cruisers’ Forum gave us a command line to input on start-up to set the computer to the correct date and time.  We completed work on an article about our time in Cuba (the second of 2) for the OCC’s magazine Flying Fish, but were disappointed to hear that the next issue is already full, so it will have to wait for the autumn/winter publication.  And, of course, we toiled on with the blog backlog……

Mangrove Bight views

But we didn’t spend all our time chained to a computer.  Ashore we found Mangrove Bight to be a reasonable sized village or small town.  There’s a road that runs across to the Savannah Bight on the east side of Guanaja and there may even be a bus service, though we saw no buses, just an endless succession of bici-taxis or tuk-tuks.

Mangrove Bight town centre area.  The locals refer to it as ‘Mangro’

We found a couple of small shops selling food as well as a more comprehensively stocked (all things are relative) mini-market, with 3 aisles of tinned and dry goods, some bread, a fridge and a freezer with dairy products and meat, liquor and beer behind the cash desk and some rather sad-looking vegetables, no fruit.

Colourful murals on a house

Car tyre ‘recycling’

There are some surprisingly large properties in Mangrove Bight but most are quite modest, though well-kept.  Some have very colourfully decorated walls and we saw some novel other forms of exterior decoration too.

On the west side of the low land towards the north of Guanaja, Mangrove Bight seems to mark the end of the road.  At the east end of the road is Savannah Bight, a little north and west of Graham’s Cay and a major ferry port for the island.  Between the 2, closer to Mangrove Bight than Savannah Bight, is Mitch, a village strung out along the road.  We saw more people in Mitch than we had in Mangrove Bight, mostly sitting on entrance steps chatting and looking after children, or minding small shops, or working in one of an impossibly large number of motorcycle repair shops.  The buildings are mostly small and wooden and, even away from the water, building on stilts is a popular construction style.  Each home has a yard with bananas and other plants.  We saw chickens scratching around the stilts and dogs roaming the road.

Between Mitch and Savannah Bight

Between Mitch and Savannah Bight the land is generally flat with higher ground to the north and south.  But there doesn’t really appear to be farming here.  Perhaps the land is too low-lying and is boggy or salty.

Despite the rural nature of the area people were still on the move between the settlements.  As we walked east we were passed by lots of bici-taxis plying their trade between the villages/towns and a good number of cars too.

Savannah Bight

Savannah Bight is a much larger place than either Mangrove Bight or Mitch.  We walked all the way through it, past the ferry dock (which has a 2-storey ‘gazebo’ at its root just like the one on Bonacca) and to what we thought was the centre where there’s a large ‘Full Gospel Hall’ Church with a spire.  En route we were stopped by a couple of ladies pushing a cart ladened with doughnuts.  Would we like some?  We bought 2 (10 Lempira each, about US$0.40).  Super sticky and very sweet!

Savannah Bight

Surprisingly, since we had entered Savannah Bight we hadn’t been passed by any taxis so, with time pressing on, we turned to head back west as we needed to be able to return to Mangrove Bight on foot before sunset..

Bici-taxi / tuk-tuk ride from Savannah Bight back to Mangrove Bight and, yes, there were 4 adults and 2 children in the vehicle!

But on the outskirts of the town we got lucky and flagged down a bici-taxi heading into Savannah Bight.  The lady driver was only too happy to turn around to take us across to Mangrove Bight.  Exactly what the relationship was between the driver and the lady and 2 children in the back we never figured out but it didn’t matter and we squeezed in with Nicky taking one of the children on her knee.

We had a fun drive back, with stops to pick up a propane bottle from a filling station and then to drop it off outside a house in Mitch, and all too soon we were back at the boatyard where we had left the dinghy.

We stayed in Mangrove Bight until the worst of the overnight easterlies had ended and considered our best option for the coming days.  We had thought about returning to Michael’s Rock to dive again on the Pavilions and Michael’s Rock Key but the weather forecast suggested that it would be better to move on west to Roatan on Thursday, rather than wait until the weekend.  So we decided on St Helene as our destination and looked forward to visiting a new island.

Mangrove Bight, Guanaja, Honduras Bay Islands

Michael Rock (Part 6) Guanaja Honduras Bay Islands

Friday 14 February dawned fine and calm.  We’d spent the previous 2 days doing chores albeit in nice surroundings.  Online admin on Wednesday at the End of the World (EOTW), with shopping in Bonacca on Thursday followed by a mountain of hand-washing (Nicky) and designing then cutting and gluing the wood for a bracket on which to mount the monitor of our Raspberry Pi computer (me).  But by Friday we felt we’d done enough chores for the time being.  It was time to play again.

So we went diving (what else?).  Our first dive of the day, at Black Rock Canyon, was at the cut in the reef through which we’d brought BV 5 days before.  Unfortunately, whilst we were descending, I had a kit faff and as I adjusted my straps my camera floated behind me on its lanyard.  When the straps were all adjusted and I pulled the camera back to hand I realised that I had lost my camera light.  Somehow, it had detached and either sunk or floated away.  We searched but failed to find it – hugely frustrating!

Without the camera light the red coral just doesn’t standing out in the pictures as vividly as I would like….

…but you do get to see the almost eerie glow of some of the sponges,
 just as we see them underwater

Spiny spider crab

The visibility on this dive, and the one in the afternoon, was not as good as we had been used to, with lots of particles being carried through the cut by the current.  We also found that there was less to see and to photograph.  Many of the sponges stood out clearly though; it was almost glowing.  However, without the camera light the coral just didn’t stand out as vividly as wanted.  For the photo to the left I tried illuminating the crab with my small torch.  That helped a bit but sadly was not a patch on what I’d become used to.

Our second dive was another wall dive, which we think called is Bayman Drop.

The visibility was a bit better here and the sunlight was brighter too so the pictures are generally more colourful [Ed: that and we spent a bit longer in shallower water].

French angelfish

We saw shoals and shoals of blue chromis on this dive….

Sci-fi movie set inspiration

….and crossed several plateau outcrops, voyeurs on the hectic fishy world below.  Nicky said that looking down and watching the near never-ending stream of blue chromis passing, with groupings of other fish busying themselves at different levels around small pinnacles of coral was like watching one of those sci-fi films where the city is frenetic with various types of airborne vehicles all rushing around sky-scraper buildings.

Overall, we were a little disappointed by this day’s diving, not helped by the loss of the camera light too.  The visibility was poorer than on previous days and we both felt that the terrain and the marine life we saw was not as good as at the other sites we had visited.  Or perhaps we’re just becoming blasé about what is, quite frankly, superb diving on some fantastically healthy and vibrant reefs.

The next day (Saturday 15 February) we returned to boat chores.  Nicky completed the last of the washing and I finished off the wooden bracket for the monitor of the Raspberry Pi mini-computer.  With the glue dry I could set it all up and check that it fitted at the chart table, which, happily, it did.  Now it needs to be sanded and painted to finish it off but we have no black paint so that job will have to wait a while.  Whilst waiting for the laundry to dry, Nicky had another play with the Raspberry Pi and OpenCPN and discovered the computer doesn’t maintain a time clock whilst it is off and seemed to need an internet connection to update the time after start up.  Furthermore, the OpenCPN navigation software seems unable to update its date and time from the GPS feed, using the computer’s clock for these instead.  Which seemed to give us a problem when it came to the tidal rise and flow programmes displayed on the charts and when it came to recording tracks.

With the washing dry, we took the dinghy back to the EOTW to use the internet.  Marlie had left the day before for a one month advanced chef’s course but Ana served us beer and some excellent breadfruit French fries [Ed: quality healthy food choices – not!].  We did all the admin (emails, blogs updates, bank stuff etc) and got distracted with OpenCPN and Raspberry Pi fora, trying find a solution to the time/clock issue.  We stayed far longer than we had intended and it was almost sunset as we took the dinghy back to BV for our final evening anchored off Michael Rock.

Michael Rock, Guanaja, Honduras Bay Islands

Michael Rock (Part 5) Guanaja Honduras Bay Islands

By Thursday 13 Feb we were beginning to run low on fresh food.  We knew that the food supply boat arrives in Bonacca on Thursdays and Fridays and we had planned to take the dinghy from our anchorage, through the cut to Bonacca on the Friday.  But Bill and Chris, who had stayed at the End of the World (EOTW) the previous month, suggested that we ask to accompany Marlie when she did the weekly food-shop for the hotel.  So, when we were at the EOTW the previous day we had done so and Marlie had unhesitatingly agreed.

So, at 0830hrs on the Thursday we were ready for our pick-up and, spot on, the EOTW panga appeared around the headland and we were welcomed on board.  It was a full family day out.  There was Marlie and Armando, plus Ana and her 3 children and Jason.  We had bags for shopping, a propane bottle and a petrol can to fill and a couple of bags of rubbish – we seemed to have brought enough for everyone!  But the panga has plenty of carrying capacity, and a fast hull-form and the powerful outboard made short work of the run to the entrance to the canal.  It was a lot faster than it would have been in our tender.

Going through the canal from northwest to southeast

The canal that runs northwest to southeast across Guanaja looks man-made but Marlie told us that it is a natural gap in mangroves between 2 of the 3 cays that make up ‘mainland’ Guanaja.

The airport taxi-stand dock and terminal building

Guanaja’s airstrip runs parallel to the canal on its north side.  We couldn’t see the runway but we saw the airport taxi-stand (a dock – everything goes by water here) and the terminal building.

Bonacca street view

Once through the canal and on the east side of the island we were extremely grateful that Marlie and Armando had agreed to give us a lift.  The trade winds were blowing strongly from the east and there was a good chop on the water inside the reef.  The panga, with its high bow and powerful engine, bounced across the chop, spray flying, but flying away from us.  Had we been in our tender we’d have been soaked.

Fruit and veg stall – there’s a great selection on the days the supply boat comes in

We landed at the same dock we had used the previous week and headed ashore to see what supplies had arrived.  We were in luck.  Unsurprisingly, the wind hadn’t affected the ferries and the stalls were full of fresh fruit and veg, so we stocked up enthusiastically.  We also bought meat and eggs, for both of which, as in Cuba, you need to remember to bring suitable containers to carry them home.

Views from the north side of Bonacca

Shopping complete, we took a stroll around some of the back streets.  The island is a rabbit warren of lanes and whilst we didn’t get lost we could easily have done so.

Views from the ‘pagoda’ at the root of Bonacca ferry dock

Looking along Bonacca ferry dock – everything has to come in by boat

We met Marlie back at the ferry dock up on the raised ‘pagoda’ at its root, which we assume is a passenger waiting area, whilst Marlie waited for one of her deliveries to be unloaded from the supply ship.  All the loading and unloading is done by hand.  There are no cranes and no mechanised transport and everything is moved from the dock around the island on small handcarts, in wheelbarrows or on one of the myriad small pangas that ply the waters around the cays.  From our seats up in the pagoda we had a bird’s eye view of the dock and everything that was going on.  We sat, eating pasties that we had bought from a street vendor, enthralled by it all.

Looking north from the upper level of the ‘pagoda’ on Bonacca ferry dock

Marlie’s delivery came off the ship and Armando and Jason manhandled the boxes to the panga.  Then we loaded the rest of the shopping aboard and headed back, stopping, very briefly, at ‘Alcatraz island’ to top up our propane bottle and petrol can.

Waving goodbye

The run back was as fast, and as dry, as the run out and before we knew it we were back at BV and waving good-bye to the End of the Worlders.  It had only taken a couple of hours to do in the panga something that would have taken at least twice as long in our tender and, in the process, we had had and really interesting insight into the islanders’ way of life.  What a wonderful day.

Michael Rock, Guanaja, Honduras Bay Islands

Michael Rock (Part 4) The End of the World Resort Guanaja Honduras Bay Islands

Looking north along the coast from the End of the World’s dock.  Perhaps not quite the end of the world then….

….but if this is the end of the world, there are worse places to be!

Looking south from the End of the World’s dock.  BV is anchored
 the other side of Michael’s Rock headland, just through the
 gap on the low beach isthmus between the mainland of Guanaja to
 the left of the picture and the headland to the right

After 2 full days of diving and 3 days without any form of contact with the outside world, we decided to visit the End of the World Resort on Wednesday 12 February.  Friends Bill and Chris Burry had spent a few days here in late January and thoroughly recommended the place.  We hoped that we would be able to check our emails and, perhaps more importantly [Ed: !], upload some of my diving photos to friends and family – if only to make them green with jealousy!

As befits a tropical island paradise resort, the End of the World has very slow internet.  After all, who really wants to spend time online when one could be soaking up the ambiance in far more pleasant ways?  But it allowed us to post a brief update, check that there were no urgent emails and get some of those all-important dive photos onto GloatBook FaceBook.

View from one of the cabanas.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, it doesn’t get much better than this!

Beer with a view

We were the only guests that lunchtime and Marlie, the chef, treated us royally.  We had beers on the veranda of one of the cabanas, drinking in the views along the coast.  Then lunch in the Tiki Bar; fried snapper, breadfruit fries and salad.  Delicious.

After lunch we sat out under the palm trees and completed our online admin.  Not a bad temporary office for the day!

Sundowners view.  BV in the distance, our dinghy on the partly wrecked dock and, the only fly in the ointment, another yacht (in ouranchorage?!) just out of frame

As we dinghied back to BV we saw that we had been joined in the anchorage by another yacht, the first we had seen since leaving Graham’s Cay on Sunday.  But we weren’t in a socialising mood so we didn’t go over to say hello but neither did they come over to meet us.

In the early evening we took the dinghy ashore to the beach for sundowners.  Nicky mixed up a batch of Painkillers (and mighty fine cocktails they were too), which we enjoyed on ‘our’ beautiful beach watching the sun set in a cloud-free sky.

Michael Rock, Guanaja, Honduras Bay Islands