Roatan towards Key West End of Day 1

These Blog entries are edited versions of the messages we sent back as we completed the passage.  They were sent by radio using a laptop that controls a modem and the HF/SSB radio, using the SailMail system.  We sent the messages daily to my daughter Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359hrs (CST, GMT -6) 6 May 2020


Dear All,

Suzie Too and Flyin’ Low of Poole leaving the West End mooring field first thing to move into a marina.  We’d be setting off further afield just a few hours later

So here we are off and running again.  The hurricane season is coming and whilst that isn’t an immediate threat, we need to get BV moving to be out of the hurricane belt in time.  The restrictions brought in by the Honduran Government as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic have kept us in lockdown on a mooring off West End, Roatan, in the Honduras Bay Islands for the past 51 days, albeit our remaining in Honduras was voluntary.  However, for most of that lockdown period, if we had decided to move, we wouldn’t have been allowed to arrive in any nearby countries.  To a degree that is still the case, so our plan is to transit north without stopping until we get to Key West in the USA.  Our original cruising plans pre Covid-19 had included cruising up the Belize coastline but that is just not viable at the moment; we’ll just have to come back to this part of the world to get the full experience.

Roatan slipping away behind us

For various reasons, particularly the uncertainty around the longer term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have decided to make a west to east transatlantic crossing back to Guernsey, so that we can spend some time at home before setting off cruising again.  The worst-case plan was to sail directly from Roatan to Guernsey as one passage, a distance of nearly 5000nm.  BV is all set up for that but the complication has been in finding a weather window for sailing up from Roatan, then turning east between Cuba and Florida before continuing north up the Gulf Stream, east of the Florida panhandle, to the top of the Bahamas.  Having the right conditions for that bit of the passage and then immediately continuing on across the Atlantic passing north of the Bahamas was proving to be a very rare occurrence, hence our intention now to stop at Key West.

Moody Mistress sailing out on our port quarter

Even getting going on this passage to Florida has not been easy to work.  Originally 4 yachts planned to set off together from Roatan but, after delaying a day to get more clarity of a potential Tropical Low in the Gulf of Mexico in a few days’ time, just 2 yachts have set off today: us and Robert and Carla on Moody Mistress.  We are both sailing north, hard on the wind, looking to get up to and past the Yucatan Strait before the effects of the low pressure area (now unlikely to become a Tropical Low) make themselves felt too much.  If this weather window works out for us, having repositioned in Florida, we will have a lot more options to find a suitable weather window to set off across the Atlantic for home.

As I write this, we have already lost sight of Moody Mistress but we have arranged a radio net so we’ll keep talking to and looking after each other.  The game now for both of us is to sail as fast as we can hard on the wind, getting as far east as we can, so that we are better positioned to transit the Yucatan Strait.  The wind is forecast t become a little more northerly for a while before we get there, hence the desire to make as much easting as possible, as we have no desire to slow our progress too much by tacking into wind more than absolutely necessary.  The slower we go, the more likely it is that we meet the strong winds preceding the low pressure system generating in the Gulf of Mexico.  Needless to say, we are going to be studying the weather forecasts very carefully over the next few days.

Trying to take a good picture of the moon on a
moving platform was never going to work well!
You’d normally need a tripod on terra firma
to get a detailed image – but it was a good full moon

On a lighter note, we have a full moon tonight and it’s a special one, a Super Moon – the biggest and brightest of the year.  And, the clouds that had started to cover the shy are now clearing a bit so we should get plenty of benefit the moonlight tonight, which will be nice.

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky 

Passage statistics:

Position at 1030hrs 6 May: N16 18 W86 36

Position at midnight 6 May: N17 27 W86 17

1040hrs to midday distance: 7 nautical miles (average x.x knots)

Midnight to midnight distance: n/a nautical miles (average x.xknots)

Total miles covered:  86 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Key West): 520 nautical miles

End of Day 1 Roatan, Honduras Bay Islands, towards Key West, USA

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

New Port Royal Roatan Honduras

Feeling our way into New Port Royal

The forecast for the period Thursday 27 to Saturday 29 February was for a fairly intense cold front to work down into the Bay Islands from the Gulf of Mexico, bringing with it strong west and northwest winds, low cloud and lots of rain.  So it seemed sensible to move on to Jonesville, a more populated area and a more protected anchorage to sit out the spell of bad weather.  But we thought that we’d stop in at New Port Royal en route for a spot of snorkelling on the reef at the western end of the bay.

The reef passage into New Port Royal between (right) Lime Cay to the east and (left) the reef, with Conch Cay about ½nm further west

To make the best of the light for snorkelling, and for our transit of the reef pass in and out of New Port Royal and into Jonesville Bight, we left Old Port Royal promptly at 0900hrs on Wednesday 26 February.  There are now 2 marked entrances to New Port Royal.  The easternmost entrance, in the centre of the bay, has 2 large lateral markers, one to port and one to starboard; the westernmost entrance is marked by 6 small pillar buoys, 3 on each side.  We took this latter entry, where we found depths of only about 3.5m minimum but, with the sun reasonably high and the sea smooth, the entrance was fairly easy.

New Port Royal marks the beginning of ‘populated’ Roatan.  There are several small hotels and holiday homes here

New Port Royal is hardly a developed tourist mecca but it certainly marks eastern extent of ‘populated’ Roatan.  As we moved further west from here we found increasing development, both in terms of tourist infrastructure and in terms of local population.  However, the buildings on the shores of New Port Royal seem mostly to be boutique hotels and holiday homes……

Views from our ‘lunch-stop’ anchorage close to Conch Cay (bottom left).  Some of the second homes on the surrounding hillside look palatial – certainly in comparison to the houses we saw on St Helene

…..some of which are almost palatial.  We spent a couple of hours anchored in New Port Royal, taking the dinghy through the cut to the outside of the reef, close to Conch Cay, to snorkel there (faster than getting all the dive kit out).  It was great fun and, as we had found further east, the coral looked healthy and was home for a wide variety of marine life.  As we had lunch, the first 2 cruising boats that we had seen for a long time entered the bay.  Oh, the madding crowds!

New Port Royal, Roatan, Bay Island, Honduras

Old Port Royal Roatan Honduras

Coral garden between the sand patch where we anchored the dinghy and the reef wall.  There was lots of soft coral here

Giant barrel sponges

We’d spent some of the afternoon the previous day, snorkelling over the reef close to the ‘wreck (conspic)’ to the east of the entrance to Old Port Royal.  Now, on Monday 24 February, we decided to dive on the wall to the west of the entrance.

Left: spiny lobster.  Right: lionfish

It was a nice dive.  The visibility wasn’t as good as that which we’d had in Guanaja but we saw plenty of reef-life including, disappointingly, several lionfish.

A stream of blue chromis

Beautiful coral garden with adult bluehead wrasse (right foreground), younger bluehead wrasse (left foreground), stoplight parrotfish (initial phase, centre foreground) and yellowtail snapper (above foreground coral head)

One of several large schools of surgeonfish

Scrawled cowfish

Stoplight parrotfish (initial phase)

We’re still struggling with identifying sponges!
This one might be a red encrusting tube sponge

Parts of the reef were shallow and, even without a light on my camera, the colours of the corals and sponges stood out clearly in the bright sunshine.

Fan coral

Yellowtail damselfish ‘displaying for the camera’

Top and bottom left: The mangroves east of Bailey Point Cay with a resident white egret stalking in the shallows.  Bottom right: the shallow cut through to the sea between Bailey Point Cay and the mangroves

After our dive we took the dinghy a little further east to briefly explore the channels around Bailey Point Cay. The one leading to the open sea is quite well marked but looks very shallow.  Unsurprisingly, we didn’t see many pangas coming in from that direction, though the channel that runs inshore of the cay and the mangroves to its east is very well frequented by traffic.  The new electricity cable linking St Helene to ‘mainland’ Roatan also follows this latter channel, and there are large signs warning one not to dive, anchor or fish in the channel.

BV anchored in Old Port Royal, viewed from the lagoon end of the cut-through east of Bailey Point Cay

Left: Cushion sea star.  Right: conch (perhaps a milk conch as we think it had green eyestalks)

In the afternoon we decided to try a dive on the ‘military wreck’ in New Port Royal.  However, our dive map is not terribly detailed and we failed to find the site.  The visibility was dreadful (though I suspect that those who dive in parts of the UK would tell me that it was actually quite good) and all our short search pattern out from the dinghy mooring revealed were several cushion sea stars and a few conch.

So we moved back to Old Port Royal and dived on Old Shrimp Boat Wall (East), roughly where we had snorkelled the previous day.  This wall dive turned out to be deeper than that on the west side where we had dived in the morning…..

Large green moray eel (which looks to be auditioning as a Dementor in the next Harry Potter film)

…..and some of the residents were significantly larger too!  We saw 2 green moray eels on the dive.  One very close too, the other further away and, mostly, underneath a rock.  I only got a very fuzzy photo of the latter but the first eel seemed reasonably unfazed by us and I managed to get several good pictures before we felt we should move off out of his/her territory.

Grey angelfish

The same grey angelfish in close-up

We also spotted s couple of very large French angelfish…..

Giant barrel sponges with a lionfish between them and a bluehead wrasse to the left.  Thin leaf lettuce coral under the wrasse, brown octopus sponge(?) in the foreground and sea plume in the mid-ground

….more huge giant barrel sponges and, again, some more lionfish.  I really do need to get a spear so that we can try to kill some of these scourge.

Spot the reef fish hiding in and around the coral

It was another lovely dive and the highlight of it, and probably of the day, has to have been that first green moray eel we saw.

The mountains of mainland Honduras visible on the horizon.  Given that the mainland is over 30nm away those mountains must be very impressive when seen close up!

The weather was quite calm overnight and in the morning of Tuesday 25 February we had our first glimpse of the mountains of the Honduran mainland.  The forecast was for easterly quadrant winds at 10-15kts, filling in from the southeast overnight and increasing to 25kt gusting to 35kt.  We spent the day doing chores, filling the dive tanks, writing the blog to post at some point in the future and Nicky did some proof-reading for the next edition of the OCC’s magazine, Flying Fish.  Part way through the morning a panga stopped by and the driver asked if we wanted to buy some hash.  We passed on the offer.  There are no photos of all this excitement but we managed to achieve quite a lot and, in the evening, the wind filled in from the southeast and increased as promised and we were very grateful for the shelter offered by Bailey Point Cay.

Old Port Royal, Bay Islands, Roatan, Honduras