Jan 31, 2025

UTILA

Utila is the westernmost island of the Honduran Bay Islands. It is mostly a mecca for divers, wanna-be divers, expats, and backpackers, most of a younger age group. Lots of bars that play loud music well into the wee hours of morning; not really our cup of tea. Harmonium Cays & Rory were the only 2 boats anchored here for the 3 nites that we stayed. One was to recover from the passage, wait out some rain and provision up before we headed to Roatan, the main island of the group. On Utila we found a couple of ok restaurants, ok markets, and only 1 of 3 working ATM machines. Onward!

ROATAN

Roatan; the ‘big’ island is more touristy, cruise ships go there, and has more ‘stuff’ to do. After a wonderful 30nm sail from Utilia, we chose to avoid the main couple of bays to go to a marine reserve park by French Cay. In all of the shallow waters that I have navigated; superbly I might add, I blew the entrance to this one. Following the charts on the plotter and the guide book there were 2 routes to get to the anchorage. I chose the one to starboard. As the depths continued to get shallower I chose to abort the mission & go back to the other route. Alas, too late. Rory came to rest in mud/sand with a gentle thud. Thank goodness it was gentle. D came to save the day and backed us out. A local boat full of a smiling family of 7 offered to guide us to the anchorage. Did so and we were happy to be there. Radioed Krista & Phil who were behind us to NOT follow our tracks! We were going to put down behind a cay for a bit more protection but there were the most derelict of derelict boats we’d ever seen; and habited I might add, complete w/a naked screaming child and 2 barking dogs. Needed to move further on and parked. Saw what appeared to be a bar over the water and just had to go & check it out. Next day went to town to find the best ‘supermarket’ we’ve seen since the states. WOW, they had everything, except local goods (if there are any).

After only 2 nites here we needed to move on; too many boats going 800 mph and equally as many jet skis. Coupled w/the fact of the island resort we were anchored near had a menagerie of sorts; screaming peacocks, braying donkeys and roaring tigers; yes roaring tigers.

Next up, Jonesville Bight (bight=bay). Like all the Bay Islands, Roatan is ringed by reefs. One enters into a bight by negotiating between the reefs. As evidenced in the picture below. The ‘fringes’ by land are the reefs. Some can be snorkeled in calm waters, some are deeper requiring dive equipment.

Actually spent a week here, most happy hours spent at the Trico Bar 😉 foraying to the next bight to shop for veggies, snorkeling in a couple of spots and took a very cool dinghy ride though a mangrove tunnel. And as usual waited out a couple day blow.

GUANAJA

To go to or not to go to Guanaja, that was the question. Fellow cruisers said yes, definitely; others said yes, but. A weather opportunity opened up w/out the strong prevailing easterly trade winds so Krista, Phil and we decided, “what the heck let’s go”! It was a 30nm trip which we motored, sigh! Very glad that we did, Guanaja has a very different vibe than the other 2 islands; lush green, laid back atmosphere, has a relatively large expat community from all over the world and complete w/the coolest weird city built on a reef. We first anchored on the northern end of the island off of Graham’s Cay Resort on the edge of the reef. It was a nice resort, not very occupied, had a bar and a restaurant. We had planned to utilize their beach and facilities for a couple of days to relax but Mother Nature put a kibosh on that. Totally out of nowhere, not in any of 5-6 forecasts we look at and for 2 days straight we had winds out of the west of 20-25kts. Issue being is that when you set your anchor you face the direction that the wind will be coming from. In our case the east. However when the wind switches and strongly to boot, to an opposite direction the anchor will generally reset, ie turn itself around to face the new direction of the wind. Usually that is fine and anchors are ‘supposed’ to do that. But when water depth is an issue and the anchor drags a few feet while it’s resetting it can be problematic. Hence our scenarios, Harmonium Cays depth issue was too deep, Rory’s was too shallow. So on the second afternoon in a small lull of 15-18kts we bolted across from the reef into Savannah Bight a well protected anchorage. We were joined by 2 other boats to wait out the blow.

Our intention was to inevitably get to the main anchorage on Guanaja, El Bight, and spend a few days there exploring the ‘city on a reef’ town, Bonacca; do some snorkeling and try out a few of the restaurants on the hillsides surrounding the anchorage. Left Savannah Bight in blue sky w/surrounding clouds, proceeded 3.8nm west and were attacked by those surrounding clouds with a deluge. Had to spin shitties for a few minutes before entering the anchorage because it was a somewhat tricky path. Ugh, we are SO sick of rain 🙁 Got Manny the anchor down, next to the boat ‘Nirvana’, Jim, that we were marina dockmates with in Rio Dulce. Decided to live it up & go to the ‘fancy’ restaurant, which of course we walked to IN THE RAIN. The Guanaja Beach Hotel was a wonderful place, great drinks and appetizers, stellar ambiance, but the most magical aspect was Luis. I will try to be succinct in his story. He is Nicaraguan and started throwing pots when he was 8 w/his uncle. Had their pots in a small town in Nicaragua. Due to the political nature of Nicaragua, it was very hard to make a living there by any means. The then owner of the Guanaja Hotel traveled to the town and was captivated by the quality of their pottery. He asked Luis to come to Guanaja and set up his shop there. Luis now is the manager of the hotel and routinely teaches pottery classes. His stuff is beautiful! Oh, and he also makes chocolate, D was very happy!

Next up the town of Bonacca. Think a mini Venice complete with/canals and narrow walkways. It is entirely built on a reef supposedly to get away from the bugs on shore. Not verified info. The people were very proud of their town, very friendly and actually thanked us for coming. We ate at a restaurant, the LONGEST wait time ever for food and stopped at a couple stores to get provisions.

We needed to get laundry done in the worst way possible and found out that a restaurant manager also did laundry. The close by Manati restaurant was only open on Fri/Sat so she had some spare time. The day we took it in the place was ‘closed’ but an impromptu band was playing. So in addition to laundry drop we were treated to music and a wonderful pint of German beer. Owners are ex-pat Germans. Colorful place; in decor and clientele. The dock mate Jim mentioned above was one of the musicians. We went back on Friday to get their lunch special.

The highlight of the trip to Guanaja was a snorkeling trip to the north side of the island to Michaels Rock. We could have taken our sailboats there 3 hours back and forth to a questionable anchorage; our dinghies, stretching the motor fuel limits or hire a launcha to take us there. Being somewhat lazy we hired a launcha. Calico Williams was our driver and was a great guide, telling us about places en route. He also drove that launcha at warp speed which made all of our butts/backs sore for a couple days. The snorkeling! The best we’ve ever seen w/which Krista & Phil concurred; and they’ve been a lot of places.. The types & colors of corals, the varieties of fish, I saw a ray, just wow!

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