MarMar: SailBlogs

French Harbor

Mar family — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:54:10 -0500

We left Cayos Cochinos to Roatan early on Wednesday, knowing that there was a cold front coming this way, and that was an exposed anchorage for any wind coming out of the west. With the wind coming from the south/southwest at about 12 knots, but the waves rolling also from the northeast, we had some confused sea, not the most comfortable ride, but not bad too, we sailed almost the whole way and by noon were entering French Harbor - second time here, so we had the entrance registered in our minds, and in the chartplotter too... Luckily we found an vacant mooring ball and saw several boats we knew. Back to civilization. We rested all the rest of the first day, but Thursday we decided to go out, run some errands and explore a bit, with first priority being to take care of immigration. We took the dinghy to the shrimp boat harbor and walked to the main road. Before we could take a taxi "coletivo", a pick-up stopped and offered us a ride. That was Mr Sherman, one of the kindest persons ever, and by far the most known on the island. Among one of his activities, he owns the Iguana farm, with hundreds os specimen of this prehistorical like animals. Martina was not afraid of the beasts. Impressive place. Mr Sherman was born in Roatan and saw progress arrive since 35 years ago, but he is not too happy things developed. Too many thieves, he says. But otherwise he is a very positive and generous man, he even gave us an enormous grouper fillet, freshly killed. At immigration in the main town, Coxen Hole, I found out that as a Brazilian I needed a visa for Honduras - this is recent, since Brazil decided to host the overthrown president at our Embassy, and does not recognize the new government of Tegucigalpa. But I sorted this out, and we are now exploring more and more from this area. A bit of beach, some snorkling, some socializing, shopping, boat projects and... fighting the sand flies, especially in the afternoons, or when the wind dies. But it is not that bad and we like the place. Great beach at the Fantasy Island resort, a well stocked supermarket and more. We might sit here for a few more days - it seems there is another cold front coming, and we might go back to Cayos Cochinos for another week, and then circumnavigate Roatan. The island of Guanaja is another option, but we are still not sure. Cruising with the wind, flexible, as always. (View Post...)

Cayos Cochinos

Marina — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:52:51 -0600

Wow, what a beautiful anchorage! Cayos Cuchinos became a marine reserve about 12 years ago, and anchoring is not allowed. There are only 6 mooring balls to tie to, so the number of boats that can stay here at one time is limited, which is nice in a way (some other anchorages can get very crowded). (Continued...)

Friends in Utila

Mar family — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:13:06 -0600

We have spent the past 10 days in Utila, one of the three Bay Islands (Islas de la Bahia) that lie outside the mainland of Honduras and on the southern edge of the world's second largest barrier reef. Utila is a diver's paradise, a lot of young backpackers from all around the world come here to get certified and hang out in this little sleepy island. It really is tiny, we walked from the south to north side in about two hours, and there is only one street in "town", so until recently there were no cars at all on the island. Initially we had planned to spend only one or two nights and then continue to the next island, but ended up liking it here and stayed longer than planned, for good reasons. One, Marcelo got to go diving. Two, there were a couple of cold fronts passing by with strong winds, so we needed a protected ancorage to hide in. Three, there is some nice snorkling around the reefs. Four, we were waiting for the Immigration officer to arrive so we could check in, but he never came. Oh well, the port captain said, island style "No problem, man, do it whenever you have a chance." And the fifth and e main reason, was that we unexpectedly met a Canadian/French couple with a baby, who we had met last year in Rio Dulce. Claudia and Pierre, with their son Leonard (eleven months of age) who was born in Guatemala, also sailed here from Rio Dulce, and liked it so much in Utila that they decided to stay for a few years. We have visited them almost every day, so both babies and adults could have some nice company (in photo, Marcelo and Pierre with Martina and Leonard on MarMar). (Continued...)