On to Honduras’ Beautiful Bay Islands, via Vivorillo Cays
15 March 2009 | Kikuyu at Anchor in Vivorillo Cays
We left Providencia satisfied that we had seen a bit more than what we originally thought we would have time for and set out for the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras where we want to spend some time. As mentioned before, the Belize barrier reef which is the second largest in the world reaches Honduras and the Bay Islands.
We sailed together with Paul & Lynne and their friend Dave from s/v Beaudacious who were also heading the same route. Even though this part of the Caribbean has been clean of pirates for a while, there have been a few incidents in the past and having company with us gave us a bit more reassurance about our safety. On Sunday we set sail for Vivorillo Cays, about 160 miles north-west of Providencia. We had a great sail, with winds around 15 knots but abeam of us giving us a very comfortable and fast passage. We arrived to Vivorillo the next day at 12:15 PM after sailing for a little over 29 hours.
It was odd to sail right to a reef watching for coral heads sticking out of the water and for atolls or shallow sandy spots. This area of the Caribbean is not well charted (paper charts) and we navigated with our chart plotter to way points given by many cruisers who have transited this area. Because of this we were on a heightened level of awareness about the water color and watch every second for any reef that might rise straight up from the seabed as we had seen in San Blass.
While mostly a submersed reef that encircles the large bay forming Vivorillo Cays, there are a couple of small islands, one of which has a deserted building that we read was used for packing shrimp. The other small island gave off such a stench of putrid fish that as we approached it in Beaudacious' dingy we could not stand the smell and turned to another spot to look for a good reef to snorkel around. We later read that this small island is used by fishermen to dispose of shark carcasses.
We snorkeled a bit and found what must have been at one time a gorgeous coral reef. Unfortunately, most of the heads appeared to be dead but we saw many new colorful fangs, and small young fish. We think the reef is regenerating itself - we sure hope so.
After getting a wonderful night sleep following our sleepless night the day before, the next morning we set sail for Roatán, under light winds that were running from behind us - we prepared to motor most of the way!