6 May 2009, Cayos Cochinos/Utila, Honduras

N15.58.118 /W086.28.840

From Cayos Cochinos

Tree signs


We are still here in beautiful West End Roatan. We've done many scuba dives over the past week. It's so easy here. I have also been trying to buy a new dive mask since we have been on Roatan. Several months ago, I went to a dive shop and spent approximately $40 on a mask. It leaked. The soonest I could bring it back was over one month later. I then upgraded to a $50 mask. It leaked. Weeks later I was able to bring it back and upgraded to a $60 mask. It leaked. My freaking big head won't fit in any "Mares" brand masks! We traded in the $60 mask for a new mask for Cindy who now has new fins, snorkel and mask. Anyway, this whole side of the island has a reef running parallel several hundred feet from shore. We are tied to a mooring 150 feet from the beach and the reef is 150 feet on the opposite side of us. The small town of West End is about ¼ mile to the north. The town is full of small bars, restaurants and souvenir shops. It's a great place to sit and unwind and get some boat projects done before heading west to the Rio Dulce.


The bottom paint did not come in as scheduled. No surprise there. So Bob from "SeaTryst", Luke from "Skyus" and I got another rental car and went in search of paint once again. Bob found five gallons of black, Luke found four gallons of black and I found four gallons of blue. Cindy and I wanted red but I could only get blue. Cindy was not happy at all about the blue paint I had bought but sometimes you've got to do what you gotta do. I mean it's under the water...


Since we've been in Roatan we have done most of our provisioning for groceries from Elden's supermarket in French Harbor. The talk of the islands over the past month has been the opening of the "new" Elden's; it's supposed to be just like a US super market! This may not sound like much but let me tell you the markets outside of the US are not big, clean, well stocked, well lit, etc. Cindy, Maggie, Bob and I traveled from West End up to the new Elden's and sure enough it's awesome! As Bob on "Sanderling" says "they have vegetables you can actually eat"! There is a deli, bakery, frozen food section and real meat and produce department. Maybe this is a new standard for island supermarkets? How sad is this, us guys are actually excited about supermarkets!


We booked flights earlier this week to go to Sydney Australia later this year. We're very excited! We plan to be there for Christmas. We're not real familiar with Australia so what better way to find out about the good things to do there than to talk to an Australian. Luke and Nikki from SV "Skyus" just happen to be from Sydney Australia and they're anchored just up from us. We took our dink over to "Skyus" to get pointers. We told them we had just booked flights. They said they had just booked flights to go back to Sydney to visit at the same time we're going to be there! They haven't been home in two years and now they're going to be there. How cool is that! We are still making plans on what we're going to do while we are there. Renting motorcycles for a week or so to go touring with Luke and Nikki is on the top of my list. After a couple weeks in Australia we'll fly to New Zealand to meet Manoel and Andrea in Christ Church for New Years and the month of January. Remember Manoel and Andrea from SV "Good Karma" and from Nepal-Everest? Other friends from SV "Long White Cloud" should have completed their circumnavigation and will be back in New Zealand while we're there also. We'll have to try to meet up with them too. We'll tour New Zealand for at least a month with Manoel and Andrea. They're trying to talk us into doing a trek in NZ with them. Even when they're not working they still want to go trekking! They are in training to summit Everest next year so I guess they have to stay in shape. You sure do meet a lot of people while you're out cruising and so many avenues open as a result. Years ago we tried to go on vacation to Australia but we could not get enough time off from work. Now we know people there and we have the time. Of course the money is running out but oh well. We can always make more money but not more time...


Monday - I started the day off filling propane tanks. Cindy went to shore with Nikki to attend a yoga class.(Cindy comment: there is something special about yoga outside under a palapa roof with an ocean breeze blowing) After I had dropped her off I went back to "Tashmoo" and rebuilt the dinghy outboard carburetor. I picked Cindy up a couple hours later and started working on our front hatch while Cindy started waxing the topsides and did more stretching. One of the brackets that hold the starboard side of the hatch up is broken. I had to make a stainless widget, drill, tap, and epoxi. Looks pretty good if I do say so. Then it was onto the absolute worse job on any boat; head repair. Our aft head stopped working completely this morning. I had a rebuild kit, so armed with a roll of paper towels, a cloths pin on my nose and half the tools on the boat I went to work. I replaced the usual things that go bad on a marine toilet and cleaned all the "residue". After which I put it all back together. It didn't work... I pulled it all back apart and replaced the things that you usually don't have too. Cindy came over and asked "whatchadoin" as I was elbow deep in poop, literally. She didn't like my response so she took my picture bent over the toilet surrounded by sopping wet paper towels. Thanks for the help Cindy...(Cindy's comment, look for the picture on youtube). I got the toilet back together for the second time. It didn't work. This was not good! This usually means a clog in the discharge hoses "somewhere". I looked at the hose run from the toilet to the through hull valve. There is a y-valve several feet from the toilet that looked like the best place to start. This valve switches from our lectrasan or to direct discharge. It's been set to direct discharge for two years now so it didn't surprise me that I could not move the valve. After working the three very stiff 1.5" hose for 45 minutes I finally managed to remove one from the valve. Oh yah, we have a problem Houston. I won't go into too much detail here but the hose up to and including the y-valve was "full". Two hours later all hoses and the valve were clean and the toilet works better then ever. It was now getting dark and I was beat, so I cleaned up the work area. I was dripping with sweat and sure I smelt a lot worse than I looked. In the meantime, Cindy had finished her waxing on the topsides and polished some of the stainless rails of "Tashmoo". She looked at me all stinky and drippy and said, "how come you didn't help me wax"? I jumped overboard for a much-deserved swim... Ahh the boating life :-)


Tuesday - We had breakfast at a local restaurant with the crew from "SlipAway" and returned to "Tashmoo" to clean up the garage/v-berth to prepare the boat for an early departure tomorrow. We spent the afternoon with "Skyus" celebrating Luke's birthday with awesome cheeseburgers at Sundowner's on the beach in Half Moon Bay. It was a perfect spot to spend the afternoon. Luke and Nikki's girls, Evi and Indi, had a great time playing on the beach and jumping off the dock. It is nice to find cruisers with children aboard. It's been a good eating day.


Wednesday 4/29 - We "finally" have left Roatan and sailed to Cayos Cochinos. Cayos Cochinos lies ~22 miles SSE of West End, Roatan and is a group of 13 small islands. When I say small I mean small. We picked up a mooring in the lee of the largest island called "Isla Cayo Cochino Mayor". This island is 1 km in diameter. It's a very pretty spot. We can see the mountains on the mainland of Honduras which lies approximately 10 miles due south. It wasn't long after we got "Tashmoo" back together after our whopping four hour sail that the marine park patrol boat pulled along side to collect $20 for the boat and $20 for each crew; the captain is free. The fee allows us to stay up to 1 month. We collected our receipts for the $40 and said adios to the park ranger and the two marines (carrying ak47's), but their boat would not start. They looked at the motor for 20 minute then I climbed onboard and had a look. Looked like the starter was gone to me. They made a phone call and someone was on soon their way to help. Cindy got the guys some cokes and chatted a bit in her limited Spanish; an hour later another boat came and towed them away. It's times like that that we both wish we had more Spanish comprehension to have been able to talk more about the park and Honduras with them.

From Cayos Cochinos

Broke Down in the hot sun.


While the marine park boat was tied to us two young local boys rowed to "Tashmoo's" other side in their hand carved canoe and asked Cindy if we would like to buy some jewelry they and their mother had made. Cindy said no thanks, and then they wanted to know if we wanted to hire them for an island tour. There is a trail on the big island... Again she said we were all set. She talked to them about their school and where they live. Then they asked if we had any cookies. She went below and got them some chocolate. They seemed very happy as they rowed away telling her that they loved her.


Thursday - We took a weird dive today. The island to the west of us is being used for the filming of "Survivor Italy", supposedly. Early afternoon, we loaded the dinghy with scuba equipment and headed west around the island. We have a pamphlet from the marine park that shows a dive spot to the northwest side of the island. We rounded the island and spotted a dive buoy so we motored toward it. We noticed a small group of people on the beach several hundred feet away. As we approached the buoy a woman on the beach started waving her arms and yelling at us. Then we noticed a guy with a big camera filming another guy walking along the beach. It was so "staged" it was pathetic! We hopped overboard for a really crappy dive. 15 minutes and 500 lbs of air later we both climbed back into the dinghy and left for another spot. So look for us in the background of Italian Survivor... We went and tied to a buoy just north of the island we are anchored off of. We finished our air there in a really good dive. The visibility was only ~60 feet but the coral colors were amazing.

From Cayos Cochinos

Survivor Island


Friday - We had a quiet day. We went to shore to use the internet (yes Maggie we cannot use it in the anchorage because it is locked and we needed to pay to get the password). The Plantation Beach Resort is the only commercial property on the island and welcomes cruisers. When we arrived with our computer and empty dive tanks we learned that they were having generator problems and the internet was down...so we hung around and learned more about the island and resort. The manager of the resort has been here for 14 years and is a huge Red Sox fan. Once he took care of the generator, we had access to the internet and began making arrangements for our flights back to the States in June. Later that night we enjoyed a fish dinner at the resort.


Saturday - Let me just say your dinghy is your life out here. It seems like everything we do revolves around the dinghy. It's our ocean car. First thing this morning we jumped into the dink with snorkeling equipment and headed "out"; no real destination. After cruising around the all of the islands for a half hour we realized we should have brought a camera. It's really pretty here. On the way back to "Tashmoo" to get the camera we stopped by the park headquarters and checked out the island's information hut at the Coral Reef Foundation Research Institute. It was small but a real pretty spot and it appears that the main purpose of the Institute is turtle research. After we got the camera we headed to a small island south of us that is home to about 200 Garifuna Indians called Cayo Chachahuate. Chachachuate is a scenic island with many stick and palm dwellings. It's kind of touristy in a weird way. Tourists from the mainland come here for day trips. We've also heard that the Italian "survivors" come here to eat lunch. We had a good fish lunch on the beach with several schoolteachers from the US that are teaching on the mainland. After lunch, the locals broke out the instruments and began to play traditional Garifuna music and dance. It is always a treat to catch an impromptu show. Okay, back to the dinghy story. As soon as we pulled onto the beach on Chachahuate many small native children came over to see the inflatable canoe... We tried to tell them not to play and bounce on our dinghy but it didn't do much good. They all wanted to sit in the cool boat. As our friend Al always says, "sand is a dinghy's worse enemy". Well these kids were walking sand castles. After two minutes I walked back to the dink and it was covered in sand. I asked the kids to not play on the dinghy but all that they would say was that they wanted to drive it. These kids were 2-6 years old. I dragged it back out into the water with several of them hanging onto it. After I pried their hands free, I moved the dinghy down the beach several hundred feet between some water taxis. This was a much better place as I could sit in the shade waiting for lunch and I only had to get up and throw kids off the dink every 15 minutes or so. I think for some reason they wanted to make sure it floated; they kept on trying to push it out into the water. I'd go down and pull the dink back onto the beach and say in my broken Spanish " por favor, no empujar" which means, "please, no push". They would just look at me as if to say, "what are you crazy, we almost had it floating!" They would back away for a few minutes and then slowly move back to it after I was gone. It was cute in a frustrating way.

From Cayos Cochinos

Walking Sand Castles.


Sunday - After listening to the morning net we decided to go for a hike on the big island. Where we are anchored we can see the top of a lighthouse on the highest point of the island. The lighthouse does not seem to work but we figured we would check it out all the same. Cayos Cochinos is also the only place in the world (so we've been told) where there are Pink Boa Constrictor snakes. We figured we would keep an eye out for the boas also. The trail we followed is along the highest ridge on the island. It's not well traveled or marked; several times we had to double back to make sure we where still on the trail. After 40 minutes we arrived at the lighthouse. It's a relatively new steel lighthouse painted white and red in the middle of a jungle. It's about five feet wide and 50 feet tall. It was locked so we could not climb to the top which is too bad, I'm sure the view would have been spectacular. Until several years ago it was open for climbing but the locals kept stealing the solar panels and batteries so it is now locked. We only managed to see a vine snake during the hike. Once we got back to the small dive resort we talked to the two dive masters and they said they had a secret spot that they knew of where the Pink Boas hang out, literally. Sure enough when we got to the spot we saw several of them in a 50 feet area. They hang out on branches above a small stream. Their camouflage is so good they're very hard to spot. They lie flat on a branch, blending in with the branch perfectly, just waiting for an unsuspecting bird to come within range. They were very cool to see.

From Cayos Cochinos

Pink Boa!


Monday - "One of those days" - I wanted to dive a spot we have snorkeled several times. So first thing in the morning I pulled out the scuba equipment and started setting everything up. We've been having a problem with Cindy's tank blowing O-rings and this morning was no different. After spending an hour trying to figure out exactly what was wrong I finally found the first stage on her regulator is warped. It must be a factory defect. I finally got it to work with a larger O-ring. We then loaded up the dinghy and pulled away from "Tashmoo" for the dive. 100 feet from "Tashmoo" the outboard died. I pulled and pulled but it would only start for about five seconds and then die again. It was hot and Cindy offered to jump in and tow us back to "Tashmoo". The fuel looks white...somehow our fuel went bad? I don't know. We had a gallon left in a jerry jug that I used to finally get the motor going. Now it's been two hours since I started this dive expedition and we were still on "Tashmoo" in our very warm black wetsuits! We did finally make it over to where I wanted to dive and it was awesome! It was a shallow dive from 20 to 50 feet but it was great. There were huge coral heads 25 feet in diameter and 20 feet tall loaded with life! We saw a huge porcupine fish, about 5' long! It was a giant with huge E.T. eyes! They're supposed to only grow to a max of three feet but this guy was a record for sure, he was scary big! There was also an eel garden that was fun to explore along with two of the thickest lip Queen Conch we have seen. And a Toad Fish having his lunch of fresh crab. There were so many other cool things, Cindy commented that it was one of her best dives ever! She's done almost 40 dives now so that's saying something. And being shallow we were able to explore underwater for an hour. Later that day we went for a snorkel near the boat and saw lots more cool stuff; a beautiful and very social Spotted Drum, one of our favorites; large snapper; a juvenile Queen Angelfish that was full of beautiful colors.


Tuesday 5/5 - Happy Cinco de Mayo! We left Cayos this morning. We had a great time there and would recommend a visit if you have the chance. The small dive resort we were in front of, "Plantation Beach Resort", was nice and was run by good people. I will say that for the price Mango Creek is much better. PBR was nice but no comparison to MC. It was steamy hot and hazy when we left this morning and there was no wind. We put up the main to help slow the rocking and headed WNW 26 miles toward Utila. The wind slowly increased to 8 knots as the day went on. We had a favorable current so all in all it was an easy motor sail. We were fishing as usual on the way over. I decided to try a lure (cedar plug) that we have never caught anything on. It is an unpainted wooded cedar plug. Before I set the lure behind us I wrote, "Eat Me" on one the side of the lure and "Bite Me" on the other with a red marker. It worked! We caught our first fish on it within a half hour!

From Cayos Cochinos

Bite Me!

John & Cindy
S/V Tashmoo
sailtashmoo att yahoo dot com
Copyright © 2006-2009

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26 April 2009, West End – Roatan, Honduras

N16.17.332 /W086.35.981

From Roatan West End Dive

Can you spot the Grouper?

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18 April 2009, West End – Roatan, Honduras

N16.17.332 /W086.35.981

From Mango Creek

Sailor - Our Mango Creek buddy.


Tuesday - We said our final goodbyes to the crew at Mango Creek and dropped the mooring line to head west. Leaving Patrice and Terry's place was like leaving home. We had become part of the family but it is time to get moving as our permitted stay in Honduras is winding down quickly. We headed out the Lime Cay Cut with 15 knots of ESE winds looking forward to a nice down wind sail to West End. Within an hour the wind had dropped to 8 knots. Cindy convinced me to set up the spinnaker, which is always a chore aboard "Tashmoo". I knew the wind was suppose to get lighter and lighter as we headed west but she was hoping for a nice spinnaker run. Once we hauled the enormous sail bag on deck and got it deployed the wind dropped to 2 knots, then to 0 and then shifted to the west. Go figure... For the last two weeks we have had 20 plus knots of easterlies on the east end of Roatan but they have had light winds on the west end. So we started the motor and burned a little diesel to get into West End. West End has a mooring field that is maintained by the Roatan Marine Park Service but within the last month at least four moorings have pulled free so everybody is anxious about using them. The park service requires that you either use a mooring or anchor in a sandy spot of which there are very few since the purpose of the mooring field is to protect the very thick turtle grass. As luck would have it, all the moorings were full and there were about a dozen boats anchored. We motored around the harbor for 30 minutes looking for a sandy spot and finally found one way out by the reef. The bottom here is very hard so it took a while to get the CQR set; I went in the water to handset the anchor while Cindy backed down on it. Once set, Cindy jumped in the water to cool down. With no wind it was a very hot afternoon. That night the wind was light and we finally got a good night sleep - what a treat.


Wednesday - After we made the trip from Port Royal to West End on Tuesday, I noticed our raw water pump was not happy. This is the pump that cools the engine. Broken pump = no engine. There was a brownish colored liquid dripping from the front of the pump. That meant that the bearings are toast. No problem though, because we had a spare pump rebuilt a little over a year ago and it was onboard with our other spare parts. I was very happy that I had the spare pump, that's for sure. Cindy went out snorkeling, which is very convenient here as the reef is directly behind the mooring field and I went to work replacing the pump. And hour later I had the rebuilt pump installed. I started the motor and watched a steady drip, drip, drip from the pump... Since I spent $200 to get this pump rebuilt I was not happy, to say the least. After I screamed and yelled unpleasant things for ten minutes I tried to loosen the belt that drives the pump. That didn't help. I tried spraying PB Blaster into the pump. It says right on the side of the can something like, makes old rubber gaskets like new... That didn't work. After several hours of trying things I cleaned up the mess I had made and just left the pump there, dripping, for the night.


We had reserved a car rental with "SeaTryst" for the follow day to go on a quest for bottom antifouling paint. Both "SeaTryst" and "Tashmoo" need new bottom paint and in Guatemala they charge full list price for paint. About $400 per gallon! Here in Honduras it's $95 per gallon! Obviously this is the place to buy the paint. Especially since we need 4-5 gallons per boat. Since we were going out to search for the paint I figured we would also look for a new water pump. Before we left the boat, we inquired on the net if anyone knew where we might find a pump on the island. Our friends Bob and Diane on SV "Sanderling" called back and said they had a spare pump but it had a different model number than the one we needed. We told them we would drive to French Harbor where they were and take a look at the pump. I didn't have much hope.


We stopped at several stores looking for the paint and pump. One place said they would have paint next Wednesday. We can live with that and after another inquiry on the cruisers net we had been told that it is good paint. Thank God Cindy can speak some Spanish. Otherwise I don't think we would have gotten very far ordering the paint. It still may not show but we are hopeful. We had no luck with the pump at any of the stores. No surprise since it was hard for me to get it rebuilt back in the states. We found "Sanderling" on the dock but Bob could not find his spare pump. After 25 minutes I asked if it was the same one that was on his motor. Since I didn't think it would be the same pump I could see it and he could stop looking. Big surprise, it was the same pump! Awesome! 20 minutes later he found the pump and let me borrow it! I feel sooooo much better! We then stopped at a hydraulic shop, which did have some pumps but not what we needed although it was a great store with lots of fittings, hoses etc.


I think word has gotten around about my generator repair skills. We where in a super market today and a home owner walked up to me and said she had heard I'm great with solar and generator repairs. They had recently bought a house in Port Royal and she said she had someone looking at their solar/generator equipment problems but if he couldn't fix it she was going to track me down... Maybe I have found a new trade?


Friday - I got the borrowed pump installed and it worked like a charm. Then I pulled apart the rebuilt pump we had on board and found a part installed backwards; so much for having it rebuilt by a "professional". While I was working on the pump I had asked Cindy to go into one of our storage containers to get out some lubricant for me and found that an entire liter of West System epoxy hardner had leaked into the bin. Just one more mess to clean up. I needed to use an impeller puller on the pump that I was working on. I had bought a new puller last year. Of coarse the puller needed to be modified to be useful. After using a hacksaw for 30 minutes I broke out the Dremel tool. Another 30 minutes later I had a usable puller. This is so typical of boat projects; two steps forward, one back, and of coarse by the time you're done you have pulled out almost every tool onboard. Then after spending six hours working on pump repairs in this tropical heat, Cindy wanted to go for a dive. I was beat and not enthusiastic about going. Then we got a call on the VHF from "Slipaway" asking if we wanted to go for a dive, so much for being tired. I went anyway. I know, I'm too good to her. It was a good dive in an eel garden. We saw lots of garden eels, a turtle and a juvenile spotted drum. Later, after the dive we went into dinner to a local restaurant with Jan and Rich from SV "SlipAway", then back to the boat by 9:00. It's been a long day and the wind is blowing 30 "again".


It's still very windy at night: 25 to 30 knots...will it ever lighten up so we can all get some well deserved sleep?


Fair Winds
John & Cindy
S/V Tashmoo
sailtashmoo att yahoo dot com
Copyright © 2006-2009

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