Honduran Islands — s/v Reach

Swan, Guanaja, Roatan, Cochinos, Utila ~ these are the Honduran islands that we were able to cruise for about two months this spring. The big three ~ Guanaja, Roatan & Utila ~ are collectively known as the Bay Islands, while Swan is a naval base and Cochinos a National Park.

These were our last stops en route to Rio Dulce, Guatemala, where we presently are on Reach now. With any luck, I’ll have the blog up to date by the time we leave here…

Swan Island

A pleasant overnight sail brought us to Swan Island, or Isla Cisne. Mark had wanted to visit here for years and the forecast was favorable.

Swan Island used to be a US base for communications during the Bay of Pigs Crisis, before it was turned over to Honduras in the early 70’s.

We didn’t know what to expect in terms of anchoring or naval presence; the one anchorage referenced in a cruising guide turned out to have a fresh shipwreck in it, which is always hard to witness.

Around the corner was a nice little bay and dock with decent protection. Fair weather allowed us to stay here for four nights.

Shortly after we anchored, we were waved down at the dock with a greeting from the Naval officers. We were led to the base and “checked in” with them formally/informally (no official Customs/Immigration), asking and receiving permission to stay for the week. They were formal, because they had to be, yet friendly and accommodating.

When we asked permission to walk the island, they granted it and arranged a time the next day with us for an escort. There were nesting boobies on the cliffs, an infrequently used airstrip, and iguanas everywhere.

Their freezer had stopped working and was unfixable. All of their frozen food had spoiled not even half way through their 45 day rotation. In exchange for their hospitality, we shared what we could… rice & beans, canned goods, fresh fish, ice (for their drinks), and cookies. The last two items were the most popular!

We were joined by Kookaburra and Horizon and we all took advantage of the gorgeous water.

Lobster and fish were back on the menu and I continued my search for tiny reef critters.

We savored every minute of this remote paradise that we were lucky to see.

We’ve since heard it announced that a prison is to be built for gang members, which would almost certainly inhibit future access. Eventually for us, weather dictated that we move on to the next stop in Guanaja.

Guanaja

Here, we officially checked into Honduras at Bonocca, a quaint and clean town.

Anchoring in El Bight, we enjoyed visiting Manati, Hans’ Dock, Mi Casa Too, chatting with friendly residents and expats who make this place home.

We visited here back in 2013 and not much has changed, fitting for this peaceful island.

There a few were nice trails around that were great for a daily birding walk or more rigorous hikes. Jaime and I went birding several times, finding many regional species, plus spring migrants!

The “blue trail” (once we found it) took us up along the ridge of a hill for quite a distance along the island. Another found us off the beaten track to a waterfall, but couldn’t penetrate any further from there.

Spring brought slash-and-burn season for burning fields on the mainland and the smoke was thick, and along with the heat, oppressive.

At its worst, even the International airport in Roatán had to shut down for a few days due to lack of visibility.

On the other hand, the smoke made for beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

To escape the heat, I sought out a dive operation where we could have a scuba dive, which resulted in a visit to the north end of the island. Prevailing weather didn’t allow us to anchor here, but it would be a peaceful place to drop the hook inside the barrier reef, weather permitting.

The barrier reef was very nice to dive on. Much of the ledge and top of the drop-off was teaming with reef life and it was worth a dive to see that. There were limited opportunities for snorkeling outside of El Bight as the winds were up, but the anchorage itself stayed nice and protected.

Roatán

Previously, we had only visited French Harbor and West End in Roatán. This time, we explored a couple of more bays on the East side of the island, Old Port Royal and Jonesville.

Old Port Royal is a quiet anchorage surrounded by mangroves. There is a canal that you can explore with your dinghy that takes you to the other side. A peaceful reprieve.

Jonesville is a hub of activity compared. Here too, there are canals connecting several southern bays along this region of the island. These are commercial corridors that include a fishing fleet, so there is plenty of commuter traffic in and around the bay. There are a few floating bars/restaurants that serve this water traffic, often with loud music, but not at night.

We enjoyed poking around in all of the canals and neighboring bays, and meeting several cruisers doing the same. One afternoon Laura & Henri invited us to join a group of sailors heading to the Roatán Island Brewing Company… right up our alley ~ a very enjoyable afternoon with great beers & great company!

On to French Harbor, we found it slightly crowded and had a hell of a time getting the anchor to hold in heavy eel grass.

We finally got settled and thus commenced a salt-blasting over the reef of currently heavy winds.

That didn’t stop us from running our errands, joining morning yoga, birding, and snorkeling the barrier reef as much as possible.

I discovered a small group of sailfin blennies nearby and went back to visit them often. One day, there were also hundreds of black aglaja (~5 mm) dotting the sand. It’s often the case to find the most interesting critters in non-reef locations, including rubble, sand and eelgrass.

We spent a half-day with Joel of Roatán Wildlife for some birding, taking advantage of his local knowledge. He had some interesting wetlands for us to visit where we spotted a Wilson’s phalarope and white-rumped sandpipers. It was also spring migration and we hit a fall-out of migrants in a special tree at the western point of the island.

Moving Reach over to West End, it was the most bustling town yet.

We grabbed a mooring, sampled a few nice bars, restaurants, street food, ice cream, plus caught an amazing fire show and tried to stay cool in the intense heat.

We made the most of the barrier reef once again with lots of water time to cool off each afternoon.

Cayos Cochinos

As the weather calmed, we took advantage of fair winds and sailed to Cayos Cochinos. This is a Honduran National Park and nature preserve, quite close to and in view of the mainland.

These islands and reefs are pristine and stunningly beautiful. Park rangers met us on by boat and led us to a mooring, where we paid a $96 fee for the month ($46pp).

The residents of these islands are Garifuna, formerly enslaved people exiled from St Vincent in the Caribbean who resettled in Central America. Fishing and tourism are their mainstays.

There is a presence of local tourists and mainland visitors on day trips in small boats, but in small numbers only. One of the islands houses an ongoing “Survivor” set on the beach, used for a reality show. We had heard stories of this in the past and we were asked not to land on the island where they were filming.

Yet again, water time was a reprieve from the heat and a highlight. That and the peaceful bay with just Reach and Kookaburra enjoying nature and the rhythm of the days. There was no cell signal or internet (although that will change with our new Starlink).

Utila

We only lasted a few days in Utila before we set sail in to Rio Dulce. It wasn’t that we didn’t enjoy the island, but the oppressive heat was truly taking a toll. Utila is a relatively small island, which we easily traversed by golf cart in a half-day.

We spent the second half of the day stopping into the Utila Brewing Company to enjoy some excellent IPAs and lunch.

The microbrewery’s on both Roatán and Utila were two very welcome changes from our last visit here ten years ago.

We love craft beers and have been thrilled to get some on our last several stops.

Our main saloon AC was still the old model, as we were waiting for Velair 16 BTU unit to be released. Without a working generator, cooking was painful. Once overheated, it took us forever to cool down enough to get any sleep. Our new Velair 10 BTU AC in the hull was put to use in the evenings for sleeping, thank goodness.

At this point, we were waving the white flag due to excessive heat. We decided to sail to Guatemala at the start of June. This would allow us to dock with full AC and the boat safe while we traveled to the States for a family visit.

The water was inviting, and in the future, it is a place I would like to scuba dive, as well as Roatán. However, that will have to be done on our return visit after Guatamala.