Utila, Honduras

10 Comments

Heading south from Cozumel the Gulf Stream was in full force, cranking along at three knots, right in our face. I imagine there are ways to mitigate this, by cruising closer to land, but I tend to be a lazy navigator—the shortest distance from Point A to Point B is the way I go, even if that means more hours in the end. So, while winds stayed on the beam around 10 knots the wave action remained sloppy and the boat spent the day getting splashed from every direction.

Grass, grass, and more grass, but not a hint of wildlife. It’s scary how dead the seas feel over here. In Key West we saw exactly one turtle, and a handful of dolphins. In Isla we saw next to nothing—no turtles, no dolphins, and hardly any fish. This passage south was more of the same. No birds, no turtles, no dolphins (though a couple showed up for a few minutes in the middle of the night). The only signs of life were the flying fish.

The sloppy action of the waves forced us to head off any problems with a horchata and dramamine.

Not much to do but watch movies.

Salt piling up.

By late evening the winds had disappeared completely and the Gulf Stream began to run out of energy. The stream had set us back about 40 miles on our first day out.

The kind of sky you want to see while out at sea with night coming on.

The kids slept soundly while Ali and I kept quiet watch through the night. Just two ships appeared on the horizon, one of them lit up so brightly that even the clouds above it were glowing in the sky. About three hours from landfall rain started to show up on the horizon and we kept our fingers crossed that we could plow right through one of them.

It didn’t last long enough, but it was enough to get the first layers of salt off.

Ali had the boat spotless and ready for normal life again within an hour or so of arrival.

We had originally planned to head to Belize and Guatemala but in the end decided to change our plans a bit, for a number of different reasons, most of which pertain to what we want to do with the kids this coming hurricane season and where we’d like to cruise next year. So, while the Rio Dulce sounded interesting, in the end we decided to bypass it and continue south to Utila in the Bay Islands, Honduras.

Playing cruise ship.

Checking in was incredibly simple. Though for some reason Ouest’s passport kept breaking the system. It took about an hour, but for three bucks a person we passed through immigration with up to 90 days, and an additional ten bucks to the Port Captain got us our cruising permit.

The ferry dock in Utila. The building on the left houses Immigration and the Port Captain, and each day trader ships pull up and the locals zip up and down this street to unload whatever has come belonging to them.

Doesn’t take much of a gas station to supply this town.

The produce room at the grocery store was reasonably well stocked.

Figure the guy who climbs up there to work on this stuff gets paid about 50 Lempiras (two dollars) an hour. I wouldn’t get near any of that for one hundred times that amount.

Having Ouest read everything in sight is both a blessing and a curse. She replied to this sign, “I would sneak my drink to Lowe and then get another one.”

Quiet time before bed.

This boat makes it pretty easy to hang the dinghy up out of the water for the night. Not that we’re concerned about our stuff walking off in the night, but man, being left without a dinghy has to be near the top of the list of worries for boaters. Especially in the more far flung locals.

Chepes Beach.

This bay couldn’t be more perfectly situated to the prevailing winds. Only open to the southwest, we’re expecting strong northeast winds for a week. Most of these boats filed in the day after we arrived, just ahead of the winds.

|

10 Comments on “Utila, Honduras”

  1. Howdy,

    Honduras is a wonderful place for scuba diving, and I enjoyed my time there (Feb ’18). The liveaboard had a night watchman aboard the first night while we were still at dock and he carried a machete and all the dive cameras that had been unpacked and put together were placed inside the main salon. You’re not wrong to be so careful.

  2. “Grass, grass, and more grass, but not a hint of wildlife. It’s scary how dead the seas feel over here. In Key West we saw exactly one turtle, and a handful of dolphins. In Isla we saw next to nothing—no turtles, no dolphins, and hardly any fish. This passage south was more of the same. No birds, no turtles, no dolphins (though a couple showed up for a few minutes in the middle of the night). The only signs of life were the flying fish.”

    You’re sailing through huge dead zones caused by agricultural runoff – fertilizers, pesticides, etc. Add to that the BP oil spill catastrophe (and others). It’s an ecological nightmare.

  3. I love Utila! Visit Jewel Cay (and little water Cay uninhibited beach), Chez Lola (if still open for an amazing remote dinner experience) and Hotel Layla / Utila Cays Diving (dive stop) all at other end of island, all small and chill! Lots of kids on Jewel Cay.

  4. Magical…simply magic…I work with several Hondurans, hailing from and or around Roatan and surrounding islands some from the mainland. They speak glowingly of the virtues of growing up there and raising their families there. Goodonyas.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *