April, 2005:

After about 10 days in Roatan, we decided it was time to try to get to Guanaja. Lotte and Pauline were getting a little restless because their time in the Bay Islands and aboard Andiamo was winding down, and they wanted to get as much in as possible. So, we decided that we would head up the northside of Roatan, anchor at a place called Big Bight for the night, and then continue on in the morning towards Guanaja. The east trades were blowing, which meant that we would be dealing with pretty much head-on winds the whole way to Guanaja. This meant doing at least two wide tacks to get us at the right angle with the wind so we can head in to Guanaja.

We left West End in Roatan a little later than I would have liked, about 2-3pm. This gave us about 2 good hours of daylight for us to get into Big Bight’s anchorage, which should have been more than enough. We had a brisk sail up the Roatan Coast, doing a tack off and back onto the coast towards the entrance at Big Bight. When we got close to the Big Bight entrance. I checked our position on the chart against landmarks and a visual map of the coast. It all looked like we were in the right position. I noticed that there were no markings to show the entrance through the reef into Big Bight. The chart showed that the opening in the reef was quite wide, about 100 meters. So I carefully motored in, with Lotte at the bow watching for any reef heads.

The water stayed deep for quite a time as we got closer and closer into the reef. Just when I thought we were “in”, we rubbed a reef head pretty good. We were stuck for a while until we found the deep water just to port of us. I managed to get into that deep water, which looked to be the same deep water area that we were on to get into the bight. When we rubbed up on the reef, I felt that it put a strain on the rudder, and didn’t want to damage it any further. So I opted to turn around and head back out into open water rather than risk hitting something else and risking further rudder damage.

The sun was going down fast, and the last thing I wanted to do was get stuck on a reef in the dark. It was also too late for us to get back to West End with any daylight. So I suggested that we do a night sail offshore, and then head into Guanaja at first light. Considering it was only about 6pm, that meant that we would be sailing for a good 12 hours before getting to Guanaja. Lotte and Pauline agreed, and I set our course. We were going to go northeast of Roatan for about 30 miles, and then head in Southeast towards Guanaja and pass through between the east end of Roatan and Guanaja, this should give us the track we needed for 12 hours of sailing time.

So we headed out into some pretty steady wind of about 16-18 knots. We had our “borrowed” main from Refuge on the mast, and raised it up. Though it was a little small for my rig, it handled pretty well. We were on our track and sailing for what was to be the next 4-5 hours on this course. The further out we got, the higher the seas got, and the wind. For about the last hour of the leg, it turned into quite a bash-fest. Winds kicked up to 25 knots. We dropped the main, and sailed only on the Genoa. Pauline, who already was not 100%, started getting pretty seasick. Lotte also was not feeling very good from these seas. Guess I was just used to it, because I didn’t feel a thing. After doing our tack back towards Guanaja, the girls didn’t feel much better. I was hoping that the new angle would help make things a little easier on the boat, but it didn’t. Plus, we were facing a fierce current heading from the east at about 3-4 knots! This made our forward progress pretty bad. We were only gaining about 2-3 knots over ground per hour. At this rate, we wouldn’t get to Guanaja for another 10-12 hours!

After seeing the condition of the girls, and the fact that we were getting bashed pretty good by the seas, I made the call to turn the boat back and head to Roatan. At least in that direction, we’d be going with the seas, and that would make the ride a lot easier on them, as well as the boat. As much as I wanted to get to Guanaja, it simply wasn’t worth busting our butts and wearing ourselves out to do it.

After about 4-5 hours, we were back along the Roatan coast, heading toward the West End. Since none of us were thrilled about going right back to West End, I offered up the idea of going around to the south-facing side of the island. There were several coves and anchorages that we can check out and relax there for the day. If the weather proved to be more favorable the next day, we can head up to Guanaja via the south side of Roatan, rather than the north. My thinking was that the current would not be as strong on that side. So we passed West End, went around the island’s West Point, and proceeded on to Dixon Cove, which was about halfway up the island. It looked to be a nice peaceful anchorage, home to a few fishing boats.

The cove’s entry looked to be pretty easy on my charts and guides (but then again, so was Big Bight’s). Despite the very sinister-looking reefs on either side of the cove, the west one being crowned by a massive freighter that found its final resting place on it, the entrance was pretty deep, wide and painless. Much to my relief, I’d had my quota of hairy reef entrances!

We set our anchor at the inside end of the cove, and did some swimming, and prepared for lunch and dinner. Pauline swam over to a secluded beach off the boat and hung out there. I guess that meant that she was feeling better. I dove in to check the anchor to make sure that we were set ok. That night, we watched some DVD’s, and crashed early. Everybody was still pretty tired from the night before when we were getting bashed on our way to Guanaja. I turned on the anchor watch alarm on the laptop to make sure that if we dragged on our anchor, I would hear about it. This alarm goes through the boat’s stereo system, and if the boat moves more than 20 meters away from the point I set on the GPS, the alarm goes off.

At some point, one of the girls turned off the stereo, so the alarm would not be heard. This was unfortunate, because not only did we drag that night, we dragged clear across the cove! To the OTHER SIDE! I woke up to use the head, when I thought I’d pop my head out of the companionway hatch to see what was happening. Behind us there were nothing but TREES! Less than 25 feet away from us! I looked outside forward, and saw that we were now about 200 yards from where we were anchored before. Lucky for us, we were the only sailboat in the anchorage, and there was nothing anchored behind us. So we literally dragged almost a straight line to the other side of the cove. The anchor found some good mud to set in as we dragged, and it held again. While I was pretty freaked out at this whole thing, I was also glad and relieved that we set again, and didn’t end up on any shallow reefs or worse, in the mangroves and trees that were now towering right behind us!

After making absolutely sure that we were not dragging any further, we secured the anchor, and went back to sleep. The next morning, we headed out of Dixon Cove. The weather was ok, but not great. There were some heavy swells pumping in from the East, which is the direction we wanted to go to get to Guanaja. We decided to just give up on Guanaja for this trip, and head back to West End, where we would spend a couple more days before heading back to Utila. Going with the seas, it was a pretty easy and fast trip.

So I guess there’s always next time to try for Guanaja.

So, after Raf left with Miet and Cil, Lotte and Pauline, the 2 Dutch girls with whom I worked with back in Guatemala, became Andiamo’s newest crew. I didn’t know what to expect, but figured that I’d at least give them a chance to help get the boat to Roatan.

A couple of days after they came aboard, we got the boat ready to head out to Cayos Cochinos, and then onward to Roatan.

We left for Cayos Cochinos on March 26th. We had to mostly motorsail there because winds were pretty light. But it was a nice trip nonetheless. The sea was smooth, saw lots of dolphins and sharks on the way too! The cays were spectacular to head into, and we got a mooring with few problems. I say that because when Pauline first tried to grab the mooring line with the boathook, she dropped it into the water. She dove in after it as I spun the boat back around. She handed the boat hook and the mooring line up to Lotte, who was on deck. She managed to get the line secured, and all was well. But it was funny the way it all happened.

The weather was pretty excellent. The evening we got there, I did notice that the boat’s deck had gotten quite dingy and dirty, so I proclaimed our first morning anchored in Cayos Cochinos a working morning. Lotte and Pauline didn’t seem to like that too much, but they came around to the idea of actually doing some work. We spent the first couple hours of the morning scrubbing the deck with bleach and sea water. We did manage to get it pretty clean.

After that, we dinghied into shore over by Plantation Beach to check things out. It was VERY quiet out there, and we pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves. We didn’t mind. We walked around, laid out in the sun, and got a little burned in the process. We headed back to the boat for lunch, and swam around the boat for the rest of the afternoon. Quiet, lazy and relaxing in the sun. These are the kinds of days that you wish you had more of when you are cruising.

The second day in Cayos Cochinos, we took a half-day sail around the cays to check things out. This time, the winds were pretty brisk, blowing over 20 knots. We had some excellent sailing that afternoon. I would have gone clear around Cayo Grande, but Pauline was starting to look a little seasick, so after about 3 hours of some very fun sailing, I headed back to the anchorage, where we barbecued some chicken and had some beer watching the sunset.

The third morning, we headed out through the reef pass between Cayo Grande and Cayo Pequeno, and headed on straight to Roatan. The winds were right where we wanted them to be for a nice close reach sail to Roatan. The girls were happy because there was going to be no tacking on this trip.

Seas were rolling, and the winds were easily gusting over 20 knots. We hit speeds of 9 knots even against the current. It was exhilarating sailing to say the least. Lotte and Pauline were getting a kick out of it, it being the first time they ever saw sailing like this.

When we started getting close to Roatan, I noticed that the winds’ gusts were increasing steadily. Since we were only about 3 or so miles from our destination of French Harbour, I decided to bring the sails in. Because of the strong current pushing on us from the northeast, it was pretty hard to keep the boat pointing into the wind so we can furl in the sails. We struggled in getting the genoa in, and REALLY struggled in getting the main back in. The main actually didn’t furl very well at all. It didn’t go all the way in and that meant that a big part of it was sticking out of the mast and flogging. At this point, I just wanted to get the boat into French Harbour, so we would deal with the main later.

Getting into French Harbour with such currents, and winds was interesting to say the least. Especially with the rusting wreck of a big ol’ freighter on your port side there to remind you that you are passing through some nasty reef! We made it in nonetheless, and looked for a good spot to drop our hook. It was strange to me, because there were not many yachts at all in this anchorage. There were only mostly fishing boats and large freighters. I knew that there was another anchorage around the spit that makes up French Harbour’s north side of the entrance. There were a lot more yachts there. I figured we’d drop the anchor where we were, wait for the weather to ease up, and then head over to French Cay Harbour which was on the other side. If all the yachts were there, there had to be a reason for that.

So I thought I found a good spot to drop our hook, just across the channel from the concrete pier where the large freighter ships were tied up. There was another yacht anchored over there, and it looked like he was holding pretty good. We proceeded to drop our anchor just behind that other yacht. That’s when we noticed a dock worker on the pier waving at us, and screaming. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, so he held up a radio. I turned on my radio and he told me that we were anchoring in a spot that was needed for a large freighter to turn in when it arrived, which would be shortly. So we had to move.

So we pulled up the anchor, and headed just ahead of the anchored yacht, and dropped our anchor there about 150 feet in front of the other yacht. We were all surprised at how well and how quickly the anchor got a hold. I was relieved, because there were alot of things to square away on the boat and we were going to start losing light in a couple more hours. We managed to get the genoa re-furled nice and neat, the main however, still needed help. After discussing with the crew, I decided that we should move the boat now over to French Cay rather than the next morning, because I had a feeling that there was going to be a lot of boat traffic in the harbour we were at.

So, less than an hour after we dropped anchor, we were pulling it back up. The anchor windlass started to strain however, and no more chain was coming in. There was a problem alright. It seemed that the anchor was grabbed on to an old mooring line that was on the bottom of the harbor and it would not let it go. The line got taut with the anchor pulling on it about 10 feet below the surface. We could barely make out that the anchor was hooked on good to this pretty thick mooring line.

So, not-so-happily, I donned a mask and jumped into the murky harbor water to see what I can do. This was a touchy situation, because I knew that if I did manage to free up the anchor that the boat would start moving away from me really quickly, with the wind blowing the way it was, and the currents pushing on the boat.

After assessing the situation, I called up to Lotte to let the anchor chain out a little to loosen it from the rope. I went under to see if I can pop the anchor off of it when she would loosen the chain up. After 2-3 rather exhausting tries, I finally got the anchor freed. As I expected, the boat started immediately moving away from me at a rate that there would be no way that I can swim around to the stern steps to get back on. Remember, that this was a VERY narrow and crowded harbor!

I grabbed on to the anchor chain, which was still bobbing in the water, and called out to Lotte to raise the anchor up asap. In a move that would make Indiana Jones proud, I hung on to the anchor chain and had it pull me up to the deck level of the bow. Once there, I clamored on to the deck with a little help from Lotte, and got back on the boat. I ran aft to the cockpit and got to the wheel and gained control of the boat before Andiamo slammed into anything. Whew!

After that, we motored around the spit over to French Cay Harbour, being careful not to hit any of the many reef heads sticking out of the water on the way to the channel. We got into the channel, not before touching some of the shallower reef of course. It was difficult to find a good place to drop our anchor. It was quite crowded and the wind was absolutely howling, considering that the anchorage was pretty unprotected to the northeast. We did manage to find a fairly decent spot, but had a hard time getting our anchor to hold. After about 3 tries we finally did. After setting the first anchor, we set up the dinghy, and I took the fortress anchor out off the bow and dropped it in by hand. This was going to be our insurance that we would not drag regardless of the conditions.

After that was done, we were so exhausted that we had to just call it a night. We watched some DVD’s of Futurama and crashed early.

Our first couple of days in French Harbour were pretty uneventful. We did manage to find the French Harbour Yacht Club, and had lunch there. We also found an excellent (but expensive) supermarket just down the road from the yacht club. The girls needed some cash, so they took a cab to head to a bank.

On the 2nd afternoon that we were there, we saw some unusual activity over at the yacht club bar. There were soldiers all over the place, and employees were moving stuff around. It looked like some kind of high-profile special event was happening. Turned out that there was going to be some kind of soiree that evening for the PRESIDENT OF HONDURAS, who was going to be attending. We were also told that the yacht club was going to be off limits that night to all but invited guests only. All we could think of was that we had to do everything we could to try to get a picture of us with the president. I mean, when do you ever get a chance like that??

So over dinner, we plotted strategy and tried to figure out how we can get into this clambake for our much-coveted photo. Lotte and Pauline were leaning on the angle of getting all dressed and tarted up and just walking in like they were invited (they can be very persuasive, I’ve seen them in action). I would get in as their “bodyguard”. After careful strategizing, planning and analyzing methods of execution, we had a few beers. After that, we were all just a bit too lazy to initiate our plan, and thought it would be better to take a nap instead. We ended up sleeping through the whole shabang. Needless to say, our well-thought-out plan to get a photo with Prez of Honduras failed to materialize in any real way. It would have been cool though.

We started focusing our attention on where we would go next on Roatan, figuring that it would be much easier to accomplish that, and no dressing up would be involved.

Thanks to Raf, and his wonderful cousin Mietsie, I managed to get most of the pics back that were lost by the server/laptop debacle last week. Woo-hoo!

I’ll be re-organizing the pics shortly, and will start posting them up soon. So stay tuned. I’ve already posted up 2 of the lost updates, and should have everything caught up soon.

Thanks alot Raf and Mietsie!

Comment from: Michael Greaney [Visitor]

Like water off a duck……Tony, you just keep on swimming…Glad to hear all is well!
Mike G.

2005-04-24 @ 00:50

Comment from: mietsie [Visitor]

I’m sure I can speak for the both of us, the pleasure was all ours, 🙂

xxx

2005-04-24 @ 15:22

So after 2 nights in French Cay Harbour, we decided that it was time to move to somewhere a bit more upbeat and interesting. We were told that the West End of the island was where we wanted to be. So after getting caught up on internet and provisioning, we decided that we would head over to West End on Saturday morning, April 2nd. The winds were brisk all day Friday and we were hoping that things would stay that way through Saturday.

On Saturday morning, the weather was ok, not great, but ok. It was partly cloudy, with winds were coming from the Southwest at only about 15 knots. It looked like conditions would be fine for the 1 1/2 hour or so ride over to the West End. So about 10:30 AM, we headed out. Not before some blowhard German cruiser got all ridiculous on us for not raising our anchors fast enough for his taste. Apparently he wanted our anchoring spot, and was circling around like a hungry vulture waiting for us to leave. He voiced his sense of inconvenience to us, to which we responded accordingly, and then some.

Anyway, once we left French Cay, we let out both the main and genoa. The winds were still brisk, blowing about 13-15 knots. But by the time that we had both sails out, the winds kicked up to around 18 knots. It was fun sailing for about 30 minutes or so, and then Bam! The winds were now kicking over 20+ knots and getting quite gusty. I decided because of the heavy gusts, that we should bring in one of the sails. So we pulled the genoa in, using the winch to do the furling. It came in without a hitch. Then, about 20 minutes later, the winds eased up, so we let it back out.

This gave us some great sailing with only about 2-3 miles left to get to the West End. That was when all hell broke loose. A squall blew in over us literally out of nowhere and we started getting pelted with massive rain, and hit with winds over 35 knots. We got the genoa back in, albeit a little more difficult than the first time. Then I started the motor, and we tried to get the main in. The main was getting pounded by the gusting winds, and things were compounded by the fact that it was incredibly difficult for us to keep the boat pointing in the wind because of the heavy seas that were slamming us.

The main started flapping out of control within a minute, and that’s when things started really going bad. I noticed a tear on the main right by the clew, and that was all she wrote. Within 30 seconds the main was blowing into shreds. It was a mess. There were pieces of mainsail blowing off the boat in all directions. All the while I was trying to restore some kind of control. We finally were able to maintain some kind of steerage, so I got Lotte to take the wheel and keep Andiamo pointed into the wind. I then went out on deck, which was pretty hairy at least from my perspective, with all the pounding rain, and the main flapping like crazy. If the clew hardware were to hit me, it would be lights out.

I had Pauline help me follow the furling line back in, and I went out to the mast and started hauling in the furling line, trying to furl in what was left of the main. Pauline followed through and hauled in everything I pulled in so it would not fly back out. Within a minute, I had the main furled back in up to where it was shredded. Wow.

The winds had started blowing now more from the Northwest than the Southwest, this meant that going to the West End was out of the question, since that meant that we’d be totally exposed to the wind. So we changed course and headed into Coxen’s hole, which was a couple of miles further east on the island, but safer for us in this wind. We managed to get in there, watching our bimini get a little torn up during the ride.

By the time we got into Coxen’s Hole, the winds were blowing up pretty bad, but the water was fairly calm from the protection of the island. We managed to drop anchor in a fairly open spot just off the airport runway. This would come to haunt us later.

While we were anchoring though, we got hit by a gust of backwind from behind, and it blew the bimini off its two supporting straps on the stern. The bimini was now pointing up into the sky while I was trying to anchor. This has not been a good day.

After managing to anchor, I was able to secure the bimini with a couple of pieces of line. Things returned to some kind of normalcy after a very harrowing past couple of hours.

Pauline, Lotte and I were absolutely exhausted by this time, and we decided after getting the boat back into some kind of order, to just hang out in the salon and watch some dvd’s. Pauline and I were in the middle of getting through the “Lord of the Rings” series, and decided to watch “Return of the King” that afternoon. Lotte, not the LOTR fan, retreated to her cabin for some reading.

About 2 hours into the movie, we heard a knock on deck. I went out to see who it was and was greeted by two Honduran Navy guys. They told me that we had to move our boat away from the airport runway, because it was “too dangerous”. Apparently, they were afraid that a landing plane would hit our mast. While I contemplated the absurdity of this, I tried to also get them to let me stay in that position overnight, because the weather was still pretty crappy. They said no, and we had to move. There was another boat in the anchorage, Kelly and Jan aboard “Refuge”, whom I had met in Utila. They were also told to move, which was even more ridiculous because they were nowhere near the runway compared to us.

So Pauline, Lotte and I donned our foulies, and got out on deck to complete the operation. With LOTR on pause, we proceeded to complete the task of moving to a location more acceptable by the Honduran Navy. The wind was pounding, and the rain was pretty bad. Oh yeah, and it was ALMOST DARK!!!

After moving the boat around this little submerged island in the middle of the anchorage that inexplicably had a lone shack sitting on the top of it, the navy guys assured us that this was a good spot, so we dropped anchor. We were lucky to get a good hold on the first try, so at least that was good. We secured the anchor, and went back down to finish our LOTR viewing.

In the following days, Kelly and Jan would offer to let me use their old main, which though a little small for our rig, would at least give us some horsepower, so I accepted it graciously. Lotte then managed to figure out how to get the sewing machine I had onboard to work. So we took down the bimini, and got all the torn stuff repaired pronto. That was a huge relief. It took about 3 days for the weather to really clear up and stabilize. Once it did, we headed out to the West End, and actually made it there this time.

The adventure continues…

Raf left with Miet and Cil a few days after my birthday. He had to go back to Belgium and the real world. He had spent a lot of time onboard, and become quite a good friend. Unfortunately, our goodbye was very short and quick, and I thought he needed a more appropriate sendoff. So I came up with this seafarer’s ditty one day after having a few Cuba Libres too many…

ODE TO RAF

There once was a landlubber named Raf,
He was Belgian, he made a mean rice pilaf.
He came aboard Andiamo merely a backpacker,
But he would soon become an able anchorman and tacker.

It all started in Mexico, at the Women’s Isle,
Things took a horrible turn in a very short while.
Andiamo needed crew, the captain asked everyone he knew,
But none can be found to board that vessel of blue.

Then two of the captain’s seafaring friends,
A Dutchman and a German who knew the local trends.
They knew the right man who can calm the pandemonium,
To all’s surprise, he came from Belgium.

But the Belgian named Raf had a dilemma,
He didn’t know sailing from his Aunt Emma.
But the captain figured what the hell,
There was nobody else from what he can tell.

So Raf came aboard, he adjusted and made do,
And he soon became quite the worthy crew.
Within weeks of Raf’s timely indenture,
Andiamo was off again for thrill and adventure!

Throughout Mexico, where there were many ports to please,
The libation, the scenery, and most times a steady breeze!
Andiamo made it through Mexico, not always with ease,
But still she made it on through Belize!

And for five moons, the adventures would continue,
New people, new sunsets, and many different venues.
Through it all, Raf braved on and stayed cool,
Especially when he added a new phone number or email to his pool.

The time had come, Raf’s tenure aboard had to end,
Raf had to go home and work his kitty back to a mend.
To Tony and the cats he bid his untimely goodbyes,
And to Andiamo, the vessel that had made him sea-wise.

So many thanks to Raf, who helped make Andiamo a fine home,
May he not take offense to this poem turned tome.
We’ll remember the good times we shared, even when no one is looking,
Yet keep in mind, that we’ll mostly miss his cooking.

Comment from: mietsie [Visitor]

Said it before, but it got lost so I’ll say it again:

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!!

He’ll love it!

And he is loving it,

take care…

BM

2005-04-22 @ 04:40

I’ve managed to get most of what was lost back. Raf had many of the pics from my birthday festivities, which he should be getting my way shortly. I also managed to get a copy of the poem I wrote about Raf. Surprisingly, I was able to remember much of it, but I ended up getting the original version anyway.

So I’m going to start posting up stuff to get the site back up to speed. I’m going to try to be as chronological as possible.

In the meantime, Andiamo is still hanging out in Utila, biding time. I’m still waiting on my new mainsail which should have gotten to La Ceiba last week. There was a big customs snafu, and that slowed everything down. Hopefully I will get word that the sail is there by tomorrow.

Lotte and Pauline left earlier this week for Nicaragua. It was tough to see them go, but they really needed to get out of Utila, that’s for sure. They’re on their way to a couple of stops in Honduras and Nicaragua, and then to Costa Rica, where they will fly out from in June. We’ll be keeping in touch pretty steadily as we’ll all still be working on the school project back in Rio Dulce.

A day after they left, Miet, our friend from Belgium (the one who comes from Raf’s hometown and actually grew up with his ex-girlfriend) showed up on Utila. She’s on the island for a week to take a break from her school project in Antigua, and to get PADI certified. She came over with Linda, who’s from Holland, and of course they were welcome to stay onboard. It’s been nice having them aboard, and we’ve been eating quite well too! They’ll be here til this Sunday.

Other than that, things have been quiet. Just trying to get stuff fixed and squared away and to get the boat ready to head back to Guatemala in a couple of weeks.

NOTE: This is a repost of the original pics taken on my birthday in Utila. Due to a horrendous server move, several posts of mine went bye-bye. This is one of them. I’m going to try to bring up the rest of pics in as chronological order as possible.

My birthday in Utila was an incredible day for me. The people around were people I’d known for mere months or weeks, yet I felt oddly at home with all of them. Utila was a place that has become very dear to me because of the way I got to spend this day on the island. Without further adieu, I want to take this moment to post up the photos of this very special time for me….

Thanks again to Lotte and Pauline, for making this birthday special for me. I’m also very grateful to have been lucky enough to have such a great group of people around me for the day. Raf, Mietsie, Cil, Tony P and all my other Utila friends also made it extra-special. And thanks to Monica and the Tranquila staff for hosting the festivities!

Comment from: mietsie [Visitor]

Woohoo!!!

Finally you got the chance to catch up,

I’m reading all of it, you know,

so … good job captain!

x

2005-06-13 @ 05:29