Captain's Log

Double click on any of the pictures to enlarge or view all pictures in the 2007 Photo Gallery.

02-25-2007

We decided to go for a day sail with our friends Martha and Phil.  It was a Sunday and a beautiful day as we left the dock at Lagoon Marina.  We decide that we would just go out and sail to Cayos Cochinos and back and do some fishing.  We got out about 10 miles and started catching fish.  First fish on was a Bonita and then a nice Wahoo.  As we were sailing along our friends Toni and Rita that own Lagoon Marina came along side our sailboat with their high speed power boat named Guidditch.  They wanted to tell us “Hi” and invite us in to a restaurant on the island for lunch.  We were having way to much fun fishing to stop so we continued on.  We circled the island and then headed back to Lagoon Marina.  We caught so many fish that on the way back we decided that we would release any more that we caught.  We caught a total of one Wahoo and thirteen Bonita.  We released the last three Bonita on the way back.  We had a great day with Martha and Phil.  They both got to pull in fish and we had a great time.   We got back to the dock at 4:00 and had enough time to enjoy some of the fish we caught with fellow sailors, Neil from Attitude, who cooked some of the fish we caught and Pat and Susan from Orchid Lady joined all of us.  It was a fun day with good food and great friends.

03-03-2007

Today we are going to help Stefanie, Toni and Rita’s daughter celebrate her 15th birthday.  The whole marina is decorated and lots of food is prepared.  Stefanie has invited 80 friends for this celebration.  There was a pool party, food and drinks and lots of music.  The kids all seem to have a great time and the adults did too.  Stefanie talked a bunch of the boys at the party to help her throw he dad, Toni in the pool with all his clothes on.  It was great fun for the kids.  The rest of the adults stayed away from the pool after that since the kids were ready to grab anyone who came into the pool area without a swim suit on.  Greg helped by serving up all kinds of soft drinks to the kids and Judy helped make and serve the food to the kids.  We had a great time and Stefanie was very happy with how her party turned out.

03-08-2007

After two months of helping out at Lagoon Marina it is time for us to catch up with our buddy boat, Kristiana that we will sail to Panama with.  We tell all our good friends in La Ceiba, Phil and Martha good bye and also Toni, Rita Stefanie, Florian and all the staff at Lagoon Marina farewell and we leave Lagoon Marina.  We have made many friends here in Honduras, but it is time to see some new places and meet some more new friends.

We sail to Cayos Cochinos to spend the night and clean the bottom of the boat.  We are invited to join Hoss and Lori of Eagles Nest for sundowners, conversation and relaxation.  They have built a home on the island and love having the cruisers come by and visit.  We have known Lori and Hoss over two years and enjoy visiting with them when we get a chance. 

Meanwhile back in the states, Judy’s brother Jeff, his wife Mary and their youngest son Ross are having a celebration.  Ross has been in boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.  He graduated on February 22, 2007, and is honored with Academic Excellence.  He was also a group leader for his troop.  Judy’s Uncle Bob, who retired from the air force and made San Antonio his home, was also able to attend the graduation.  We are all very proud of Ross as he moves on to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas where he will spend three month.  After that we will have to let you know what he is up to and where he is going.

03-09-2007

At 6:30 we pull the line off the mooring ball at Cayos Cochinos and head for Barbareta, which is the island to the east of Roatan in the Bay Islands.  There we meet up with our buddy boat Kristiana.  Other boats that are there and who we want to spend some time with are Moon Slipper with Mike and Glenda aboard and Cindy and Rick from Dragon Fly. 

The next morning KaijaSong pulls up anchor as they need to go to Jonesville to pick up some parts and later the next day Maestro with Sam and Wendy on board come sailing in.  That evening Lone Star Love invites everyone in the anchorage over for Happy Hour.  There were lots of us in the cockpit, but it was great fun and lots of conversation.

Barbareta is a lovely island and is privately owned.  No one is allowed to go on the island without permission and that is OK by us because it has kept the island very pristine.  In the evening you can watch pairs of parrots fly from their feeding grounds at the west end of the island to their nesting ground to the east end of the island.  In the morning they fly back to the feeding areas again.  This all goes on and can be observed from the anchorage.  We have also enjoyed looking for iguanas sunning themselves in the trees in the morning sun light.  They are huge, without the tails they are two to three feet long and orangish gold color which makes them easy to spot as they warm themselves in the sun.

03-15-2007

We are ready to head for Guanaja, which is the most eastern island in the Bay Island chain.  The passage between Barbareta and Guanaja is only about twelve miles, but the water tends to become a washing machine between the two so it tends to not be a very comfortable sail.  We were told that if you sail between the two islands on a slack tide that it tends to flatten out, so we are going to try it.  Leaving Barbareta the winds are 12 to 15 knots and the seas are 3 to 5 feet.  We crash into a few big ones and then once between the two islands it flattens out, so there must have been something to the slack tide theory, because it worked for us.  We caught a Bonita and a Black Fin Tuna in the waters between the two islands so it made for a fun sail.  We were anchored in El Bight, Guanaja at 1:45.

We have been enjoying Guanaja since we have been here.  The supply boats all come in on Friday so that is the day we all head into the settlement for fresh veggies and fruits.  There is also internet there and we have a chance to check our land based email and look at the internet weather sites.  We are looking for a good weather window to make our passage 150 miles east to the Virvarillo Cays off the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua.  This sounds like a short distance and it is, but the problem is that east is the direction that the wind blows from most of the time and that is why we must wait for the wind to go calm and the seas to flatten otherwise we will be crashing straight into the wind and seas.  From there it is all down wind to Providencia and San Andres and then on to Panama.

While we are in Guanaja we go back and forth from the anchorage at El Bight to Josh’s Cay.  El Bight is appropriately named because of the huge number of vicious sand flies that will fly all the way out to your anchored boat and bite the living daylights out of you.  If the wind is not blowing over 15 knots the bugs are there.  So we enjoy spending most of our time at Josh’s Cay. 

Josh’s Cay is a private island owned by Graham Thompson.  Graham has it set up for tourist with a bar, restaurant, a few very nice hotel rooms that have all the comforts of home.  For us as cruisers, he offers free mooring balls to tie to, a bar, restaurant, free ice, water and internet.  The island is very beautiful and very well maintained so it is the place were we go and hang out with the other cruisers.  The drinks and beer are really cold and the food is great.  With the internet close by we can watch the weather very closely so we can time our passage.

03-26-2007

We have five boats gathered together at Josh’s Cay that are waiting to make the passage.  Today the weather is looking good for a departure on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.  We are all keeping our fingers crossed hoping that the seas will flatten and the winds will stay low with a more northerly component.  If the magic combination comes together we will all set sail.       

03-28-2007

03-29-2007

Just as we were anchoring a nice rain shower came and washed all the salt off the boat.  What more could we ask for.  We just kept working on deck while it rained; it felt so good after the long sail.  We fixed a big breakfast and took a well deserved nap.

When we caught the fish last night we told Kristiana we would have a fish eating party after we arrived.  So that evening we did just that.  We had Sonny and Kay from Valentina and Doug and Rayene from Kristiana over to eat the Maui Maui.  It was delicious and well deserved after the hard sail.  After that great meal we slept so well all night, it was great.

Now it is on to what we came here to do.  FISHING!

04-01-2007

04-03-2007

Today is our fourteenth anniversary and it is Sonny's from Valentina's fifty-eighth birthday.  To celebrate, Orchid Lady invites the entire anchorage over to their boat for a celebration.  It was really nice to get together with so many boaters.  There were nineteen total on Orchid Lady.  What a crowd!

04-04-2007

All the boats except four get a nice weather window and head on south to Providencia.  There are four boats remaining.  Three of those boats being Kristiana, Valentina and Lone Star Love decide to go to Cayos Becerro, which is about six miles from where we are currently anchored.

There is a small island with two fishermen from Jamaica living there.  They catch fish in fish traps and a boat comes every month and collects their catch and takes it to Jamaica.   Very interesting folks to visit with and they are happy to have someone new to talk to.

The fishing here is very good and the fish are really big.  On Friday Greg got a twenty-five inch Hogfish.  It was a really beauty.         

04-07-2007

Our little group of boats decides to move again to an area called Cayos Cajones or also know as the Hobbies.  We arrive while the sun is really high in the sky, which was really good as there were many patches of coral that we needed to move around.  We got our anchors down in a very nice location that is protected by a reef from the northeast around to the south.   About a mile or so out from the reef in front of us is another outer reef that also helps to protect the anchorage that the three boats are anchored in.

There is a small island just to the south of were we are anchored with a population of two fishermen who live there for three months at a time.  They go out fishing every day in their small cayucos and then they salt and dry their fish.  If they get a shark they cut the fins off and dry them.  All of their fish products are picked up when a supply boat comes and brings supplies and changes out the fisherman with two more that will spend another three months fishing, salting and drying fish.  They have no power so there is no refrigeration and no lights.  They exist in a very primitive isolated world, but are happy that we stop by and visit with them.  For the three boats, Kristiana, Valentina and Lone Star Love, we are enjoying the snorkeling and fishing.  Greg has been able to spear a hogfish every day. Judy even speared her first fish and it was a hog.  So it has been lots of fun.

We will stay here for a few more days and when the winds start to come out of the north we will head south to Providencia.  We are hoping to stop along the way, but will have to wait to see if the winds are settled enough to stop.  The place we want to check out is just a small reef without very much protection so we will wait to see what the winds do.

04-14-2007

04-17-2007

The winds have settled and it is a good opportunity for us to make our next passage around the corner and south. We want to stop at Quita Sueno if the seas are flat and spend a few days.  This is an area that has a reef, but it is not a breaking reef so it offers no protection if the wind should come up.

While we were underway to Quita Sueno we had the fishing rods out and were catching more fish then we needed so Greg was throwing them back.  We caught a total of six Bonita, one huge Barracuda, one big jack and two really nice King Mackerel.  We kept one of the Bonita to use for bait and one of the King Mackerel.  Sunset was coming and we pulled the lines in for the night.  We didn't need any more fish at all.

The next morning Greg wanted to put the fishing lines out again, but Judy told him that if he did that the only fish he could keep would be a really nice Maui Maui.  So thirty minutes later what does Greg pull in….a nice 45 inch Maui Maui!

We arrive early in the morning and we nose up into an area that is about fifteen feet deep and between coral heads and drop the anchor.  It is like being anchored in the middle of the ocean.  There is nothing breaking in the water around us.  We go out searching around for a nice place to go fishing and find lots of reef all around the boat.  We however do not find any fish to spear and are amazed that there are very few fish around.

Rayene on Kristiana offers to make us some green curry fish with some of the fish that we caught while we were underway so that evening after we arrive she prepares dinner for all of us.

The next day we decide to take the whaler to check out some of the big ship wrecks that mark the reef around the area.  Years ago before sophisticated electronics, these ships must have gotten off course and ran up on the reef. Since the reef is not breaking it would be difficult to see and easy to make the mistake.  Now they are just huge piles of rusting steel.  The water in this area is very clear and beautiful for snorkeling.  We find some really huge conch and take some home to put in the freezer.  They will be good for conch fritters or fried cracked conch.

That evening we have Doug and Rayene over for more of the King Mackerel that we caught on the way to Quita Sueno.  It was great and we had a nice evening together.  We will continue our sail to Providencia tomorrow.  We will go to Low Cay, which is just outside of Providencia.  We will stay there till Monday morning and then head into Providencia to check into the country of Colombia.

04-23-2007

04-25-2007

Several of the boats anchored in Providencia want to rent motor scooters and tour around the island.  The crews from Moonlight, Yellow Rose and Lone Star Love head into the town early to rent the scooters.  The island is only four miles long and two miles wide, but we thought it would be fun.  We head out on the west side of the island as they say that the land crabs are doing their march to the sea to lay their eggs.  We get to a section of the road and it is closed due to all the crabs crossing, so we walk down the road and look at all the crabs.  Finally it gets late enough in the day that the crabs stop their march and the road is then opened up and we get our scooters and continue on our circumnavigation of the island.  We go down every road there is, check out every beach that we can find and see what there is to see.  We all stop and have lunch and continue our ride.  We make it around the island by 12:30, so we all decide to just ride back around and see if we missed any thing.  The population of the island is about 4500 so there is not much here and not much going on. This is just a quiet little island with quiet, but very friendly people, where most everyone speaks English.

04-27-2007

It's Friday and Mike and Gloria aboard Windfree suggest that we should all go out for pizza and there is a place that serves pizza called the "Pizza Place".  Our group includes the crews from Moonlight, Ron and Yen, Yellow Rose, Gary and Renata and Calypso, Nick and Karen.  The pizza was really good and all of us had a chance to visit and hear lots of good stories.

04-28-2007

Gary and Renata invite us over to Yellow Rose to have Texas chili.  Do they sound like they are from Texas, well your right?  They are headed north and we are headed south and sure wish that we could spend some more time together.  We told them about our favorite spots in the Bay Islands and Belize and our most recent favorite spot, Cayos Cajones.  They were going to travel with Windfree and both boats told us that they were going to make a stop there.

04-29-2007

Kristiana and Lone Star Love pull out of Providencia at 4:50 am to sail to San Andres which is 58 miles to the south. We have a rolly but nice sail.  The fishing was great too.  At about 11:00 am both reels start to sing and we have fish on both rods.  The fish on the left rod is going right and the fish on the right is swimming left.  We don't want them to get tangles so we both reel in the lines.  We have two, nice Maui Maui and manage to get both of them safely on board.  Greg gets them cleaned and Judy gets the filets bagged and into the refrigerator.  We how have so much fish that we have to stop fishing and Greg hates to have to stop fishing.

We arrive in San Andres and had the anchor down at 4:15 pm.  While we were coming into the anchorage we were greeted by an old friend, a catamaran named Morgan.   What a pleasant surprise!  We have not seen Morgan since we were in the Rio Dulce River back in July and August of 2004.  When Sharda and Dave left the Rio they went to Panama.  They have been spending most of their time in Panama, with occasional visits to the Colombian island of San Andres.  They come over and see us shortly after we anchor and we give them some of our catch of the day. Doug from Kristiana swims over to our boat after checking his anchor and we give him some of the catch of the day for their dinner as well.  We still have a lot of fish, but not as much as we did.  We cooked some up for dinner and it was the best!  Tomorrow we will check into San Andres. 

After the check in was completed, Sharda and Dave wanted to show us around the town.  This is a very interesting place.  It is like being anchored on the Las Vegas strip.  There are huge hotels right on the beach, casinos, lights, music, party boats navigating around the harbor at night playing loud music.  There are jet skis and windsurfers with unskilled drivers that look like they are going to run into the boat every time you look up.  High speed power boats going full throttle thru the anchorage all day long.  Way too busy of a place for us, but we find all the good grocery stores and bakeries and start to restock the boat.  We even find Old Milwaukee beer, $11.00 a case.  We have not had any American beer in so long we buy two cases.  Sharda and Dave have been great tour guides and we all have dinner at The Gourmet Shop that evening. They had ribs on the menu and of course that got Greg's attention.  They were pretty good, but still not as good as the ones our good friend Richard, back in Houston smokes up.  They did satisfy the craving till we get some of Richard's ribs in June when we fly to Houston.