Quedate en Casa

Sunrise arrival, West End Roatan

Stay Home our phones say. We are staying home. Home is aboard Wahoo here in Roatan, the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras.

The Bay Islands are very different from mainland Honduras. Their different culture, predominantly English, has meant that the government corruption, drug lords and wars which resulted in a near collapse on the mainland did not happen here. Their economy is tourism related and incomes are higher. More stability all around.

The three main islands that constitute the Bay Islands are Utila, Guanaja, and Roatan though there are numerous other small islands in the group. The estimated population is 71,500 with a majority being on Roatan. These islands were initially settled by the Pech Indians, independent from the Maya. They were hunters and fisherman who traded, by means of well equipped boats, with the immediate mainland and as far away as Yucatan and Jamaica. 

Columbus arrived on his 4th and last voyage around 1502. He, naturally, claimed all he saw for Spain. Despite the fact that Spain opposed slavery, Queen Isabella had no problem authorizing the capture of the islanders. They had been described as “cannibals and opposed to Christianity” so she was probably right. Diego Velasquez, governor of Cuba, organized ships to capture and sell the Indians into slavery. From 1516 until 1536 Cuban and Spanish ships attacked the islands and captured the natives. Only in 1525 when Hernandes Cortez marched to Honduras did this begin to stop, when he offered his protection to the Pech Indians. Today about 3500 Pech descendants live in the Northeastern area of Honduras and try to retain their language and culture. 

in Punta Gorda, Garifuna settlement

Garifuna crafts

Like in Belize, the Bay islands became home to English pirates waiting to attack the Spanish gold ships. The Spanish tried to disperse them but failed. For several hundred years the islands were left to whatever natives had survived and the “Freebooters” (pirates). The first permanent settlement was by these Englishmen in 1742. Not until 1782 did the Spanish take notice that there was an English colony directly supporting pirate activity. A battle was forced and the Spanish succeeded, sort of. Not too much changed but in 1788 England abandoned support of all these settlements from the Miskito Coast through the Bay Islands retaining only what became British Honduras. However, when they needed a place for the 5000 or so Black Caribs they needed to get rid of from St Vincent in the Eastern Caribbean they thought of the Bay Islands. So the fiercely independent minded Black Caribs who could never be forced into slavery on sugar plantations in the Eastern Caribbean were dumped on the beaches of Roatan in 1797. The Black Caribs, descendants of Africans who escaped from a slave ship and married into the Carib islanders from the Windward Islands, became the Garifuna of Honduras and Belize.

England paid no attention but eventually more English from the Cayman Islands immigrated. The Bay Islands were administered through British Honduras (Belize) but mostly left to themselves for nearly another century. A bit of a ruckus went back and forth between the short lived Republic of Central America, the US and Great Britain but the people of the Bay Islands considered themselves British and even after an official handover to Honduras in 1861 it wasn’t until 1902 that they began to realize they weren’t British after all. Today some people still refuse to say where they belong. We were talking to a gentleman about wood. Thanks to Walter we love talking about different woods. Anyway, he referred to the tropical hardwood we were discussing as coming from Spanish Honduras! Loved it!

Stormy day in French Harbor

So how did we end up here you ask? Since our arrival back in the Western Caribbean in 2017 we have divided our sailing seasons between Guatemala and Belize. Lots to enjoy in both places. This year we decided to venture beyond the reef. So together with our buddies on Alta Mae we set sail. We left Placencia, Belize around noon and had a lovely star studded overnight sail to West End Roatan. We were anchored and ready for a nap by 10am on February 26. On the 27th, while New Orleans was celebrating, we cleared in with the Port Captain. No thoughts of what was about to happen. Severe weather with high Northwest winds made us sail “around the corner” to the more protected anchorage in French Harbor. We weathered two Northers there and saw winds hitting 40 knots for many days. Slept well with our new, last year, Mantus anchor holding firm. 

 Scenes from French Harbor where we celebrated birthdays, visited an iguana refuge and saw an entire island complete with caged white tigers developed for the benefit of cruise ship passengers.

By March 13th we'd enjoyed the sights in French Harbor and Fantasy Island Marina enough. Time to start our Bay Island Adventuring.

Wahoo & Alta Mae at anchor

The plan was to continue visiting the many inlets along the Southside of Roatan intending to make our way slowly to Guanaja. HaHa the gods laughed slyly. By the time the two hour sail from French Harbor to Jonesville Bight was done the Bay Islands was under a lock down order and cruise ships were being turned away. Tourists started scrambling for flights to their home country and the world had changed. Our next decision was whether to stay put or immediately head back to Guatemala where we keep Wahoo for hurricane season. The information we were receiving was that the Guatemala border was closing in two days to European Passports and a few days later for those with U.K. passports. Canada and the US to follow shortly. It seemed so strange as we cruisers had all been in either Belize or the Bay Islands neither of which had any cases of what was now named Covid 19. We waited a few days as informed sources were saying that new orders would soon reach Raul, the port captain in Livingston, Guatemala, allowing us entry depending on where we had been, not country of our passport. Many, many discussions followed on the Northwest Caribbean Net over SSB, over Facebook and over the local VHF nets. But new orders never came and we were now locked down in Roatan and locked out of Guatemala. Some boats stayed put, some left for Isla Mujeres, Mexico, the last remaining open port in the entire Caribbean; and eventually some boats left for their home countries. So here we are among the boats that stayed put.

Our new harbor - view from the hills above Jonesville Bight

gibnut

bananas, Yea Mon!

If we could have chosen a place to be, I think it would still be right here. To begin with, we were, and still are very well provisioned. Because things are less expensive in Guatemala, especially booze, we fill up Wahoo’s freezer and wine cellar before we even left The River (as Rio Dulce is fondly called by us who stay there). Then in Belize there are things one must get like tamales, meat pies, Dis Da Fu We chicken and Running W bacon, so we tuck a few more things away. By the time we arrived in Roatan our freezer was groaning. But once in French Harbor and again in Jonesville, Warren, a local fisherman, enticed us with yellow tail snappers, grouper filets and lobster tails. Oh My! Darryl, another local guy, brought us stalks of native bananas and coconut water. At one point after swimming a guy came up and offered Gibnut, a delicacy in Belize. Roy couldn’t possibly refuse, so Gibnut was added to our menu. 

grocery shopping in Oakridge

Kent getting fuel

Jonesville Bight is one of the inlets that connects to other inlets and small villages by a series of mangrove tunnels. Created either by the Pech Indians or the pirates, maybe both. These are lovely and they allow safe waterway travel inside the reef. So when the major grocery store, Eldons, is closed we can scrounge around at the little markets each town has. We’ve been able to find all the staples you use up regularly like flour and eggs. Basic veggies are also around if we look hard. Tomatoes, onions, potatoes and green peppers are easy; cabbage, carrots and cucumbers are more challenging. Best of all there’s a small marina here that will sell us RO, reverse osmosis, water to fill our tanks. We haven’t had rain in a month and neither our boat nor Alta Mae has a fresh water maker aboard, so an absolute must. Luckily diesel, propane and gasoline for the dinghy engine is available in one or another of the villages. 

Reflections in a mangrove tunnel 

Before I forget let me say how wonderful the governor of the Bay Islands is. He quickly locked everything down and tested those most vulnerable. We have no cases on any of the Bay Islands and no one is allowed to go from one island to another. No one is allowed to arrive at all. The Governor gives a daily briefing in Spanish and English. It is reasoned, calm, efficient, consistent and effective. What a concept! There is a 24/7 flotilla of volunteers and coastal guards circling the islands with an extra boat stationed in each inlet overnight. 

Ellen, Roy. Shelly & Kent out to watch the full moon.

Today, April 22, mainland Honduras has 510 cases and 46 deaths (5 deaths/million) but they too are keeping everyone at home. Belize hasn’t had a new case in 8 days. They have a total of 14 cases and 2 deaths (5 deaths/ million). Guatemala is doing the best if you look at deaths per million. They have 314 cases and 8 deaths, 77 of the cases arrived when the US sent back sick immigrants. (.4 deaths/million). All of these countries are well aware that their health systems cannot handle what could be coming so they all moved on containment as soon as it became an obvious threat. Should they have moved sooner? Yes, but with the US downplaying what they knew of the virus and the way these countries have been taught to look to the US, it was a foregone conclusion that they wouldn’t have acted sooner. But I can't help but ask who's the s#*thole countries now, who's 3rd world now?

newly painted steering pedestal

clean clothes

Walks, swimming, boat projects fill our days so not very different from regular life aboard. Well other than we can’t sail. It's thinking of the future that's hard. As, it is for everyone, we wonder what kind of world we will find when we learn to handle this crisis. What will our financial life look like? Will we, our friends and family survive? The US seems to be shattering before our very eyes. Definitely, the world order established after WWII will end and something else will take its place. This has happened before but it makes for a very insecure future and many sleepless nights. 

They mean it - stay out! Here villagers from Oakridge and the Coast Guard make sure no one leaves a supply boat.

Here in the harbor at Jonesville there are four boats, all from Rio Dulce. Tulum lll plus another boat from Tortugal Marina, Patience, with Ellen aboard. Now that Eldon’s grocery can open on a limited basis Ellen has volunteered to go once a week for whatever we can’t find locally. Best of all are Kent and Shelley on Alta Mae, sharing problems, small triumphs and happy hours with them has kept us all sane. We couldn’t have better friends to go through a pandemic with!

Come on. 

Take a little trip through the mangrove tunnel.