Bobs_Honduras_Guide » Page 1 of 13

Those who have traveled Honduras’ Islas de la Bahia will carry florid memories of Caribbean cruising, gunkholing and, if time and skills permitted, Kodachrome snorkeling and diving. Yet the Bay Islands can be a cruiser’s frustration a well, situated as they are along the wind arrows of the eastern trades.

For some the Bay Islands are ports of destination with preset return schedules to Florida or Gulf Coast U.S. For others they’re a crossroads at the approach of hurricane season – some of the cruising fleet skating off the wind north from Panama and the Eastern Caribbean, the rest awaiting a weather window sufficient for a feasible beat “around the corner” (Cabo Garcias a Dios, Honduras) to the Columbia islands of Providencia and San Andrés and farther south. In either case, boats visiting the area with SSB capability will want to be aware of the Northwestern Caribbean Net, meeting daily at 14:00 Z (8:00 a.m. CST) and the Panama Connection Net, daily at 13:30 Z (8:30 a.m. EST).

Casting off from St. Petersburg, Florida in February 2003 for our third passage to the Western Caribbean, the Bay Islands were once again a destination of choice, but this time we determined to round the corner for cruising grounds in lower latitudes as well.

The major Bay Islands (Utila, Roatan and Guanaja – along with five smaller ones and 65 cays) are the geological products of up-thrusts and some volcanic activity along a series of faults along the escarpment of the Bartlett Trough. Highest island elevations range from a maximum of just over 300 feet on Utila (Pumpkin Hill) to more than 1,300 feet on Guanaja to the east. Historically the islands had a checkered past -- Payan Indians, removed by the Spanish, followed by loads of buccaneers praying upon the Spanish Main, then English suzerainty, relinquished to Honduras in 1876. Though neglected for many years by mainland Honduras, that era has passed. The islands are now very much Honduran, though with a thoroughgoing bilingual legacy of English as well as Spanish.

Reaching the most westerly of the Bay Islands, Utila, requires no more than a short overnight passage from either Livingston, Guatemala (at the mouth of the Rio Dulce) or from any of the southernmost Belize anchorages.