Thursday 3 March, Honduras, day 1, Guanaja: Check-in at the unique town of Lower Cay (Sheen Cay). Keel inspection. Fly drone. Evening drinks at Graham’s Place.
We are up early with the one-hour time difference helping us out of bed. It was a wonderful night’s sleep, which is usually the case following a passage but particularly so in this peaceful anchorage.
Over breakfast we debate whether we should go with Cloudy Bay the 3.5miles to town (reanchoring nearby) or just head off in the dinghy. The water is super calm this morning, so we decide on the latter and at 9am we are on our way. We hug the shoreline for most of the way, where there are a few scattered houses, each with their own little beach. Not in any super wealthy style, but almost certainly owned by foreigners.
We dock the dinghy on a fuel dock where they seem perfectly happy for us to do so. It’s so refreshing after US and Mexico not to get either a big “no docking here” or “that will be $10 to tie up your dinghy”. We are back in a land of generosity. And that is just the start of it.
As we walk from the fuel dock we are instantly into a maze of narrow pathways between buildings. There are no roads in this town, not even bicycles – the paths are too narrow. Quickly we are greeted by a guy called Hyde who tells us he is going in the direction of the port office and that we should follow him. Again, our suspicion is there will be a charge, but no, this is just the nature of people here. As we walk with Hyde, with each and every person he passes there is a greeting and sometimes a short conversation. Sometimes in English, others in Spanish. These islands, and particularly this town, were settled by the English. Well, truth is, like many Caribbean islands, “ownership” had passed back and forth between Spanish and English, with English ending up dominating. But now under Honduras, Spanish immigration is gradually transforming the population into Spanish speaking.
After weaving our way through what can only be described as corridors, it opens in the main thoroughfare, and Hyde shows us briefly where “the fire” had destroyed 1/3 of the town. The fire was last October, and it clearly ravaged through the buildings that are literally on top of one another. Even in the windless conditions it had quickly spread across the town. There is no fire service here and it was only the use of fire helicopters from the mainland that finally arrested its progress. But not before 200 dwellings were lost. The area of destruction has now been cleared and the only evidence is blackened walls on buildings surrounding this new open space. Some rebuilding has started for those properties that were insured. But most had not been
At the port office they take our documents then send us to the immigration office, with the promise that our paperwork will be completed on our return. This is at the other end of town, but only a 2-minute walk. The office is not what you would expect. It’s basically a wooden shed in a very poor state of repair. But the officer is very pleasant and very chatty. He tells us all about the place and shows us videos of the fire. What a nightmare it must have been. Flames were reaching 50ft into the air and other than jumping onto a boat, there was really nowhere to run to.
As we had heard, the check in process was extremely quick and the only charge was US$10 for the immigration visa. A breeze after the arduous Mexican bureaucracy.
While around the port area we go take a look at all the hustle and bustle. Well, so called port. It’s actually one small dock that is a hive of activity. Small boats are offloading anything from TV sets to wood and bags of cement. And it’s all hand portered through the town on small trollies to the destined buyer. It’s intriguing to watch – like we are in another by-gone age.
We then get local cash from an ATM and buy our SIM card for the phone. US$10 for 25GB of data and 15 days use. This is a very good price and very soon we are relaxing in a little café catching up on the news, particularly the news from Eastern Europe where we are happy to see the invasion seems to have somewhat stalled. Also, happy to see the immense number of meaningful sanctions being applied not just by governments but by individual companies, sporting associations, and very interestingly, IT hackers. An estimated 400,000 of them worldwide, hacking into and disturbing anything and everything possible in both Russia and Belarus, from traffic lights to public services. I guess this is the modern way to protest warmongering. Brilliant if you ask me!
We continue to amble around the unique town for a while. The weekly supply boat apparently arrived yesterday, and the few shops seem to have plentiful fruit and veg. Not a great variety, but plenty of what they do have. So, we top up on fresh fruit and get a huge bag full for just US$10.
Then we are on our way back. At first, we cannot find our way to the fuel dock where we left our dinghy. We sense where it is, but the maze doesn’t seem to lead us there! But eventually we find our way.
The 3-mile dinghy trip back upwind is a bit bumpier than our trip there, but not too bad and we are glad we left Cloudy Bay at anchor.
In the afternoon it’s time for a swim and a hull check. It’s the first time this year that we have been in truly clear water. The hull is not too bad. A few barnacles here and there which I knock off in 20 minutes or so. But the keel is not so happy. It seems we hit the reef with a sideways glance, thankfully not head on. But still, there are deep gouges right down to the lead metal. From what I can see, the joint to the hull doesn’t look any different. There is always a crack in the antifoul paint there just by nature of going from compression when chocked on land (when we paint it) to tension when in the water and the 10 tons of lead are hanging on the keel bolts. But other than that, I see no other evidence of damage. We will have to see over the coming days if we get any water ingress. We pray not.
In the evening we take a dinghy ride into Graham’s Place on the nearby Josh’s Cay for early evening drinks. There is a lot of accommodation on the cay, but very few guests. Although probably a very nice place to stay, we feel the owner is not really interested in making money. In fact, there must be more staff than guests.
After our drinks and a wander around, we are back on board where we start to watch another TV series until bedtime.
All in all, a pretty interesting day.