It's the Destination ~ Not the Journey

The Coast of Honduras to Utila, Bay Islands ~
A Really Shitty Day in Paradise

Until a few years ago, I was from the "it's the journey, not the destination" camp, but after our recent sail from mainland Honduras to the Bay Islands, I'm convinced it's the destination that really matters. Seems we have at least one or two near catastrophes every sailing season and so far this one is no exception.

We are humbled, once again, by the power of the sea and feel fortunate to be writing this blog today. We have learned many lessons in our years of sailing in all kinds of weather but some of those lessons obviously didn’t sink in.

A Good Day Gone Bad

Getting to the Bay Islands from Guatemala is usually a slog to windward. The weather forecast indicated winds at 15 knots and fairly calm seas (3-5ft). In Maine we have an expression, “you can’t get there from here”. What began as a reasonable day to make this 40 miles passage began to deteriorate by late morning —an 8 hour motorsail seemed to have no end in sight as we plowed through 8ft seas created by the oppressive 25 knot headwinds.

By late afternoon we were salt-encrusted, soggy and dejected. It was one of the longest days of our lives. As I said to George more than 20 years ago after an equally horrible passage, “I would have rather been in labor.” Our boat speed diminished to 3 knots as the windspeed increased and the prospect of getting to the main anchorage of Utila-- with enough daylight to navigate the shoal entrance-- grew dim.

We were also running low on fuel due to a miscalculation and needed to have Plan B in the event we ran out of fuel en route. Reversing our course and heading back to the large open roadstead of Puerto Cortes on the mainland was our main option but one we hoped we didn’t have to implement.
Happy Ending

As we finally approached the west end of Utila we made a decision to try to anchor in the Water Cays –we had never been there and daylight was fading but we had a couple of charts and were able to identify the prominent cays and cut through a deep channel between Jack O’Neil and Pigeon Cays. We could still see the reefs on either side of the cut and miraculously managed to find a good spot in 15 feet to drop anchor.

Celebrated with copious amounts of wine and a freeze-dried dinner of Jamaican jerk chicken and rice.
Exhale. All's well that ends well.

To Kate and Cameron: don't worry, kids. we're fine. Wish you were here to share our adventures but you should be glad that you're not. Love, Mom and Dad

Sunset over the Water Cays of Utila

(Photos of Deja Vu taken during calmer passages off the coast of Honduras in 2007)

Next port: Parrot Tree Marina, Roatan (http://www.parrottreeplantation.com/) while George goes home to work for two weeks.