An overnight sail took us to the banks off of Honduras where we could anchor behind a few barrier reefs and enjoy the ocean wilderness in a new country. We stayed in this area for most of a month spending every day in the water for abundant fishing and interesting photography.
Starting in the Vivorillos we found the reefs to be rocky, yet apparently the perfect breeding ground for conch and hogfish. It's been a while since we've dined on these delicacies. There were no lobsters to be found, however.
We saw the occasional cruising boat anchor in the Vivorillos for a rest on passage to the Bay Islands.
Here we said farewell to Dave & Britta (Anam Cara) on their way to the States and hello again to Alan & Patricia (Nauti-Nauti) who had just completed a four-day trip from Panama.
Mark, Alan and Patricia were hunting daily with excellent results. To us, there is something very natural about catching your dinner each day.
Of course, we had to have a sushi taste-test between the cubera and dog snappers that Mark caught.
Michele took hundreds of underwater pictures and all of this added up to a lot of water time. The temps were warm and although we wore wetsuits and were diligent with applying sunscreen, our hair took the brunt of the sun and bleached out even blonder than usual.
After two weeks in the Vivorillos, we poked up into a reef system a few miles away called Cayos Becerro to settle into a beautiful, secluded anchorage.
Here the fishing and reefs were even better in a lively ocean-going cut. We soon learned that this productive reef was no secret to the fishermen from the mainland. A large boat anchored out and dropped no less then 50 launchas in the water each with a pair of divers!
The reefs were soon dotted with rowing fisherman following another under the surface, as they hoovered the surrounding sea floor for several days. One of them showed us what they were after ~ sea cucumbers bound for China. Of course, they opportunistically took any edible hogfish, lobster or conch they could find so we decided to find a new anchorage.
Our next anchorage was the Hobbies, where we found two small islands stacked in this off-season with wooden lobster traps. At first we thought we were looking at a mini-city of buildings. Now we know why there are so few lobsters anywhere around these banks. Here we met a fishing boat with friendly Bay Islanders from Roatan who gave us some lobster & conch in exchange for a snorkel tube.
The Hobbies had several layers of barrier reef going from silty inner coral heads to clearer outer water canyons.
There were a few ocean cuts in the outer reef to explore and some reasonably productive fishing grounds if you were patient.
The fishing was a bit more challenging here as witnessed by Alan losing a spear-tip and Mark a spear, but we still ate well.
By the end of April, an undesirable weather system was heading for us that would leave us exposed to unsafe anchoring so we decided it was time to move. Peaceful days swinging on the hook go by quickly out here ~ there never seems to be enough time in the day for all that you need to do, including watching the weather go by. We saw beautiful sunsets, one with a green flash, a rainbow and waterspout churning up the water. On the up-side, heading to the Bay Islands will put us back in shopping & internet territory again.
