Off The Grid

After much deliberation and hemming and hawing we decide to join our friends on Hooligan (Tim, Paula and Dog Nigel) and Footloose (Doris and Tom) for a 200 mile sail to the little islands/cays off the northeast coast of Honduras for a couple of weeks of snorkeling and hunting for our dinner but mostly just to go and explore somewhere new. So after getting a weather report which stated that Wednesday would be an excellent day to start the 200 mile passage going due East. East means that we hard on the wind and uncomfortable, so from a sailing perspective we don’t do east. (Karen always said that is why Cruisers sail around world, so they don’t have to go east.) Back to the weather, the definition of excellent passage weather to go east is: light winds and very flat seas as we are going to be motoring or if we are lucky the winds would be light and slightly south of east so we could put up those white things we have on the boat and sail.
So off we went at first light (5:00 am), but of course not before coffee. We turned the corner of Roatan and where greeted with 5 foot seas…that is okay because we expect that for about the first 6 hours…..but not for 24 hours. Hooligan called Footloose and us to say their new cutless bearing was making a lot of noise so they may have to make a detour in to a harbor, but after a little while everything settled down and all was good on Hooligan.
We had arranged to have regularly scheduled radio check-ins with each other, just in case we lost sight of the other boats. As we continued to be bounced around and we mean bounced, Doris radioed and said “is this ever going to calm down!” We had heard from another boat that was coming our way that they had no wind and flat seas, so with that information we all hunkered down with visions of flat seas ahead and maybe visions of sugar plums too! Then we see our fishing line start to jump, we have a fish…we have fish!…as we bring it in we see it is a beautiful Mahi Mahi about 2 ½ feet long. We get it close to the boat and just at the last second it breaks free with our brand new fish hook. Tom had given us the hook and the line and some instructions on how to catch a fish and did say that this hook would catch a fish, unfortunately he didn’t mean we would keep the fish. By the way that was the first fish we have ever hooked.
Okay all is well, Karen’s asleep and Otto (our third crew member, Otto Van Helm, our Ray Marine Wheel Pilot) is working hard and Cheryl is on watch and what do we hear but an alarm on the engine. So we spring into action…Cheryl turns off the engine while Karen goes off to investigate the problem. As Cheryl sails along Karen pops her head up out of the engine room to say our fan belt came off. So with the problem identified Karen launched into action while Cheryl radioed the gang to tell them we have a little problem but not to worry we have done this before, replaced a fan belt under way, so no worries. Footloose who was beside us slowed down with us to make sure we were okay, Hooligan, which was about 5 miles behind us was standing by on the radio for moral support. After 20 minutes we were back in business. We radioed that all was well and off we went.
Then not long after as we are looking off in the horizon we started to see things leaping and jumping in the air…yes a pod of dolphins are coming our way. They came right to us giving us an amazing acrobatic show of cork screw jumps and synchronized swimming.
With a beautiful sunset to finish the day and the memories of our first fish and our friends the dolphins we headed into the moon lit night with, … yes flatter seas.
With sunrise and our morning Latte consumed we enjoyed flat seas and winds from the southeast so we throw up the head sail and pretended to be sailors again. Since we did not get the expected seas nor did we go the speeds any of us predicted we decided to go another group of islands/cayes that are closer and easy to get into at night. So with our new waypoints given to us over the radio from Hooligan and the course plotted off we went but then “Otto Van Helm” decided it was tired and was not going to work anymore. What, we have to hand steer???? We have not done that in two years….
Around 5:00 p.m. we started to see on the horizon some palm trees, Cayo Vivorillo ‘home’ for the night. But what do we also see? Our fishing line is jumping again…this time we catch and keep a Cero about 14 inches long, perfect size. With the sun setting at our backs and a fresh fish in a bucket we arrived at the anchorage at 6:35 p.m. after a 37 hour motor/sail and dropped the hook for the night. A quick radio call to Footloose and Hooligan to say we have the anchor down and will keep the lights on to guide them in. An hour later Footloose arrived and Hooligan 2 hours after that. After a wonderful dinner with fresh fish in our stomachs, we crashed for the night.
We woke up to a beautiful setting, 2 small islands nearby and a reef ahead to protect us from the seas and just the 3 of us anchored. Morning wakeup call from Tim with a plan to go snorkeling which really means hunting for lobster and conch.
So how do we go snorkeling and catch lobster and conch…well one person ties themselves to the dingy and floats with it while the other person goes hunting. After finding a million conch we decided only to keep 5. We get a quick lesson from Tom on Footloose on how to clean the conch, we even got to use a catfish skinner, which made the task of skinning the conch so easy… Another thing to buy for Interlude. The question is where do you buy a Catfish skinner? According to Tim, at a Catfish store! The afternoon snorkel was for lobster, Footloose gave Cheryl a spear gun to try so with some practice of firing into the sand Cheryl was ready. But Cheryl didn’t know what to shoot at so she decided to go back to her lion fish spear and find lobster.
Eagle eyed Karen (the one towing the dingy) spied a lobster and Cheryl with her lionfish spear went in for the kill. First shot… success! One lobster, Yeah!
Appetizers of all of our catches of the past couple of days on Hooligan and another wonderful day away from everything ….Off the grid in Paradise.
After 3 days at the Virvorillo’s all 3 boats lifted the hook (aka the anchor) and off we went to make the long trip….20 miles to the Hobbies (Cayos Cajones) which was our original destination. We all tried to catch a fish along the way, but Tom was the only lucky one. We arrived at just past noon and went for a quick snorkel off the boat to check out the hunting grounds. It looks promising.
Since we all had a freezer full of couch, it was dinner on Footloose were we made conch and fish balls with shrimp cracker on the side. Hooligan made bread to soak up all the great couch chowder Doris had made. In case you have not noticed we are hanging out with some amazing foodies...in fact that is mostly what we talk about, after all, you need to know what to hunt for!
For entertainment one of the local fishing boats came into the anchorage asking for cigarettes to trade for lobster from Hooligan but they did not have any but Footloose did, so the guys went over or tried to go over to Footloose after almost running over the reef and having the chase boat crash into the mother ship. Footloose was the now in possession of the biggest lobster tail any of us had ever seen. So of course dinner plans were made for the next night on Hooligan, Lobster risotto.
So what do you do every day without internet in an anchorage with only 3 boats, well, pretty much every day we went hunting for lobster or fish. We have become pretty good at catching fish with Footloose’s speargun, which means that Karen shot one fish and so did Cheryl. But that was all we wanted because every other night we are having wonderful meals on each other’s boat in rotation, two night in a row, then a night on your own boat, with recipes begin experimented with, because you often don’t have all the ingredients so you make it up as you go along. Sometimes we will call out to the other 2 boats for a potato or an egg or whatever of to fill the pot. It might sound like all we do is eat so why are we not 300 pounds? Because it is a lot of work hunting! Into our busy schedule we had to fit in a garbage burning days with a bocce ball game thrown in for fun.
The Interlude nights were eggplant parmesan (a ship special made while we still had fresh vegetables) and chicken and shrimp Phad Thai. Interlude’s next night was a challenge thrown out to have a stuffed green pepper cook off, mostly because the peppers where going bad. Needless to say, not only where the peppers stuffed so where we!
After 2 ½ weeks of beautiful snorkeling, sunsets, fresh fish/seafood and most of all great friends we had a sendoff dinner on Hooligan to say “so long” for now with a super couch chowder, amazing appetizer and a scrumptious Key Lime Pie…okay food again. We even had a green flash at sun set and dazing red sky (sailors delight). Ok yeah we forgot to mention we did learn some new board and dice games and not to be too competitive but you know we are ….we won. Big hugs and kisses where passed around and a big sloppy kiss from Nigel Hooligan’s dog, as Footloose and Interlude prepare to leave Hooligan for our trip back to Roatan. The trek back to the land of civilization began with a beautiful sunrise with Footloose leading the way. As we looked back and saw Hooligan still anchored waving goodbye and sing our gangs signature song on the VHF radio we know we will see them again soon but we still felt sad to leave this amazing place and the time we spent there with the gang.
We were visited by 4 different pods of Dolphin who entertained us with jumps, and an occasional dolphin spit just to cool us off… okay it really was a splash. As we headed off into the sunset and into our night passage hand steering all the way (Otto Van Helm is still on strike), the seas flattened out and the winds were around 10 knots so we had one sail up and were motoring along at 6 knots making great time. Footloose radios over and said they had decided to go into Guanaja, to get diesel and then head off to Mexico from there instead of leaving from Roatan. At 3:18 a.m. just as we are making our shift change we hear the engine start to slow down, both of us ask each other what the other person did….the response was not from us it was from the engine….it stopped. So Karen went down and had a look while Cheryl took the helm….no visual reason so we started it up again…but it sounded like it had run out of fuel. We know that you can get dirty fuel around here and as much as you take precautions to filter it you can get a clogged filter…so Karen put on her mechanic’s cap and went down to change the pre-filter… it was dirty…good sign. So we go and start the engine again and off we go….it ran for about 10 minutes then the same thing happened….now we need to change the internal fuel filler….okay no problem….WRONG…!! the fuel filter is on so tight it won’t come off, after 45 minutes and much sweat and a few choice words said, it finally came loose. Okay, 2 new filters, so with fingers crossed we start the engine…nope this time it ran for 2 minutes. We have run out of ideas. So we radio over to Footloose at 4:30 a.m. to say we have no engine….and explain the problem to Tom, he offers some suggestions on what the problem may be and how to fix it….so off Karen goes to try and fix the problem with Tom standing by on the radio with words of wisdom and encouragement. We tried everything but ‘no worky’.
Since it is a downwind sail and now the sun is up we decide to throw up our Gennecker and debated whether to cut our passage short by 20 miles and follow Footloose into Guanaja. The problem is we know Roatan and some local business people, but we don’t know anyone in Guanaja. So knowing that we will need assistance to get into Port Royal, Roatan we phone our friends at Mango Creek Lodge (Terry and Patrice) to see if they can give us a hand to come into the anchorage. (Terry and Patrice circumnavigated on their 61 foot boat Mango Tango.) Terry made some more suggestions on how to fix or identify the problem. Karen disconnected the fuel line and blew into it to clear it, then sucked some fuel back into the hose, but the engine still didn’t run. Terry said “No problem” and if the wind dies they will come out in their big powerboat and come and tow us in…okay that is one worry off the list. We radio over to Footloose and tell them our plan…they still offered to help us get into Guanaja….and as we hem and haw but stuck to our original plan with the knowledge that our buddy boat is leaving us but we knew that Terry from Mango Creek would come and get us if the wind died. Unbeknownst to us Footloose had relayed our situation to Hooligan and others and suggestions where coming from afar…plus people we didn’t even know where offering help and suggestions on how and who to contact in Guanaja. Doris relayed the suggestions on some troubleshooting on the engine with no luck and also said that along with themselves there would be help in Guanaja….but if we were still thinking of heading to Roatan they will go pick up the diesel they needed in Guanaja and follow us to Roatan and make sure we are safe and sound. As Doris said “in for a penny in for pound”. What can we say, the cruising community is amazing. So with the gennecker up and a bit of wind we continue to sail to Port Royal.
Footloose radioed over to say they have the diesel and are heading to Port Royal and will be on the radio waiting for our call and will be out at the entrance to the anchorage to offer assistance….second worry over. We are sailing along fine, the wind shifts so we have to Gybe the gennecker. We did this by dowsing the sail and putting it up on the other side…..no problem….WRONG AGAIN!! It could not happen in a million years but the lazy sheet (rope/line) got caught under the boat….so don’t forget right now Karen is trying to pull down the gennecker and Cheryl is at the helm trying to keep the boat somewhat stable and dealing with the line that is caught under the boat. Then we get a gust and Cheryl looks up and sees the sail taking Karen overboard…..we have often said that lifelines are a misnomer because it just a piece of wire but this time we had to eat our words, Karen hit the lifeline, but did not go over. Okay with sail down and Karen still on board we decide we really do have to throw her overboard to untangle the line….the seas have calmed down enough and we made sure we have a safety line out and over Karen went…The line was only wrapped around the propeller 8 or 10 times! With Karen back on board and cooled off from her little dip we stowed our gennecker and put up our head sail and gave each other a big hug and off we continued to Port Royal…with 2 bottles of Champagne in the fridge cooling. The wind had picked up and we were now doing 5 to 6 knots and could see the opening to the anchorage…Footloose now anchored called and said they are so happy they can see us and they will be waiting in their dingy to help us in. We shorten sail as we now have 25/30 knots and are moving at over 7 knots! Terry from Mango Creek came out to tie his dingy with a 25 Horsepower engine to our boat to provide the motor assist we needed to get into the anchorage as it is a narrow channel and we could not sail in as we would be heading straight into the wind. Terry added a calmness and confidence and a bit of humor, he offered to make vroom...vroom noises so we would think that our own engine was running!! We are not alone, Footloose is on the other side at the ready and we made it in…the first attempt at the mooring didn’t work but the second we had it all coordinated with Footloose handing the line and Terry providing the vroom vroom…We are here and safe and sound…Yeah!!….Beer and Champagne was out within seconds of the lines being secured. What a relief and what an experience…You know this sounds bad but we learned a lot, plus a lot about ourselves and how special our cruiser friends and our friends that we have met on the islands along the way are. After a couple well-earned drinks Doris went back to her boat to tell Hooligan who was standing by via radio from afar that we were in safe and sound. Whether it was just a bad day or Murphy decided to be with us this day who knows but we do know for sure we do know some amazing people and we love them all dearly. A big Thank you to all!
It was a wonderful 2 ½ weeks off the grid and yes we would do again in a heartbeat but with hopes of a few less adventures!