April, 2007

Vivorillos Cays, Honduras

One of our Best Cruising Months

But, as you know, today is April 1st, which is April Fools Day.........And this is our "April Fools joke.  Whew!  What a  Relief......March was wonderful, as every month we have been cruising.  We do love the cruising life, and would not torture our children at this point in their lives.  Maybe later....but not this April Fools.

We went about a mile down to Bird Island in our dinghies.  Lone Star Love, Adagio, Pelican Flight and Valentina.  It was.....Bird Island.  There were so many birds, there were booby birds nesting and hatching their young and frigate birds in flight overhead.

Happy 58th Birthday Sonny!  What a good day!   

Here is the sunrise as we woke up, then we had bacon and pancakes and headed out to go fishing.

Sonny shot his first hogfish with the spear gun and Kay shot her first fish with the spear gun.  Needless to say, we had fish for his birthday dinner. 

Pat and Susan on S/V Orchid Lady invited all of the cruisers in the anchorage to their boat at 5:00.  There are 10 boats in the anchorage, so there were 19 people in their cockpit.  It was very cozy, but nice. 

Pat and Susan were very gracious to allow all 19 of us aboard Orchid Lady before everyone departed ways.

It was Sonny's 58th birthday, and Pat gave him a lure he had made and it was also Greg and Judy's (S/V Lone Star Love) 14th Anniversary so they gave them a bottle of Champaign.   It was a very nice time to get everyone in the anchorage on one boat at the same time.  Seven of the boats plan to head south in the next day or two and three of us are planning to stay a little longer.

We pulled up anchor with Lone Star Love and Kristiana and headed over to Grand Becerro Cay (about 5 miles)  in the Vivorillos.   We trolled behind the boat with the red and black Rattle Jet.  We snagged two fish on the short trip.  One tuna and one Spanish mackerel.

After setting the anchor, Sonny immediately jumps in the water to check the anchor.

What a wonderful place!  We continue to say, "Can it get any better than this?"   This is absolutely one of those places that we say, when we look back at our pictures, we will say, "that was simply the best, wasn't it?"    It is just some very small islands surrounded by a reef and the fishing is great, in the middle of.....no where.   You are literally out here in the middle of....no where.

Sonny shot a huge snapper, then he brought me the gun and I attempted to shoot several, and missed, then, I was patiently watching the fish below me, waiting for the perfect shot because it is so hard to load the spear gun, I wanted one shot to make a difference.  I was tired and cold and ready to head back to the dinghy, without any fish, when Sonny said to just to shoot a trigger fish, so I swam around, waiting on the big trigger fish or a huge snapper.  I looked down, and lo and behold, there was a big hogfish sitting on top of the coral, waving his rooster tail at me.  Well, I shot him and he swam down into the coral with my spear.    Sonny had to dive down the 10-12 feet to retrieve my spear and my hogfish.    I had previously made the comment to our friends at the anchorage on the VHF radio that I was not going to leave the Vivorillos without a hogfish.   Whew!    I am relieved to say that now we can leave, we just don't want to right now.   It is too good.

We were relaxing in the cockpit after the sunset, when Judy got on the VHF and said to look in the water at the phosphorescence.  It was like fireworks in the water!  Amazing!  Neon green lights swimming around in perfectly still water.  They were all over in the water like reflections of the stars.  But, it is cloudy, no stars.  All of a sudden one of them would spin around in the water and the others would dart right at it like a fireworks show.  Sometimes there would be six or eight at the same time spinning and darting.  Kay tried to get the video camera, but, it would not do it justice.  Just beautiful!

When Greg and Sonny returned, I had just hung all of my clothes on the line when they announced we are heading to another island.   So, in came the clothes and off we went.

We motored a couple of hours to Cayos Cajones (Hobbies), still in Honduras country.  We trolled with two lures, but the birds grabbed our lure three different times and would fly up in the air with them.   When I reeled in the lure, the bird let go of it.  Almost had frigate bird for dinner.  Yuck!

We are about 20 miles north of the Cayos Vivorillo.  There are a few very, very small islands with a reef surrounding them.   You anchor behind the reef and have the advantage of the wind with the reef protecting you from the waves.

The small island is covered with lobster traps from the boats out for lobster season.  The season ended on March 31st, so the boats store their traps on these islands until next season.  There are two men who live on the island and protect the traps, Julio and Seniore.

Doug, Greg and Sonny went snorkeling and returned with snappers.  Another good fishing place.

Greg and Judy (Lone Star Love), Doug and Rayene (Kristiana) and Valentina are getting together for Easter dinner.   And....we are having chicken!   Judy is providing chicken, a green bean casserole, Rayene is bringing mashed potatoes and homemade bread, and Kay is taking a pecan pie.  Delicious!

Later in the day, Julio, the younger gentleman on the island, rowed out to our boat in his cayuca.  He wanted to use our radio, we presumed to call for help for Seniore.  He said he was shaking and in pain from his toe.  Kay sent back some Tylenol for Seniore to take to stop the fever.

Julio gave us the frequency to call for help, and we attempted several times, but to no avail....no response from the mainland for our friends on the very remote island.

We went out snorkeling (hunting and gathering) today for about 3 hours.  The seas were rough and windy, so the water was cloudy.  But, it did not stop Sonny from shooting a Mutton Snapper.  He was over 24" long.  Nice.  Nice.  Nice.

 

Fishing has been very good and fun in the Cayos Vivorillo, Becerro, and Hobbies.

We took the two locals on the island, Julio and Seniore, a piece of cheesecake and it sure was nice to see their smiles.  They are alone on the very small island for three months at a time, with only fish and potatoes, and the eggs from the booby birds hatching on the island.

Queen Mary and Barefoot arrived in our anchorage, so we all went over to their boat to welcome them to Cayos Cajones.

This morning, Kay was tired, but Sonny and Greg decided to head out to go snorkeling and fishing.  They left about 10 a.m. and headed out past the reef in our dinghy.  Before long, the sky started getting dark and gray, and the wind kicked up to over 20 knots, the boats in the anchorage were rocking and rolling..... and the boys were still out playing.    The VHF's and binoculars in the anchorage with the four boats were busy keeping track and spying on the guys with the storm blowing in.  Finally, about 1 p.m., the fishermen climbed in the dinghy and headed back to the boats.  In the calm lee of the reef, they were oblivious to the storm that just passed over.  When they returned, Sonny had just shot a big hogfish, 25 inches.  We were so excited.  This was his biggest hog so far.

Julio and Seniore rowed up to Valentina today to see if we wanted a lobster.   Julio also wanted to give us the barracuda he caught in his net, but we deferred.         

The Honduran Navy came to the Hobbies to check our boat paperwork on a routine check.  They were very nice.  They wanted to tie up beside us to climb aboard, but, we asked them if Sonny could shuttle them in the dinghy.  It was acceptable, and we were most gracious.   It was a very big boat and would have done some major damage to our teak cap rails.

Fishing today......Sonny got three hogfish.   A good day's work.

Sonny was net controller this morning for the NW Caribbean Net for Rob on Carmelita. 

After the net, we had talked to Queen Mary and decided since it became a calm day, we would go explore the islands around us.  So, we got our dinghies, snacks, snorkel gear, plenty of gas, and headed for the islands.

The first one we stopped at was Cayo Harbage and about 3 miles away.  A gentleman named Garvin Ezekiel was the sole protector of the island, along with some dogs, cats, and chickens.  He will stay on Cayo Harbage until August protecting the lobster traps on the island.  When we asked how many traps he had, he said, "Over 20,000".    He has all of his provisions to last through August.

We then left Cayo Harbage and headed for some of the other reefs we could see standing up out of the water.  It was about 5 more miles away to them.  We snorkeled around and was just amazed at the coral here.  The reef was very shallow, but would drop off to deep, deep blue water, and the coral looked like stacks of big telephone posts on the bottom of the sea.
				Our next two stops were more small islands.  One was inhabited and the other was overtaken by the birds.
			Gene had a good day fishing.  He got a triggerfish and a nice hogfish.   Sonny snorkeling.

Kay made a pecan pie so we had everyone in the anchorage aboard Valentina tonight.  Wayne and Bibi, S/V Discovery are pulling up anchor in the morning, heading for Guanaja.

Being here, we still continue to be amazed at the beauty.  Crystal clear, blue water, with yellow/orange starfish on the bottom, conch shells, and fish all around.  You can look over our lifelines and see the clear, clear bottom with the treasures all around.

We all have dinner tonight on S/V Akka.  Monte and Chris made sausage pizza.  It was very delicious.  Fish sausage, of course.  But, you really couldn't taste the fish. 

They were delicious.  Whataburger should get Gene on Queen Mary's recipe!

We all, with the exception of Monte, went snorkeling (fishing) this morning/afternoon.  He had a project on the boat to complete.  I am sure his lip was pooched out.  Right, Monte?  It is no fun working while everyone else in the harbor is playing.

This morning, after listening to the net, Gene, Brenda and Monte went in Queen Mary's dinghy and Sonny, Kay, and Chris went in ours to go snorkeling and fishing.

We found, what we thought, was the perfect spot of coral and all jumped in.  The water was very deep and cloudy, but we snorkeled around the reef to check it out.   Due to the deep water, we all started heading back to the dinghies when Kay spied a huge snapper.  Sonny dove down about 20' and shot him and the huge guy started pulling down and went into a small cave.   Sonny let go of the gun, because it would float, and went back up for air.    He tried diving down several times to retrieve the gun and the fish.....but without luck.

We motioned to Gene and Brenda to come see if they could assist us.   Gene is a very good free diver and they swam over to us and Gene dove down the first time, and came back up rather quickly.  He asked Brenda for his spear gun.  He spied a big grouper on his dive down and went back to get him.  And he did.   He was a nice grouper!  He weighed 13 pounds.  So, after we got the big grouper off the spear, Chris ferried the grouper back to the dinghy while Gene dove down several more times to retrieve the big snapper and Sonny's gun.... but without luck.   

Gene said they could go back to Queen Mary in their dinghy, about two miles away, get their dive tanks, and then go down to get Sonny's gun, hopefully,  with the big snapper attached.   Gene left Sonny his gun, in case he needed it while they were gone.  

So, Monte, Chris, Sonny, and Kay stayed in the deep water where the snapper and gun was, while Gene and Brenda returned to get the tanks.

Then, Chris called out to Sonny and Kay,  "Come look!  Here is the biggest fish I have ever seen", so we snorkeled over there.   Down at the bottom of the 30' water, we looked and saw this huge dark fish, swimming slowly around down there.    Sonny dove down with Gene's spear gun to shoot it, but the safety was on, so the spear did not shoot.  All the time, Kay was exclaiming, "No, no, no".   The fish was way too big and we already had one gun under the water with a big fish attached, we did not need Gene's down there too.

Monte swam over where we were and Sonny handed Monte Gene's spear gun and showed him the huge jewfish down below.  He told Monte to go shoot it.  Monte is also a very good free diver.  He dove down, but could not get a clean shot and then the fish swam into the very same cave where our snapper and Sonny's gun was.

The big fish swam through the cave and Monte met Mr. Jewfish on the other side.  Monte shot him and the fight began.  Mr. Jewfish pulled Gene's gun back up inside this cave and we could not even see the gun.  While Monte was underwater, he could hear Mr. Jewfish's deep, deep heartbeat.....thump.....thump.....thump.

Oh my....we have Sonny's spear gun down 20' in the water, now we have Gene's gun, we borrowed, down 20' in the water, both with huge fish attached.

About 30 minutes later, Gene and Brenda returned with tanks and ready to rescue.  We had to break the news to them that not only was Sonny's gun down, but, now Gene's gun was down with a huge jewfish on the other end.   Gene then handed Brenda's gun to Monte to take another shot at Mr. Jewfish to slow him down.  The jewfish had gone into the cave and was coming out on the other side.   The guys tied a rope to this gun, so there would not be three missing in action.  Monte tried to shoot him, but the spear just came out.

Gene and Brenda went down with the tanks to begin the rescue mission.  Mr. Jewfish and the two guns were the first rescue attempt.   After a few tries to get the guns and fish out of the cave, Gene slowly began swimming up to the top of the water, with his arms wrapped around and hugging this huge jewfish as he came up.  Brenda was bringing up the spear guns. 

Now, we had to get this huge fish into the dinghy, which was another group effort.  But, we finally got him in.

All three guys each shot huge fish today.  We have fish stories now!  Monte fishes with a Hawaiian sling, so it was very special that he shot the huge Mr. Jewfish with Gene's gun.

Gene had a nice 13 pound grouper, and Sonny had a huge snapper....the one that got away.

It took us all about 3 hours to clean the two fish. 

Mr. Jewfish weighed in at 83 pounds and Mr. Grouper weighed 13 pounds.  Almost 100 pounds of fish.

Guess what we had for dinner?   Along with lots of stories and laughter of our exciting day.    All three guns were safely rescued, with only one bent spear.  No casualties.  Just lots of fish.

Cruising with friends is so much fun and everyday is exciting.

Life is Good!

Today was a very good day for us.  We all gathered to talk about the weather after listening to the morning nets and downloading our weather fax.   And, decided, we would probably not leave in the morning, so we should just go snorkeling.   So........we all did!   We all love this place and are in no hurry to leave.  It is a very special place for all of us. 

The bands on our spear gun need to be replaced, so instead of taking our spear gun fishing, Sonny took our other Hawaiian sling.  A Hawaiian sling is just a long fiberglass rod with a three prong hook on the end.  We have two, so we both carried one.

We arrived at our coral spot and jumped out of the dinghy.  Sonny shot a very nice hog fish with the Hawaiian sling and then got another one, a tad bid smaller.    That was his first hogfish on the sling.

Then, when we got back to the boat, Sonny cleaned them and Kay immediately fried the hogfish.  They are great fish meat.  And our favorite is cold leftovers the next day.       

Brenda, an avid diver, (S/V Queen Mary) had been trying to get Kay to just try it.  So, this afternoon, we went to Queen Mary and Gene and Brenda had all of the gear ready and Brenda was going to take me down the anchor chain, just to see if I liked it.  So, hesitantly, I agreed.   She is such a great teacher, and patient.  It was hard to realize I could breath.  At first, I kept coming to the top of the water for air.  But, after I realized you do not need to do that, it got a little easier.  So, gradually, slowly, we inched our way down the anchor chain, probably only 12 feet, trying to get comfortable with everything.

It did get better.  I got a little more comfortable and we swam under water under Queen Mary and around, with Brenda holding my hand and guiding me.   I cannot believe I did that!   We probably stayed under water 30 minutes.   I was exhausted, because I was so nervous.  I think the key is to "relax", but that was not on today's agenda.   Until afterwards.   It was great....and I can see how people really enjoy it.  There is so much to see down there.  Just beautiful!

"I don't know who named them swells.  There's nothing swell about them. 

They should have named them awfuls."

                            -   Hugo Vihlen