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Honduras - Cayos Vivorillo & Cayos Cajones

December, 2007/January, 2008

 

    After spending two weeks on Quita Sueña Banks, we caught an excellent weather window for our sail to Cayos Vivorillo.  On Thursday, December 20th around 8:30 am we raised the anchor and began our 28 hour sail to Cayos Vivorillo.  As we partially unfurled our sails, the wind blew about 15-20 knots from the Northeast seas ran about 5-6 feet until we hit the banks (another reef formation) which is when the wind dropped to 10-15 knots and seas decreased to about 1-2 feet.  We shook out our reefs and had a very pleasant sail to Cayos Vivorillo arriving around 12:30 pm. 

    We were really looking forward to our visit here, because for several weeks we had heard about how the shrimp boats would trade rum for shrimp and in some instances give shrimp away for free ... oh yeah, we couldn't wait.  Hence, before we left San Andres we stocked up on little bottles of rum for trading (remember on the previous page).  We didn't have the hook down for 10 minutes before a fishing boat approached us ... yeah, shrimp!  So, you could imagine our surprise and disappointment when we found the shrimp season was over as of end of November.  Oh my gosh!!!!  We had missed it!!  Then the fisherman explained it was now lobster season ... LOBSTER SEASON!!!  We proceeded to trade them little bottles of rum for fresh lobster ... okay, so we weren't too disappointed.  We traded 1 pint of rum for six live lobsters of various size ... we were very grateful.

Rankin shows the size of the rum bottle versus the lobster

    We spent the next few days snorkeling and exploring around Cayos Vivorillo.  We had the opportunity to dinghy around observing the frigate birds during (what we believe) was their mating season.  We watched the males puff up their beautiful red chests trying to attract the attention of the female frigates.  We assumed they were successful, because we also spied a few baby frigate birds .... cute, white and fuzzy.  They looked like little cotton balls with eyes and a beak.

Male frigate bird ... Photo by Ullie on Filia        Baby Frigate ... Photo by Ullie on Filia

Red footed booby ... Photo by Ullie on Filia    Many male and female frigate birds

    Christmas was right around the corner and we decided that we did not wish to travel on Christmas Day (okay, I admit that was my request), so on Christmas Eve we made the short motor (about 3 hours) to Cayos Cajones also called Hobbies.  Wow, we thought the Cayos Vivorillo was nice.  When we arrived, we were the only boat and chose to anchor near the small island inhabited by hundreds of boobies.  We celebrated Christmas Day alone in the Hobbies enjoying a beautiful, sunny, cool day and a wonderful dinner of pork tenderloin stuffed with apple dressing and German chocolate cake.

    The Hobbies were great and for several days we were the only boat within sight.  After a while, fishing boats randomly anchored in the area and this gave us a chance to meet a few of them.  Rankin spent some time getting acquainted with the men on Lady Gladys a lobster boat from Guanaja.  They gave him a tour of the bridge and he actually considered taking a overnight lobster trip with them, but decided maybe not they might put him to work.  Much to our surprise, the captain of Lady Gladys gave us a large bag of frozen lobster tails ... WOW!!!  We were very grateful and tried to return the favor as best as we could by presenting the captain with a RARE, few of a kind, Heart of Texas t-shirt along with a bit of rum.  Since we spent New Years here near our new friends, we wished each other a Feliz Año Nuevo (Happy New Year)!!!

Our neighbors in the Hobbies

    We spent a little over two weeks in the Hobbies snorkeling, spear fishing (Hog Fish this time), and exploring the small nearby island (which we called Booby Island).  Apparently, hundreds of boobies have made this island their nesting site.  We spent some time on this island watching these birds.  The male and female (one has a pink beak and the other a blue beak) construct the nests together gathering and placing branches on the ground until their nest is complete.  Then they take turns sitting on the egg (s) and if there were any signs of danger nearby (like use) they would delay trading places until  it was safe.  If it felt threatened, it would puff up its feathers making it appear larger.  We kept our visits with the boobies to a minimum so we wouldn't disrupt their nesting.

Rankin spears a Hog Fish    See any similarities???    Booby Island

Our first time ashore in over a month, we wistfully we gaze at the Heart from ashore    Look at all the cute couples ... couple of boobies!!    See the slight tint of pink on the beak and the way she's puffed up.

    The Hobbies were secluded, safe, beautiful and peaceful with occasional visits from various fishing boats.  We rode out a fairly strong cold front which passed through whipping the winds up to 25-35 knots for about three days.  During that time, there were a few fishing boats anchored in our general area.  I got to know the fishing vessel Surprise from Utilia by assisting Captain Manson with contacting his wife via short wave radio (SSB).  His wife couldn't pickup his radio communication, so I would relay messages between him and his wife.  The Captain and I also discussed weather conditions and available anchorages between the Hobbies and Guanaja.  Hopefully, we'll be able to meet Manson and his wife in person during our trip to Utilia in the next month or so. 

    Always keeping an eye on weather, we found a very, very nice weather window for our trip to Guanaja and it was time again to travel.   If you wish to continue the adventure, click here to read about our experiences in Guanaja or take a look at What's Happening to get the latest scoop. 

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