Reef Quita Sueno, Colombia Hobbies Islands, Honduras

April 27 - May 3,  Reef Quita Sueno, Colombia/Hobbies Islands, Honduras

 We left Providencia with the first light in the morning, carefully traversing back our arrival track between reefs. The promised wind never happened during our trip and we had to motorsail just to make it before dark to the reef Quita Sueno. This place is just a huge underwater reef with some protection from the waves, there are no any land or even rocks out of the water. Pretty much we anchored in the middle of the ocean. About 5 miles ahead from our anchorage we could spot at least 3 unfortunate cargo and tanker ships destroyed by the reef. So, keeping them in mind we had to trust only our eyes while picking a spot to anchor. All the boats of our fleet (2 cats and 2 monohulls) made it fine, but nobody felt comfortable in the very unprotected roly place. So, every body really wanted to leave Quita Sueno reef with the first light in the morning. "Walking on the water" decided to sail all the way around the Gorda Bank straight to Bay Islands, Honduras - that was the safest route to avoid any unwanted pirate's visits. The rest of us sailed about 12 miles off the dangerous pirate zone through the Gorda Bank. We were suggested to avoid Mosquito Banks and Areciefe Banco and sail at least 10 miles off these places where the "fishermen sometimes turn pirates" attack the cruisers underway. The overnight sailing was very pleasant, but the next day we had to start our engines to make it to our destination before dark. We all anchored in about 20 feet deep water surrounded by reefs. Have to have to use your eyes again, since there are no accurate charts exists for that area, and Honduras in general.

 The Hobbies Islands are scattered around with some distance between each other and all of them are uninhabited. However, during the lobster season the boat from the mainland brings fishermen to stay on some of the islands. We were not sure how these poor guys could live on the islands for months without any houses, fresh water or food availability... The lobsters these poor fishermen catch are imported to the USA for the restaurant "Red Lobster", I hope they get enough money to support their families the rest of the year.

 We parked near the "Boobies island" - the little rocky island with couple palms, thousands wooden lobster cages and thousands birds - the yellow feet and beak boobies - nesting on the island and fostering their young. That was such a nice surprise for us to discover such a nature gem - this little island!

 All three days we stayed at Hobbies we were exploring reefs around and tried our best to catch some food. The reefs there are in very good shape with a lot of different fish - since there are no any humans around to destroy it. Kevin speared a lobster, a crab and a little fish, not much... but tastes really good if you catch it yourself. Everyday we had dinners at each other boats, played domino and had very fun time in this lovely uninhibited place in the middle of nowhere. But on second night we got some squally weather with a lot of rain and lightning which stroke our friends boat. The lightning hit in the nave station and destroyed some electronics, but the crew were fine. We all tried to help them to repair as many parts as could be, but still their depth meter would not work. On the positive note, we filled up our water tanks completely while it was raining.

 We really loved this beautiful place, especially as we had chance to spend it with friends. That was really like vacation from vacation!

 On the forth day in the early morning we all left. Our boat was the only one with working depth meter, so we were ahead of the fleet, slowly progressing through the unknown territory since the charts for this area are totally wrong.