February 2 to 3, 2013 From Providence, Colombia to Cayos Viverillo, Honduras

We had a good passage: about 170 miles through the water (nearly 200 over ground because we had the current helping us). We sailed to weather mostly and did one fairly short tack of motoring into wind to put us in a good position to carry on sailing. On the way, we almost caught a big dorado — it got away just as we were trying to get it into the boat. At sunset, we caught another, slightly smaller one*. I reeled it in — I was completely casual about this process because I was convinced it was just another piece of seaweed. When I saw it was a fish, I got Pete to land it for me.

*The one that got away is always bigger.

Tony did all the processing (gutting, scaling, trimming) while sailing to weather in the dark (thank you), and we put it in the fridge and enjoyed it as sashimi and then for dinner as steaks when we arrived at Cayos Viverillo.

The Cayos Viverillo are beautiful. When we arrived there was a fleet of fishing boats but they left around dark. No one lives here anymore. In the morning, we had a place to ourselves.

Pete and Tony went hunting in the dinghy and returned with a hog fish and a lion fish for lunch. We had a fish tasting: hog fish, lion fish, and dorado, all filleted and fried in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. All delicious, we couldn’t decide which one we liked best. Lion fish is sweet and succulent; hog fish is mild and nicely textured; dorado is meaty.

I went for a leisurely snorkel near the boat. It wasn’t as relaxing as I had hoped because two huge barracuda kept eyeing me.

The area was littered with starfish. The one below is going places; it’s funny to watch them move. This one was making tracks in the sand.

I didn’t see many fish. Perhaps the circling barracudas had something to do with that. 🙂