Transoceanic Expedition 2005: On-board Diary
Wind and waves at cayos Cochinos. Friday, March 18th 2005
Author: Maribel López
Date: March 18, 2005
Yesterday we decided that four of us would go visit the indigenous Garifuna communities in various parts of the small keys, with the object of documenting their traditional way of life and sustainable exploitation of the waters that surround their villages.
To document the daily life of the community we wake at five in the morning, prepare the filming equipment and go to the dock just as dawn is breaking. The gray of the sky gives way to blue, then orange and finally to the yellow of day, despite the clouds.
We wait for Elías Aguilar to bring us to Cayo Chachahuate. Children from this key and others are sent off each day in tiny boats to the community's school, which sits on the eastern end of Cayo Mayor. The boats are like inter-island school busses. Finally we hear from Elias that, because the night before had been windy and the water today is rough, the kids don't have school. So there is a change of plans.
The wind picks up; even from shore we can see the currents it is creating. A brown pelican takes advantage of the opportunity to show off his first catch of the morning. In a razor-sharp flight, almost touching the waves, he locates his breakfast and, seconds later, with an unorthodox landing, plunges his head into the water and captures his prey. He's so close to us that we can see the last thrashes of the fish in the pocket of his beak. This show alone is worth the painful early morning.
Read More...Diving at Cayos Cochinos. Thursday, March 17th 2005
Author: Maribel López
Date: March 17, 2005
We eat breakfast at 7 in the morning on Cayo Cochino Menor, prepare picnic lunches for the divers, and the Ranger expedition divides into two groups for the activities of the day.
The research team and divers climb aboard the Honduran Coral Reef Fund's launch "Tiburón," which is waiting for us at the dock. The first group is transported to the Oceana Ranger, which has been moored at a buoy in the inlet for greater security during the night.
On the Ranger, we finalize the last details to conduct a bathymetric study in the northern zone of the marine park...
The operation will consist of taking depth measurements at different selected points. Once the points have been selected and their depth determined, buoys can be installed to delimit the protected areas of the marine park in what is called the Northern Macrozone, an area approximately 10 miles in diameter. Elias Aguilar, one of the park's resource guards ("guarda recursos"), accompanies Oceana's Xavier Pastor and Ricardo Aguilar and helps us to coordinate the project. The Fund has decided to call its staff in Cayos Cochinos "resource guards" rather than the classic "park guards" ("guarda parques") to emphasize the fact that their work, in protecting the natural environment, is intended principally to safeguard the responsible use of the marine resources, and thereby guarantee their sustainability for the local Garifuna communities that fish these waters in a controlled way.
Read More...Cayos Cochinos, Honduras. Wednesday, March 16th 2005
Author: Maribel López
Date: March 16, 2005
We arrive at night at La Ceiba - at Lagoon Marina, specifically - and happily we are met at the mouth of the port and shown to our mooring. Suddenly the vastness of the ocean is replaced by a narrow corridor of green water lined by lush, extravagant vegetation, mangroves, herons that wake in the darkness at our approach and flap their wings before returning to their chosen branch to pass the night.
Read More...At La Ceiba, Honduras, planning dives. Tuesday, 15th March 2005
Author: Maribel López
Date: March 15, 2005
Early in the morning we had the chance to meet with Adrian Oviedo, the Director of the Foundation for the Protection of the Reefs of Honduras (Fundación para la Protección de los Arrecifes de Honduras), who is leading the conservation Project at Cayos Cochinos.
We coordinated our work plans for the upcoming days. We hope that we will not only succeed in documenting the ecosystem of these keys, but also that our work will be useful to those who are working so hard and so effectively here.
Read More...Arriving in Cayos Cochinos. Monday, 14th March 2005
Author: Maribel López
Date: March 14, 2005
During the night of the 13th of March we had very good wind and were able to sail for several hours. With a wind speed of 25-30 knots and only the jib up we went at 9-10 knots. It was a wonderful feeling after so many hours traveling by motor - since until now we have had only headwinds or no wind at all.
First thing in the morning, we saw a flying fish (Hirundichthys speculiger) of almost 25 centimeters that had landed on the deck.
Read More...Following the Mosquito Coast. Friday, March 11th 2005
Author: Maribel López
Date: March 11, 2005
After having left the Panama Canal and the dozens of anchored boats waiting at Colón to pass through to the Pacific, we set our course northward through the waters of Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. We have traveled almost 400 miles since then and, except for yesterday, when we had, at some moments, waves higher than two meters, the sailing has been fairly calm. We've kept a good distance from the coast; perhaps it is for that reason that we have seen practically nothing - neither boats nor dolphins, and hardly any seabirds.
Read More...Passage through the Panama Canal. Wednesday, March 9th 2005
Author: Maribel López
Date: March 9, 2005
We get to Panama and go directly to the dock where the Ranger is. Our colleagues from the expedition are there waiting to make the crew substitution, filling the fuel tanks and generally preparing the boat to cross the Panama Canal.
Read More...Panama City and goodbye. Tuesday, March 8th 2005
Author: Sandy Mason
Date: March 8, 2005
After a week with only Coiba's blue waters and the deep green of its forest in sight it is a shock to come to a city. The capital of Panama is a battalion of skyscrapers standing guard along the bay - a city as surely as New York.
Read More...An unusual ceremony - graduation of Coiba's Ecopolice. Wednesday, March 2nd 2005
Author: Sandy Mason
Date: March 2, 2005
At perfect noon we are sitting on damp wooden benches atop a hill on Coiba with thirty uniformed police. One by one they stride to the podium at the front of the open air hall, give an extravagant salute, and accept a diploma rolled in bamboo from the Vice Governor of the Province of Veraguas. In the audience, besides us Ranger crew, are park rangers, MarViva staff, two television reporters and a handful of model convicts serving the last of their time.
Read More...Work at Coiba. Tuesday, March 1st 2005
Author: Sandy Mason
Date: March 1, 2005
It is late in the afternoon, the sun is about to set, and after a morning of diving, filming and interviews on land everyone is - briefly - back on the boat. The compressor is rattling away on the stern deck, filling tanks. It's deafening. Thankfully it won't be long until the tanks are ready and the film crew heads off again for a night dive. In the time we spend anchored the boat is like an airport.
Read More...
