Roatan

Roatan lies about 40 miles (65 km) north of Honduras in the Caribbean. Roatan, Guanaja, and Utila make up the Bay Islands, with Roatan being the largest. It is 48 miles (77 km) long and less than 5 miles (8 km) wide at its widest point. The island is an exposed ancient coral reef rising 890 feet (270 meters) above sea level. It is located on the southern edge of the Meso-American Barrier Reef, the largest barrier reef in the Caribbean Sea and in the northern hemisphere, and the second largest in the world after Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Roatan hosts 65 species of stony coral, 350 species of molluscs, and more than 500 species of fish.

We dove the Bay Islands in 1995 aboard a liveaboard dive boat. See the Guanaja and Cayos Cochinos pages for more images.

Split-crown feather duster, Anamobaea orstedii

Solitary gorgonian hydroid, Ralpharia gorgoniae

Giant basket star, Astrophyton muricatum

Common octopus, Octopus vulgaris

Sponge brittle star, Ophiothrix suensonii

Cryptic teardrop crab, Pelia mutica

Yellowline arrow crab, Stenorhynchus seticornis

Caribbean spiny lobster, Penulirus argus

Pederson cleaner shrimp, Periclemenes pedersoni

Hidden cleaner shrimp, Lysmata rathbunae

Banded coral shrimp, Stenopus hispidus

Stove-pipe sponge, Aplysina archeri

Branching vase sponge, Callyspongia vaginalis

Orange icing sponge, Mycale laevis,

Variable boring sponge, Siphonodictyon coralliphagum

Staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis

Sea fans

Fire coral, Millepora complanata

Elegant anemone, Actinoponus elegans

Globular encrusting tunicate, Diplosoma glandulosum

Painted tunicate, Clavelina sp.

Bulb tunicate, Clavelina picta,

Bluebell tunicate, Clavelina puerto-secensis

Lettuce sea slug, Elysia crispata

Tasseled nudibranch, Bornella calcarata

Crisscross tritonia, Tritonia bayeri

Long-horn nudibranch, Austraeolis catina

White-speckled nudibranch, Paleo jubatus

Common (Atlantic) bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus

Creole wrasse, Clepticus parrae,

Yellowhead wrasse (terminal phase), Halichoeres garnoti

Silversides (ten species)

Yellow goatfish, Mulloidichthys martinicus

Spotted goatfish (night colors), Pseudupeneus maculatus

Large-eye toadfish, Batrachoides gilberti

Balloonfish, Diodon holocanthus

Indigo hamlet, Hypoplectrus indigo

Stoplight parrotfish (terminal phase), Sparisoma viride

Porkfish, Anisotremus virginicus

Red hind, Epinephelus guttatus,

Nassau grouper, Epinephelus striatus

Blue tang, Acanthurus coeruleus

Spanish hogfish, Bodianus rufus,

Hogfish (intermediate phase), Lachnolaimus maximus

Spotfin butterflyfish, Chaetodon ocellatus

Banded butterflyfish, Chaetodon striatus

Smooth trunkfish, Lactophrys triqueter,

Scrawled cowfish, Acanthostrocion quadricornis

Sand diver, Synodus intermedius

Slender filefish, Monacanthus tuckeri

Neon goby, Elacatinus oceanops

Shark-nose goby, Elacatinus evelynae

Glass goby, Coryphopterus cf hyalinus,

Peppermine goby, Coryphopterus lipernes

Rock beauty, Holacanthus tricolor

French angelfish, Pomacanthus paru

Gray angelfish, Pomacanthus arcuatus

Queen angelfish, Holacanthus ciliaris

Yellowtail snapper, Ocyurus chrysurus

The Prince Albert wreck, the DC-3 wreck, and two near-vertical walls are a shore dive away with well-marked chains and buoys.

Wreck of the Prince Albert:

Critter portraits:

Fish:

Snappers:

Mutton snapper, Lutjanus analis

Schoolmaster, Lutjanus apodus

Yellowtail snapper, Ocyurus chrysurus

French grunt, Haemulon flavolineatum

Angelfish:

Gray angelfish, Pomacanthus arcuatus

Rock beauty, Holocanthus tricolor

Queen angelfish, Holacanthus ciliaris

French angelfish, Pomacanthus paru

Butterflyfish:

Foureye butterflyfish, Chaetodon capistratus

Spotfin butterflyfish, Chaetodon ocellatus

Surgeonfish:

Blue tang, Acanthurus coeruleus

Ocean surgeonfish (two color phases), Acanthurus bahianus

Trumpetfish, Aulostomus maculatus

Sea basses (groupers):

Black grouper, Mycteroperca bonaci

Rock hind, Epinephelus adscensionis

Graysby, Cephalopholis cruentatus

Harlequin bass, Serranus tigrinus

Tobaccofish, Serranus tabacarius

Fairy basslet, Gramma loreto

Green moray, Gymnothorax funebris

Puffers:

Sharpnose puffer, Canthigasgter rostrata

Spotted burrfish, Chilomycterus atringa

Porcpupinefish, Diodon hystrix

Gobies:

Neon goby, Elacatinus oceanops

Barsnout goby, Gobiosoma illecebrosum

Masked or glass goby, Coryphopterus personatus/hyalinus (impossible to determine which)

Blennies:

Arrow blenny, Lucayablennius zingaro

Spinyhead blenny, Acanthemblemaria spinosa

Damselfish:

Threespot damselfish, Stegastes planifrons (two adults, one juvenile)

Bicolor damselfish, Stegastes partitus

Sergeant major, Abudefduf saxatilis

Parrotfish:

Stoplight parrotfish, Sparisoma viride (left: initial phase; right: terminal phase)

Redband parrotfish, Sparisoma aurofrenatum (terminal phase)

Wrasses:

Pearly razorfish, Xyrichtys novacula

Spanish hogfish, Bodianus rufus

Yellowhead wrasse (juvenile, two intermediate), Halioceres garnoti

Slippery dick, Halichoeres bivittatus (intermediate phase)

Creole wrasse (initial phase), Clepticus parrae

Longspine squirrelfish, Holocentrus rufus

Peacock flounder, Bothus lunatus

Inshore lizardfish, Synodus foetens

Chub, Kyphosus spp. (may be Bermuda chub, Kyphosus specatrix, or Yellow chub, Kyphosus incisor)

Mojarras:

Silver jenny, Eucinostomus gula

Saucereye porgy, Calamus calamus

Jacks:

Bar jack, Caranx ruber

Horse-eye jack, Caranx latus

Spotted drum, Equetus punctatus (juvenile)

Goatfish:

Yellow goatfish, Mulloidichthys martinicus

Spotted goatfish, Pseudupeneus maculatus

Hamlets:

Barred hamlet, Hypoplectrus puella

Indigo hamlet, Hypoplectrus indigo

Yellowhead jawfish, Opistognathus aurifrons

Atlantic spadefish, Chaetodipterus faber

Lionfish: an Indo-Pacific invasive species, now found all over the Carribean:

Red lionfish, Pterois volitans

Spotted scorpionfish, Scorpaena plumieri

Slender filefish, Monacanthus tuckeri

S mooth trunkfish, Lactophrys triqueter

Large eye toadfish, Batrachoides gilberti

Longsnout seahorse, Hippocampus reidi

Shrimps:

Banded coral shrimp, Stenopus hispidus

Pederson cleaner shrimp, Periclimenes pedersoni

Scaly-tailed mantis shrimp, Lysiosquilla scabricauda

Worms:

Christmas tree worm (single, colony), Spirobranchus giganteus

Magnificent feather duster, Sabellastarte magnifica

Spaghetti worm, Eupolymnia crassicornis

Flamingo tongue cowrie, Cyphoma gibbosum

Queen conch, Strombus gigas

Sand dollar, Clypeaster subdepressus

Sponge brittle star, Ophiothrix suensonii

Tiger tail sea cucumber, Holothuria thomasi

Crabs:

Yellowline arrow crab, Stenorhynchus seticornis

Neck crab, Podochela spp.

Hairy clinging crab, Mithrax pilosus

White speckled hermit, Paguristes punticeps

<unidentified crab>

Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus

Hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbriocota

Lettuce sea slug, Elysia crispata

Evening entertainment:

Folk dancers performing dances from diverse parts of Honduras:

We returned again for the ARRL DX SSB contest in March, 2020, for what was supposed to be a normal sort of DXpedition contest operation with Igor and also joined by Doug Grant, K1DG, and his wife Karen, followed by a normal sort of week-long dive trip for the two of us afterwards. That's not quite how things worked out! The first inkling that things might be a bit unusual was during our arrival into Roatan. The airport there has no instrument approaches, which I already knew since I had checked out of curiosity knowing we would be arriving during a period of heavy winds, rain, and storms. The is the first time I had ever been on a commercial flight in a big jet (a 737) that had to go around not just once but twice before managing to safely land. On the first attempt, we were in solid clouds all the way with nasty low-level windshear. The pilot tried a second time, and I had "ground contact" from my seat over the wing just as we went missed for a second time. The pilot got on the PA system and reported that he too had seen the runway at the last minute but not in time to land on it, the tower reported conditions were improving, and that we were going to try a third time. I was picturing us landing on the mainland, maybe at San Pedro Sula, and having to take the ferry boat over after the storms subsided, but on the third attempt we got in, quickly followed by the two other flights due that afternoon.

Paul and I arrived on Saturday, February 29th. Doug and Karen would arrive Monday, and Igor not until Thursday. We had a few relatively small antenna jobs to do before the contest. Dennis, W1UE, had been there for the ARRL DX CW contest a couple of weeks earlier, with Rudy, N2WQ, who owns the QTH. They had put up a top-loaded vertical for 160m and an inverted-V for 40m, the two bands where the station was weakest. We needed to put a temporary director V wire up for the 40m inverted-V facing north, make and put a loading coil at the bottom of the new 160m vertical to make it resonate within the band, run coax through the conduit to the new 160m vertical, mount and wire in two switches and relays Dennis had built for those two bands, and add choke coils to the coaxes for them. When Igor arrived he would try again to put up a low-band receiving antenna. So we had one tower climb to do, a bunch of work with the local electrician Hector and his crew to run cables and mount relays and the new loading coil, and some wiring.

With the able addition of K1DG to the team and the two new antennas, we improved our score considerably, to about 6.2M points, even though conditions had not improved over 2019.

Monday after the contest, Paul took Igor and the Grants to the airport to fly home. Then we dropped off the rental car and moved over to Turquoise Bay for a week of diving and underwater photography. By this time we had been hearing about growing problems at home due to the corona virus COVID-19 pandemic, but we had been too busy to pay too much attention to it. Igor, Doug, and Karen all got home with no unusual problems. At the beginning of the diving part of the trip we also were not paying too much attention to news from the outside world. Like most diving trips, at an all-inclusive resort it was eat-sleep-dive-repeat. For the first few days, anyway.

The dive operator, Subway, has several dive boats catering to both guests at the resort and cruise ship customers, though on separate boats. And they actively hunt invasive lionfish. Usually when they catch lionfish they cut them up and feed them to groupers or moray eels, perhaps trying to teach the native fish to eat the lionfish, rather than serving them for dinner. Most of the diving is off the north side of Roatan. There are a lot of big groupers present. The underwater terrain features a lot of volcanic canyons and walls.

North-coast reef scenes:

Critters:

Neck crab, Podochela sp.

Channel clinging crab, Mithrax spinosissimus

Banded coral shrimp, Stenopus hispidus

Pederson cleaning shrimp, Periclimenes pedersoni

Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus

Spotted spiny lobster, Panulirus guttatus

Flamingo tongue, Cyphoma gibbosum

Hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata

Green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas

Christmas-tree worms, Spirobranchus giganteus

Social feather duster, Bispira brunnea

Bearded fireworm, Hermodice carunculata

Lettuce sea slug, Elysia crispata

Creole wrasses, Clepticus parrae

Spotted burrfish, Chilomycterus atringa

Balloonfish, Diodon holocanthus

Sharpnose puffer, Canthigaster rostrata

Papillose blenny, Acanthemblemaria chaplini

Puffcheeck blenny, Labrisomus bucciferus

Longsnout seahorse, Hippocampus reidi

Queen angelfish, Holacanthus ciliaris

French angelfish, Pomacanthus paru

Foureye butterflyfish, Chaetodon capistratus

Peacock flounder, Bothus lunatus

Black grouper (two color variations), Mycteroperca bonaci,

Nassau grouper, Epinephelus striatus, with neon gobies, Elacatinus oceanops

Indigo hamlet, Hypoplectrus indigo,

Barred hamlet, Hypoplectrus puella

Harlequin bass, Serranus tigrinus

Spotted drum (juvenile), Equetus punctatus

Longspine squirrelfish, Holocentrus rufus

Goldentail moray, Gymnothorax miliaris

Purplemouth moray, Gymnothorax vicinus

Green moray, Gymnothorax funebris, with neon gobies, Elacatinus oceanops

Spotted moray, Gymnothorax moringa

Fringed filefish, Monacanthus ciliatus

Large eye toadfish, Batrachoides gilberti

Emerald parrotfish (IP), Nicholsina usta

Yellowtail parrotfish (IP), Sparisoma rubripinne

Redband parrotfish (TP), Sparisoma aurofrenatum

Bicolor damselfish, Stegastes partitus

Yellowtail damselfish (juvenile), Microspathodon chrysurus

Ocean surgeonfish, Acanthurus bahianus

Blue tang, Acanthurus coeruleus, with juvenile Spanish hogfishes, Bodianus rufus

Schoolmaster, Lutjanus apodus

Fairy basslet, Gramma loreto

French grunt, Haemulon flavolineatum

Ironically, we had originally planned on returning home on Monday, March 16, but flights on March 17 were so much cheaper that it was more cost-effective to stay one more day. Or so we thought, anyway. Honduras went into lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic on March 16. Roatan had no COVID-19 cases on the island (it still had none as of when I wrote this, April 18, though of course the pandemic did eventually reach the island), but with limited medical facilities there, it could quickly have become overwhelmed. Roatan closed its airport and ports, allowing no one to land or take off from the island. Restaurants, taxi service, buses, ferry boats, and rental cars were shut down. A curfew and many other restrictions were imposed.

The United flight from Roatan to Houston that Monday, which left Roatan four hours late, was the last flight out to any American city, or anywhere else for that matter, for several days. Having heard no communication from United, we checked with United by telephone that evening and were eventually told that our flight would come in empty to take American customers back to Houston according to the original schedule. However, when we got to the airport Tuesday it was deserted, mostly closed, and mostly locked up, with no United representatives around, or anyone else, for that matter. So we went back to the hotel.

Unable to tie up the phone there on hold with United for hours to try to figure out how to get home, Paul texted one of his sisters back in United States. After several hours on hold herself she was able to rebook us on a flight ten days later. So we were stuck. The beaches closed, the dive shop closed, and we were confined to the hotel compound. We quickly made arrangements to get prescription medicines filled on the island and got a few other supplies like toothpaste we would need for ten more days than we had planned for. As it happened a dive club group from our local area was stranded with us. We were stuck in a relatively expensive place to be stranded, but at least it was safe, clean, had potable water, food, air conditioning, generator power, security guards, and people who spoke Spanish and could therefore translate the government mandates and announcements better than we could.

Meanwhile, three different Canadian airlines quickly brought planes in empty and repatriated all the Canadian guests, but no American carriers did so for several days. A couple of American customers who really had to get home booked themselves onto a very costly charter flight and got out via Miami. The Czech Republic even got a flight in and brought their citizens out via a roundabout route. So the hotel got lonelier and lonelier as people managed to get out and get home.

There wasn't much to do. It was lonely, boring, and frightening all at the same time. The dive shop was locked up, the dive boats sat at the dock, the empty beach was cordoned off, we were confined to the hotel compound, and the strict curfew meant people so inclined could not hang around at the hotel bar and watch movies. We read a lot of books from the bookswap, edited the underwater photos, worked on software, and messed around on the internet on our computers when the internet bandwidth was good enough. We got very tired of that hotel room. I even spent a bunch of time photographing a woodpecker excavating a nest in the palm tree right outside the window. Our wedding anniversary came and went sadly without our usual celebration. We just hoped that the repatriation flights that were scheduled would actually fly, and were happy when the first of them left for Houston on schedule. Our repatriation flight back on the 28th was surreal, to put it mildly. We were in the last group to get out of our hotel, so they closed up when we left. The last repatriation flight out of Roatan was on March 31st.

I was never so glad to see a 737 come in and land safely as I was that empty plane! Applause rang out in the waiting area in the airport as all the anxious, stranded customers saw that we had a good chance of actually leaving at last. After we had all boarded, which was immediately since the plane had no arriving passengers, we had another scare when the pilot got on the PA system and announced that the plane had a mechanical issue and our departure was going to be delayed. There was a problem with the pitot-static system, which would mean that the plane had no working airspeed indicator. We feared that United was either going to have to bring in a different plane or a mechanic to fix that one, but after an anxious half hour we were able to depart. We arrived in Houston with no problems and only about ten minutes late. Houston was deserted, so we quickly were able to clear customs and connect with our almost-empty flight home.

When we got to Boston, the airport was almost completely empty, but our airport shuttle van ride home, which we had rebooked once we were relatively sure we would be able to get home, was faithfully waiting for us outside baggage claim, and we finally got home for our mandatory 14 (more) days of quarantine. So I made us face masks. Strangest DXpedition in our careers to date!

We almost returned for the 2021 CQ WW CW contest but had to cancel at the very last minute. We did manage to return in 2022. We spent a week diving at Tranquilseas before the contest.

Reef scenes:

Black ball sponge, Ircinia strobilina

Bowl sponges, Cribrochalina vasculum

Elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata

"Farming" of staghorn (Acropora cervicornis), elkhorn (Acropora palmata), and fire coral (Millepora complanata) is beginning to pay off, as we saw a few healthy patches of each. Surprisingly, we did not see any lionfish whatsoever, though it is unlikely that hunting them is actually making a dent in the population of those voracious, invasive fish.

Wrecks:

Fish:

Butter hamlet, Hypoplectrus unicolor

Smooth trunkfish, Lactophrys triqueter

Stoplight parrotfish, Sparisoma viride (initial phase)

Rosy razorfish, Xyrichtys martininicensis

Spotted drum, Equelus punctatus

Roughhead triplefin, Enneanactes boehikei

Queen angelfish, Holocanthus ciliaris

Orangespotted filefish, Cantherhines pullus, showing color change

Saucereye porgy, Calamus calamus

Yellowhead jawfish, Opistognathus aurifrons

Longfin damselfish, Stegastes diencaeus, juvenile

Tobaccofish, Serranus tabacarius

Black grouper, Mycteroperca bonaci

Schools of fish:

Blue chromis, Chromis cyanea (with dusky damselfish, Stegastes adustus)

Blue tangs, Ancanthurus coeruleus

Creole wrasses, Clepticus parrae

Moray eels:

Green moray, Gymnothorax funebris

Goldentail moray, Gymnothorax miliaris

Worms:

Spotted feather duster, Branchioma nigromaculata

Christmas-tree worm, Spirobranchus giganteus

Hermit crabs:

Giant hermit crab, Petrochirus diogenes,

Red hermit crab, Paguristes cadenati

Other creatures:

Pen shell, Pinna carnea

Unidentified corallimorph

Hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbriocola

We also did one shark dive with Cara-Cara. Shark Dive. This was off the south shore of the island, departing from near the new cruise ship dock. All of these animals are female Caribbean reef sharks, Carcharhinus perezi.

We did some island touring with the ham radio team after our week of diving, since several of them had never been to Roatan before.

Botanical garden:

Island scenes: The cruise ships are a new addition.

Punta Gorda:

Fishing villages:

Rum tasting:

West Bay:

West End:

Mangroves:

Wildlife:

Mammals:

Panamanian white-faced capuchin monkey, Cebus capucinus, and Geoffroy's spider monkey (black-handed spider monkey, Central American spider monkey), Ateles geoffroyi

Kinkajou (honey bear), Potos flavus

White-nosed coati (coatimundi), Nasua narica

Brown-throated three-toed sloth, Bradypus variegatus

Roatan Island agouti, Dasyprocta ruatanica

White-tailed deer, Odocellus virginianus

Birds:

Macaws: Military macaw, Ara militaris, and scarlet macaw, Ara macao, the national bird of Honduras

Herons and egrets: Cocol heron, Ardea cocol, great blue heron, Ardea herodias, great egret, Ardea alba, yellow-crowned night heron, Nyctanassa violacea

Royal tern, Thalasseus maximus

plain chachalaca, Ortalis vetula

We then operated the CQ WW CW with W1UE, K1TR, and SM7IUN. Nice to have 10m back again with the reappearance of sunspots. This was our first over-ten-thousand-QSO contest operation from Roatan.

There was not, for a change, not much antenna work to be done. The tribander was fine, as were the 40m and 80m antennas.

The 160m vertical was bent over because a branch had fallen on one of its guy wires. Hector and his crew pruned the trees from atop ladders and managed to get the vertical upright again. Luckily, the aluminum tubing was not damaged and straightened out just fine.

The plan for this year was to try a short receiving vertical over in front of the carport, since the various BOG ideas had never worked in the past. However, the preamp for the receiving vertical was not working, so this receiving antenna, too, did not work for us. We'll try something else next time.

Before the contest, Ed, K1TR, on his first-ever DXpedition, enjoyed running the pileups. Dennis made a lot of FT8 contacts and was in high demand, while Paul, of course, operated CW.

When the shack gets too hot, there is always the pool.

Dennis wanted a real Thanksgiving. Here he is, slicing the turkey breast. The menu: roast turkey breast, turkey gravy, southern-style cornbread, onion-mashed potatoes, broccoli, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Left-to-right: Paul (K1XM), Dennis (W1UE), Katerina (XYL of SM7IUN).

Pre-contest strategy meeting in the shack:

CQ WW CW 2022: W1UE and K1XM, W1UE and SM7IUN, K1TR, K1XM and K1TR.

The contest online scoreboard, for inspiration:

Final score: 17.6M with over 10,000 contacts.

A last-minute pre-departure repair job that got completed in time: Monday after the contest, the lawn-care boy cut the coax to the 80m vertical with his machete, only a couple of inches from the antenna base. We did not have a long enough extension cord to get a soldering iron or heat gun out there. A quick visit from Hector with a long cord and Dennis and Ed fixed the issue before we flew home.

We returned to Roatan for the CQ WW CW contest in November of 2023. We stayed at The Resort at Marble Hill first for some scuba diving, at the east end of the island. Because of the abnormally-high water temperatures in September and October, there was a huge amount of coral bleaching, to the point where I almost did not feel like diving anymore. The reefs were covered with bone-white coral, very macabre, depressing, and scary, though a close look showed that, at least at that time, the coral polyps were still alive (I am told that there was a significant amount of recovery later).

The contest operators were N2WQ, K1XM, KQ1F, W1UE, N9NC, and NG7A.

We returned again in October of 2024 for the CQ WW SSB contest (first time to Roatan for that contest), operators K1XM, KQ1F, N2WQ, W1UE, K2TR, and HR2DDL. October turns out to be the height of the rainy season, so no one, not even Dennis, spent much time in the pool, and the island was very quiet. We spent our time repairing things in the station.

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Last modified 5 November 2024