“That Northern is still blowing out on the shrimping grounds and shrimping boats are anchored up for three days now, sheltering behind Bogas Keys (Cayos Vivorillos). My brother has his anchored shrimper there. While talking to him later, on the Side Band radio to get an update. “There is a tropical wave developing in the Eastern Caribbean, heading northwest, and getting stronger. Got to keep an eye on that,” he said.

One of the reasons for the close attention paid to the weather has been the maritime nature of the livelihoods of so many Bay Islanders. The islanders find it important to know what loved ones working at sea are encountering in real time or what they might encounter in the coming days or weeks.

Another reason is that the Bay Islands have had its share of hurricanes, most recently with Hurricane Lisa. Some hurricanes that have hit the Bay Islands have also been very destructive, among these Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Hurricane Fifi in 1974 and Hurricane Francelia in 1969.

Decades ago, current weather and past hurricanes were a common topic amongst the islanders. Growing up in French Harbour in the 1970s, Francelia and Fifi were often spoken of anecdotally. My memory of which hurricane belonged with which anecdote is rather blurred.

I remember there being three separate structures on higher ground where entire French Harbour families sought shelter during Francelia and Fifi. These included the Seventh Day Adventist School and the home of Mr. Allan and Ms. Yvette Hyde, both located just to the South of the French Harbour cross-roads. The third was the small home of Ms. Minnie Jackson, which was located on the high ground on the North side of the canal that runs from the lagoon to the harbor.

Men remained in the yard and tied themselves to coconut trees.

Ms. Minnie’s home, during Hurricane Francelia, was so packed with children and their mothers that a number of the men remained in the yard and tied themselves to coconut trees.

Before arriving at Ms. Minnie’s, my father had been delayed at the harbor where he had gone to secure the Boy Laguna, the steel-hull shrimper which he captained at the time. It was then that our neighbor, Mr. Christopher Jones, helped my mother take her children to Ms. Minnie’s home.

My older sister and brother recollect the saltwater reaching their knees as they made their way down the French Harbor Street. They cut through the alleyway between the homes of Mr. Robert Arch and Mr. Algie Jackson. The alley led to the small wood bridge across the canal, which was located some 200 feet east of the current bridge. The alleyway was lined with oleanders being punished by the winds.

Following the hurricanes, there was always the tasks of going back into town to assess the damage. A potable water tank washed off its stilt platform and lodged underneath the house across the street, where it had broken away some of the house’s posts.

In the hole left by one of these posts we found a large red snapper swimming in circles. There were some changes with the shoreline as large deposits of clean, white beach sand ended up on the French Harbor Street. That sand was later claimed by Mr. Charlie Hyde, whose home was on the seaside of the street. Patiently, he wheel barrowed away all that he wanted.

Smiling at the Future and Thinking About the Past

Mr. Jason Thomas Bodden was born on September 19, 1940, in Coxen Hole. He is one of 13 children born to a popular Pentecostal preacher from Coxen Hole, Mr. Joe Bodden. He was born at seven months to Evelyn Dilbert from Politilly.

Crawfish Rock community grew almost everything they needed to eat.

When Mr. Jason was 12 his father passed away, and his mother moved the entire family to Crawfish Rock. The small village would become a place where Mr. Jason would come back to time and time again.

There were not many people living in Crawfish Rock in the 1950s and Mr. Jason remembers quite a few of them. There was Jesus Puerto, Uncle Lou, Bill Minzenh, and Cecil Bodden. On the hill above Crawfish Rock a retired American seaman, Jack Luzig, built a big house there, and started a family.

Back then the Crawfish Rock community grew almost everything they needed to eat. They had plenty of yucca and cocos, and the plentiful fish in the sea provided for a good diet. “Those times you used to live in a bush house made out of cohune leaves,” says Mr. Jason. While building a bush house wasn’t difficult, keeping it over one’s head in storms was another matter. Mr. Jason remembers hurricane Fifi, that in 1974 destroyed all but one house in Crawfish Rock.

While Mr. Jasons first and second wife passed away, he had six children from the first marriage. He began working on a shrimp boat as a cook. His first boat was the “Maru” that was based out of French Harbour. Thanks to his work he was able to see a bit of Honduras’ northern coast and other Bay Islands. He visited Utila, Guanaja and Puerto Castilla. After 17 years of working on fishing boats Mr. Jason had enough and settled back on dry land.

You used to live in a bush house made out of cohune leaves.

In the late 1990s an American doctor hired Mr. Jason to be a watchman for his house and property located just west of Crawfish Rock. Mr. Jason and his family took care of the property for 21 years until it sold. Now Mr. Jason is renting a space in a small house on the edge of Crawfish Village.

How the First Cruise Ship Came to Roatan

The Methodist Church damaged and weakened by Hurricane Francelia and Hurricane Fifi once stood nearby. The church’s congregation moved to a new worship building up the hill and a few hundred feet away.

The first cruise ships began coming to the island in 1980s. This pioneer was the 500 foot long Ocean Spirit, and by far the biggest ship to visit Roatan to that date. She ended up visiting the island on regular basis.

While Coxen Hole was a quaint sleepy town, in the 1980s the dive industry had already discovered Roatan. Ocean Quest International, the world’s largest diving operation at the time, was eying Guanaja and Roatan, both known for their pristine coral and tall dive walls. The company wanted Ocean Spirit, their live aboard flag ship, to make regular stops in the Bay Islands on a week-long dive cruise from Florida.

One of the people who helped in creating a welcome environment for international divers was Alejandro Monterroso. In the 1980s Alejandro lived on Roatan and had his own dive shop in Coxen Hole, next to Key View Hotel. It was called South Shore Divers. “This was the Waldorf Astoria of Roatan,” remembers the seaside hotel Alejandro.

Alejandro remembers that one day a man named Laurence August knocked on the door of his dive shop. August was an executive for Ocean Quest, an international company that operated Ocean Spirit and was looking to come to Roatan and Coxen Hole in particular.

On September 5, 1989, Ocean Spirit visited the island.

Mr. Allan Hyde was chosen to be the port agent for Ocean Spirit. An appropriate spot was chosen in Coxen Hole and a roughly 12” by 12” square cement bollard was poured that helped to secure a rope that tied the ship to land. This would prevent Ocean Spirit from spinning as she discharged her dive boats from her stern.

On September 5, 1989, Ocean Spirit, the biggest ship that has visited the island until then, came to anchor off Coxen Hole. At 20,000 tons Ocean Spirit was the easily the biggest dive ship in the world. The vessel was over 110 feet high and had ten deck levels.

The dive and excursion cruise ship accommodated 360 passengers, 198 crew and 32 diving staff. Ocean Spirit even had its own decompression chamber and carried 10 dive boats that could be launched with a special high speed overhead crane.

Roatan along with Guanaja were placed on a regular schedule for visits by Ocean Spirit based in Southern Florida. Every week the boat would leave New Orleans, head for stops in Guanaja, Roatan, then for Belize, and Cozumel before returning.

These were different times. Back then Honduras was a military dictatorship and as there was a CIA sponsored civil war going on in Nicaragua, nearby Roatan was a place to take a break from the action for American GI and CIA company men.

Eventually, in 1990s Honduras’ Empresa Nacional Portuaria built a cruise ship port near the site. In 2008 Royal Caribbean took over the management of the port from Empresa Nacional Portuaria. In 2018, ITM Group, a Mexican conglomerate that operates cruise ships all over eastern Caribbean: Costa Maya in Mexico, Taino Bay in Dominican, took over operation of Port of Roatan.

In 2020 a second birth was added so two cruise ships could disembark their passengers at the same time.
Sheltered from wind and currents, and with ample enough room to maneuver Coxen Hole became one of the safest terminals for cruise ships in the Caribbean. Many cruise ship boat captains consider Port of Roatan as one of the easiest to enter and leave ports in the Caribbean.