Saint Helena and Barbareta get connected to Roatan’s Electrical Grid

The three power cables and a fiberoptic cable were fitted inside a cable and protected with an armor coating. “You still don’t want to put a boat propeller across it,” but it’s pretty strong, very rugged,” says Ing. Phil Michael of Alliance Power. “It’s designed to be a submarine cable.” Ing. Michael has worked on project development for 28-Megawatt propane powered power plant brought by RECO on line in 2017.

The 5′ diameter cable is rated for 15 KW and Kerite company of Massachusetts fabricated the cable brought in on two cable spools winning a contract bid of $2.5 million dollars. Most of the submarine cable will lie in around 20 feet of water. The challenge of the 120 feet will come at the Morat channel where currents and depth of 120 feet will make the operation more difficult.

Cable was unwound, floated on the surface and sunk in areas with no coral.

A 3D map of the terrain was composed by Columbian Company Geomares in preparation of the estimating the length and laying of the cable. According to Ing. Michael three echosounders with multiple beams scanned the underwater topography and allowed for the more precise planning of the cable’s route.

The cable was unwound, floated on the surface and sunk in areas with no coral. According to Matt Harper, RECO’s operations manager, Tegucigalpa based biologist relocated 400 soft corals to make room for the cable.

The first phase of the project begun on March 7 and involved laying of the 1.5-kilometer cable between the eastern edge of Port Royal to the western shore of Saint Helene island. The cable enters the water at the very last portion of elevated piece of Roatan, on the edge of the mangroves, on the western Port Royal. The overall cost of installation is $1.8 million.

While Ing. Michael originally estimated the work to last four-five days, it took twice that long. There were delays due to high wind and difficulty of fitting the cable. “We were not able to lay it int a small, shallow creek,” explained Harper. The installers had to adopt on the go to weather conditions and topography.

The first portion of the operation was much simpler as the cable was to be laid at a dept of only 3 to 12 feet. Subway watersports and local Saint Helene divers helped in making sure the cable was lowered in place. “Its heavy enough to not be covered,” explained Harper, “If we were to cover the cable it would stir up the bottom.”

The cable has the enough current capacity for 6 megawatts and fiberglass poles and above ground wire has already been installed on Santa Helena and on Barbareta cable will be laid underground. RECO estimates that currently only 50 of the 250 homes on the island have any sort of electric power, usually generators.

The second phase of the project is due to begin in early April and it will connect Santa Helena and Barbareta island developed by billionaire Kelcy Warren. Warren purchased 52% shares of RECO in 2008 and is developing Barbareta as a holiday residence. Dallas based Warren has who made his fortune in oil and gas pipelines, according to Forbes magazine, is valued at 4.3 Billion dollars. Warren in the richest man in Honduras and the 478th richest man on the planet.

The Island Provides Honduran Team’s Core Players

In 2013 Harper, who learned how to play rugby at school, thought it would be a good thing to introduce his electrical business employees and Roatan Electric Company employees to the game. “Rugby teaches you discipline, courage and teamwork,” said Harper who thought the sport might appeal to the macho ethics in Honduras and he was right. Roatanians and Hondurans answered the call to Rugby in droves. So much so that today 40 percent of the Honduras’ national team comes from Roatan. “It’s the most successful team in Honduras rugby. We are unbeaten in fifteens, we only lost one game in sevens,” said Harper about his Roatan Pirates team.

In 2013 two teams were formed: the Roatan Pirates and a team in La Esperanza put together by Jason Turner, a Canadian expat. The rugby team in Tegucigalpa came together in 2016 and teams were formed in San Pedro Sula and in La Ceiba. All-in-all, there are now six amateur rugby teams in Honduras.

The Roatan Pirates practice once-a-week at the Kix sports facility and 50-60 men and women show up to practice. A lot of the rugby training is focused on building stamina and weight training. The island athletes practice for both quick and regular forms of the game. Rugby Sevens is a quick, high energy form of the sport in which seven player teams play seven minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40 minute halves.

Taking the Roatan rugby team to a tournament game is a pricy affair. It costs at least Lps. 40,000 every time a team goes to the mainland to play. Honduras needs to maintain a certain number of players, and must play a minimum number of games to be qualified to join World Rugby, the sport’s organizing body. “It wasn’t ‘til January of 2018 that Honduras was accepted into World Rugby,” said Harper.

Over the last couple years Honduran rugby has grown and developed enough to challenge rugby teams from the Central American division. In September 2018 Honduras played its first international match, in Tegucigalpa, against Panama. “We were winning; we had it in the bag. We were up by 20 points in the first half,” said Harper. “And of course the Honduran psyche like even with the football started getting over confident.” The players were becoming complacent, laughing and joking and they took the foot off the gas, they made some mistakes, they panicked. Honduras ended up losing in the first international match to Panama. “It’s disappointing because we were winning and we were better than them,” said Harper.

Then the national team travelled to San Salvador to face their other division competitor. “Same thing happened. We were winning the game, but through ill discipline we had three players in ‘sin bin’ for personal fault and the Salvadorians beat the visitors by one point in the last moment. This was a crushing defeat for Hondurans. We were very disappointed because we were outside favorite to win it,” said Harper.

The Pan-American Games and Olympics linger as a prize for Honduran Rugby but Harper is realistic: “We are not at the level to qualify, yet,” said Harper. The top tier America countries that qualify for the world cup are Argentina, Uruguay, United States and Canada. “Central American countries are the last ones to catch up,” said Harper who is the Honduras National Rugby Team coach.

The players are starting to get noticed. One Honduran born player has started for a team in England. William Harper, 29 Matthew’s son, started playing rugby in La Ceiba and played two seasons in Swanage & Wareham RFC Rugby Union club in England’s county league. “He is the first Honduran player to play outside of the country in a rugby club,” said Mathew Harper about his son.