We stopped at Swan Island (Honduras) on our way from Key West, FL, the USA to Colon, Panama. There isn’t a lot of info out there on Swan Island for yachts, so here’s what we found…

The island was occupied by 7 young members Honduran Navy (in our case, 16-26) who do a 45-day rotation at “Isla Cisne”, so the reception you receive will be somewhat dependent on the commander and group that is currently stationed there.

The dock is very rough concrete and will wear through lines quickly, but the guys on the island don’t have a boat, so you have to tie up there for them to board and search the boat. We anchored afterwards because of the motion of the boat and damage to the lines.

They did a reasonably lengthy but polite search and seemed to be mostly interested in undeclared guns although they did ask about drugs as well and had lots of questions I didn’t quite understand regarding Cuba. The detachment on the island didn’t appear to speak any English and will meet you well-armed, so be prepared with a bit of Spanish, patience, and friendliness.

These guys are bored! This particular detachment spent the mornings working and then went hiking, beachcombing, and swimming/diving in the afternoons. It’s a miracle they were all able to show up on the dock in uniforms with low-cost M-16s as quickly as they did.

In general, the anchorage at the southwest end of the island had a good holding, although it doesn’t have a tremendous amount of swell protection.

We stayed a couple of days and enjoyed several social interactions with the Navy guys. We swam & dove with them, beachcombed, enjoyed an island tour and played volleyball. I speak enough Spanish that we could have decent conversations and this group of guys was fairly friendly. As the rotation changes every 45 days, it’s hard to say what you’ll find, but it appears they’re likely to be young, bored, and responsive to friendly, low-key overtures.

They didn’t have any sort of customs/immigration capacity (they wrote down our passport numbers, names, etc. in child’s school notebook that seemed to be the official commander’s logbook) so don’t expect a zarpe, passport stamp, etc.

There were no supplies to be had although they were growing plantains and asked us about freshwater although they didn’t offer any (they use the roof to catch & store rainwater and probably could possibly have spared some).

S/V Pura Vida

May 2009