It's the humidity!
News from the Honduras Bay Islands and North Coast
14 November 2000
By Pierre Renaldo, The Coastwatcher©

The heavy rains have finally ceased. I could hardly believe the wonderful brilliant sunrise for the first time in weeks. Our first day of dry atmosphere put me in such a good mood that I was sure cool weather was with us at last. The air was pleasant, even arid and the trade winds added to the most comfortable conditions we had experienced in recent memory.

The next morning brought low fog-like clusters of mist, as the over saturated earth gave up moisture. The sun warmed the water vapor and we sweltered in high humidity for several days. Almost everyone who came into the office all week was complaining about the heat.

It was November, they complained, and they were still suffering the mid-summer temperatures. But therein was the truth. The thermometer registered a number that few people believed. Eighty-eight degrees was not really hot. True, for those recently arrived who had not yet acclimatized to the tropics, 92 degrees may have seemed quite warm. Especially if they came from the Pacific Northwest or the cooler climates of the U.S. and Canada.

We do begin to have more moderate temperatures beginning late in the year, but if you flew here from Boston, today, you would likely notice the 'heat' as soon as you came out the door of the plane. Roatan Airport is right on the Caribbean shore. It is almost always breezy there, but it is not necessarily a cool breeze.

This is a very good time of year to visit the Bay Islands. There is a risk of rain but you would encounter that wherever you went. We begin to have cooler nights, but there can be warm, humid days. It's great diving and snorkeling. Brilliant sunshine, combined with moderate water temperatures and less intensive UV-rays blend into delightful conditions for tourists who are not accustomed to tropical climates. They are less likely to be overexposed with the more moderate sunshine if good judgment is used.

The recent rains have caused some setbacks in our island's road building programs. Erosion is always the culprit and the people in charge of the drainage projects do not seem to understand or care about temporary measures to prevent washouts while the projects are in progress.

On several days, the roads were impassible mainly because their idea of temporary drainage was nothing more than a shallow depression across the roadway over which the water could traverse the road. It certainly did that, taking with it all of the roadbed and creating gigantic ravines, which their own machinery and construction vehicles could not cross.

The new management of our airports throughout Honduras has thus far produced mixed feelings from frequent users. Some good, some not too good. But the Roatan Airport Terminal seems to be humming. All the automatic doors and the air conditioning are working, and the attendants who assist with baggage and check-ins are alert and helpful to the flying public.

There is a new airline operating between Roatan and the mainland. The name is Atlantic Airways. They fly the STOL aircraft, already the mainstay of the other operators; Sosa and Isleña. High wing turbine powered, twin engines, maneuverable and versatile. They use very little runway to land and take off. I have yet to use Atlantic Airways and I have not heard that the fares are lower than their competition. I will keep you informed. I hope they make it.

I had some great news this week. I will have a new novel in print shortly. The name of it is "Red Dog Chronicles". It will be available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, hopefully before the end of the year. It is now available as an e-book on my site.

Although it is a work of fiction, it is based on a story about an airline that actually existed shortly after W.W.II, that flew single engine Stinson Voyager aircraft with the big nine cylinder rotary engines and canvas covered airframes, picking up airmail on the fly. (1946-1949). The planes did not land for the pickup or drops, but swooped down like dive bombers to a goalpost-like rig and hooked on to a cable that hauled the mail bags into the aircraft through an opening in the fuselage.

That airline was All American Airways, Inc. (AAA) and operated over western New York State, throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Eastern Ohio, and the Atlantic Seaboard from Newark to Ocean City, Md. The E.I. Dupont Company of Wilmington, Delaware owned AAA.

There is also a sequence about the Korean War and the first use of assault helicopters in actual combat as a weapons system during that conflict. The rotary wing aircraft had made its debut as an effective, versatile, lethal offensive force.

We are still waiting for news on the sale of Hondutel. No news is good news? I hope, I hope, I hope.

By Pierre Renaldo, Mountain Coastal S.A,. General Contractors, Construction Management and Construction Consultants.