Captain's Log

View pictures in the 2005 Photo Gallery.

January - February 2005:  Honduras

We are still hanging out in La Ceiba, Honduras.  Can you tell we really like this place!  The weather has been rainy with lots of northers coming through the area so we have just been finishing up projects and waiting for a weather window.

Toward the end of January the weather is starting to settle down and we head out to the Bay Islands.  Our first anchorage is French Harbour on the southwest part of the island of Roatan.  We meet up with several boats that we have become friends with.  The water is beautiful, the snorkeling is good and it’s great to be anchored out in the cool breezes again.  Roatan has a great grocery store named Eldon’s, so we load up so that we can go anchor in some of the more remote anchorages along the south side of the Island.

We talk with friends Dave and Jan on Odyssea and we decide to head east along the coast and stop in several of the bights.  Next stop is Neverstain Bight.  We squeeze through the break in the reef into the anchorage.  Once behind the reef we are in a small but well protected anchorage.   It’s just a short dinghy ride back to the reef to snorkel and dive.  There is also a beautiful beach called Half Moon Bay.  This is one of the few bights on the island that is uninhabited.  There are a few local fishermen that come in and out in their cayucos, but other then that we have the place to ourselves.  After five days of fun we decide to pick up anchors and head east to the next bight.

It’s Saturday February 12th and we are headed to Bodden Bight, which will be our next anchorage.  We want to get a good spot to anchor before the crowd arrives for Sunday Bar-b-Que.  This bight has a village known as Jonesville and a bar and restaurant called “The Hole in the Wall”.  This is a hangout for all the boaters and has become a local attraction for some of the hotels and the cruise ships to bring their guests.  Bob, the owner cooks up some really good grilled beef and lobster.  Every Sunday afternoon he has his Sunday Bar-b-Que.  The boaters gather to share stories and eat some really good food. 

Monday it’s off for a day of exploring with Dave and Jan in our dinghy.  Many of the bights are connected together by small canals that are used by the locals to go from one bight to the next without having to get outside the reef where the waters are unprotected.  These are like staying on the backstreets instead of getting on the highway and are just wide enough in some places for two dinghies to pass, maybe 8 to 10 feet wide, and then they open up into another bight with another village.  We head east to Hog Pen Bight, Oak Ridge, Fiddlers Bight and Calabash Bight.  We check out some local shops and have lunch at BJ’s, which is the local hamburger joint.  Then it’s time to head back to our boats.

We stay at Jonesville till Tuesday and its anchors up and we head east again to the next bight past all the ones we explored with the dinghy, Port Royal.  Wow, what a beautiful huge bay that is well protected with out islands and the reef rises to the surface to protect the bay.  There are three entrances through the reef.  The first one is marked with two buoys and since it is raining Odyssea and Lone Star Love decide to enter through the reef where it is marked.  The other two entrances are not marked and you should have good sunlight to enter through the reef so that you can see the coral heads in the water as you pass through the reef.  Once in the bay we head to the east end where most of the boaters like to anchor.  It is very beautiful here with a cool breeze blowing over the reef. 

There are only a few homes in this huge bay and usually only a few boats are here.  By Wednesday afternoon there are eleven boats in the anchorage.  The local residents are out taking pictures of all the beautiful yachts anchored out in front of there homes because they never have that many boats there at one time.

One of the homeowners has given all the boaters an invitation to come to their dock to have a happy hour get together.  Everyone brings a snack to share and several of the boaters have guitars and other musical instruments that they bring and we have great entertainment while visiting with all the other boaters.  The homeowners, Al and Janet, enjoy having us all over, claiming that Port Royal is very quiet and hardly anyone ever comes there. 

The swimming, diving, snorkeling and exploring are great, but it’s Friday morning and we have to head back to the La Ceiba Shipyard to pick up our new Single Sideband Radio.  We talked to Dale, the manager of the shipyard, by phone and he has informed us that the radio will be at the yard by Friday, today, and the latest maybe Monday the 21st.  We have been waiting for the new radio for a month and we are anxious to get it and get it installed.  This is the radio that allows us to send emails from the boat with the sailmail server.  Our old radio was getting tired and it was not getting out as far as we wanted and another boater wanted to buy it so we sold it to him and he was as happy as a lark with it, but we didn’t have one ordered before that time so we have been out of contact for over a month now.