Roatan, Honduras

Location:  Roatan, Honduras

If you can believe it, we’ve been here a week already.  We’re moored at a small marina/hotel/dive center called Barefoot Cay on the south central side of Roatan.  We arrived here last Wednesday morning after doing an overnight cruise from Xcalak, Mexico.  The seas and wind were both calm, so we made a decision to skip Belize and head straight for Honduras while the weather was good.  The wind has been blowing quite strongly since we arrived with gusts up to 25 mph at night, so we are waiting for another good weather window before we head further east and then turn towards the south. 

We left Isla Mujeres after staying there for a week and did a day cruise to Puerto Aventuras.  Puerto Aventuras is like an all-inclusive resort in the Mayan Riviera; they have a marina, lots of condos, restaurants, shopping, etc.  One of the big attractions there is the “dolphin experience”.  They have several pools with dolphins where people can get in the water and interact with them.  We didn’t try it, but did have a good time watching people who did.  We did some swimming and some grocery shopping and walked into the small town outside of the resort to go to the hardware store.  We broke our refrigerator latch again ( I broke it while we were crossing the GOM; we had a spare latch on board so Bob repaired it with that, but it broke again enroute to PA).  We bought a few nails and Dave fixed it using those.  Dave also got his first haircut using our new hair/beard trimmer.

Dolphin Experience, Puerto Aventuras

Dave's Buzzcut

Isla Mujeres, South End

Dave Boroscoping Swim
Platform Gas Tank

 

Here are a few pictures from Isla Mujeres that didn’t make the last blog.  One is a picture of the south point of Isla Mujeres where you can see some Mayan ruins.  The other is Dave, using a boroscope to look at the inside of the gas tank in our swim platform.  We haven’t used it and wanted to make sure it was clean with no cracks.  One of our marina neighbors loaned us his boroscope and in order to see the screen, Dave draped a blanket over his head. 

Sunset Bahia Ascension

From Puerto Aventuras, we did a day trip to Bahia Ascension and anchored out there for a few days.  Then on Sunday, we did a short day trip to Bahia Espiritu Santo and anchored there overnight.  On Monday, we did a long day trip to Xcalak, our last port in Mexico.  On the way to Xcalak, we had a pod of 6 dolphins catch a ride on the bow wake, you can see them in the picture.  On the way down from Espiritu Santo, we talked with the sailboat Ace and Outlandish, a catamaran that was at El Milagro Marina with us in Isla Mujeres.  Both were also headed to Xcalak, with Outlandish scheduled to arrive there first.  While enroute, a Mexican Navy boat approached us and radioed with all kinds of questions, name, how many people aboard, where are you going, where are you coming from, etc.  They finished with us, then moved ahead and questioned Ace and then moved ahead and questioned Outlandish.  By that time Outlandish was close of the entrance of Xcalak and they asked the Navy if they would escort them through the reef and into the harbor.  The Navy agreed and once safe inside, Outlandish came out in their dinghy to help Ace and us enter safety.  It was a bit disconcerting as there was a sailboat aground on the reef and it looked like it was a recent event.  Our chart plotter had some offset in it and if we had followed the path it showed into the harbor, we would have been aground next to the sailboat.  That’s why they call them “aids” to navigation; no one aid is foolproof and it is important to use all the tools available... even your eyeballs. 



Dolphins surfing the bow wake



Sailboat on the reef, Xcalak, Mexico

 Tuesday morning, we pulled up anchor and were planning to head into San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, but decided to do a longer cruise and thought we would stop at Lighthouse Reef, an offshore atoll, anchor out for the night and then continue to Roatan, but as the day went on, and the seas remained calm, we decided to carry-on.  As we were nearing Roatan, early, early morning Wednesday, we could see the glow of two cruise ships coming over the horizon, one from our port side and one from our starboard side.  Both ships were Carnival Cruise ships, lit up like Christmas trees.  They over took us as we neared the island and we followed them around to the south side.


Carnival Cruise Ships, Roatan



 

Upon arrival, we were faced once again with the paper work cha cha to clear into Honduras.  The process here was much simpler than in Mexico and we had time to enjoy the Wednesday lunch pig roast while our clearance papers were being processed.  Since we’ve been here, we’ve done some chores, swam, snorkeled, went to town, went to the beach, etc.  We have been having some problems with our dinghy motor, so Dave has been working on that, so far she’s still not running quite right, but we haven’t given up yet.  

 

Dave unlaxing, Barefoot Cay

Seabiscuit at Barefoot Cay

A few days ago, the superyacht Dardanella pulled into the marina next to us, so it is like having a big sister looking over our shoulder.

Dardanella at Barefoot Cay

 



We’ll probably stay here a few more days.  The wind is supposed to start dying down on Friday afternoon.  We’ve started doing some re-provisioning and will finish that up over the next few days before we take off.

Back to Cruising

Location:  Isla Mujeres, Mexico

We are finally back on the boat after taking about 4 months off to be land-lubbers and to take care of some chores.  Way back mid-December, we pulled the boat into Barber Marina near Elberta, Alabama after making our way north up the west coast of Florida and then west along the panhandle and across the border into Alabama.  We made some interesting stops on the way to Alabama, the most memorable being Long Beach Key - where we had all you can eat stone crab claws and Carabelle - where we docked the afternoon of the Christmas parade and fireworks show.  Barber Marina is an interesting place.  It's a very nice marina out in the middle of nowhere.  The owner has placed life size dinosaur replicas in the woods around the marina along with a replica of Stone Henge, huge metal spiders, knights in shining armor and a lady in a bathtub.  For pictures, go to their website www.barbermarina.com  We docked the boat and hopped into our trusty truck (we had the truck shipped from Pa’s place in New Hampshire to a friend in Pensacola) and headed to Texas.  We sold our place there and spent some time with family over the holidays.  Here is a picture of our sweet granddaughter, Magnolia Jane, sitting on my lap reading her book.  She'll be two in July, hard to believe how fast time passes.

Magnolia Jane, December 2012

 

After New  Year’s we hopped back into the truck and headed to the farm to finish construction on the cabin.  Most of the interior work still needed to be done including walls, floors, doors, cabinets, etc.  Ben and his friend Andy visited for a week early January and did some deer hunting, helped with farm chores and put up the first cedar wall in the guest bathroom.

Front Porch Railing



Cedar wall in Guest Room

Kitchen Cabinets and Oak Hardwood Floor

 After they left, we hired a construction crew to help us install the walls, doors, floors and window trim and to apply clear coats to protect the wood.  All of the walls are different varieties of hard wood.  In the great room we have hickory, red gum, maple and cedar.  The master bedroom has a wall of poplar and a wall of cedar with the other walls being a combo of oak, red gum and other woods.  The other rooms have different combinations depending on the quantities and varieties we had available.  My mom came to visit mid-February and helped us to assemble the kitchen cabinets and then Dave installed those after the floor got finished. 

Mom and I headed from the farm to Fairhope to do handyman/fixit work there so we could get the house on the market.  In the meantime, Dave made a trip to Scotland and I made a trip to Angola, with a stop in Houston to catch up with friends and to take care of a few things.

We got the Fairhope house on the market mid-March and had an offer the first weekend.  While that was happening, Dave finished negotiations with a shipyard near Barber Marina for maintenance and upgrades on the boat.  The boat was hauled out of the water early April and work continued right up until the day we left the country.  We closed on the Fairhope sale on April 19^th and rented a condo for a week while we finished up the shipyard work.  Our scheduled departure from the US was on Thursday, April 25.  On Wednesday, April 24^th, we completed sea trials to test the stabilizers and some of the other shipyard work and Dave’s friend Bob arrived from Dallas to make the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) crossing with us.  On Thursday morning, we pulled out of Barber Marina and headed to Pensacola to pick-up 2000 gallons of diesel fuel; the price for diesel there, delivered by a truck to a shipyard, was $3.06 per gallon compared to ~$4.00 per gallon in Alabama.  One of the Electronics Technicians from the shipyard rode along with us to finish installation of the satellite phone system and to finish some upgrade work on our GPS chart plotter/radar.  Dave’s friend Dave and his son Daniel stopped by for a quick visit while we were in Pensacola.  Finally, about 6:00 p.m. everything was finished and we could button-up the boat, cast-off and head across the GOM.

We passed out of the Pensacola inlet about 7:00 p.m., with Dave taking the first watch.  Bob made salads and a light dinner and I went down for a nap.  About 11:30 Bob came up to take over the watch and I came up about midnight to help him.  The cruising was fairly smooth.  Here is a picture of our first sunrise at sea (Friday morning) and a ship that crossed about the same time.  Bob rigged up our new fishing gear and Dave got up to take the morning watch.  About that time, I went to the bunk feeling a little seasick and Dave and Bob ended up taking the rest of the watches.  Bob did catch a fish along the way, a nice dorado and we picked up a few flying fish on the decks.

Bob with flying fish

Dorado caught while underway

Dave, B, Bob El Milagro Marina

We arrived in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, Sunday evening.  It was too dark to enter into a marina, so we anchored and Bob cooked us a fresh fish dinner.  The next morning, the local police boarded us to make sure we were going to clear in and then we headed into El Milagro Marina.  Little did we know, just in front of our slip was a shallow area and as we were maneuvering to back in, we went aground forward.  Some of the folks staying at the marina rowed out with their dinghy and attached a line to our stern.  Dave eased the engine into reverse and between that and the marina staff and other people on the dock pulling on the stern lines, we made it into our slip.  The next few hours were spent doing the paper work cha-cha, customs, immigration, the port authority, agriculture, etc. are all required to clear in.  We finally broke away around lunch time and went to the local market for guacamole and lunch.  We wandered around town Monday afternoon, went back to the boat to freshen up and then had a fresh seafood dinner at a nearby beach restaurant.

Tuesday morning, we were up early.  Bob had a flight out of Cancun and Dave and I had to go there to complete the paper work for temporary importation of the boat.  We rode the ferry across to Cancun, found a taxi to take us to a local breakfast place and then Bob headed to the airport and we went to do our paperwork.  We needed a few boat supplies so after we finished our chores we caught a taxi to a marine supply store and then rode the ferry back to Isla Mujeres.

Since then, we have been doing some unlaxing… We rented a golf cart one day and drove around the island and went swimming at the north beach.  We’ve walked into town a few times to sit at the blues bar and drink a few beers; we’ve done a little shopping and have sampled a few of the local restaurants.  And, we have met a lot of great people with really good information about cruising, where to go, what to see, maintenance tricks and lots of good sea stories.

Our plan is to depart here tomorrow (Monday) morning and head south to Puerto Aventuras.  We’ll stay there a night or two and then clear out of the country and head towards Belize and Honduras.