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.