Let's Catch up! December - March

January 2 –January 12, 2009 – French Harbor, Roatan Honduras – Chain?

Over time, things deteriorate. I am not pleased with the condition of a section of one of our anchor chains so I would like to replace it remembering the “weakest link” aphorism. On January 20th, I placed an order for 250 feet of anchor chain with Luey MacLaughlin, owner of Blueseas Seafood for a very good price. The chain would come from Luey’s brother, the owner of a freighter out of Florida, in about ten days, or so we thought. Meanwhile, we enjoyed the leisurely pace of Roatan. We visited the Iguana Preserve, went snorkeling and walking, and on rainy days set up our water catcher and read several books. I do not know if the chain has arrived yet (or not) and as I write now, it is March 10th and Barb and I are back in the United States planning to return to the boat on March 20th. Will we be able to load chain aboard? We hope so.

February - Jonesville Harbor, Roatan Honduras

We decided that it is time to explore some of the other anchorages on the island so we sailed (motored actually) a short distance to Jonesville, found the reef cut and anchored snugly. We dinghyed to shore and walked around the town. In the small grocery, we found some items we could use that we had not been able to find in the large market in French Harbor. We have learned that if you see something you need, you buy it on the spot. Don’t wait, because the item may not be available when you come back and remain unavailable for months thereafter. Next day, we went to the famous Hole in the Wall Restaurant and Bar barbeque. It is an all-you-can-eat steak, lobster tail, mashed potatoes, corn and beans, with dessert and a cigar festive experience.

After two days in Jonesville, we left the anchorage and backtracked to Halfmoon Bight to snorkel the reef there. We found it to be interesting but nothing special, so we continued on our way, sailing off the anchor and back to French Harbor.

Guanaja, Honduras

We topped up our tanks and took care of various errands and then we, Pearl S. Buck and Tisha Baby set out to explore the eastern most of the Bay Islands, Guanaja. We fished along the way and Barb caught a grouper that provided dinner for us all that evening, anchored off Josh’s (or Graham’s) Cay. The small resort there has a restaurant and bar, a nice beach and a fenced pen in the water containing huge turtles, barracuda, tarpon and jewfish. The pet pelicans are a source of entertainment as is the $10/day internet (when it is working). The wind direction helped us decide to sail to the other side of the island and Barb and I decided to head for Michael’s Rock. This turned out to be a very pretty cove where, despite the initially poor holding for our anchor, we stayed a couple of nights along with Tisha Baby. We found that the End of the World Resort was recovering from a lightning caused fire and was not open, but the owner gave us directions so that we could hike to a waterfall to complete our day’s activities. The next day, we dinghyed through the canal that transects the island and landed on Bonacca, where the majority of the population of Guanaja resides. We were impressed with the goods and services available in this community of friendly folks and we were captivated by the charm of the traffic consisting of boats and feet only. No vehicles exist on the island where they have only sidewalks and canals to meet transportation needs. We met Bryan and Dorothy and enjoyed some shopping and lunch with them. They had anchored in El Bight along with about a dozen other boats awaiting a weather window to make a run eastward to the Vivarillo Cays. Then they and most of the others planned to head southward to Providencia, San Andres and on to Panama.

The next morning, Tisha Baby left us to pick up Richard’s brother back in Roatan and we sailed to El Bight to see what attractions held so many cruisers there. We had a surprise dinner at the German Restaurant there. It was a surprise, because Bryan had asked for something to nibble with drinks. They brought salads and then the rest of the dinner. I only wished that it tasted better.

We bid our dear friends Bryan and Dorothy on Pearl S. Buck farewell and we departed for a spirited downwind run back to Roatan anchoring in Port Royal just like the pirates did years and years ago. The next morning we explored the small cay nearby before setting out for French Harbor and planning our next move. Our anchor chain had still not arrived in Roatan.