French Harbor Roatan

November 22 2008. I waited toll 7 am and hialed Tom on the VHF and found out he had lost his dinghy during the night. A short ride in our dink around the bay and we found his dinghy. Some locals had brought it to shore and waved us in when they saw us looking around. We got under way and arrived at the Ilsand of Roatan inthe early afternoon. During our stay there we hung around with Tom and fellow sailors in the anchorage. Karen and Mike on Beau Soleil. And Mike and Gloria on Winfree. Mike and Karen have went around twice and once on a sailboat that had no motor. Mike was very helpful showing us how to use our new SSB radio for weather reports and communicating with other sailors. On Thanksgiving day Mike and Gloria Invited us to share thier meal with them Turkey and all of the timmings. What a wonderful life we lead. The town of French harbor has a great supermarket with plenty of supplies from everywhere. The island has plenty of higher end vacation homes and condos. Gil Myself and Tom and a girl named Debra went for a dive off the Fantasy Island resort . The site we went to has a sunken tug and a plane there is a large reef with plenty of spectaular corals and marine life. There is a miriade of tube, fan, brain coral. The resort here lets the sailors use the wifi and they have peacocks and this funny looking animal that looks like a giant guinepig. You can get great videos of your dive to watch at the bar tv. On one of our Trips to the island we went into the town of Coxen Hole it is a larger town than French Harbor with more amenities. We will be leaving here as soon as the cold fronts pass and get on to Guanaja.

Utilla

Bad weather set in for a few days so we sat around the boat and read alot. During the the day we started to drag our anchor so we pulled it up and moved to a better area of the harbor with a lee shore for protection. We have bumped into Dicky a few more times in town. A new sail boat anchored next to us today. The vessels name is Rock and Roll owned by Tom from California. We decided to buddy boat with Tom to Roatan. Hopefully the sail will be okay because another front is coming in on Sunday and Roatan has good protection.

Bay Island Honduras

November 14 2008. Once we were out of the bay and headed around the point we past numerous bays that resembled large Kathy's Coves at Aubry. The mist was stating to burn off and the sun streaked through it with shots of gold. A pod of dolphins joined us this morning and did their usuall dance in front of the bow. We arrived in the Island of Utilla on flat blue seas. Beautiful!Seventeen miles away to the south the mounians of the mainland jut up into the air . They are so massive you can see them on a hazy day from the island. Entering into the East Bay was relativily easy. It is wide open with 50 ft of water under us in the entrance. The harbor is a halfmoon shape with fairly new and colorful buildings dive shop and resturaunts. After setting the hook we went into the town for dinner. While strolling along we met up with a couple we met in the Dulce. Richard and Gerra are on a catamaran from Holland. The island is a scuba divers playground with over 60 dive sites from shallow to deep dives with massive coral walls,shipwrecks and whale sharks. Gil and i walked the town edge for about 3 hours. The primary busness here is tourism. All the supplies come from the mainland. English is spoken here and meals and beverages are relatively cheap. The money is the Lemperes, 1 dollar gives you 18 Lemps.During our lunch on a balcony restuarnt we met Dicky. A nice fellow from Texas, his parents immigrated from Honduras before he was born. He came here to the island to dive and meet relatives he had never met.

Bay Island Honduras

November 12 2008. Wayed anchor at 5 am It looked like it would rain. By 10 am the water was alost flat and a beautiful azure blue. Guatemala had been left behind and we were in Hondurian water Our course was parrelall with the shipping lane. Kuring the morning we spotted 4 frieghters and a US Coast Guard cutter. Looking at the coastline in the distance you can see Honduras has a rugged mountianous terrian similar to Guatemala.At 2 pm Gil decided he didn't like the noise coming from the prop shaft. So we stopped and he dove in to see if anything was loose. 10 minutes later we were under way agian with only about 10 miles to go to our next anchorage. The anchor was set in the Bay of Honduras in a large harbor called Puerto Es Con Dido. There were craggy mountians in the entrance with a few outcroppings of rock to go through, but once we were inside it opened up to this idylic bay that was protected on all sides. Our anchor was dropped in fifteen feet of crystal clear water. About 20 minutes later three young boys who were fishing outside of the bay came in to visit us. My sanish is poor but we communicated well enough. After the boys left Gil and I went for a small dinghy tour around the harbor. Sunset was pleasant with a couple sundowners while we listended to the howler monkeys in the tree canopy until the went ot sleep.

Livingston Guatemala

November 12 2008. After the fisherman came into the anchorage Gil went over and got us some fresh shrimp for the freezer. Once they were cleaned we headed into Livingston to clear out. We were a little bit worried because we lost or misplaced or entry papers. With thoughts of steep fines and extra paper work we entered the Port Captians office and found out everything was cocumented on their computer. Whew! From there it was top immigration and then to Customes. Wxcept they had gone to lunch a little bit early so we spent 1 and half hours chatting with a fellow by the name of Gerry. Gerry was originly from Australia and about 21 years ago was visiting Livingston when he met the love of his life at a resturant there and never left. He and his wife operate a tour business now. Once we got our clearance papers we pulled up our hook and went about 10 miles to Punta Manabique int the shelter of the Peninsula. We doupp our anchor around 6pm. The moon was full with a star filled sky and it was wonderful to have the open water around us.

Good by to Guatemala

We said our goodbyes to the good people at Mar Marina. Scarlet the spanish and english speaking manager talked Gilbert into buying suction cups so I can clean the bottom of the boat easier. The day was sunny and hot as we motored through the Golfete towards Livingston. Gil had a few minor ajustments to do on the new propeller shaft he installed and we were on our way. As we left the Golfete and entered the Rio Dulce you could feel the rythem of the river. Poeple in their pangas fishing with nothing more than a hook and line some for sustanance and some for income. It is a simple way of life and the people we saw looked happy. Coming into Livingston my heart was filled with well being when I saw the expanse of open water in the Caribean. I missed this alot in the Rio where we were closed in by the mountians and the water was a dirty green color. Out in the open waters there is a nice breeze even when it is hot.