Roatan, Honduras May 1st

We left Providencia and had again, as posted earlier in the blog, a rather boisterous sail!!  We had practically nothing up for a head sail and still had trouble keeping Fortuitous under 5 kts.  This is not the usual problem for Fortuitous...usually we can't go fast enough, not the reverse. Although the photo below is under the Providencia page, it is appropriate to include it here.

It is difficult to get a good photo of this and, of course, the seas look very tame...but this is the best we can do. The seas were from behind, so it doesn't translate well into a shot forward.

In French Harbor, Roatan Honduras, there is a marina and dive resort called Fantasy Island.  A few of the "regular" cruisers got together and talked the resort owner into allowing them to build a deck area for cruisers to gather. On  Easter Sunday, the couple on Cabaret hosted a breakfast. Some of us pitched in to help out with the cooking. I started on waffles and was relieved by Lorraine on Zephyrus.  John, on Cabaret, made most of the eggs and sausage but Ralph spelled him off so he could actually have a chance to cool down and eat too!

A good time was had by all. This is a shot of the family Zephyrus: Lorraine in the foreground, Dan just behind her, Lance beside Dan, and Lance's girlfriend Io. Another cruiser, Alan, is in the foreground beside Lorraine.

This is the anchorage from the Marina. Fortuitous is back there somewhere.  It was terribly windy in this anchorage and didn't let up. It was even worse at night but we had no problems with our anchor.  The worst part was, you couldn't come to shore in the dinghy without being soaked with salt water!

Here I am doing the "goose step"...actually, trying to empty some of the sand out of my sandal...I know, that you should be plagued by such difficulties.  We are trying to set up a round of monkey golf here.

There are monkeys here and, during the warm up, one of them ran off with one set of our golf balls.  Thankfully, he/she dropped it eventually and it fell to a lower branch of the tree.  We were able to retrieve it.  We should have had photos of this, but don't.  The monkeys were very tame as you can see.

In Roatan there are also these critters, huatusas (or watusas)...not to be confused with the dance, watusi. They are members of the guineapig family.

Finally got a shot of the long awaited Zephyrus-Fortuitous reunion.  We hadn't seen these guys since Ecuador in 2008.  It was great to finally hook up again!

French Harbor area also has an Iguana park.  Cruisers enter from the backdoor for free.  Landlubbers are charged...not sure why we get to go there for free, but...

I gotta say, I'm just not that fond of slithery animals such as these.  Not sure if it was mating season, but there was a lot of aggressive behaviour.  I believe head-bobbing means keep away...you don't have to tell me that more than once!!!!!!

One of our group isn't quite as bright as I am (just kidding!!) and actually tried to pick one up!!  What are you thinking, Lorraine???  She got a scratch on the leg, but is still alive!!

This is Fortuitous at anchor.  We were actually right out front of the iguana farm.

We went off snorkelling, but it was a rough trip out to the spot.  The crew on Zephyrus didn't have to worry about the water temperature as they were soaked before we arrived at the buoy to tie up.

Io doesn't look that happy about the trip!

However, once in the water she's like a fish.

Lance, too, is a water baby!

There were divers in the same spot.  It was weird snorkelling above them, and through their bubbles. Ithink you can see about as much snorkelling as they can diving.  However, we'll see as Ralph would like to dive here in Roatan.

The coral was spectacular, but we didn't see that many fish.

Brain coral...I wonder how it got its name?

Zephyrus headed out of French Harbor before us and set off for a couple of different anchorages to give the kids a different experience.  We hung out a couple more days in FH and then headed to West End.  We're sorry we didn't do it earlier as we like it much better.  Much less wind, and some nice little restaurants and shops.  Tourism and diving are the mainstay of this island and there are tons of dive sites.  Sometimes there are three cruise ships a day on this island.

This is from the deck of one of the little restaurants. Fortuitous is out there somewhere. We are a long way from town, but it's a pretty dry trip in.

It is very picturesque here. That would be one of the dive boats in the foreground.

The road along the beach is all hardpacked sand or dirt, with shops and restaurants on either side.

Hammock anyone?

No much room to pass here and there are pedestrians, bikes, motorbikes, cars and trucks but everyone drives quite sanely.

Here I am getting ready to go snorkelling.  It always takes me 5 times longer, than Ralph, to get in the water.  Everything has to be just so..no leaks...check and double check!!

Our underwater camera seems to be working again, so we got a few shots.  Doesn't do it justice, though.

We still haven't seen as many fish as we'd like, but the coral is spectacular. Large purple fan coral.

We snorkelled along a bank of coral.  This is looking down the side.  The bottom is 25' or 30', so you can see it is very  clear water.

An angel fish.

Now you see him, now you don't...pipe fish.

 Spectacular coral!

This is my computer wallpaper, right now.

Fan coral amidst the other types.  Amazing!!

Life is not all hard work.  Here we are having a lovely meal out, at the Lighthouse Restaurant in West End Roatan.  This is the Zephyrus group again.

We have really enjoyed the last couple of weeks and are glad we had that time, as Cartagena was a lot of work.  We'll be heading to Rio Dulce, in a few days, and putting Fortuitous to bed for the season. Right now, we're enjoying snorkelling and visiting with our buddies!