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... in the East they still preserve the once universal concept:  that wandering reestablishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.   Bruce Chatwin, "The Songlines"

January 3, 2006   Roatan, Honduras

It has taken us several days to recuperate and rest.  It's hard work to bring in the new year. But now it's time to move on and see some other spots here in Roatan.  The wind is blowing out of the east at 20k the direction we want to go but Port Royal is only 5 miles from Jonesville, so we pull up anchor and motor out of the cut.                                                                   

  The seas are kicked up a bit but it feels so good to be moving once again and as we motor by we recognize the little towns of Jonesville, Oak Ridge, and Calabash Bight. It's slow going as we are beating into the waves and wind.  Margo and Clive on s/v Rived left earlier and helped us into the channel since the markers were hard to see.  They lie low in the water and with the waves they were obscured.  Once we were safely in, we anchored, but dragged a bit as the ground is mostly turtle grass.  We radioed Mango Creek and spoke with Terry who offered his mooring ball.  So, we decided this was best and hooked on.  Mango Creek is a resort, specializing in flyfishing.  They have 4 cabanas located right on the water painted in tropical bright colors, a restaurant, and boathouse.  Mango Tango, a 58' Deerfoot is tied alongside the dock.  Our friend, George, who is in his 13th year of a circumnavigation on a 62' Deerfoot, located currently in Malaysia, had emailed us and advised us to be sure to meet Terry and Patrice who own Mango Tango, who have sailed around the world.   In the restaurant/bar area, we met Terry and Julie and Ed, who are the managers here and who have also completed a circumnavigation in their sailboat, a 44 Cartwright.  Terry gave us the tour of the resort, beautifully landscaped, the walkways meander thru the jungle.  They have their own woodshop, building all the furniture right on site.  The master carpenter is an 86yr old native and is teaching other local young men his skills, thereby teaching them a trade.  Above the woodshop is the living quarters for the workers. Mango Creek employs 15 people.  The main house situated above the restaurant/cabana area is a beautiful work of art.  All of the wood is either mahogany or cambia all native, carving is inlaid into the doors and cabinetry and chairs.  And the view from the balcony overlooking the bay is a sight to behold. 

 Dinner was promptly served at 630pm, and we joined Margo and Clive, celebrating their 18th anniversary, and Doug and Mary who are caretakers for the residence next door.  It was Doug's birthday and the celebration was well underway.  The resort has one couple and their daughter on vacation.  The conversation was lively, mostly about sailing.  Doug and Mary have gone around the world in their sailboat some years ago.  Geez, this place just seems to attract serious circumnavigators, and we are just  "wannabees" at this point.

January 5, 2006

The winds continue to blow and we have sinced learned that these easterlies are called "Christmas winds" and they last until March.  So it becomes more of a challenge to move east which is the direction we need to go.  And even more challenging to make it around the cape of Honduras which we will eventually have to do on our way south to Panama.  Waiting til March we may be.  Went snorkeling today, but came away empty handed.  It's been awhile since our last kill. 

Yesterday, we walked over to Casa Gusta and visited with Doug and Mary who are the caretakers of this beautiful home.  They have been here for 2 yrs and used to be the managers of Mango Creek before that.  And before that, they were serious circumnavigator sailors.  They had a home of their own on Guanaja and survived Hurricane Mitch when it came thru in 1998 and told us details of the sinking of the Phantom, the big windjammer, and their own survival story and of course, more sailing stories.  Can't get enough of those!

  January 10,2006

Yes, still here in Port Royal.  No one else anchored here so we have it all to ourselves.  We have been busy with boat chores:

Cleaning the dinghy bottom up on the beach area and getting bit by sand fleas on our bottoms. I look like I have the small pox.  These nasty buggers are worse than mosquitoes and no-seeums. 

I was helping Mary out on the beach the other day moving rocks for a pathway, I was getting bit here and there by sand fleas and slapping myself silly.  I noticed Mary wasn't bothered at all by the sand fleas.  I asked her, "Mary, do you get bit by these sand fleas or are you just use to them?" And she replied, "No, I've sprayed myself with Off". Oh, with age comes wisdom!

 Installed the footblock that had broken on our passage from Lighthouse to Roatan.  Had it welded back together in Jonesville at no cost. The lady owner of the business said just be sure to help someone else out in need.

Lubricated all the hatches and ports.

The outboard motor is in the hospital.  We found a local mechanic, Lewin, and he came by with his cousin, Castle, and disassembled it.  We had a mechanic at Marios work on it back in Oct., and he was suppose to have replaced all the bearings, but we discover that he replaced two out of the three.  It is this third bearing now that needs to be replaced along with the bushing. Getting parts is always the problem and Lewin says his Dad is going to La Ceiba, (on the mainland) tomorrow and will get the parts there.  We gave him $100 in advance for the parts, and he took our motor back with him to his shop in Oak Ridge.  We hope that he brings it back running someday soon. Or we may have just given him and his cousin a great night out on the town, a Yamaha 25hp motor and laughing at us stupid white gringos!

The watermaker acquired a few leaks, so Aaron disassembled it and resealed and tightened a few screws.

The forward head acquired a leak also, and Aaron disassembled it and fixed the problem, whereas in the states you usually just called the plumber.

It's not all work and no play.  Since the wind has finally died down some, in the mornings I paddle the kayak around, or we go swimming, since we have no dinghy motor we are restricted. 

Another talent that one acquires cruising is cutting your spouses hair. This involves trust, patience and the ability to hold comb and scissors in hands while cutting the hair.  It's a bit awkward at first, but you get the knack of it just as you finish.

We get together with Doug and Mary for cocktail hours either at their place or on our boat.  We gave them a tour of our home, and Doug was impressed with our "ass machine", (ice machine) and Mary loved our microwave/convection oven.  When they cruised with their 3 children aboard in the 1970's and 80's on a 40ft. boat, they didn't have the luxuries that we have today. No GPS. They used SatNav, sextants and luck. Which all sailors cannot do without.  Although, they did have a washing machine in their storage compartment in the aft. Something I wish we had.  Doug invited us over for dinner one evening for his famous spaghetti.  And yes, it was delicious. And Mary tossed a wonderful salad with fennel seeds mixed in.  What a special treat to end the day. We do enjoy their company and love to hear their stories about their adventures whether they be about sailing or well, is there anything else? We hope that someday that when we grow up, we will be as fun and interesting as they are with a continued zest for life. They are currently looking at sailboats, in hopes of finding the right one,  and dream of taking their grandkids with them sailing around Central America. The view from their balcony is gorgeous overlooking the bay and the reefs.  We had brought over some of our ice since we do enjoy lots of "ass" with our drinks. Doug, who is originally from South Africa,  told a story of how this young South African sailor on leave in San Diego entered a liquor store and asked for some ice. His pronunciation for the word "ice" sounded like "ass", and the liquor store owner directed him to the whore house down the street.

  Doug is determined to teach us how to set our spinnaker pole for downwind sailing, since once you reach the South Pacific it is all downwind sailing in the trades.  "Once it is set, you don't touch it for the next two or three weeks" Doug says.  So, we have been trying to get our spinnaker pole out of its storage position which is aligned vertically along the main mast.  It's been a long time since we have used it so it is a bit rusty. We plan on going out for a daysail with Doug and Mary in the next few days.

Had a wonderful surprise visit at noon today.  Clyde brought over Sonny and Kay and their friends who are visiting from Texas, Barry and Judy. Of course, we had to have the "world famous bloody mary's" served in a tall glass, since their friends had come all the way from Potthole(Pottsboro), Texass.  The cold front is passing thru which means rain and northwinds.

So, we had a nice visit while waiting out the rain shower. Clyde, who is in his 60's, and is a descendant of 7 or 8 generations, speaks with a creole accent that sounds like his mouth is full of muffalettas, entertained us with his stories.  He has lived here all his life and runs a water taxi and loves big bottom girls.  With a break from the rain, our friends boarded their awaiting taxi and took off back to Jonesville where Valentina is at anchor.  I believe they got wet, no soaked thru and thru, on their return trip as in a matter of minutes after they left, it downpoured.   Oh bloody well, saves on washing.

January 14, 2007

We have been waiting patiently for the perfect day to take Doug and Mary sailing and it has either been too much wind, too little wind or raining.  But yesterday, was perfect, winds were out of the southeast at 15k,  so with our new crew onboard we went out the cut and headed east.  We tacked upwind for two hours then it was time to practice our downwind sailing.  We haven't used our spinnaker pole since we bought it in 1998, so we poled out the jib and with the main on the opposite side with a preventer (it keeps the mainsail from jibing), we ran wing on wing downwind.  It worked great, but a little adjustment needs to be done on the pole.

It is so nice to sail downwind, quiet and peaceful, and a great time for lunch.  As we neared Port Royal, a squall was coming and the wind picked up, but with our experienced crew aboard, the jib was furled in and the pole stowed, just in time before it started to rain. (even though Doug did his best to chase the rain away).  Once back on the mooring ball, we celebrated a successful daysail  with a cool boat drink.  

Kaija's Song, Gary & Kaija and their dog, Doc, had made it to Jonesville anchorage a couple of days ago, and we had received an email reminding us that the 14th was Gary's birthday. We hadn't seen Kaija's Song since leaving Belize on December 7th.  So, we decided that we needed to surprise him so we said our so long's to Doug & Mary and motored on over to Jonesville.  We did surprise the whole anchorage, being gone for 10 days,  and joined the party over at Kaija's Song.  The party began at 230pm, complete with a birthday cake and a spank.

Well, that night as we were running our generator to charge batteries, icemaking does take a toll, we ran out of fuel.  Good thing we were here, closer to the fuel station and friends who could help us out with extra jerry jugs and a dinghy.

January 17, 2006

We have been monitoring Suenos's ( Mike and Karen) progress since they left the Rio on the 14th via the Northwest Caribbean Net, which is a boaters radio show conducted every morning at 8am. (And I have been filling in for a friend on Thursdays as net controller for the last three weeks.  It's not like using the CB! And they all get a kick when I say the phrase 10-4 because on the SSB the proper way to say affirmative is Roger Roger, (who is Roger?)    These are good friends of ours, who have had a few delays in their departure date but had finally made the escape out of the river and were on there way here to Jonesville today.  Finally, we heard their call on the VHF that they were close and everyone in the anchorage welcomed them as they made their way into the cut.  It was great to see them once again and to catch up on the latest happenings.  Of course, Karen makes the best rum punch, see the recipe section for the secret.

 January 23, 2006 

Being without your outboard motor paralyzes your ability to move about.  Your dinghy is like your car, only a water car, and one you rely on heavily.  You take the greatest care of your car, don't you? You take care to lock it up everywhere you go and especially at night, (we run a cable or stainless steel chain thru our motor and gas can then back to our mainship.) And then, some cruisers, raise their dinghy out of the water each night via davits or a halyard on the side. You make a cover for it, a suncover to block out those harmful UV rays that destroys the material.  You always tie it up when you come back home, but every once in awhile, you forget to (to your surprise) and lo and behold you are fretful, fearing that you might not see your dinghy again. And rely on the kindness of strangers or the kindness of your friends to bring your dinghy back to you.

  Our outboard motor, a Yamaha 25hp, had been worked on when we were in the Rio by a local mechanic back in July,  who after three attempts at fixing the problem, said that he had replaced all three bearings and we were good to go.  Not so good.  It never sounded right after that, didn't like to idle, and hard to start.  But, we dealt with it.  Now,  it was back in the mechanics shop, and the local mechanic diagnosed the problem right away.  The top bearing needed replacing along with the bushing.  Okay, so we gave him money for parts and our motor and our blessing.  Please fix it right.  After waiting patiently for a week, which seemed longer, since we were having to borrow friends dinghies, or hitch a ride into town with friends, our motor returned.  After a trial run, the motor is running great and our many thanks to Lewin, the local mechanic for fixing it right.  He took great care, having to make the journey over to La Ceiba, a city on the mainland which is 40 miles away from here, to the Yamaha dealer to buy the bearing and three times to the machine shop here in Coxen's Hole to have the bushing put on the lathe.  It took three times because the power kept going out all over the island.  After 2 weeks, we are happy satisfied customers.

January 25, 2006

It's time to move on east.

 Today we achieved being underway by 615am.  That's is quite a feat for us.  But, we were ready to make our way east and the wind has finally died, being fully provisioned for the past few days awaiting our weather window, we sneaked out of the anchorage.  Having to say goodbye to friends is no fun and we hope that we will see them again on down the coast.

 We have enjoyed our time here in Jonesville with friends and meeting the locals, and as we motor out the cut we remember good times such as the great beach BBQ party  given by Don and Yvonne  on Ooscabaugh (spelling is not correct, but that is what it sounds like, sorry). And help from Kaija and Gary to get it all set up and breaking it down.  They are building a home here and invited whoever over to their place for a great get together on Friday. And a wine tasting by Bernard.  The next day's big question was, how much wine did I order?

And meeting the youths on Ute, Cora and Allan and her mom. Thanks Allan for the snap on snap off canvas challenge. I had made a rainguard strap to cover just the top portion of our dodger, since when it rains it inconveniently leaks where the zippers attach to the dodger, which then drips into the companionway.  A bloody nuisance.  Allan came over and put snaps on the ends and on each side of the middle panel.  Hopefully, it will work.

We motored the entire 5 miles, and by 715am we were hooked onto the mooring ball in front of Casa Gusta after receiving permission from Doug and Mary.  And I conducted the NW Carib Net at 8am live from Port Royal. Wow, we had accomplished alot in the span of 2 1/2 hrs.  Bruadair, Damon and David,  made it from Oak Ridge after being in a marina there for the last 42 days,( boy were they glad to be outta there),  by 11am, and we were snorkeling by noon.   Great to be back in the water once again.  When we were anchored in Jonesville, a thriving little community,  for the last 10 days, the water is polluted unfortunately, so absolutely no swimming.  Aaron with his speargun and trigger finger, triggered an ocean trigger.

We invited Doug and Mary, from Casa Gusta and their 4 yr. old grandson, Joshua, who is visiting from La Ceiba, over for dinner.  Promptly at 5pm, the evening began with intros to Joshua, who then, had to explore the entire boat.  What a great playground!  This cute little guy is fluent in Spanish and English and thinks that snakes are cool and having recently seen the movie, "Austin Powers" his new phrase was "yeah, baby".  "That's shagadelic!"   Shrimp Creole was the main course with pudding and cookies for dessert.  Oh, oh, did Joshua have too much sugar!  Sorry Doug/Mary for giving you extra duty tonite.

January 29, 2006

Grocery shopping in the Bay Islands of Honduras or actually anywhere you are cruising, other than the "Land of Convenience" (USA), can become quite challenging in the "Land of Waterworld": it can take all day,  can take several stops in order to get what is on your list, and can take on an unique experience, and accomplish it without a car, the 4-wheeled kind.

I was invited to go along with Jill and Al, onboard their  62' catamaran, (a boat with two hulls) with a 6' freeboard, 31" beam, in other words " a huge ass boat" named Dragonfly, to go grocery shopping in French Harbor, which is approx. 8 miles west of here.  Other passengers along were good friends of theirs who were also anchored here on their catamarans, Paradox, Tom & Stanna from Durango, CO, and Joe & Helen on Dejavu, and David on Bruadair.  The departure time was a prompt 7am, with Al, a wonderful chauffeur,  making the rounds in the anchorage picking people up.  With  a friendly welcome and hot coffee and muffins on the salon table, we got underway before 730am, and with a motorcruising speed of 6.5 knots, we made it to French Harbor in 1 hr and 15 min.  We tied alongside the dock, and  walked the 6 blocks or so to Eldons, the nicest supermarket on the island of Roatan.

  I found items I hadn't seen in awhile, such as cottage cheese with an expiration date actually in the future, hard cheeses, yogurt,  and candy, real candy like Snickers bars! Yummy and such a treat for my chocolate lover aboard.  I kinda went wild and took leave of my senses, and bought more than on my list, of course, and after checking out realized that Aaron was not with me and I was on my own toting the goods back to the boat.  I stuffed my backpack full of the heavy items, and carried 4 plastic bags.  The walk back was at a quick pace as my back and shoulders didn't agree with the load I was carrying.

So, I also found out from my fellow cruisers that there was an egg farm across the street and down 2 driveways on the right, where you can buy fresh eggs, the non refrigerated kind.  So, I took my handy dandy plastic egg carrier and followed Tom and David to the chicken man.  There are over 5000 chickens here and they produce 54 cases (2X3 boxes) full of eggs each day.  I couldn't use my nifty egg carrier because the eggs were so big, grande size, but were hand picked and packaged in a styrofoam egg crate.  2 dozen eggs $2.50.

Everyone had their to do lists, filling a propane tank, picking up a package at customs, marine hardware stops,  and all came away successfully. We departing for home and a nice rainshower rinsed off the boat on the return, arriving back before 2pm.

Aaron picked me up, since I managed to have the most goods, while Al took everyone else home in his dinghy.  After putting everything away in its rightful place, it was time for me to chill out, and reflect back on the day.  In Waterworld, your days are ever changing, and you learn to go with the flow, and enjoy being in the moment wherever you are.

January 31, 2006

The winds have been calm since we have been here in Port Royal and we have been taking advantage of it by snorkeling everyday.  We have hit every cut, snorkeled inside the reef and what's great is the chance to snorkel outside the reef, where the reef is the prettiest.  Lots of colors, purple fans and red coral, black coral, elkhorn,brain, and pillar coral in abundance and the floor is covered with a seagreen mossy texture.  It is definitely my favorite spot so far.  The fish life is much bigger outside the reef, which Aaron and his new fishing partner, Damon, of s/v Bruadair, love the challenge of spearing the big one.  Damon is "spotter" and Aaron is "killer", they work great as a team, bringing home dinner everytime.  As for me, I like the swim and look for lobster or crab.