Saturday & Sunday 12-13 Mar, Honduras days 10 & 11, Guanaja & Roatan: Scuba diving, heat too much to bear, move to Roatan island, lose fishing lure, tranquil Port Royal Bay.
Finally, the strong trade winds abate today and we are briefly happy about it. But then soon not happy with the new no-wind conditions because the day’s heat quickly becomes unbearable. Something in between gale force winds and no wind would be nice, please? We lost count how many times we either dip in the sea or in the shower to cool off. And in the evening, we make the rare move to seal ourselves in the boat and run the air-conditioner for 1 ½ hours to knock the heat out of the boat so we can actually sleep. Otherwise, although the air temperature cools nicely after sunset, the inside of the boat retains the heat until at least halfway through the night. Plus, in these windless conditions, the bugs manage to get out to us. Nets over the hatches keep them out, but these also reduce airflow and roasts us inside.
Midmorning I go scuba diving with the End of the World resort. There are 3 of us diving, plus the resort owner (Brian) and his son. The dive is a wall dive. The boat’s mooring line is secured right on top of the wall making for quite a visual impression once underwater. So there I am, getting used to my gear and adjusting my buoyancy when Brian disappears. I could have sworn he was right in front of me just a second ago. Then I see bubbles coming out of a large hole in the coral. OMG, he went down there?? I duly follow him, with my heart rate more than slightly up. But I need not have worried, once through the hole, which was only just wide enough for me, it’s just a short swim back out into daylight, arriving in the face of the wall. That was cool! Wall dives can be interesting but this one is devoid of coral or life except for a rather large nurse shark that seems to be following us. But I’m a little distracted on this dive. My main regulator is leaking a lot of air, so I turn it off and switch to the backup regulator, or “octopus” as it is known. Though this regulator isn’t working well either. I really have to suck hard to get air (normally, the split second you try to breath, the air instantly flows) and it gets worse as the dive goes on. A bit annoying and certainly distracting. It’s also annoying because you expect these dive organizations to have gear that works. Next time, I will use my own. Towards the end of the dive, we get shallower again, the light is better and there is lots of beautiful coral life. And by now we have 3 large nurse sharks swimming around us. As I hang onto the bottom of the mooring line 2 of them seem to take a particular liking to me. They come straight at me, passing withing inches, then turn around and do the same again… and again. Now, nurse sharks are not dangerous to humans, but still these close swim-bys by these 6ft sharks is rather unnerving. When we get out the water, Brain says, “you didn’t realise it because you were filming, but one of those sharks swum right between your legs!”. Glad I didn’t see that!
The following day, Sunday, we depart Guanaja to the next island westwards, Roatan. Inspired by our new friend Mel, who seems to be able to catch fish just whenever he tries, we have the line out even before we are out the channel between the reefs. Because the zone between the reef and the drop-off is the best fishing area. But just as we get into deeper water a boat comes passed us. I wave to them showing that I have a line out the back and they swerve away and pass about70m behind us. And I’m pretty sure they didn’t run over my line. But all the way to Roatan I keep thinking: this is ridiculous, not even one bit on my nice new lure? Oana says, “are you sure you’ve actually got a lure still”. And while I’m thinking “what a silly question” I decide to haul in the line to check the lure. And, sure enough, no lure! Oana was right. That damned boat must have cut it off with his propeller. It does seem like my fishing exploits are doomed. There is either too much weed around or when, like today, there is no weed, I don’t have a hook in the water! Pfffff ☹ and Oana pulls my legs, “one day, my dear husband, one day maybe you will actually put a fish on the dinner table for me ….”.
Mental note to self: must google where the nearest fish market is!
As we arrive to Port Royal the sun is hiding behind a blanket of cloud making it very difficult to see the reef we have to get through. But this time we have good phone signal and we navigate the channel using google maps with its satellite image. This works perfectly. Once into Port Royal we turn left passing between the Hen and Egg islands and the mainland, with Oana on the bow looking for the best line. Once into Lime Bay we anchor in 5m over seagrass, right in front of the Mango Lodge resort, where we have heard they have excellent food. The Mango Lodge resort also have colourful rooms on stilts over the water (Maldives style) with walkways back to the land. It all looks very pretty and inviting. But as we dinghy over with high expectations, we find it totally deserted and the one person we see tells us it’s all closed, and no one is there to cook us anything. Hmmm. That’s a shame. Looks like we have come from one deserted bay to another.
We briefly debate if we should move to the next place, which is just 2 miles away, but there is only 2 hours of daylight left and I’m not comfortable navigating these uncharted reefs in the evening light. So instead, we continue to explore the bay by dinghy. Along the edge, near Mango Lodge there are several houses buried in the hillside vegetation, each with its own jetty. Like the west coast of Guanaja there are no roads here, so all access is by boat only.
Out on the reef there are several cays, each one rather pretty, but all with “Private, no trespassing” signs. Clearly, we are back in the land of USA land ownership! Or in this case, island ownership.
This Port Royal Bay was once a thriving community of pirates (well, probably English navy, but the Spanish would have considered them pirates). They built a town here that is now covered in vegetation. They also built a fort on a cay which had 6 cannons. Today, this cay is known as Fort Cay and the fort can still be seen there. Or at least the remnants of it, after the Spanish blew it to pieces at the end of the 17th century. As usual, a lot of interesting history in these Caribbean islands.
In the evening we get some very welcome rain. Perfect for washing off all the salt that has covered everything on the boat during last week’s strong trade winds. The rain also clears the air of heat and we have a very peaceful and cool night for once.
Tomorrow we move further west to French Cay Harbour to meet the same friends we were anchored next to on our arrival to Guanaja. There will be a party!
