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March 2007 |
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5 March - Meeting Friends in Roatan
Click here to see the Roatan pictures
We feel like we have done quite a lot since our last update. We moved the boat from Guanaja to Jonesville in Roatan, as our friends were flying into Roatan airport on 15th Feb. We had a real stroke of luck when it came to picking them up, we weren't too sure how to go about it as Jonesville is not on the main road and we have never been here before. So we made some enquiries at the 'Hole in the Wall' pub (which we had quickly made ourselves familiar with upon arrival!) We asked around and everyone had conflicting advise, until Ken (a guy I had met for about 10 minutes earlier in the day) said "Why don't you take my car?"So we gave him a lift back to his house, expecting to pick up a rusty old bomber only to be handed the keys to a brand new 4 wheel drive! It was a lucky that he offered us this as we hadn't realised that it was actually a 1 hour drive to the airport and would have taken much longer if we had have managed to find the way to the main road then get the local bus.
Andy and Caroline's plane arrived spot on time (which is apparently highly unusual for Roatan flights) but unfortunately their baggage didn't arrive with them (which is apparently highly usual for Roatan flights!) We spoke with the people at the airport and they said it will probably arrive with the flight the next day, so we took them back to the boat, parked Kens car back at his house then popped over the the boat bar for a couple of welcome bevies.
We took the dingy round to Oak Ridge the next day and caught a bus from here to the airport to pick up Andy and Carlines belongings. We only just managed to wring the taxi fare out of the airport manager, although they were very unwilling. It was nice to get the luggage back and it was a little like christmas too as they had brought us over a load of stuff from home, large jars of marmite, a christmas pudding! Solar showers, all sorts of goodies, even Mano got a cat toy pressie which he was very pleased with.
We ended up staying in Jonesville for longer that expected as there were a couple of cold fronts coming through, we never got much wind, it just went cloudy and we got a bit of drizzle. When the weather was clearer again we headed back to Guanaja and spent a little time back at Josh's Cay, El Byte (to catch up with the crazy Germans again) then over to the west side of the island where we have never been before. Stuart and Andy hired some cylinders from a guy called Bo who runs a dive resort there, and did a bit of diving on the reefs. We all took a nice walk up to the water fall that we never made it to last time too, so got a bit of exercise in there on top of all the drinking!
Click here to see the Guanaja pictures
From Guanaja we attempted an overnight sail to Cayos Cachinos, it turned out not to be the idyllic 4 knots speed sail with 2-3 foot seas as the weather had predicted and Andy and Caroline got there first taste of overnight sailing thrown in at the deep end! The seas ended up being 10-15ft blowing a force 6-7! Luckily Andy is really familiar with boats and the sea having owned his fair share of boats and being a diver (so he didn't mind getting wet either!) Caroline wasn't fazed at all either so it didn't go too badly (and with Andy being good with boats this allowed me and Caroline to stay in the horizontal position inside for most of the night!) We did end up reaching speeds of 10.8 knots (which should be impossible for a boat of our size) with only a fully reefed main sail up. We managed to get through it but ended up in West End, Roatan instead of Cayos Cachinos. We rested there for the next day and night then we headed off to Cayos Cachinos the next day.
We have to pay to stay in the Cayos Cachinos as it is a national park, when we saw the prices we thought it wise to just stay the one night. It was $5 per day for the skipper and the boat (that's for a boat under 30ft) and $10 per day for each additional person on the boat, so it would have cost us $70 for 2 days, that same cost will let you stay there for the month, but we didn't have the time to utilize that benefit so decided on just one night.
We did a bit of snorkeling around the boat then took the dingy over to the other islands. We stopped on one island and noticed a guy on the island there, we asked if it was ok to walk around and he said "I don't mind, but if the police come you will be told to leave", we were a little confused by this but he explained that the island was being used for a television series called "Colombian Survivor"! The island was named death Island and it was where they got sent if they were naughty!! We were talking to one of the contestants!! It was very funny, we left him to it, but did toy with the idea of bringing him back a bottle of rum!
We moved onto the next island which was a Garifuna fishing village and managed to find a place to get cold beers, we were all dragged up to dance there crazy wiggly bottom dance to the bongos, which was very funny. Then we zipped back to the boat just after dark.
The next day we decided to move on to La Ceiba, as we found out the night before that there had been no immigration at the airport when Andy and Caroline had arrived so they hadn't got an entrance stamp in their passport. We were worried that this may cause us problems, so decided to try and get it sorted ASAP.
It was a 4 hour motor trip to La Ceiba, what with there being no wind. We docked up at the Shipyard, not particularly our favorite place in the world, but cheaper than the other marina there. We spent 3 days and a fortune in taxi fares trying to see the Port Captain and the immigration which were completely opposite sides of town to each other. The Port Captain was never in and the immigration wouldn't do anything with the passports until we had seen the Port Captain. Eventually we managed to get the new owner of the ship yard to call up for us and the whole lot got sorted in super quick time and free of charge. So we were glad to eventually get that out of the way, and it was very frustrating that something that was so easily sorted should take so long to get done!
In the mean time we did a little trip in land to do a Canopy Zip Line Tour at a place called Jungle River Lodge. This was $35 per person including the tour, a lift to the place and a free nights accommodation! It was fantastic value and an amazing place. I'm not a big one for heights but the zip lines were really good fun, 8 in all and you have to get kited up in the safety harnesses, hard hats and gloves. Then they give you a trial run on a tiny zip line with lots of rules and regulations then off you go over the river and into the jungle. It was fantastic, the guys who took you were really nice and helpful and it was made so safe that you didn't have to worry at all. The pictures and little movies will give you a better idea of what it was really like:
Click here to see the Cayos Cachinos and Jungle Canopy tour pictures
After the tour, we went down to the natural rock pool and spent the majority of the evening drinking wine in there before heading up to the bar area and making ourselves some cheese and onion sandwiches!! Which we thought was very wise of us after seeing that a bowl of corn flakes the next morning cost $5! We had a really good time! The next morning we caught a chicken bus back into town and then a taxi back to the boat.
When we got back to the boat we were greeted with silence, no Mano? We looked all over the boat and he wasn't there, we looked all around the ship yard and he wasn't there. We thought, maybe he had been out for the night and fallen asleep on another boat, he would be back by evening. Still no sign of Mano by bed time, we had had all the guards and workers from the boat yard looking for him and still no sign, we thought we had lost him for good. Then 4am the guard came knocking on our boat saying I have seen a white cat. So we went pegging it off of the boat and there he was playing under one of the big fishing ships, not bothered at all, we chased him back to the boat, he jumped on had a little drink then went to pop out again!! We thought he had died some horrible death and all the while he was just out having fun! He was completely filthy too. We locked him in then left the ship year the next afternoon, heading for Belize. I think Mano was sad to see it go!
We had a nice overnight sail to Belize, we had to motor the first half of the night then the wind picked up to just the right amount to allow us to sail the rest of the way. We moored up on Ranguana Cay and headed off to the island for a beer, we had forgotten how expensive it can be here, £1.80 for a small bottle of beer, we were used to paying 25p in Panama! We didn't have many there and headed back to the boat for the night and awaited a cold front that was due to come through. It came through that night with quite a force, but luckily we had set 2 anchors so didn't move anywhere, unlike the German boat that was anchored behind us, when we got up in the morning they were way back in the distance, but they looked ok and hadn't ended up on a reef which was good news. We spent the next day doing nothing as the weather was horrible, drizzly, windy, grey with a horrible large choppy swell. Poor Caroline and Andy, have come all the way over from Scotland and all they have had since they have been here is cold fronts! Not one of our better days. So today we are off to the main land and to Placencia where hopefully we will have a less rolly night.