Namaste'

      HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR CRUISING ROATAN

        Rotan is 25 miles North of Cayos Cochinos so another day sail was in order. Wanting to arrive with the sun high or behind us meant a fairly early start. We were headed for Coxen Hole because we thought that is where we had to check in but as we approached the Island a friend of ours Dave (s/v Victoria) hailed us and explained that we could go straight to French harbor and get the paperwork done from there. We headed a little West towards the entrance thru the reef and into French Harbor. There were about 6 other boats there but it is a large anchorage.

For the next 3 months we sailed up and down the coast of Roatan from French Harbor to Barbareta and Pigeon Cay. All of the anchorages were much protected and just a short dingy ride to great diving and snorkeling.

French Harbor

French Harbor Yacht Club; good food, free internet (with the purchase of a few cold beers (no problem!), free trash drop off (you would not believe how big a deal this is for us). And really close access to the wonderful grocery store Eldon's.

 Fantasy Island Dive Resort; great happy hour, super lobster buffet on Saturday nights, free access to cleaning dive and snorkeling gear, cheap tank refills and a wonderful nightly live monkey show during happy hour. You better not set you drink down because the Monkey’s would snatch it up and drink it down.

Calabash Bight  

Home of our friends Dave and Donna (Previously s/v Victoria, now aboard CSY 44 Bella Donna).  Sandy had a couple of really fun dives; one with John from Dragonet and another with Gene and Brenda on Queen Mary.

Port Royal Harbor

Mango Creek Fishing Camp

     Run by Graham and Pam where Namaste’ picked up a mooring, got fresh Artisan water to fill our water tanks and free internet. It is paradise. We spent a couple of weeks here.

Royal Playa Dive Resort

     Just a stones throw from Mango Creek. Owners Matt, Carin , Tom and their beautiful dogs. Great food, many wonderful conversations, happy hours and free internet.

Jonesville Bight

      Hole in the Wall restaurant, run by Bob (owner) and with help from Harry and Dywane. Best hamburgers and shrimp burgers in the entire Western Caribbean! It was here that Paul (AngleHeart), Greg (Lone Star Love) and Sandy (Namaste') took their ham radio license exams. A celebration was in order.

By early June it was time to head back to Belize where we were to pick up our daughter Cat and her husband Rob at the end of the month and then pick up our son Chris and wife Keri in July. We first sailed back to French Harbor to get the boat ready for the 250 mile passage. (Clean the bottom, get fuel and generally inspect stuff).

As Sandy was scrubbing barnacles and growth off the bottom, he noticed a major crack in the leading edge of the rudder. We were unsure of how this might have happened, but we were very sure we needed to get it fixed as soon as possible. There were no facilities in Roatan that we felt could fix it so our only option was to limp back to Guatemala and repair it. We finished getting Namaste’ packed and as ready to go as possible and left the next day. We decided to motor and not sail in order to reduce the amount of stress on the rudder. The worst part of this ordeal was that we had to call the kids and postpone their coming down to see us

First stop was Utila. Here we hooked up with Steve on S/V Orenda and Bob, Marge & Alex on the S/V Island Time. They were really wonderful in that they agreed to hang with us and make all the extra stops with us just in case the rudder situation worsened. We left again the next morning with stops at El Diaminte, Puerto Cortez and Cabo Tres Puntas, After passing our “bar exam” and safely reaching Livingston, Guatemala on  June 15, we motored up the Rio Dulce for the second time. The next three months we will prepare Namaste' for our next adventure.

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