Wednesday was another quiet day on board doing a few boat jobs. In the afternoon I started preparing the ribs and vegetables for BBQ night. We were sharing with Shayne and Rob on Scurvy Dog and they came laden with wings, salad and cheesecake. Was a huge feast and a fun time.
Thursday morning and we headed out in dink into the lagoon – as we needed to get one of our gas bottles filled. We found the dinghy dock at the dilapidated and abandoned Roatan Yacht Club and followed the brick road that wound up through gardens to the main road. And we came out pretty much opposite Eldons the large supermarket. The heat was intense and we were flagging so we hopped into a taxi and got him to take us to the gas station – we got it filled up – and then he took us back to the supermarket all for less than £3.
We only wanted bread but sadly still no decent stuff was to be found. We wandered back – paid the security guard a small tip for looking after dink – and meandered through the reef to Fantasy Island. On this part of the mainland, which is pretty close to where the fishing fleet are moored, there is a village and the poverty is obvious…. We recently found out that a high percentage of schools here don’t have running water or sanitation.
The rest of the day we chilled out and had a couple of sundowners in the cruisers bar later before having an early night.
Friday morning and we were up early again to go diving. The newby divers were doing their last dives of their holiday – and they had noticeably improved (thankfully) to the last time. The first dive was a tugboat that had been deliberately sunk – was a nice small wreck dive called The Bud. The dive lasted 50 minutes to 70 feet.
After our surface interval we moved to another area where we dived an area called French Key flats. This was another 50 minutes down to 60 feet. Not a lot of fish but lots of different specimens and great coral.
In the afternoon we relaxed before heading into the palapa for movie night – this week it was Captain Ron. Great movie and lots of laughter.
Saturday morning we met Caroline and Scott and we were heading off to Bulk Gourmet to stock up on goodies not to be found at Eldons – like Irish bangers and cheddar cheese! Best laid plans and all that…. The Bulk Gourmet guy, who does a courtesy taxi service in his Hummer, was running late. The Agent who was doing Caroline and Scott’s clearance papers was late too….and so were the people collecting their rental car! So we ended up leaving Scott behind while we went shopping.
Back to the marina and the Agent had collected documents but not sure when he will be back – so, sadly, we headed off to the Sloth and Monkey Hangout without Scott. This is really just a private collection of animals that they keep as pets. Everything looked pretty healthy and happy and they have lots of human interaction – so we got to play with monkeys, macaws, parrots and sloths! Amazing creatures with heads that turn almost all the way around – and sooooo slooooowly…..great cuddles! Glad we went – was very educational too.
Back to the marina and we collected Scott and took our coolers to the beach to go bobbing. There were quite a few guests about and, of course, they leave things lying around on the sunbeds. This attracted Cheeky, Ethel and Lucy (the monkey trio) down to the beach and they started to steal suntan lotion, crisps, bottles of water etc. They were being really naughty and getting hyper because idiot tourists were giving them sugar – and Cheeky jumped on one young woman’s shoulder. She was completely freaked and was scared, so I walked up and enticed him away so he sat on my shoulder for a little while before heading off to cause more havoc.
We left the beach, returned to Morphie to get cleaned up, and then went to the palapa for sundowners. We were all hungry so ordered a delivery of fried chicken and pizza and had a fun time. There were a few new boats in the anchorage and one of them was German – and they started to berate us about not taking enough refugees / all our fault because we are bombing them / how dare we even think of leaving Europe etc etc etc…. Turned into a heated political debate and all I can say is the guy clearly had communist leanings LOL. Was glad when they left and we could carry on having fun!
Sunday we spent some time catching up on the internet before having a lazy afternoon on board. Later on Scott and Caroline came over to Morphie for sundowners and a shepherd’s pie dinner which they thoroughly enjoyed. Another great evening – we’ll miss then when they leave for Providencia in the morning.
Monday morning we were up early again to go diving. We said our farewells to Scott and Caroline on the way to the dive shop and started to get kitted up. This time there were only two other divers on board, plus Chris the Divemaster, and they told us they were members of REEF – which stands for Reef Environmental Education Foundation. So they plan to count fish! Hmmm…..interesting…..
We dropped on top of the wall to do a drift dive … and we went slow. Really slow. They were marking numbers on sheets; taking photos of every nook and cranny; more counting and so it went on. We had to double back a few times to make sure we didn’t lose sight of them and often just hung off the wall looking at critters while they got on with it. We were surprised they were so engrossed in doing their thing that they often kicked coral and touched it with their hands to steady themselves in one place – not impressed with that. Finally after 65 minutes to depths of 70 feet we surfaced.
During the surface interval they collated all their information and checked the fish identification books. Before you know it we were heading back into the water to dive Cemetery Wall, which has some great overhands and beautiful coral….and we did another slow dive. Eventually we surfaced after 75 minutes down to depths of 60 feet. Felt pretty tired after all that exercise LOL.
Last night we headed into the palapa for sundowners and met some cruisers who had come into the anchorage so was nice to chat to some new faces – and thankfully the argumentative German had left!
This morning, Tuesday, and I’m blogging while Richard has dropped off the laundry and paid the veggie man a visit. We’re off on the shopping bus this afternoon which may be our last chance before we leave Fantasy Island. We are closely monitoring the weather now to decide when to move on….
Bye for now
Jan