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March, 2008
Due to the cold front, we left Cayos Cochinos sailed north approximately 30 nautical miles and arrived Calabash Bight, Roatan on Wednesday, February 27th. We were surrounded by coral as we inched our way through the narrow entrance, and were happily greeted by our friends Pam and Chuck on Helen Louise and Bob on Zippidee Du. We hadn't seen them since they departed La Ceiba about a month ago and it was great to see them again. We stayed in Calabash Bight for a few days weathering out the cold front. Since Helen Louise and Zippidee Du had been in Calabash awhile, they gave us a tour of surrounding the area taking us past many brightly colored homes and stores built on stilts and through several mangrove tunnels which provided a safe passage between bays. Calabash Bight provided great protection through the cold front, however, West End is the place we had in mind. On Friday, February 29th, we left the bight four hours later with good light we eased our way through the 25 foot wide entrance to West End (national park) and grabbed a mooring which were provided by the park. The West End of Roatan is lined with beautiful coral walls, and there are two narrow entrances to the bay. This barrier makes it a pleasant, fairly protected anchorage most of the time with great diving and snorkeling right off the boat. We stayed in West End a month enjoying everything it has to offer ... nice restaurants, great snorkeling, excellent diving, and an exceptional seaplane trip around the island. If you would like to see a two minute video of the seaplane trip, click on the photo below and then click the play button.
NOTE: Additional photos can be seen by clicking on the photo at the bottom of this page. There were other adventures also. It's said that sailing is 90% relaxation and 10% panic ... which pretty much sums it up. While anchored in West End, there's basically one of two places to end up if your anchor drags or mooring breaks ... on the beach or on the coral. One windy night, a fellow cruiser's mooring line chaffed thru and their boat drifted onto the coral. Many cruisers (ourselves included) quickly packed our dinghies with lights, radios and lines and raced to assist in the rescue. Upon our approach, we could hear dinghies racing around, voices yelling over the gusty wind and high pitched squeal of outboard engines. As we arrived, we heard the unmistakable horrible crunching sound as the sea slightly lifted and lowered the boat against the coral. After some very frantic discussions, a plan developed several dinghies would push from the starboard side while two dinghies tethered together pulled from port side. Thirty minutes of engines racing, wind howling and people yelling we finally began to feel movement and then more eventually she broke free. The vessel's crew raced below to check for damages and, thank goodness, all was well. What a relief, but it would seem the excitement wasn't over. A cruiser (who was assisting with the rescue) had a dinghy engine failure and was adrift. He was past the protected reef and essentially floating out the sea. He happened to be spotted by another cruiser as he began drifting away and quickly asked us to assist. We stayed at the channel entrance with our 10 million candle watt spot light (called the Mega Light) providing the only light source to find the cruiser adrift while Chuck (Helen Louise) retrieved him. Our light source guided the two dinghies back to the channel entrance so we could all safely return to our boats. Upon our return, we put out a radio call to ensure everyone returned safely to their vessels. It was an eventful night and the best way to describe the experience is organized chaos with a positive outcome. We also had our share of 10% panic when one night our mooring suddenly pulled out while the wind was gusting around 25-30 knots. It was very unexpected, because we felt safe of this mooring which we dove and inspected upon our arrival. We managed to untangle the mooring, toss it overboard (it was marked by a float) and anchor. We felt the anchor set well, but we were a little close to another boat so just to be safe we had anchor watch for the night (3 hour shifts each). A day or two later, another boat had a very similar experience to ours where their mooring also pulled out. By the way, the next day we retrieved the mooring and returned it to the park office. They were very apologetic about the incident and explained that they were working on replacing the moorings in the near future. To see Roatan adventure pictures, click on the photo below and then click on the play button.
Thanks for sharing our good and not so good experiences with us. Follow us to Belize and watch a dive video or take a look at What's Happening to get the latest scoop. |
