Enjoying Roatan

We spent most of a month at West End, Roatan, not leaving until after the Super Bowl.  Since leaving West End we made a stop at French Cay Harbor, by far the largest gathering place for cruisers.  French Cay Harbor with Fantasy Island at the east end is a well protected anchorage.  On Fantasy Island is Fantasy Island Resort and Marina.  They very much welcome cruisers and make the facilities available even to boats in the anchorage.  We stopped here to top off our provisions.  Very close by and easily accessible is probably the best provisioning available in the Northwest Caribbean.  We didn't need a lot but wanted to check it out as we will likely be doing some major re-provisioning next fall.  I will come back to French Cay Harbor and Fantasy Island in a future posting.

Mango Creek Lodge

We are now at Port Royal, actually Lime Cay Bight, anchored off Mango Creek Lodge.  After almost a month in West End and then a week in French Cay Harbor, we were ready to get to some place much quieter and much less crowded.  This place fits the bill perfectly.  Port Royal is well toward the eastern end of Roatan and not heavily populated.  Mango Creek Lodge is owned and operated by Terry and Patrice, Canadians, ex-cruisers that have completed a circumnavigation.  They provide free moorings, run a honor bar inside the restaurant and if there is enough interest their staff prepares wonderful meals.  Mango Creek Lodge offers salt water fly fishing packages and also eco vacations.

Mango Creek Lodge.

One evening we had five boats moored or anchored off  Mango Creek and we all arranged for dinner.  With guest on board one of the boats, the twelve of us enjoyed good company and a fantastic meal.

It is a little difficult keeping up with the blog right now.  We are spending four months here in Honduras, moving from place to place.  Our main activities off the boat are snorkeling and socializing.  Aboard we both are doing a lot of reading.  These activities do not make for good blog material.

Cow and Calf  (Port Royal)

Hanging Out In West End

We are definitely in full cruising mode now.  Nothing like West End, Roatan to help get us in the proper frame of mind.  Our days typically include either snorkeling, walking on the beach or both.  We have been trying out the restaurants and of course getting together with fellow cruisers.

We had a fun day at Slippery Sues, a sports bar that just opened.  For the football playoff games a couple of the boats negotiated a super deal on drink prices and they let us bring in our dishes to pass.  Since we were staying for two games they let us have supper brought in as well.  We had a good portion of the boats from the mooring field there.  We expect to set up something similar for the Super Bowl.

One evening we had a dinghy drift.  We all just tied our dinghies together and floated around.  We each brought a dish to pass and our own drinks.  It was fun, but we spent a lot of time passing dishes.

The snorkeling is fantastic and there are so many places to go that it can be new each time.

Main street through town

West End Pictures