Day 41. Mooring balls and dolphin.
26 April 2012 | Guanaja, Honduras, CA
Mark
Wednesday, April 25. We had decided to leave El Bight today in search of better snorkeling. It looked like the Eastern end of Savannah Bay might provided both a protected anchorage and good snorkeling/diving. But Graham's Cay also seemed intriguing. According to the guide book (now 5 years old), Graham Cay offered free moorings, free water, free ice, and even free laundry to cruisers. Wow! As we were discussing leaving, George on Silver Sea mentioned that he had inquired about Graham Cay and was told that all of the above was still true, so we decided to stop there. We didn't need water or ice as we make both, but laundry would be nice. So at nearly the same time, Silver Sea, Albatross, and Always left El Bight en route to Graham's Cay. Out boat is easly the fastest and we were there first, but could not find mooring balls. I double checked the lat/lon, tried hailing them (the book says they monitor 06, but I tried 06, 16, &72 to no avail.) We started in a nice sandy channel that led around behind the island, but it shoaled quickly to 7' and we backed out. We anchored in 13' over sand just outside the channel. The others arrived and did likewise. I took the dinghy to shore and inquired about the situation. Well, the mooring balls are gone (too expensive to maintain), the water & ice are still free, but no more free laundry. It seems a lady from El Bight was collecting laundry from cruisers there, bringing it here to do and then taking it back and charging them. They did, however, have a bar & restaurant. I asked about anchoring and was told that where we were was OK, but it was better in front of the island. There's 15-16' and nothing but sand and grass, not rocks. Well Deb liked the idea of being over shining white sand (we were over grass) so we picked up anchor and moved. Fifteen to sixteen feet turned out to be 5-6' and it looked like high tide. We even saw 4.4' at one point (we ground out @ 4.2). After cursing about for a while, we returned to our former spot, but anchored a bit further forward as that when we dropped back, we were indeed over bright white sand 26' over it, much more comfortable. We had barely finished anchoring when we were visited by a dolphin. He came right up to the boat and looked at us. Then he swam in circles that were the length of the boat and never more than 20' away. On the inside pass, he nearly touched the boat. I got on snorkel gear and went in the water waiting for his next circle. He came within 10' of me and just sort of hung their like I was vertical in the water, head up. Neither of us approached the other and eventually he swam off to make another circle. He stayed with us doing this for 2+ hours! I took over 150 pics (I'll post some, not all). I turned on some Jimmy Buffet and he seemed to like that, coming even closer on his pass by the hull. Once or twice I thought he was going to stick his head out of the water and talk to us, but he never did. I have several pics of his snout just below the surface. Finally we abandoned the dolphin (he was still circling) and got cleaned up to go in for happy hour. At Graham's Place, we discovered that he had many pens full of various fauna macaw, parrots, toucan, cayman, sea turtles, lobster & conch, permit, bonefish, tarpon, and a huge Jew fish among others. He also had beautiful sandy beaches with beach chairs and palapas. Quite a place. We had a few drinks and then decided to stay for dinner. Deb had steak (she is just not an island girl when it comes to eating, but her steak was great) and I had a delicious tequila grouper. We talked to Mr. Graham a while and he said that if we brought in laundry tomorrow, he would have one of his girls do it if we paid her a little something. Sound like a deal to me. When we returned to the boat, the dolphin was finally gone, but I bet he will be back tomorrow. Note: Deb made several calls to family and in the middle of talking to Luke, the phone died. It seems we did not get the rate we thought and now we have 0 minutes. I am hoping we can recharge it at Graham's Place, but I will have to see tomorrow, so don't hold your breath waiting for us to call.