At the end of March we set sails for La Ceiba, the second largest city in Honduras and its most important port city. There is no bay around La Ceiba save for a breakwater built at the mouth of a short river called Mouth Congrejal which empties into the ocean and that is deep enough to create a bit of a bay where the La Ceiba shipyard is located. Locate further up this river is Lagoon marina where we wanted to dock. We knew that the entrance did not have channel markers to guide us passed the shallow parts but we were expecting marina personnel to come out in a power boat to guide us. However, as we approached La Ceiba, we called Lagoon Marina but there was no answer. Finally, we heard from the dock master, grumping about having to aid a vessel in distress on his day off. It was going to be an hour or two before he could help us and so we decided to try to go through.

The day was calm and the entrance was narrow so we figured that if we centered Kikuyu we would make it through the deepest part - the mean low water level for this entrance is supposed to be a little over 6 feet. But as we entered we hit bottom which was, to our relief, river-mud. Kim powered forward and we got loose fairly easily. But shortly after we hit bottom again! Luckily it was easy to get off again. By this time we felt very vulnerable not knowing what kinds of depth there would be around the small harbor. We then decided to head for the shipping yard where there were several large vessels and asked someone where the deepest part of the channel was. It turned out to be on the far left as one comes into the river from the Caribbean, and very close to the side. We then decided to motor back to take depth measurements of this entrance for our friends in s/v Beaudacious who were waiting outside for us to come in first since their keel draws 8 feet. Things went well and Beaudacious followed us in, scratching the bottom just once as the river curved through a very narrow channel leading to the marina. By the time we docked Kikuyu, Mediterranean-style, with the bow tied to a mooring ball and the transom tied to a dock, we were exhausted from the stress. This was to be the beginning of a few narrow calls with the bottoms of bays or the tops of coral reefs!

Marine Lagoon is a very nice marina owned by an American couple whose unfortunate husband had been assassinated by locals for unknown reasons less than 1 year ago. This led the wife to flee Honduras and leave the marina on the hands of workers. They created a very nice facility with good docks, good rates, fast speed access Internet (very important for Daniel's schooling) and an enticing pool. Sailors at this marina shared a sense of camaraderie and a couple (Tanya & Brent) living in one of the marina apartments with a beautiful baby gave the place an atmosphere of home. We felt that Kikuyu was safe in this marina, amid the tragic recent events, and prepared to leave it there for nearly 2 weeks while we took at land tour of Honduras and Guatemala.

Pictures of La Ceiba can be seen in the Photo Gallery album named La Ceiba, Honduras.