We made it to Roatan!
11 February 2009 | Roatan, Honduras
Heather
We made it to Roatan! Originally we were not expecting to get here until tomorrow morning, but decent wind allowed us to make up some time. Although we prefer not to navigate our way into an area in the dark a friendly owner at Mango Creek Resort in Port Royal offered to turn on the range marker lights so we could guide ourselves in. Our other option was to circle the entire night until daybreak and then enter. Navigating an entry during the day is no big deal, at night with it is pitch black is a totally different story. We were 'talked' through the entry via the owner onshore but even with his help, we managed to miss the small channel markers (basically PVC pipes sticking up 3 feet from the water), and even though we had the range markers lined up we were not where we were supposed to be and there were 2 reefs that we could have found ourselves on. Although everything turned out fine, it was a reminder to us about why we choose not to enter an area at night. It will be interesting to wake up tomorrow morning and see where we are and what the entrance looks like in the daylight.
Roatan is one of 3 islands that lay 30 miles off the coast of Honduras and are collectively called The Bay Islands. We will be meeting our friends Dane and Stephanie Winchester here on Friday. For those who have been following our blog since the beginning, Dane and Steph were with us on the Baha Ha Ha race in 2007 from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We are excited to have them come visit and explore Roatan with them.
In the last 2 weeks we have traveled more than 800 miles. Needless to say we are looking forward to exploring The Bay Islands for a few weeks and only doing day hops from island to island and anchorage to anchorage.