We stayed 2 nights near Guanaja, the second island we have visited now off of Honduras. More specifically we stayed and anchored off of Graham's Cay. This small cay is surrounded by turquoise waters where dolphins visit in the late afternoons and ashore Graham has a small restaurant, bar, rescue center where turtles swim, fishing boats, cabanas and I am sure more that we missed seeing. His fish dinner and steaks were especially good, so good in fact we ate both nights ashore. Graham has owned the cay for 14 years and with each hurricane his property changes shape and size.

The past 2 days we have been in the West End and back on Roatan. There was a fantastic spinnaker run from Grahams Cay to West End. Upon entering the anchorage at West End we were warned that the entrance itself into the anchorage was a bit scary and it certainly was. It is a small shallow channel with 2 reefs on either side. As we entered Kent saw a steady 8 ft and a quick flash of 6.9 ft - we draw 6.5 feet. The waters are so clear that it is tough to tell what the depths are so having Dane, Steph and I all keeping lookout near the bow when we entered unfortunately did not help Kent much. But we made it in and it was well worth the nervousness and skepticism. Apparently we are still having a hard time getting used to being in such shallow waters, after spending so much time in the very deep Pacific.

West End has a single sand road lined with 20 dive shops and a scattering of restaurants and bars. Laid back is definitely the attitude here. Stephanie, Kent and I did 2 dives yesterday, and to Stephanie's delight we saw sea turtles on both dives. Diving is the thing to do in West End, and there is no shortage of people on vacation spending money here, despite what the reports are on the US economy. The dive sites are all close by and it takes less than 10 minutes by boat to get to most of them which makes diving very convenient.

The Winchesters head back to Portland this weekend, regardless of our attempts to convince them to stay on for another few days. The picture above is from a local hangout called Sundowners in West End, where we caught a fantastic sun set one night from their steps.