In my last blog I wrote that we had for several days a very strong wind in Guanaja and it was hard to leave the boat to go around with the dinghy. It was predicted that Monday the wind should slow down but actually that didn't happen until Tuesday.

The seas were good enough on Monday to go ashore and explore the coast line. There are lot of very nice houses along the shore with an abundance of flowers and very nice plants. There are so many flowers that you smell everywhere the fragrance. We first took stairs going up and ended up at a very nice home with an addition that is a restaurant. The restaurant is called "Mi Casa Too" since the restaurant is attached to the house. The restaurant has only a wall with just windows on the south/east side due to the wind, but for the rest it is open and gives you a stunning view over the bay and the open sea. On a clear day you can see the mountains of the mainland of Honduras. The ceiling has many decorations including an Indonesian "Anklung". The instrument made from bamboo makes a very nice relaxing sound and we have one in our home. The owner did not know where the instrument came from and he even went on a high chair to check and to his big surprise he acknowledged that Dorothy was correct and the instrument was made in Indonesia. The restaurant was closed, but the owner offered us a very nice cool glass of water and told us many interesting stories about the island and its inhabitants.

After this we wanted to go higher up on the mountains to a waterfall. The trail was steep and along one stretch a rope is installed to help you to get up and to prevent you from sliding down on the descend. We met Jacques and Annet on their way down and they advised us not to continue since it was still a difficult climb, the waterfall hardly had any water because of lack of rain and Dorothy's knees were protesting big time.

So on Tuesday the wind was down and we decided to take this opportunity to visit together with Lori and Paul of s/v "Imagine Square" the north side of the island. This is possible due to the fact that close to the settlement there is a canal which divides the island and goes from the south side of the island to the north. On most places the canal is relatively deep but at the north side it gets more narrow and shallow. The canal is also the only way to reach the airport since Guanaja has only one small road and hardly any cars. We found some very nice houses along the canal, but the most elaborate one is at the north side of the island. It is a large beautiful home with covered docks with multiple boats. The canal opens into a beautiful bay with a 2 miles white sand beach, crystal clear water with some coral reefs and completely protected from the south/east wind. Some development started on this side of the island and we moored our dinghies on a pier which gave access to the beach. In the center of the bay a spring fed creek runs into the sea and so much fresh water comes down from the mountains that the water is still fresh 10 feet from the beach in the sea. It was so nice swimming in cold fresh water instead of the saltwater we are used to. We tied down to the marker indicating a coral reef and we did some nice snorkeling. On our way back we realized very soon that the wind was only down in the morning and our dinghy ride back to the boat was a slow and very wet one.

On Wednesday we went for the last time to the settlement to do some shopping and we prepared the boat for an early departure on Thursday to Roatan. On Friday it was predicted that the weather would change due to a cold front coming down from the USA into the north/west Caribbean. The cold front would not reach us but the area south of the front would see some unsettled weather. Panache and Island Girl left at 7:45 AM while Image Square planned to leave a little later since Paul expected to be able to use his spinnaker and would easily catch up with us. We had a very light south/east wind while our heading was west/south/west. So the little wind came from behind and that reduced our speed to just over 4 to 4.5 knots. Panache put her spinnaker up but we offloaded this sail some time ago since we never used it while we're cruising the Caribbean. I tried to use our jib with the whisker pole, but I could not get the pole down from its storage position along the mast. So I setup our stay sail so we still could sail wing/wing and it gave us sufficient speed that we could keep up with Panache and stay ahead of Imagine Squared.

The entrance to the anchor area in French Harbor is over very shallow reefs and the charts of Roatan are very sketchy. But thanks to Waypoints and a track we got from other cruisers we could download on OpenCPN on our laptop we passed the reefs with only 3.5 feet under the keel and found a very safe and protected anchoring space. We needed a good anchoring space with room to swing since it was expected that the wind would turn in every direction. And it did; we came in with south/east wind and had the next day wind from south/west to west and north/west.

After a day of rest and taking care of our boat cleaning and maintenance tasks we went on Saturday ashore to explore French Harbor and to visit the grocery store. Rain was in the forecast but the distance to shore was not too far and the grocery store is close by. But while we were in the store it started to rain. It could not be called rain since the curtain of water that came down was so dense we imagined to be in a waterfall. We did our shopping and waited outside on a nice bench protected from the waterfall until it would stop raining. It never did and after waiting for 1 ½ hours we decided to go through the rain back to the boat. Not so fast, our dinghy was half full of water and we first had to scoop that out. Long story short when we finally arrived on the boat we were soaking wet and since we did not close the cockpit side skirts it was also a wet mess inside.

I donot know if it was because of this but the next day I came down with a nasty cold and due to my stomach problems I have to be careful with taking medication. The result was three days being very sick which was made worse by the continuing problems with our generator. Our friend Jacques from s/v Panache helped me out but after he solved one problem another showed up. Jacques loaned us his Honda generator so that at least we could keep our batteries charged and our watermaker running to keep up our water tank filled.

On Wednesday May 10, 2017 I felt a lot better and we joined Lori and Paul from s/v Imagine Squared, Annet and Jacques from s/v Panache and Jarick a Polish Canadian single hander for a bus trip to the most popular part of Roatan called "West End". We walked along the beach road with a fantastic view of the reefs and the crystal clear blue water and many very nice little restaurants, souvenir shops and numerous dive shops. A lot of people are visiting Roatan for its excellent diving at relatively low cost. During our bus ride we passed the cruise boats pier with two Carnival ships and that was evident from the many tourists on the island. We had a very nice lunch on a pier restaurant with a nice cool breeze and a beautiful view over the sea.

On our way back we visited the grocery store in French Harbor and this is a remarkable store. We understood that Roatan produces no food items at all and everything is imported from the mainland or the USA. The grocery store is large and it seems that everything is coming from the USA. This is nice since we can buy all kinds of products we know. Even the fruit and vegetables are from the States and not from South American countries.

Our plan is to sail next week for a few days to the Cayos Cochinos or Hog Island and then to Utila on our way to Livingston on the entry of the Rio Dulce. Since it is spring tide on May 25, 2017 we hope to cross the river bar at high water that day and continue to the marina in Guatemala where we have made a reservation for the boat to remain during hurricane season while we take a few trips first to the USA and afterwards to explore Guatemala.