IMAGE – various images from West End.

Monday 17th – off further west today – just a short 14 miles sail to West End, Roatan.

We had a fantastic reaching sail all the way. Roatan has recently made the cruise ship itinerary, and we saw 1 cruise ship in at Coxans Hole, the main town on Roatan, as we sailed along the coast to West End. This extra seasonal tourism has opened up the natural inland and coastal beauty of this island to 1,000 of day trippers without very much in the way of infrastructure to support it. We did not visit Coxans Hole – from all reports NOT yacht friendly.

The narrow entry through the reef was well marked – but a day time entry only – so no problem for us getting into West Bay. We anchored amongst about 12 other yachts in beautiful clear sandy wide bay. We really didn’t know what to expect on our arrival – the guide book said that moorings had been laid by the Marine Park service, and the Cruisers bible (Active Captain) info said that the moorings were indeed once laid, but not maintained and were no longer a requirement, and we could anchor at no charge.

During the afternoon, whilst watching the comings and goings we noticed that many dive and snorkelling boats were visiting the nearby reef – so in the late afternoon to cool off from the hot western blazing into the cockpit we went snorkelling off the near-by outer reef. The shoreside long sandy beach lined with coconut palm trees looking very idyllic.

Tuesday 18 – a HOT, still day! We saw a cruise ship arriving in the morning – so many day trippers around today. To escape the hot afternoon sun we headed ashore. The village was simply one sandy, shady road with everything on offer located on or just off that road. There were numerous beach bars, tourist type stores, and loads of dive shops – nothing for us really, but good to wander through the various arts and crafts shops. We decided that there was no more for us to see or do here – so back to the boat for an afternoon cool-off swim before putting the dingy away up on deck ready to go sailing again tomorrow to Utila.
Our stops and sailing along the southern shoreline of Roatan was enjoyable. The snorkelling in the clear, shallow water was a great opportunity to cool off and see some colourful corals and fish – great photo taking fun.