We dinghied around to the other boaters in the harbor today to see if anyone wanted to park our dinghies at Bob's  "Hole in the Wall" restaurant

and hike up to the highway,  

then hitch-hike or take a bus the four miles to "The View" for lunch. 

We had 8 people that ended up going.  We had a lot of fun.  And...."The View" is exactly that....a great view, along with great food.                

	We make an adventure out of every day, because it should be enjoyed, fun, and exciting.

We ended up catching a ride in the back end of a utility flat-bed truck with 6" sideboards and all 8 of us got into the back of a small pickup bed coming back.

It was fun.   Our kids would be surprised at the things we all do.  Karyn's (S/V Suenos) mother saw our website and said we were a bad influence on her daughter. 

She said she taught her all of her life not to hitch-hike.

Another day of adventure in the life of cruisers.

The northern came through and we are all freezing, wearing long pants and jackets.  The low is in the lower 70's, but, for here, that is cold.  We had chili and beans aboard S/V Suenos to celebrate the cold weather.

7:00 a.m.  We pulled up anchor at Jonesville, Roatan and headed to Guanaja.  It is 30 1/2 nautical miles away and it took us 5 1/2 hours to get there.  There was not much wind, so we motored.  The seas were fairly flat, with the exception between the islands where they were somewhat  confused.

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Our location is:  N16 27.314  W 85 52.158

Guanaja was discovered by Columbus during his 4th and last voyage to the Americas on July 30, 1502.  Guanaja is the tallest of the Bay Islands and mostly covered by Caribbean pine, which Columbus originally named Pine Island.  On Guanaja, there are no roads, no cars, no traffic, no miles of hotels along beaches and no crowds.  There are very few people who live on the island.  Instead, the 10,000 locals live on Bonacca Key, which is a small island where every inch is built upon, at least one story.  There are sidewalks that twist and turn through the maze of homes on stilts.  Very clean, very friendly.   A very different.....but, interesting place.

You can buy homemade bread that melts in your mouth   The excitement of the island is when the vegetable boats arrives.  It arrives  (supposedly) on Friday mornings at 11, but this week it did not arrive until Saturday.  So, since most of the island are Seventh Day Adventists, their stores are not open on Saturday, so you have to wait to get your vegetables.   Also, the stores close daily from 12 noon until 2:30 p.m. for siesta.

Time to explore Guanaja!  We got in our dinghy and went about 2 miles to the canal that cuts through the middle of the island to reach the north side.  On the north side, is Michael's Rock.  It is a huge rock with a white sandy beach nearby.  Great snorkeling, but we got cold in the water.  Some of the prettiest coral we have seen.  Sonny snagged his "first" lobster and a snapper.  So our dinner tonight was lobster, snapper, salad, and homemade (melt in your mouth) bread.  With....pecan pie for dessert.

Sherry, on S/V Mystique, told us if we need anything while here in Guanaja, hail  Jack from the Lighthouse on channel 16.  So, at about 9 a.m. after the morning net, Kay called him to get a recommendation for a doctor on the small cay.  He told us they were on their way to church and the pastor's wife is a nurse and she could look at it for us.  So, they picked us up in their launcha and off we went.

It is a new church on the cay and we enjoyed the service very much.  We miss it while cruising. They had a mission team here from Austin, TX.  They prayed for Kay and for our journey to Panama.  The pastor's wife checked out Kay's rash and after much discussions, thought it was from an ameba in the saltwater or a reaction to "Off", which we bath in daily for no-see-ums, sand fleas and mosquitoes.

Jack and Elizabeth invited us to go to Josh's Cay with their family for lunch.  It is a beautiful island, brightly painted and fun.  We plan to take the boat there for a few days before heading south.

	Sights around Josh's Cay Bay Islands of Honduras

When Sonny asked how much we owe him, he said it would be 150 US.  Sonny asked him in lymps.  It was 30 lymps, but in dollars, it was $1.50.  I must say, "It certainly was worth $1.50".

We pulled up anchor this morning after the net and went to a nearby island.  It is Josh's Cay.  Very picturesque.  The quaint hotel and all of the buildings, and even the tree trucks are painted in pastel colors and it is very nice.  Graham, the owner of the island is very cruiser friendly.  He even provides ice, internet, laundry and showers for a small donation.

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You know, while cruising, you get to a spot and think, "It just does not get better than this.....then you go to the next island, and it is better!"  We love it here and this morning on the net our friends on Blow Me Away and Bruadair said our next stop in Vivarillos is just paradise.  So just when you think it does not get better.....it does. 

I would think at some point, this would have to stop.  God's creation is so beautiful and each island is different, has its own personality, and culture.   Need we say, we love the cruising life and are so thankful we are here following a dream together.

   This morning's sunrise.  Beautiful.          

	I thought I would give you a 360 degree view from our boat today.

Today was fishing lessons 101.

When we arrived to Josh's Cay, a local gentleman, Brad Bodden, came up to the dock on a boat with 4 huge wahoos and a ton of barracudas he had caught.  Immediately, we both began asking him questions about how he caught them.  He lives on the mainland at La Ceiba and a very close friend of Graham, the owner of Josh's Cay and comes here to catch fish for Graham's restaurant.

Sonny showed Graham and Brad our silver RattleTrap that we troll with in Texas and asked what they use to catch fish locally.  They both volunteered to make him some lures that will catch fish here.  They said our RattleTrap was not good here.  So, they sat down, got out some hooks, crochet yarn, and superglue.  They made us 9 lures,  3 green, 3 yellow and 3 orange.  You tie one of each color about one foot apart on the line, so they trail right behind each other.

We were eating lunch and Brad told us he would go out in our dinghy with us to show us where and how to catch the jacks and yellow tail snappers in the anchorage.  So we did.  It was fun.  We caught three jacks and two yellow tail snappers.

Jack and Elizabeth (Lighthouse) are locals with a sailboat who have a ministry with missionaries and cruisers who come to Guanaja.  Jack assists with emergency calls for boats in distress in the area and has recently applied to be the Honduran Ambassador to Israel and waiting on the response.  They would move to Israel for a four year assignment.

We are still waiting for a good weather window to head east to the Vivarillos.  Just hanging out with friends.

We are learning patience.   We have to remind ourselves, we are retired and in no hurry, but, we thought we had a weather window to head to the Vivarillos this morning, but after the wind howled all night up to 27 knots (out of the east) we did not want to pound into the waves.  So, we are hanging out at Josh's Cay.  What a great place to have to wait.

But, we just had everything secured on the boat and ready to pull up at the first light, and now we have to un-do....Oh well....we are learning patience.  A good crossing is so much better than a hard one.

What a treat we had tonight!

Bill and Martha Pullum are from L.A. (Lower Alabama) who came to Guanaja on a mission trip several years ago and ended up buying their own island (Clark Island).  Over the past three years, they have developed it into something so amazing.

Clarks Cay Website

What nice people !

They were gracious enough to invite the cruisers in the harbor to their home (island) for the evening.  They are very down home and friendly, you feel like you have known them forever.  Very good people.

Their chef made the most delicious appetizers for us as we toured the small island and watched the sunset.

They are known as the helicopter people from Clark Island.  He flies his helicopter around the island and is also developing 500 acres into townhouses and a marina.  It will be very nice.  He is probably the largest land-owner of Guanaja.  He is also developing a training center to teach trades, such as carpentry, electrical, and plumbing to the locals.  He asked Sonny if we would consider coming back for a short period, to train the instructor plumbing skills, so he can, in turn, train the locals.  We told him we would consider it.

It was such a nice treat for us.

We are watching, yet, another window to head east so if  I do not update the web, be sure to check our current position on the "Where is Valentina" tab on our home page.  We always update our current position through the SSB and it automatically links to our website for real time position.  We will not have access to internet until probably San Andres, which may be a week or two.  We will still check emails at our winlink address twice daily.

Check you later.....hopefully, we are out to sea.

It is 140 n/miles to the Vivarillos, so it will take about 28 hours at 5 knots.

We had a good crossing.  Waves were 4-6 feet off the port bow and wind was about 9 knots the whole trip, off the bow, of course.  There were squalls all around us most of the way, that we watched  and tracked their movement on the radar.  But, we only received two rain showers the whole time.  : ) 

It took us 28 hours and 17 minutes to get to the Vivorillos.  We were ready for a good shower, good meal, and a good nap after getting the boat cleaned up and salt-free.

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We were sitting in the cockpit this morning, it was very windy, and I told Sonny to look on the eastern horizon, it looks like a waterspout.  We had never seen one before, but it looked like a tornado, but over the water and stirring up the water.   Sonny got on the VHF radio to alert the other 10 boats in the anchorage and I turned on the radar to track it.  It was moving very quickly east of us but got within 2 miles of our anchorage.

	Our first waterspout

Since it was so windy, we didn't want to play in the water, we just stayed on the boat today, watched a movie and played Mexican Train dominoes.  Someone came on the VHF wanting to talk to the sailboats about trading some fish.  So, Sonny talked to him.  He said the name of his lobster boat was Endeavor and he was about 30 minutes out.

When he came to the anchorage, he called us on the radio and said he would come tie up to us behind our boat.   "What?  That huge lobster boat next to our boat, I don't think so."   Sonny told him to just anchor out and we would come to him in our dinghy to see what he had.  So we did. 

	Our adventure of the day, aboard lobster boat Endeavor trading for lobster, crabs, and fish.

We climbed aboard the huge lobster boat, Endeavor and Calbert had a big bag of lobster, crabs and snappers that he wanted to trade for rum, cigarettes, or tobacco.  We had the rum and cigarettes for trading, so we got our goodies and Calbert got in our dinghy with us. We went around to some of the other boaters in the anchorage asking if they wanted to trade.

They had been out for almost 6 months and were on their way back home to Guanaja and very anxious to get there.

Every day cruising, is a new adventure.