Now, we'll explore this island - one of Honduras' Bay Islands. We'll try to go to the other side of the island and several of the other anchorages.
On Thursday, we went into the settlement of Bonacca which is an interesting place. It's a crowded little island with houses and shops on top of each other and Venice-like canals that run through the community. There is a "garbage boat" that is moored to a dock and you can toss your bagged garbage in it to burn - so we took advantage of getting rid of two bags. It's very convenient and a great service which helps keep the island and area waters relatively clean.
The weekly supply boat had come in late the day before so veggies, fruit, eggs and other stuff were being delivered as we roamed through town with our long list of projects. It was a good day to be in town! We went to the alternator shop trying to get our broken one repaired. But, as is typical in the islands, the repairman went off to mainland Honduras for carnival and has been gone a month! He may or may not be back. So we continued to carry the heavy alternators around. We also were looking for a pepper grinder - ours bit the dust - and we have no pepper other than peppercorns on board. No joy on a pepper grinder - but we did find ground pepper. We did a quick internet check, picked up some of those veggies that were being delivered, and a fresh French bread - right out of the oven. We also bought fish for tonight's dinner. No luck finding a chain hook - but it was fun watching Michael draw pictures of it for various shops. We have to remember to bring the things in that we are looking for!
Thursday night as we were getting dinner ready - we were out of propane. That shouldn't have happened as it was a new tank less than two weeks ago. (a tank usually lasts us about 5 to 6 weeks). Lots of baking, cooking and grilling have been going on as we hadn't eaten out at all - but two weeks was very strange. So as we switched tanks, we found a leak. Bad news (and good news!) - couldn't cook tonight.
We went to shore with some friends from another boat who've been in the area for some time, stopping first at a little bar that's near a few containers run by Hans. He's an interesting character - a German who's been on the island for more than 20 years. His young son works with him in this very funky bar. He also works a farm up the road and invited us (along with the folks from the sailboat Liberty) to go see the farm and the best part - pick up a bunch of mangoes!!! Then we left Hans' to go to the Hans' restaurant and bar. Yup, two Hans' with places on little Guanaja. This place, called Manatees, is a bit more upscale - they actually have ice for the drinks - and we had a really nice dinner there.
Michael has also become a "net controller" for the Northwest Caribbean Net. This is one of those morning radio networks on the SSB hosted by and designed for sharing information amongst cruisers. He'll do Thursdays until we leave the area. The responsibility includes hosting a morning net at 0800 local time and an evening net at 1745. This allows boats underway to check in and share their position and weather conditions. Plus there are lots of QSTs (questions) and information about checking in to countries, safety issues, anchorages, weather, local professionals like dentists or doctors etc. He did a terrific job (Barbara's opinion and she's really critical!)
On Friday morning the first order of business was to get the propane system working. Waking up with no option for coffee makes one move into action! Plus it's Friday and if we don't get it done today - it may not be before Monday to find someone in town or a store open for the needed parts. Now Michael has lots and lots of spares on board and can probably rig something to work - but it would be best to try to get the fitting pressed on properly because it is propane and high pressure. If he can't get it fixed in town, Hans' (the first funky bar proprietor) offered to look at it.
Glad we discovered the problem here before we got into the reef areas where we'll be headed from here. No islands, no shops, no propane etc.
Oh, and Yoshi also seems to be acting up. (Yoshi is the outboard with a personality all of his own!)
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