Nice sail, but no fish

We left Guanaja bright and early Sunday morning for the trip back to Roatan. After days of fairly fresh breezes, of course, we awoke at 0515 to still water and barely any wind at all. Figures. But, as the sun continued to rise, the wind built back up a little and we were able to put out the headsail for the downwind run just as soon as we cleared the reef. With lines in the water, we still weren't really at fish-catching speed, but we figured it was early and some sleepy fish might be tempted. Or not. It was about a 45 mile run to our destination, the West End of Roatan in the Marine Park. As we made our way down the north side of the island, the wind and seas built and we were getting faster, but still not catching fish. A little sail trim got us in the fish-catching speed zone for sure, but still no dice. We tried every lure in the tackle box, each with a new name (e.g. Hondureno, Spoony, Don Pedro, etc.) but despite the love, no fish. Barbara thought she got a bite and hours later as we were putting Cucharita away, we noticed part of the hook was missing, so she had, in fact, been struck.

We got into the marine park, Anchor Boy selected a secure mooring, and all was well. We figured the giant conch (alive) that was below the boat was a good sign that the marine protected area may in fact be respected! The water is very clear and there are about a dozen moorings in the field, so plenty of company, but not packed in too bad. The water taxis zooming by off the bow provide a steady stream of interesting movies--some are packed, some are not, all move very fast! It being Semana Santa this week, the number of other boats around is pretty high and there's plenty of entertainment there too--lots of yahoos trying to waterski, tube, etc.

We went into West End yesterday to run some errands and scope out the diving options. After several shops, we realized the price is more or less the same everywhere, so we just chose one. We dropped off the laundry, bought some eggs and veggies, and dumped the trash, before heading back to the boat to fuel up and get our stuff ready for our afternoon dive.

We got back to the dive shop and found we would be the only ones on the afternoon dive (sweet!), so we asked to change the trip to one we wanted to do, and they obliged. Saw some very cool pipefish, a large green moray, and some jawfish with eggs in their mouths popping up out of the sand! Wicked cool! Also saw some very large crabs and several good lobsters, also signs that the park may be doing its job! Moreover, we saw no lionfish! Bummer in way, as we still haven't been able to try them for dinner! Barbara and Michael had a nice snorkel out on the reef while we were diving and then we all rendezvoused in town.

We had an evening out on the town last night, stopping at several spots for post-dive/snorkel beers before having a very yummy fish dinner while watching the parade of Semana Santa revelers move up and down the street. We were hoping for another green flash, but the sun dipped into some clouds just before it hit the horizon so we settled for a nice sunset!

After our yummy banana pancakes, we've got a morning "family snorkel" followed by another dive for Mark and I this afternoon.

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