S/V Sanibel: Happy 4th!

We are still in Roatan Honduras. Our hangout is at the tiki palapa on Fantasy Island. Roatan is simply a blast! The cruising community is small and not overwhelming; everyone knows your name. A few of our boater friends have left, but many are still here, stretching out the hurricane season as long as they can, us included. And new friends are still arriving.

The weather has been wonderful . It’s not too hot and we almost always have a lot of wind which keeps a nice breeze coming through the cabin.

My feet and ankles are swollen and ache from all the activities. I took a couple of days off and saw a slight difference. We played volleyball every day(up until a few days ago). I started doing yoga with Michele and Stephanie, and when they left Sandrine and I continued. Jimi taxi’s us to our grassy spot on shore in the mornings and someone else taxi’s us home. Elle from S/V Capella has joined our group and John, from Australia, and Julie from the U.S., joined us for one morning. They are crew on the S/V Gypsy Moth, who was just passing through.

June 25^th was Christmas for us cruisers in Roatan. People decorated the tiki palapa with Christmas trees and other holiday decor. Participants wore Santa and elf hats. Suzie brought her DJ equipment and we heard all the traditional songs we know and more. We had a traditional American Christmas dinner; ham and all the tasty treats that go with it. Each participant brought a small gift (either store bought or homemade) for a gift exchange. The gifts Jimi and I brought were a set of sock puppets and a three pack of hand stitched greeting cards. The gifts we received is a small serving bowl and a small waterproof case. Other gifts exchanged were a bag of miniature snickers bars, a mini bottle of rum with coke, a coupon for a massage, a notepad cube and more goodies.

My puppets were a hit. Here's Michele dancing with her puppet.

Joe, Michele, a puppet and me...oh ya, that's Susie peaking in.

The same evening we celebrated Larry from S/V Beatrice’s birthday. He and his wife are from South Africa.

One afternoon at volleyball the monkey’s showed up . They were on the roof of a small building next to the court. One of them had a plastic cup with a straw in it and what looked to be rum punch. He would take a drink, move about a bit and then take another drink. This continued and after a while he was rolling around and doing summer salts on the roof. It was a cute sight.

Another day while we were playing volleyball, we heard shrilling screams. The beach was filled with young school age locals. Looking over we saw all the kids running into the ocean as they were screaming and laughing, the monkey was chasing them. We laughed hysterically, as they were too.

We bought a small jar of homemade mango jam from a local. It’s yummy! We also invested in a blender and now enjoy smoothies everyday with all the fresh fruits available to us and Jimi made us a batch of sprouts a couple of weeks ago. My homemade yogurt has never been better. We like to put about half a cup of fresh homemade yogurt in our smoothies for a fruity creamy delight.

Home grown sprouts.

Football (soccer in the United States and New Zealand) has been widely watched by the cruisers. The day France and Honduras played, the resort set up TVs in their lobby. Of course all the French cruisers were there and a few more. A Honduras High School Marching Band played and marched through the lobby during game breaks.

Honduras High School Band

Many of our new friends told us about a seasickness medication they take. The English name is Stugeron. We’re told there are no side effects and I’ll be able to function as a normal human during sails. The drug isn’t available in the U.S., but widely used in Europe and the Caribbean. I’m excited to try it. We bought several boxes.

After I wrote this email, we found out that we’re no longer able to play volleyball on the beach. The beach we used belongs to the resort. Management would rather the cruisers not flood the beaches that are meant for paying resort guests. There is a concrete court available to us, but Jimi and I are not interested in playing there. Therefore, no more volleyball for us right now.

A few days ago on our way to shore our dinghy motor failed to start. Jimi tried and tried to start the motor as we drifted further and further away from the anchorage area. We just began getting the ores out when Eric came racing up in his dinghy and towed us back to Sanibel. We were fortunate. We were scheduled to pick Eric up for volleyball and when we didn’t show he got his binoculars to see if we’d left yet and that’s when he saw our distress. Thank goodness for friends who look out for one another. Jimi fixed the motor the following morning. There was a short in the ignition system and the cut off switch had to me modified.

A recent evening at the tiki palapa turned in to a late night. Sitting around the table with crew from Gypsy Moth and several resident cruisers we found ourselves with plenty of rum, but no mixer. John from Gypsy Moth and Jimi set out on a mission to find coconuts. They came back with two large coconuts, which Jimi said John retrieved by climbing a twenty foot tree with only his bare feet and hands. With Dave’s machete, Jimi opened the coconuts and they enjoyed the natural mixer. We also scraped the inside for the meat and enjoyed eating fresh coconut.

This past Wednesday we were served a traditional Honduras meal at the tiki palapa. Homemade tortillas, shredded cheese, homemade salsa, beans, chicken and pork. The meal was superb.

We’re staying in on the fourth of July. We have the opportunity to go to another resort across the island for a celebration, however, we feel the cost is too high and we’d just rather stay on Sanibel this year.

I suppose that wraps it up. Here are some additional pictures for you to enjoy.

Happy Independence Day Today!