It's been a long month getting by without a dinghy. Our little inflatable might not seem like much, hell it might not look all that important compared to some of the larger power boats zooming around the island, but when you're sailing, when you've got a business doing sailing charters in Roatan and the Bay Islands of Honduras, when your boat is like your home, your dinghy is like your car. You need it for all kinds of things. As former New Yorkers, we know plenty of people who get by fine without cars but few, if any cruisers or sailors get by for long without a dinghy. These small inflatables are just too integral, too important for exploration, for diving and snorkeling, and sailing and everything we do. There's just too many places we can't go with our five plus foot keel.
Of course, getting anything down here in Central America isn't easy, especially if you want a hypalon hard bottomed inflatable dinghy of a certain size. You just can't walk into a West Marine and pick one up. In fact, you can't get them new down here, period. It took weeks for it to get shipped down here from Florida, all told a little under a month from accident to new dinghy in the water.
And of course, since when it rains it pours (or more accurately this year in Roatan, when it's dry it's a desert), our outboard motor suffered a serious malfunction apparently from the same catastrophic accident that killed our dinghy. Seems like it was just yesterday we were taking delivery of our old dinghy in Ponce Inlet, Florida and going out for our first dinghy ride. And yet, it seems so very long ago, something that happened to much younger, less experienced versions of ourselves. Regardless, we had to haul our big 4-stroke 15 HP outboard out, got it fixed and serviced. And now, they're both finally working together like magic, practically gliding over the waves.
It's pretty white and looks sparkling new, so we've got to go ahead and get it dirtied up. We don't want to have the nicest looking dinghy on the dock, but since our chaps no longer fit and getting them resized is going to take some time, we'll just have to let Fozzie and Mischa devour a couple of coconuts in it or something to make it look a bit less appealing. Speaking of dogs we're going to call it Paw Patrol. Let us know what font you think'll look best...
Now if only the wind would just give it a break and calm down maybe we could go out sailing, or at the very least, take our new dinghy out of the bay and do some good old dinghy diving on the reef.
In the meantime, we had a blast at the Kentucky Derby soiree held at one of the nicest houses on the island with the best view and even better people. Thanks to Doug for the invite! Just look at those crowns. These ladies had it goin on like Stacey's Mom.
We also went to one of our favorite places on the island, Lionfish Louie's at Beach Club Roatan on Cinco de Mayo -- where we had some great food, listened to some amazingly energetic bands like the inimitable Brion James and the Scallywags, all while helping to support the Roatan Marine Park and all the good things they do. It was a great chance to meet some new friends, reconnect with old ones, learn some new games like Kubb (what fun!), and have a great time on the beach.