Sailing in Roatan and the Bay Islands of Honduras isn’t for the faint hearted, with unpredictable winds, and stunning coral reef-surrounded cays that make even piloting a skiff difficult, but it is more than rewarding, delivering stunning beauty day in and day out, even during the heart of rainy season. In this far western Caribbean part of Central America, the UV is off the charts. Combined with the nearly ever-present salty trade winds, the local climate is tough for most allegedly long-lived products, rendering their warranties so much worthless paper. The truth is tough, things that last elsewhere simply don’t on Roatan, or on any of the Bay Islands. Routine maintenance on things that should last is just a part of the off kilter asymmetric syncopated beat of island life.
Case in point is our dingy, bought from West Marine and shipped down via Miami less than four years ago, which developed a leak out of nowhere on the seam (despite being covered with great locally made American-sunbrella covered chaps) , and has been virtually impervious to the six attempts we have, thus far, made at attempting to repair the leak with varying degrees of success. At this point, she'd got a small slow leak, and that might just be as good as Paw Patrol is ever gonna get again. Sad end but she's served us well, and taken us on many adventures over the years!
Now we have a new dinghy, not some nameless West Marine garbage brand with a useless warranty, but an actual name brand Achilles, which is not only lighter than our previous one, but slightly bigger, too. Our little 15 HP engine makes our Achilles move, and, of course, we’re going to have to get some new chaps made right away out of good old American subrella, but first we’ve got to come up with a name for our new dinghy.
So we’re asking for names, suggestions, ideas, throw anything into the hat, let the stuff really hit the wall; why not, we might just use it, and the next time you see our dinghy, it’ll have an embroidered patch with whatever crazy name you’re thinking about right now on it. Seriously, come on now, send us an idea, or leave one in the comments below.
We’ve been busy running around getting the boat ready for charters, then going out, and breaking the boat down for the next excursion. Dirty paw dogs scuffing up cleaned areas don’t help, either, but we wouldn’t trade them for anything. Doesn’t stop folks from trying to snatch the schnoodle once they get used to the good cuddles, or needing one last feel of Mischa’s velvety ears. Keeping them well fed, healthy, and out of trouble on an island like Roatan is the subject of another post, composed from their POV, of course.
Stay tuned for the doggy-POV blog post, and drop us a line if you have any ideas for what we should call our new Achilles boat.
