Goodbye Jonesville...Hello Danny...Goodbye familiar friends and neighbors....Hello beautiful new anchorages....Goodbye sewing...Hello sailing!

and just like that, our time in Roatan was up. We worked hard and played hard during out three months there, and we'll really miss it. Thanks a million to the island folks that made our time there so rewarding and memorable.

We sailed on on Easter Sunday (despite repeated rumors of an impending pig roast - there comes a point when it's just time to leave). Our first sail was not exactly a major passage - we traveled all of 5 miles due east to drop the hook in Port Royal, where we would scrub a couple months' worth of growth off the hull. An unsavory job, to be sure, but good friends and warm turquoise water help a lot.

The buildup of living growth on the hull was...indescribable. The worst we've ever seen. Giant curtains of mossy sponge trailed more than 3 feet off the hull, while full-sized anemones swayed in their shadows. It would have been fascinating had we not been staring at the belly of our boat. We got her cleaned up pretty quick, though (having crew is really a treat!). And if we weren't convinced of the power of a clean hull, we are now: coming into Port Royal, we were going 3 knots with the engine on and both sails up. Leaving the next day in nearly identical conditions, and on the same point of sail, we found ourselves flying along at 6.3 knots with just the jib powering us. Beautiful!

Monday found us daysailing again (also a real treat for us), this time bound for Cayos Cochinos, a small group of islands about 20 miles south of Roatan. After a night tucked into the picturesque harbor at Cochino Grande (and some good snorkeling), we weighed anchor and moved on again. We had planned to explore the Cochinos for a couple days, but we were too excited to get to La Ceiba and take care of business, so we were sort of chomping at the bit.

So Tuesday morning we were bound for La Ceiba on the Honduran mainland. Because there are no anchorages in the La Ceiba area, we're forced to stay in a marina during our time here. We'd be lying if we said this was a hardship; in fact, we're having a ball - the marina is beautiful, safe and clean and a great place to get a lot of stuff done in a short time. Our objectives here are to take care of boat business (fill water tanks, fill diesel, fill propane, check out of Honduras, provision for the next month, make some small repairs, etc.) and to have some major birthday fun (Allen's is tomorrow, mine is Saturday). So far we've been doing a lot of hot, dirty, sweaty boat work, punctuated by frequent swims in the marina pool. We're loving it. Tomorrow there's a mystery birthday adventure planned - more on that later this week!

The plan is to stay here through Saturday, then scoot up to Belize and and get checked in there. We've no idea what sort of internet access we will or won't have for the next month or so, so don't be surprised if we're basically offline for awhile. We'll probably explore Belize for a couple weeks, then cross into Mexico, bound for Isla Mujeres, where we'll wait for a good weather window to make the passage to Key West. Yup, the good ol' U S of A. We'll update this site with our plans as best we can, as things start to come together.....

Thanks friends and family for your comments and support....we'll post more soon. Cheers, UTE