Roatan: Jonesville Bight

Thursday, May 30, 2002

016-23.400 N
086-22.800 W

Ahoy from Jonesville Bight, which is mis-labeled as Bodden Bight on some charts and in Calder's NW Caribbean book. This is also home to the "Hole in the Wall" bar run by Bob & Rhonda Lee, who are two delightful people. This bight is also known as "The Vortex" as once you pull in, you never leave. We actually upgraded this theory to say that in order for a boat to leave, a new boat has to arrive. A prime example of this was the boat Street Legal. Guy and Anaka arrived here intending to stay for 2 weeks. Five months later they finally left.

We actually had no intention of going to Jonesville Bight. We were motoring by on our way to French Harbor when Windom called on the VHF. They had been snorkeling & saw a blue sailboat go by and called to see if it was us. We decided to pull into Jonesville. The entrance to & through the bight is quite complex, so Windom came out and guided us in. If anyone is thinking of coming in here, call the Hole in the Wall on VHF 62 and they'll help you in. Of course, the Vortex will have claimed another victim, as it did us!

Jonesville bight is a beautiful, well protected anchorage lined by tall cliffs on one side. From here there are channels that run inside the reef for miles allowing you to travel to other bights without going outside the reef. Some of these channels are through narrow, low mangrove forests and are really cool to travel through. Most people move via skiff between the bights. Due to the cost of phone service here most people use the VHF to communicate. Each bight uses it's own VHF channel, so if you're going to call someone in Oakridge bight, you call them on VHF 72, whereas Jonesville is VHF 66. Neat!

Roatan is a very mountainous islands with a single road running it's length along the spine. From this road you can look down into lots of deep glades. Just beautiful. The island is ringed by dense reefs with lots of deep bights where little towns have formed. A lot of the houses are built on stilts over the water. It's quite unique. Unfortunately theft seems rampant here. Almost everyone that we've talked to who lives here has been broken in to. Quite sad. Oh, and there are tons of sand fleas that BITE!

I broke a tooth cap and none of the dentists here could work on it. I got the name of a dentist in La Ceiba, which is on the mainland about 40 miles away. We hopped on board a flight, had a new cap made in less than 2 hours and for $37, went to a big US style mall, had lunch at Pizza Hut, and all of this cost less than $150! And wow is the mainland mountainous! From the airport you could see waterfalls cascading down hundreds of feet. Quite impressive.

The winds have been from the W for ages, which is opposite of where they normally come from. This has made most of the anchorages very rough. The winds have finally switch around to the NNE, so we're going to be moving to the W end of the island. Luckily I've convinced some other boats to come here, so the Vortex will let us out! :-) Until later! BlueJacket,Taua,Street Legal,Hole in the Wall,Bay Islands,Windham
Log ID: 237