SailingKnitter

HIBISCUS

The "trade winds" have returned to the western caribbean and I'm loving it! Sure, the breezes have been a little stronger than what we all like when we're out on our anchors, but the humidity has dropped and a lovely wind blows through the boat all day...and all night!

We love the wind at night because our wind turbine spins and keeps our battery bank charged up. It makes more amps than it takes to keep the refrigerator running. Because our solar panels wake up when the sun is overhead we have to turn off the wind turbine because the batteries are fully charged.

KAYAKS in CoCo View channel

For entertainment I joined a little ocean kayaking expedition with other cruisers. Because it was so windy we decided to tour the channel that was dredged many years ago behind the CoCo View Dive Resort. But first we had to get there...and that meant an open ocean crossing (well, we were kinda protected by reef but there is an opening in the reef and the seas pounded through that). Whew! It was great exercise and, I have to admit, a lot of fun riding the waves!

A narrow spit of land separates the channel from the ocean front so we still got some nice breezes back there and also didn't get attacked by bugs.

Ocean is right out there

This channel is (supposed to be) the centerpiece of a real estate development project. Building of homes and boat facilities has been very, very slow though. But we did see a couple of houses and some sailboats tucked away. Roatan is in the hurricane zone so whatever is built here has to either be built to survive a hurricane or built cheaply and expected to be lost. Plus, this is Honduras after all so expectations as to permanent ownership rights have to be lowered. We all know what can happen in these Latin American countries in land dealings and have heard many sorry tales!

But the location is splendid so I can understand why some folks might want to accept the risk of destruction, nationalization, or fraud. Although we see a lot of (overbuilt) McMansions in the islands I prefer the more simplistic beach/island houses like the one pictured below. Just give me a screened in patio and a dock for my zip-around boat. What do you know? This one is for sale too! Not for us though...we live on the boat and like to pull up anchor and get a move-on periodically.
After an hour or so we turned around to head back to the beach were we started at Fantasy Island Resort.
Thankfully, our return trip was with the wind at our backs so we we mostly coasted along and enjoyed the view. That is until we came to the point where we needed to cross that open water channel.
Here we had to paddle like crazy! Not only into the wind, but also into the waves! OK, maybe I'm a bit warped, but again this was so much fun! To have the wind and the sea spray in my face again and the roar of the waves breaking over the reef in my ears was invigorating. I did have a little trouble getting this photo and managed to take one of those accidental pics of my feet.

We all made it back safely to the little protected beach front of Fantasy Island Resort. Yes, I was the last kayaker throughout the day. Why hurry? It's not like I've got anywhere else I gotta go.

Now of course my knitting hasn't been ignored just because I'm out playing in the water. There's been plenty going on on my needles. Here's a new little pattern for a pair of baby socks with scallops, ribs and an eyelet row with a matching cap. All made from one skein of color-changing yarn (Jojoland Melody). I love these colorful yarns! There are many different manufacturers of this type of yarn too. I'd love to use more of this with my knitting.

My plan is to thread some pretty ribbon through the eyelet/purl rows and tie little bows. Of course, that means a trip to the main town of Coxen Hole here on the island to buy ribbon which will be a 2-hour travel event.

So this is how I spend the days leading up to Christmas. Sure beats hitting the malls, but I miss my boys and I miss cooking them a big feast on Christmas day. We'll be going to the Christmas potluck at Brooksy Point Marina that day and I'm baking a couple of pies. Maybe we'll get out to snorkel to work up an appetite first!

HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON WHEREVER YOU ARE AND HOWEVER YOU CELEBRATE!