February 25th 2009, Barefoot Cay, Roatan, Honduras

Beaujolais
Thu 26 Feb 2009 15:16

After another night of heavy rain, the day dawned (only just) with grey skies and threats of yet more rain.

 

Today I had another mission, which was to find a hardware store (ferretaria) and buy 2 x 2.5” bolts so that Roger could fix our mini swim ladder to the Dink (remember the one we had made for us in Guatemala).

We have a very good book onboard, called Spanish for Boaters.

 

It specialises in the technical language required to keep your boat ship shape and all that.

 

So I wrote down what I wanted to say, headed across to the ferry and then up to the road to grab a cab. 30mins and 70 lims (US3.50) later I had accomplished my mission.

 

When I got back, Roger was busy refuelling.

 

Here, you tell Santos how much fuel you want and he polishes it (a process of filtering to clean it thoroughly) then they load it into a big barrel, which is then loaded onto a little pontoon barge.

 

The barge pulls up alongside and you pump it straight into your tanks.

 

As this was something new to us, I shot below to grab my camera to photograph it for the blog.

 

 

 

Mack and Bill were watching the proceedings and Mack and I were discussing the stanchions and our water ingress.

 

I leaned over to point out where I thought it was getting in, yes you got it, Plop!

 

My camera sank majestically to the bottom of the marina.

 

Well, I shot aboard for the magnet hoping that some part of the camera was metal.

 

Bill then tried to magnetically fish for it out, no joy. We then tried to hook the strap with our gaff, no joy. We tied a landing net to the boat hook and tried that, still no joy.

 

Then I remembered that Dawn was diving near the palapa and joked that maybe they are doing a rescue diver course and could use it as a search and rescue exercise.

 

I trotted off to the Palapa and it turned out that is exactly what she was doing. She said if we had no luck she would dive the boat for us.

 

Then, finally, one of the staff donned his mask and snorkel and dived down and retrieved it for me.

 

I don’t hold out much hope for it, I think it will be damaged beyond repair as it was deprived of oxygen for too long!!!! I think it is an ex-camera!

 

But don’t panic, you will still get you photos, I will use my underwater camera until I get a replacement.  Anyway, I now have a spare 2Gb card and battery!!