As Beaujolais was starting to grow coral on her keel we thought it was high time to let go the lines and get back out to sea.

So it was we said a fond farewell to all the lovely people we had met, Janey & Bill, Mack and Beth (and baby to be) Steve and Mireille and Dewhite.

We were only hopping a short way up the coast to an anchorage in French Cay.

As usual the wind was on the nose and as it was such a short hop (only 3 miles) we motored (I know I’ve said it before, but remind me why we bought new sails???).

All our information and charts told us that there would be 2 markers to guide us through the reefs and into the anchorage. As it turned out we only saw 1, in a different location, and it wasn’t long before we were struggling to find the way in.

Jupiter Smile hailed us on the radio and Bob from Vista came out in his dink to guide us in, thanks to both of them, we managed to get safely into the anchorage.

All that anchoring practice we had in the Rio Dulce finally paid off and we anchored successfully first time.

As it was only mid afternoon, we took the dink ashore to check out Old French Harbour.

When we got to the dinghy dock every other dinghy was padlocked up. We of course didn’t have the key to our padlock, so made pretend that it was locked up.

Roger made a valid point when I said it looks like you have to lock it or lose it, he said ‘maybe one person locked his and everyone else assumed they needed to’? Who knows but better safe, than sorry.

We were met on the dock by Kevin and Liz from Cielo, who told us that just a little way down the road was a fantastic market. Now here is where the American/English lost in translation kicks in. To me a market is lots of stalls selling various produce. So it was that I thought ‘great, I can get some nice veggies and fruit’. So we trotted off up the hill to the main road. You can imagine my disappointment when the market turned out to be none other than Eldons Supermarket. Whilst they have a good variety of items, their fresh fruit & veg leave something to be desired.

As neither of us had been beyond Eldons we decided to take a stroll and check out the rest of the area.

We arrived at the little town of French Harbour. A rather quaint little place, with ramshackle houses and shops snuggling up to pretty weather boarded houses painted in pretty pastel pinks, yellows, greens and blues.

There were also several churches. Within 120metres, there were no less than 4 churches, most with prime beach/sea frontage. It reminded me of the Bahamas.

Apparently, French Harbour is the economic centre of Roatan. It is certainly much prettier than Coxen’s Hole, even with it’s rusty shrimp boats.

We visited the Roatan Yacht Club, but it was not open for business, still it looked lovely and the views were beautiful, it also proved to me how photos can be misleading!!!!!

The anchorage is nice, with lots of little canals you can explore in the dink. It is well protected by a reef with lots of snorkelling and the crystal clear water is a lovely colour.

But it does remind me somewhat of a caravan park or campsite, with so many boats anchored side by side. Ah paradise!!!!!

While shopping, we met up with old buddies, Bob and Annette of Tempest, whom we had met while in Placencia, Belize last year.

We also met up with Jan and Dave on Odyssea who invited us over for cocktails this evening.

I have to say I was not particularly impressed with French Cay anchorage and found myself sounding like a spoiled child when I complained to Roger. But perhaps that’s part of sailing, you are spoiled, all the fantastic places we see and people we meet, why would you put up with anything less that that if you didn’t have to?