As there was the threat of bad weather heading our way in a couple of days we decided to up anchor and head further up the coast to the protection of Port Royal.

Once again with the wind on the nose (so what’s new, oh yes and by the way Bill, the windex needs re-calibrating again, so we obviously have a problem with it, which is why it needed re-calibrating in the first place!) we set sail. We followed our track out of the anchorage (didn’t want to end up on the reefs), put a couple of reefs in the main and tootled off up the coast.

There are 3 entrances to Port Royal, the first is narrow and shallow, but also the shortest, so we opted for that. The information we had was 30 years old, but we could see not much had changed.

Port Royal has a fascinating history. It was fought over by the Spanish and English and in its hay day, it was home to 5000 pirates with their women and children.

There are also several wrecks at the bottom of the harbour and the Honduran government prohibit excavating or bringing anything up from the wrecks.

   But what is especially nice is how pretty it is.

The shores have palm trees and white sandy beaches and it looks like a real paradise island should look.

Just when I was getting despondent, we drop anchor somewhere like this and all is forgiven.

The anchorage looked so inviting that we immediately lowered the dink to go and explore.

We didn’t get very far, actually we only managed to make it ashore to Mango Creek Lodge.

We were greeted with a ‘howdy, come on in’ from a young man who was busy cleaning the mosquito screens.

His name was Jeremy and he was from Colorado (seems folks from Colorado don’t like the winter there, Dewhite in Barefoot Cay was also from Colorado.

But I will say this, it seems that the young men from that area are well brought up, having very good manners and excellent interpersonal skills.

Jeremy showed us around the delightful lodge and beautiful gardens. We were introduced to Delia (the cook) and also the local Monkey LaLa’s (a species of iguana).

At last this was what I had imagined Roatan to be like. The resort (and I use the term purely because I can’t think of another way to describe it) has a few little cabanas built over the water, together with a bar and restaurant.

Then you climb the hill to the lodge, all made with local wood and varnished to perfection by Carlos, one of the employees.

Beautiful carvings adorn all the doors, all done by the local employees. Decks with swings surround the lodge, affording spectacular views of the bay.

But what I am particularly impressed with is the sustainability of the place. They have both solar power and wind generators, producing 7.8 Kwh.

The toilets in the cabanas are all composting toilets. They have grey water recycling and also grow a lot of their own produce. Unlike many of the developments on Roatan, Mango Creek nestles beautifully into its environment, not sticking out like a sore thumb like the other concrete monstrosities we passed as we sailed up the coast.

This is primarily a fly fishing resort and apparently is one of the top 10 in the world for a particular species of fish. But I could imagine spending a week here would be very relaxing.

After checking our e-mails, we headed down to the bar where Jeremy introduced us to Terry Kyle one of the owners.

We spent an interesting afternoon hearing about the comings and goings, the best spots to snorkel, the best beaches etc. Terry even told us that the designer of our boat lives just around the corner near Jonesville.

While we were settling in we had heard lots of radio traffic for the Mango Creek Lodge, for dinner this evening.

Not only from the boats, but also from the locals. For $20 a head they were putting on beef tenderloin, rice and beans served with a glass of wine and finished off with chocolate Brownies.

Well we have decided to join the party as it seems everyone will be there and it is likely to be standing room only.