AT mangrove bight- WHEN LUCK SMILES AT YOU

BATH TIME

There is a phrase in spanish – ‘tienes una flor en el culo’.  Directly translating to English language, is- ‘you have a flower in your ass’.  It means- to be very lucky in something. 
This is what some of our friends use to say about us.  Maybe they are right or maybe not.  Usually, we answer ,there is lots of effort, uncertainness, worries and work behind that all, what they call pure luck.

But this time, at Guanaja , we had to give them the reason. We had flower in the ass😊 We were lucky to be in the right place at the right time.  

After meeting our new friends- Txomin and Doll- we got to know much better the island, Mangrove Bight town and it,s people! Furthermore, during all this pandemic time, we felt safe and sure we are in the best place to ‘survive’ the craziness of the world.  We had wild nature around, amazing coral reefs at sea, lot of wind for energy, water from waterfall ashore and supportive people in town. Not sure if managed to describe it good enough, but this time we were not shamed to accept , how lucky we were!

We had some worries, of course.  For example, what will happen if the island gets infected.  There is no hospital, the nearest one in Roatan island or at mainland.  Would be a lie to say that we didn’t care about it. But living on a boat and having a “cruisers chip” turned on,  we learned to avoid having the too bad thoughts and preferred keep believing in –
don’t worry (taking care) be happy.

GRAIN DE SABLE AT ANCHOR IN MANGROVE BIGHT BAY

Guanaja government was keeping restricting the unnecessary movement between sectors and there was no hope that it will end soon. Island was still with zero Covid cases, but in the mainland the number of infected people was growing. So, after waiting for about two weeks in El Bight we decided to go to the capital and ask the port captain permission for sailing to other side of the island to stay close to our new friends. In this kind of situation having a small baby on board and talking Spanish helped us a lot to convince the authorities. We got a green light to sail. Even if it was just a permission given by words, without any paper or document signed in. We were told that if we get stopped by police, we have to tell that Bonacca port captain Walter let us go.  
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For us, that was enough. We prepared the boat and next day early morning set sails to Mangrove

Bight. Had a nice trip with a few stressful moments sailing between coral reefs, where you have to trust more on your eyes than on any electronic chart. And on the boat engine, of course. With a current and wind against these passes can be quite dangerous. But Grain did well and her old engine the same.

The bay was big and well protected from all direction winds, except the northwest. Depths were perfect (3-5 meters) and holding as well (sand). But it was quite windy place. As we experienced later, after the mid-day, winds used to increase a lot. Some days could blow constantly 30-40 knots. Luckily, we had plenty of space for the chain, good Rocna anchor and plenty of area behind, in case we would drag. Besides, later on we dropped our second anchor and felt safe enough to survive any strength of wind and leave our Grain for the first time some nights alone!

MANGROVE BIGHT TOWN

LOCAL SYSTEM TO 'PARK' THE BOATS

LITTLE RIVER AT TOWN

RETURNING TO BOAT

JURA AND TXOMIN AT THE TERRACE LOOKING FOR TURTLES TO COME EAT MANGO SKINS

Txomin and Doll invited us to stay at their house and enjoy nights sleeping in comfortable big bed! From their terrace we could see our Grain in the bay and that helped us to be more calm about its safety  (cruisers who lives onboard can understand us very well.)

The new place became our second home where we felt comfortable and relaxed. Doll was preparing tasty meals, Txomin introduced us to his friends and told millions of stories about the island, the town and people.

Jura was the happiest boy in the world. Because of his blonde hair locals were calling him “El Canchito” and he was all day long playing in the backyard of the house, meeting other kids and eating coconut and mangoes in amazing quantities.

COOLING DOWN :)

WATER AND FUN

JURA AND HIS 'TOY`'

JURA,S SWIMMING POOL !

'EL CANCHITTO' - THATS HOW LOCAL CALLED OUR BLONDY JURA

Covid restrictions in Guanaja were not so hard as in other parts of the world. People could not be on the streets after the sunset and some weekends were obliged to stay at home. But island continued zero infected, so people were quite relaxed and we hardly noticed the difference from the other normality. After the dark all the bars had to be closed and gathering of big groups was prohibited, so the town was more relaxed and the traffic much smaller.
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I forgot to mention before, but Guanaja has just 4 kilometres of asphalted road! Just 4 km! The road goes between Mangrove Bight and Savanah. And still, there were big number of cars and mottos around, which they said use to be bigger before Covid times! ​

DAILY WALK

NO TIME TO BE BORED WHEN YOU HAVE BABY ON BOARD:)

People we met were so friendly, opening us the doors of their houses, presenting us fruits, cakes, fish, lobsters, clothes and even the diapers for Jura! There were moments, when we were asking what we’ve done so good to deserve such hospitality?  Honestly,  didn’t know how to thank all this attention we received.

So at least now, writing this post we would like to say huge thanks to Txomin and Doll for their incredible hospitality, to Karen and her amazing family for great time spent together and super nice good-by party they made for us, to George and Ginger from Clear Water Paradise Resort for chill out at their pool and nice talks,  to Daniel for letting us using his peer and inviting us to cook with him, to South African couple living just on the coast and being our great neighbours, for cousin of Doll for fresh milk and for many more amazing people we met, but , sorry, could not remember all names now.    
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See you soon , Mangrove Bight!
     
 

ENJOYING BREAKFAST TIME WITH KAREN AND HER FAMILY ON BOARD

ALONDRA AND JURA HAVING FUN