A Day With Friends

A few showers overnight and then a morning that looked like it could go either way.  The usual morning routine, then off for the last two dives.  Did the West Bay Wall on the first dive but the current was the reverse of normal so instead of ending up in front of Smugglers, we ended up in front of West Bay beach.  Nice dive with lots of deep channels that cut through the reef.  My camera wasn't behaving, it wouldn't turn on so I was a bit worried that it might have flooded, so I ended up just tucking it up against my chest and enjoyed a leisurely dive.  Ended up with 1200 psi left in my tank, which is a huge improvement in my air consumption.  Got back on the boat, washed the camera good with fresh water, dried off the housing and opened it up.  Dry as a bone, and working fine.  It must just have been set slightly skewed in the housing, and was unable to turn on with the outer buttons. 
Got back to Luna Beach and found Eileen chatting with Paul and Rita, who were out for their morning walk, destined for West End on a Kahlua search.  I headed out for the second dive and they carried on to West End.  Eileen took off for a walk to West Bay.  We got half way to the next dive site when the motor on Queenie overheated, so there we were drifting towards Utila.  After about a half hour and one downpour, we got things fixed up and carried on to Mandys Eel Garden, which I think is the only site I haven't done on this part of the island.  Hundreds of garden eels in the sand just below the drop off, but those guys are somewhat camera shy and unphotogenic.  It was neat to see all these skinny little worms poking their heads up about a foot above the sand and then drawing back into their holes when you came near them.  Several nice drumfish (got a good video of one of them)  and a couple more black spotted morays.  This picture is a repeat but is probably the best on that I have taken of a spotted moray:

Black Spotted Moray

And yet another Spotted Drumfish, this time you can actually see some spots.

No turtles today, but there was a free swimming Green Moray, a southern Stingray, and a small Peacock Flounder, hiding in the sand.
Got back to Luna Beach, way late, and found Eileen, Paul, and Rita on their second pre-lunch beer.  The bartender told them the dive boat wasn't coming back, so rather than worrying they all ordered a second beer......Eileen had gotten soaked in that downpour, Paul had been unsuccessful in the Kahlua search although they did find some Vanilla Kahlua at the duty free, but without their passports they couldn't buy.  We said we could take them to Plaza Mar in Coxen Hole, so after I got packed up we all jumped in the car and took off.  Detoured to the Blue Bahia in Sandy Bay for lunch, which turned out to be quite ironic because Paul had actually phoned these guys when he was vacation planning, and almost booked one of their places.  The food was great but as always with this place it was too much, although in our wisdom, we both had ordered shared plates.  However, stuffing yourself with a 3:00 lunch sort of screws up dinner plans.  Made it to Plaza Mar, got the Kahlua although Paul had to go back to the car for a shirt before they would let him in the store.  Rita got in fine with just her bikini, but Paul had to dig into the tee shirts that they had bought in West End.  Took them back home through Coxen Hole and Flowers Bay, I don't think Rita knew where they were until we hit West Bay.  Went up to their condo at Infinity Bay for a drink.  They've got a little studio unit at the very end (furthest from the beach with a deck view of three porta potties), but they're quite happy with the place.  Small but has everything they need.  That was quite the morning walk they ended up on, they must have left about 9 and got home just in time to catch the sunset.
Eileen and I got back to the house and just sort of flopped on the couches for awhile, neither of us really wanting or needing dinner, but about 7:00 we headed to West Bay and Beachers to at least have an appetizer.  Trishes group were there for drinks, so soon after we sat down both she and her daughter joined us and we had a great chat, lots of entertaining stories  Trish is very sociable and her daughter is a real nice kid too.  She had just spent part of the day at at orphanage near Flowers Bay and really had a good time there with the kids.  Would you send your 16 year old daughter off in a Roatan taxi to spend the day at an orphanage?  Anyway, she's talking of going back again. 
Trish and daughter were out for their morning jog and saw a snake at the side of the road, not far from our place.  Trish thinks it was dead but it doesn't really matter, she doens.t do snakes, and now she's not sure she wants to jog here anymore.  Eileen is going to look for the snake tomorrow and lay it across the road.......
Tomorrow, after the snake hunt, we have to go back to Luna Beach and pay the dive bill.  This one is going to hurt, twenty one dives, but it will be worth it.  These guys were really nice to dive with.  They have one snorkeler scheduled on their morning dives tomorrow, so if it is nice and calm, maybe I can get Eileen to come on the boat and we'll go for a snorkel too.  I also left a facebook message with the Blue Harbour greenhouse people and she said if we call her, she'll be there if we want to come back.  So if all works out, we might have a good and busy day tomorrow.  Dinner plans are for the sushi place in Sandy Bay.  Could be a great day, apart from the unpaid bill at Luna Beach......
Late picture add-on; just had a visit on the front door by a cute frog:

He sat on the back of my hand for a brief time, was about three inched long.  Really cool, big black eyes.