Punta Gorda Snorkeling

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Punta Gorda Snorkeling

What a day! My buddy Rocky, who works here in the restaurant, invited me to return to Punta Gorda for a swim, and we made the deal for yesterday. I arrived about 11:30, and this time, the taxi ride in daylight let me see some of the views from the hills and the beauty of the reef when the road took us past an opening in the trees. Punta Gorda is on the north east part of the island so the reef there is a different environment than here in the French Key area. For one thing, it is waaaay out there, perhaps 300 or 400 yards from the beach.
Punta Gorda is the oldest Garifuna settlement in Honduras, dating back to 1784, I think, when a boat load of slaves travelled here from St Vincent in the eastern Carib. Not sure about the details but I understand they had been set off a ship in St Vincent, and they made or stole a boat and came this way. The Garifuna still celebrate the date as we do our Independence Day, and they paint the colors of their flag in their homes, and on their buildings and even the telephone poles have the stripes - black, white, and gold, I think. Rocky demonstrates his great pride in his home town, and took as much pleasure showing me around as I remember my dad doing to visitors in Pittsburgh.
So, Rocky's mom made us a lunch after we took a walk along the road and Rocky gave me the tour of the area. Fried shrimp, pasta, and rice. Was a great lunch. And then we gathered 2 of his buddies and the 4 of us set off for a swim, out to the reef. This old fat guy did pretty well, keeping up with these kids.
What a great trip! Just after slipping into the water from the dock off a palapa owned by a bar, a big sting ray swam by me, perhaps 6 feet away. And as we made our way out, the guys were looking hard for lobster and conch, having taken some sticks with a big fishing hook on the end, used to snag lobsters from their holes in the coral.
Rocky spied 2 lion fish for me and I later found one on my own. Lion fish are the only species that the government WANTS the locals to kill, as they are so poisonous, and I heard that they eat the corals, but not sure about that. Rocky has really sharp eyes, and spotted and re-spotted a 2 1/2 foot moray eel swimming on the bottom through sea grass, obviously hunting. It was so well camouflaged that I lost it in the grass several times, but Rocky would re-find it and point it out for me.
Then we swam over a really big area of clean, white sand, and it was dotted with huge starfish - we counted at least 30 and there had to be dozens and dozens - each 18 inches. When we arrived at the reef, Rocky found a lobster in the coral and handed me the stick to try my hand at snagging it out of its hiding place, but I just don't have that skill down yet, and lost it. Amazing how fast they swim when they want to escape.
When we were finished, we took the long swim back to the dock - perhaps 20 or 30 minutes, and I ran up to the bar and bought us a few beers. Below is Rocky, enjoying his first.

These are the 3 guys who, I must say, kept an eye out for my safety and to make sure I had a good time. The boy in the water is 17, and recently lost his father in a shooting, and I must say, I have Gringo misgivings buying him beers, but bought several for him. I know I cannot impose my US standards or morals on these people, but still..... buying beers for a 17 year old is way out of character for me. Neither of these 2 speak English, so there was little inter-action between us, other than slapping the water and pointing at things for me.

After that first beer, it was time to clean the conch. Some of the little guys came out to play in the water too. That is Rocky's little brother in the water. I ended up buying everyone a 'fresca' - a coke or sprite or whatever they wanted. It was fun watching the kids play, even though I didn't understand anything they said or laughed about.

This is a view back from the dock, and that house on the right is Rocky's home. The yellow one is his grandmother's but she is in New York City, (yuck!) visiting Rocky's aunt and uncle, who live in Brooklyn.

Rocky's little brother, who he says is very smart and in the 4th grade, but no English, yet.

This is the beach in the other direction. Lots of bars in Punta Gorda, and 2 churches. I have always wondered why I see the kids here in Roatan leaving school so early in the day, thinking perhaps they go a half day for economic reasons, but found out from Rocky that they go at 630, and school starts at 7am. That way, they are in school for the cooler part of the day, and don't have to sit all afternoon in the tropical heat.

Further down this beach is a new building on stilts being built, financed by an American. It will be a trade school and the kids will be taught English, French, and Italian, so they can work in the tourism industry here. Cheers to THAT guy, for doing something really good for this community!

That kid in the water seemed to always have some joke going on, probably at this old fat Gringo's expense, but usually, Rocky wouldn't tell me what it was about. When we were first setting out, there were 2 little kids using an old refrigerator shell as a boat, and I wish I had had my camera then. They were having a ball, and were very comfortable playing in this rocking and rolling box, with no keel.

This guy is holding up the body of the conch, before they trim off what they don't eat.

The 3 heroes, relaxing. Because one guy had no fins, and the other had only one to wear, I volunteered to carry the net bag with the conch back in, and it was heavy, and a long swim back.

Star fish, lion fish, and my first moray eel. What a great day. Thanks buddy!

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About Annah Foster

Annah Foster is a 1980'ish Morgan 462. She is a USCG Documented vessel and the year on the document is 1979, which I believe is the year the keel was laid. She is known as a ketch, which means she has 2 masts, and the aft mast is forward of the rudder. She also is a center compartment boat, which means the helm is located between the 2 masts, which are, by the way, the main and the mizzen. She is equipped with roller furling on the jib/genoa sail which is the big triangular sail on the front. Her empty weight, or rather displacement, is 33,000 lbs, which is fat for her length. Mr. Morgan believed in thick fiberglas for strength and I am told that at places it is often found to be 2 inches of solid fiberglas. Her keel has encapsulated lead weighing 8,000 lbs.

She boasts 2 staterooms, - v-berth forward with separate head and twin beds aft with separate head, including the famous bathtub. The configuration of the aft stateroom could easily be changed with a change in the mattresses to an almost queen berth, port to starboard, but currently she has twins, running fore and aft, with 2 large mattress cushions separating them. There is also a ladder and sliding hatch aft for egress in an emergency, to the aft deck, which I call the back porch. I bought some director's chairs for it and have sat there many evenings enjoying a drink and sunset. The aft deck is also the location of the propane gas grill, storage for the 2 outboard motors, Yamaha 4hp 4cycle, and a Yamaha 15hp 2 cycle, which power a new Apex Lite 10'6 inflatable dinghy, which can hang from the installed davits.

The main sail has 2 reefing points on jiffy reefing and the mizzen has 1. No lines lead to the cockpit but the jib, main and mizzen sheets.

She has a Switlick 6 man life raft mounted aft the mizzen mast. And, an emergency tiller aboard.

She is equipped with a Perkins 4 cylinder diesel engine, powering a Hurth transmission and turning a 4 bladed Max Prop, which feathers when sailing, and reverses pitch in Reverse so that she has the same thrust as in Forward. One unique design flaw is that the propeller shaft exits the boat at 3 degrees off center, making the port prop walk in reverse, even worse. The engine is equipped with about a 90 amp alternator with a very good voltage regulator.

She also has a Westerbeke 5.7 kw diesel generator, which produces 110 v AC power, and charges the batteries thru a 40 amp charger. I also have a Honda 1000 watt gasoline powered generator for emergency 110v, and an automotive battery charger aboard.

She came with an old Windbugger wind generator, not quite perfectly mounted. Stowed in the V-berth, there is a replacement AirX marine wind generator and 8 foot mast waiting to be installed, along with the controller, and 2 solar panels, which are half the possible wattage the controller can handle.

She has 3 4-D AGM batteries for the house bank and a type 18 start battery - all are 12volt.

The 4 gallon water heater will heat with both engine cooling water and 110v AC power and is equipped with a mixing valve to prevent scalding.

Tankage - Water - 110 gallon port and 85 gallon center tanks
Fuel - 175 gallons
Range when new at 2250 RPM is almost 800 nm.

Currently, her refridgerator and freezer are 110 volt AC, with several holding plates each which must be manually started and stopped. She has waiting to be installed, 2 Cool Blue 12 volt systems, with automatic controls, but truthfully, I don't know where the new holding plates will fit.

Electronics -
She is equipped with 2 VHF marine band radios, one at the helm and the other at the nav station, with repeater at the helm, and a hand held low power VHF 'walkie talkie'. Also, at the nav station, she has a Single Side Band HF radio - SSB with a Pactor 2 modem making her capable of downloading NOAA weather fax and Sail Mail emails and Grb files. onto a dedicated IBM laptop. She has as primary a Raymarine E-80 Chartplotter at the helm and a smaller Garmin Chartplotter for back up at the helm, a handheld Garmin Chartplotter, and an older Furuno GPS at the nav station. She has an older Raytheon black and white 24 nm radar at the helm, with a repeater at the nav station. She has a RapidFix 406 EPIRB, emergency locator beacon, that is hand activated. She has a new Clarion AM FM CD player, with input for computer or MP3 player on 3 sets of individual speakers - cockpit, salon, and aft cabin.

For those who do not know me, I named her for my parents - Annah Margaret and George Foster Doak. It is through their beneficence that I am able to live this dream and I felt that I should dedicate my boat to honor their memories.