Chasin' Tales
Registered
- Messages
- 68
- Reaction score
- 28
- # of dives
- 50 - 99
My wife and I arrived 4/10 via the United flight from Houston. The flight and immigration process at the airport was uneventful. Our rental vehicle from Thrifty ended up being a brand new 4-door diesel Ford Ranger. I was kinda worried about having such a nice rental vehicle after reading all the online advice that preached doom & gloom for anyone silly enough to drive a rental around the island.
We had rented through vrbo.com a three bedroom house in Sandy Bay which was situated directly onshore from the dive site "Spooky Channel". The house was found without a single wrong turn thanks to the wonderful directions by the owner. First thing we did after dropping off our bags was throw on our bathing suits and hop in for a swim off the dock behind the house. There was an amazing amount of life around the dock which kept us entertained for a good while. That evening we explored West End for the first time. We struck out at our first cocktail attempt...the drinks at the bar above Coconut Tree were so watered down we couldn't finish them. We wandered sound a bit settling on a much better drinks at Tiki Bar, which also has free wifi. For dinner, we had reservations at the Indian restaurant Ooloonthoo. This place is amazing. Don't miss it if you like Indian food. It is tied for the best Indian food I have ever eaten.
The next morning we make a run to Eldon's & Plaza Mar in Coxen Hole for groceries before picking our friends up at the airport. As we are making the 10 minute drive back to the house from the grocery store, it struck me that I didn't see the lenses for the camera as I was unpacking. "Honey, in which bags did you pack the camera lenses?" I asked to which she replied "Was I supposed to pack those?". Crap. No camera lenses. Oh well...we laugh it off and figure we will just have to come back a second trip, and still have the gopro. On the way to the airport to pick up our friends arriving on the Delta flight from Atlanta, we stopped by Blue Island Divers to see if they had availability for an afternoon dive. Our first impression of the shop was great and they were wide open that afternoon. We grab our friends from the airport and quickly get settled in at the house. Despite an early morning of travel they were down for a dive that afternoon. We called BID and made arrangements for them to pick us up at the dock.
The first dive of the trip was at "Wrasse Hole". I don't remember what all we saw that dive, but it didn't take long to realize the reef was healthy and breathtaking. There was a second dive master who did some spear fishing for lionfish. As we were ending the dive, there were three large mutton snapper circling the two lionfish stuck on the end of the spear. They weren't brave enough to come grab them while she held the spear, so she dropped it to bottom where one of the snapper quickly snatched one of the lionfish and gulped it down. That was very cool to see! BID did a wonderful job, and we were the only folks on the boat. They dropped us back off at the dock where we made arrangements for diving Monday morning as they are closed on Sunday.
For our diving on Sunday we did two dives with Native Sons. The first dive was at an unnamed site that was more towards West Bay. The second dive was at a site just in front of the dive shop. They were good dives...seeing turtles and eagle rays. Again we were blown away by the reef. Native Sons was ok. The first dive was on the cattle car boat with a number of other divers. The second dive was just our group of four on a smaller boat.
Monday we were back with Blue Island Divers which is just down the road from the house. The first dive was at Déjà Vu. The dive was great. As we were queued up to get back in the boat, my wife put her head down in the water and popped up shouting "hammerhead"! We all stick our heads back in the water to see a beautiful ~8' long hammerhead swimming directly under the boat about 20-30' below us. Fortunately it did not have any interest in us, but unfortunately it kept on cruising by and we did not get to spend much time with it.
The rest of the diving was wonderful. For most of the week, it was just our group of four on the boat. In addition to many turtles and eagle rays, there were some stingrays, huge midnight parrotfish, several different species of grouper - tiger, nassau, and black. We saw large grouper frequently through the week. Lionfish were seen on just about every dive. Lots of all the other typical reef fish. Jaw fish were often found in the sand channels with my wife seeing one with eggs in it's mouth. On our last dive we saw two frogfish that were both sitting together. One was a big fat yellow porker...I didn't know they got that big! All four of us thought very strongly that Roatan's reefs are much healthier and prettier than Bonaire's. Not hating on Bonaire, as we love it there as well.
So most divers would say that a hammerhead and frogfish would be the highlight of the week...not for us. On Wednesday, my wife and I went in a submarine down to 2100'! We did the 2000' trip with Stanley Submarines. Holy freakin cow it was one of, if not the coolest thing we have ever done. As we were dropping down into the deep there was a huge school of tuna around 300'. We slowly descended to 2100', the whole time seeing all kinds of stuff drift by in the lights. We were amazed at the amount of life that inhabits the deep. It's not a cheap experience, but very much worth every penny!
On our off gas day, we went to Little French Key. It was somewhat of a disappointment. It sorta seemed like a cruise ship on land. It wasn't crowded on Friday. Our original plans were to eat while we were there. We ended up leaving LFK and heading to Cal's Cantina for a late lunch. That was a good decision...the food and drinks at Cal's were amazing and cheap!
We all can't say enough good things about Blue Island divers. The shop has had new owners since November. The folks there are nice and certainly went above and beyond to make sure we were happy. Lee was our dive master for the week. He did a great job and quickly picked up on the dive profile that made us happy. They are a full service dive shop. They had our gear set up and ready to go in the morning. All we had to do is get on the boat. They have an air conditioned room to dry out your gear after the last day of diving so you don't have to worry about packing up damp gear. We can't wait to go diving with them again!
We did a total of 12 dives...here's a partial list of sites my wife jotted down:
Wrasse Hole
Dejavu
Queen Angels Wall
Green Outhouse- lots of life
White Hole
Blue Island Surprise
Mikes Place
Spooky Channel
Overheat Reef
Dive Master Choice- The Wife
My computer showed the water temp to be 83 degrees. Visibility for most dives was 80-100'+.
Overall, the culinary experience on the island is ok. Ooloonthoo and Cal's were the best eats for the week. We had the unfortunate luck to go to Lighthouse Restaurant one evening. The service was ridiculously slow. After an hour and a half of sitting there, the brought the girls mahi entrée...before the appetizers. After about five minutes the waiter came back out and asked my wife if she'd eaten any of her meal yet, as it was meant to be brought to another table. When she said no, he grabbed the plate and walked in one side of the kitchen and out the other with the plate still in hand and brought it to the table next to us.
Tiki Bar has a very good and affordable breakfast. We are lunch at the restaurant next door to Stanley Submarines - Half Moon Resort- it was decent. Other places we ate for dinner...Splash Inn which was ok...and Cannibal, which was ok but we all had some digestive issues the next morning...and El Paso which is a very small place right on the water in Sandy Bay next to the international school, very good and cheap!
It was a fantastic trip with some great diving with great friends. We can't wait to go back to Roatan. Hopefully I will be able to get some pics/videos attached soon.
We had rented through vrbo.com a three bedroom house in Sandy Bay which was situated directly onshore from the dive site "Spooky Channel". The house was found without a single wrong turn thanks to the wonderful directions by the owner. First thing we did after dropping off our bags was throw on our bathing suits and hop in for a swim off the dock behind the house. There was an amazing amount of life around the dock which kept us entertained for a good while. That evening we explored West End for the first time. We struck out at our first cocktail attempt...the drinks at the bar above Coconut Tree were so watered down we couldn't finish them. We wandered sound a bit settling on a much better drinks at Tiki Bar, which also has free wifi. For dinner, we had reservations at the Indian restaurant Ooloonthoo. This place is amazing. Don't miss it if you like Indian food. It is tied for the best Indian food I have ever eaten.
The next morning we make a run to Eldon's & Plaza Mar in Coxen Hole for groceries before picking our friends up at the airport. As we are making the 10 minute drive back to the house from the grocery store, it struck me that I didn't see the lenses for the camera as I was unpacking. "Honey, in which bags did you pack the camera lenses?" I asked to which she replied "Was I supposed to pack those?". Crap. No camera lenses. Oh well...we laugh it off and figure we will just have to come back a second trip, and still have the gopro. On the way to the airport to pick up our friends arriving on the Delta flight from Atlanta, we stopped by Blue Island Divers to see if they had availability for an afternoon dive. Our first impression of the shop was great and they were wide open that afternoon. We grab our friends from the airport and quickly get settled in at the house. Despite an early morning of travel they were down for a dive that afternoon. We called BID and made arrangements for them to pick us up at the dock.
The first dive of the trip was at "Wrasse Hole". I don't remember what all we saw that dive, but it didn't take long to realize the reef was healthy and breathtaking. There was a second dive master who did some spear fishing for lionfish. As we were ending the dive, there were three large mutton snapper circling the two lionfish stuck on the end of the spear. They weren't brave enough to come grab them while she held the spear, so she dropped it to bottom where one of the snapper quickly snatched one of the lionfish and gulped it down. That was very cool to see! BID did a wonderful job, and we were the only folks on the boat. They dropped us back off at the dock where we made arrangements for diving Monday morning as they are closed on Sunday.
For our diving on Sunday we did two dives with Native Sons. The first dive was at an unnamed site that was more towards West Bay. The second dive was at a site just in front of the dive shop. They were good dives...seeing turtles and eagle rays. Again we were blown away by the reef. Native Sons was ok. The first dive was on the cattle car boat with a number of other divers. The second dive was just our group of four on a smaller boat.
Monday we were back with Blue Island Divers which is just down the road from the house. The first dive was at Déjà Vu. The dive was great. As we were queued up to get back in the boat, my wife put her head down in the water and popped up shouting "hammerhead"! We all stick our heads back in the water to see a beautiful ~8' long hammerhead swimming directly under the boat about 20-30' below us. Fortunately it did not have any interest in us, but unfortunately it kept on cruising by and we did not get to spend much time with it.
The rest of the diving was wonderful. For most of the week, it was just our group of four on the boat. In addition to many turtles and eagle rays, there were some stingrays, huge midnight parrotfish, several different species of grouper - tiger, nassau, and black. We saw large grouper frequently through the week. Lionfish were seen on just about every dive. Lots of all the other typical reef fish. Jaw fish were often found in the sand channels with my wife seeing one with eggs in it's mouth. On our last dive we saw two frogfish that were both sitting together. One was a big fat yellow porker...I didn't know they got that big! All four of us thought very strongly that Roatan's reefs are much healthier and prettier than Bonaire's. Not hating on Bonaire, as we love it there as well.
So most divers would say that a hammerhead and frogfish would be the highlight of the week...not for us. On Wednesday, my wife and I went in a submarine down to 2100'! We did the 2000' trip with Stanley Submarines. Holy freakin cow it was one of, if not the coolest thing we have ever done. As we were dropping down into the deep there was a huge school of tuna around 300'. We slowly descended to 2100', the whole time seeing all kinds of stuff drift by in the lights. We were amazed at the amount of life that inhabits the deep. It's not a cheap experience, but very much worth every penny!
On our off gas day, we went to Little French Key. It was somewhat of a disappointment. It sorta seemed like a cruise ship on land. It wasn't crowded on Friday. Our original plans were to eat while we were there. We ended up leaving LFK and heading to Cal's Cantina for a late lunch. That was a good decision...the food and drinks at Cal's were amazing and cheap!
We all can't say enough good things about Blue Island divers. The shop has had new owners since November. The folks there are nice and certainly went above and beyond to make sure we were happy. Lee was our dive master for the week. He did a great job and quickly picked up on the dive profile that made us happy. They are a full service dive shop. They had our gear set up and ready to go in the morning. All we had to do is get on the boat. They have an air conditioned room to dry out your gear after the last day of diving so you don't have to worry about packing up damp gear. We can't wait to go diving with them again!
We did a total of 12 dives...here's a partial list of sites my wife jotted down:
Wrasse Hole
Dejavu
Queen Angels Wall
Green Outhouse- lots of life
White Hole
Blue Island Surprise
Mikes Place
Spooky Channel
Overheat Reef
Dive Master Choice- The Wife
My computer showed the water temp to be 83 degrees. Visibility for most dives was 80-100'+.
Overall, the culinary experience on the island is ok. Ooloonthoo and Cal's were the best eats for the week. We had the unfortunate luck to go to Lighthouse Restaurant one evening. The service was ridiculously slow. After an hour and a half of sitting there, the brought the girls mahi entrée...before the appetizers. After about five minutes the waiter came back out and asked my wife if she'd eaten any of her meal yet, as it was meant to be brought to another table. When she said no, he grabbed the plate and walked in one side of the kitchen and out the other with the plate still in hand and brought it to the table next to us.
Tiki Bar has a very good and affordable breakfast. We are lunch at the restaurant next door to Stanley Submarines - Half Moon Resort- it was decent. Other places we ate for dinner...Splash Inn which was ok...and Cannibal, which was ok but we all had some digestive issues the next morning...and El Paso which is a very small place right on the water in Sandy Bay next to the international school, very good and cheap!
It was a fantastic trip with some great diving with great friends. We can't wait to go back to Roatan. Hopefully I will be able to get some pics/videos attached soon.
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