Typical Day

I wake up about 5:30 nearly every morning. There is so much light coming into my apartment that I just can’t sleep. I usually just sit on the porch watching the ocean for a several minutes before really getting the day started. About 6 I start thinking about breakfast. I have cereal or toast and some yogurt most mornings. Once in a while I cook some eggs or pancakes. Breakfast is always on the porch again. I rarely eat inside.

About 7:00 am each morning I wonder up to the top deck to check the waves on the reef and sometimes say a quick hello to the guests. After that, it’s off to the dive shop to set up gear for the divers. We set everything up everyday so the guests are always ready to go. We are almost always finished getting ready by 7:45 or so we just sit around and talk until the guests arrive.

Lately, Jim and I have worked on the boat everyday. It’s finally up on the dry dock. We broke a support, a chain and a chain host but we made it. Actually it’s still partially held up by a second chain host because the support under the boat bends when we try to sit the boat onto it. We have 2 rough sawn 4 x 8’s in the front and only one in the back. I have to buy another on Monday to support the back end. Jim is a great worker and has sanded the entire boat. On Sunday we’ll launch a little boat under our boat and Jim will clean the bottom of the dive boat. We’ll inspect for leaks and problems and make repairs as required. Later in the week we’ll epoxy paint the entire boat from top to bottom. We use a special anti-fouling paint for the bottom.

Since we broke our new hoist I had to get another from La Ceiba. There were none on Roatan. Luckily one of the owners was there and picked it up for us and brought it back on the ferry.

We have to move the straps and chain holding the boat so we can repair the damage done when the chain crushed the sides of the boat. This boat is really heavy.

The owner is having a new engine head sent from the Florida via air and it is costing a fortune. Hopefully it will arrive before Friday so we’ll have a boat when Joe and his family arrive along with Gerri. The motor is going to San Pedro and then being trucked to La Ceiba. From there is will be put onto a ferry where I’ll go pick it up and hopefully get someone to install it.

We break for lunch after the morning dives usually about 12:30. The crew goes to a local place to eat and Ben and I eat at the resort. We eat the local food prepared for the staff however. It is always beans and rice and some sort of meat or salad. It’s simple but usually pretty good.

We usually work until about 4:00 or 4:30. If we’ve had a hard day and lately they’ve all been hard, we have a few beers on my porch. Jim needs to catch a ride by 5:00 pm or he has a 70 minute walk home.

I try to eat dinner about 6:30 and I keep it simple. I often have a sandwich or spaghetti or something similar. I sit on the porch once again and have a beer or glass of wine and I’m usually in bed no later than 9:00 pm and often earlier. I have no TV yet. About once a week I eat with the guests and that’s a lot of fun. I wish I could do that every night.