WAS IT FUN?

I'm home.

Many things led up to my leaving Paya Bay. I'll try and explain some of them.

I enjoyed most of my time on Roatan. It was a little warm if not hot much of the time but I did have air conditioning in the apartment. I did not have TV and didn't miss is most of the time but it would have been nice in the evenings when we had few or no guests. My contract called for DIRECTTV but it was never hooked up.

Getting up and seeing the ocean first thing every day was like being in a dream. Watching sunsets over the ocean nearly every night was great. The sound of the waves all day long was relaxing.

Most of the time the people were wonderful. I probably enjoyed the friends I met from the kitchen staff the most. They were friendly and took very good care of me. I told the story of their jealousy and prejudice but most of the time that wasn't an issue.

Going to town at least twice a week to get gas was a real waste of time and a challenge. As I've said many times, the road was pretty bad. The first five miles were dirt and it was very dusty. I enjoyed picking up people and giving them rides however. I always felt bad when there was no room in the truck and they had to ride outside. They could barely breath when another car passed and the dust went flying.

The paved road was full of potholes and was probably more dangerous than the dirt road. Everyone drives all over the road in an attempt to avoid the holes. People passed other cars on hills and around corners. I often had to swerve off the road to keep from getting hit. The truck itselt was a wreck with no horn and brakes that barely worked. The truck had very little power and got horrible has mileage.

The total trip was at least 45 mintues one way. I often used it as an opportunity to stock up on groceries and other supplies.

Food was expensive. In fact, it was more expensive then the US for most things. Name brand foods if available were about 50% more than the US. Foods labeled with expiration dates were sometimes expired. Selection of food was a joke. One day the dairy section would have a great selection and the next it was nearly empty.

While the weather was okay most of the time, it did get hot a few times and working in the sun was a challenge. The boat was covered but even then it was impossible to stay in the shade all the time. I hated using sunscreen but I did on occasion. I wore long sleeve shirts and a hat all the time.

I certainly missed Gerri all the time but we were able to talk frequently. The Internet did go down frequently and then I'd get upset that we couldn't talk even if I didn't have anything important to say. It was just frustrating to know the electric was off or we used up the allocated bandwidth.

My crew was great. They were fun to be around and they were hard working most of the time. Ben was another story. I don't care to talk about him any more. I suppose I may have left anyway but he certainly pushed me over the edge. Some of the problems were really caused by the onwer however. He told me one thing and Ben another. He would then deny it. I was suppose to be the manager but I had no control over Ben and his treatment of other crew members. Ben was very carrismatic with customers and the owner but was a totally different person with the crew. He fooled the owner and I was not able to communicate the problems to him. I finally just gave up. The frustrations didn't outweigh the benefits.

Finally the operation was almost broke. The boat needed some serious repairs or replacement but there was no money. We operated on cash flow alone and with no guests there was no money. We were going to shut down for the summer anyway and I didn't really want to stay with no pay. I could have come home for the summer but I didn't like that idea either.

Anyway, I'm home and I'm looking for another adventure.

Going Home Again

As I mentioned at the end of the last entry, Gerri and I decided it was time to come home. I'll try to explain some of our reasoning.

I have been unable understand the reporting structure since I arrived. I have always been told that I was the manager and Ben worked for me. I asked that specific question last week and was again told I was Ben's supervisor. Ben didn't see it that way and Joe was never able to just say it our loud where everyone could hear it. I think he was telling me one thing and Ben another.

I don't think I ever mentioned it but Henry, our former divemaster, left because he could not get along with Ben. Ben is highly critical of everyone's work almost daily and his way of letting you know that irritates everyone. Henry came back while Joe was here to explain and I was able to sit in on the conversation. Joe listened but when Henry left Joe didn't seem to care and believed other issues were involved.

I did my best to explain that Ben was excellent with customers and put on a great show of teamwork when the boss was around. I also said that didn't happen when Joe wasn't there. I'm sure Joe felt I was exaggerating at best. I gave several specific examples but Joe never discussed any of them with Ben. Gerri and I both had the feeling Joe wanted to make the arrangement work regardless of what I and others said. Joe felt the entire problem was a communication issue bewteen Ben and myself.

After a frustrating meeting with Joe and his wife late Friday night, all of us met with Ben. That meeting did not go well and Joe provided no support to me. Gerri and I stayed up late and decided it was time for me to come home. We decided to sleep on it for a couple days. We decided I would leave on June 30th giving Joe 7 weeks to get things organized.

Early Sunday morning Ben indicated he and Joe had met on Saturday and made some additional decisions regarding part time staffing. Gerri and I were furious that I had not been included. We changed our departure date to June 2nd still leaving 3 weeks.

On Sunday, I wrote a resignation letter to Joe outlining my reasons for leaving. He called me late Sunday to accept but he was very upset. He asked me to leave on May 19th which I agreed to do.

Many other factors contributed to our decision. Joe owes me more than $1200 not including this months pay. He is out of money and the business is not doing well at all. He admitted that he has no emergency funds and nothing set aside for boat repairs or a new truck. The boat and truck are both in very poor condition.

More later I hope.

Gerri's Visit

Wow. It was really great to have Gerri here for a week even if it flew by. She had a great time and loved Paya Bay. All of the staff loved her and took very good care of both of us.

We didn't get the boat running until late Sunday afternoon so we missed a day of diving. The new engine had problems with the carberators and ingnition system. Thanks to some of Joe's friends they got it working by using parts from the old engine.

Gerri and I only dove 8 times during the week. We were short staffed and with a broken compressor, I needed to stay and fill tanks every afternoon. That wasn't exactly what I planned for Gerri but that's the way things go around here. Being the good sport she is, she just relaxed and read a few books and went with the flow. I'm so lucky to have such a great wife.

We did spend a little time together Thursday night when we went out to dinner. Unfortunately, the truck was out of gas so we tried to fill it up. There was no power so we could buy gas. We had dinner and barely made it back to the resort. The restarant didn't have power so we ate by lantern power.

In the morning we made it to a fill station with gravity feed pumps and got enough gas to get to town again. I showed Gerri some of the stores I visit and we just drove around a little bit seeing the Island. We were able to fill the truck with gas.

After spending a week Gerri was convinced I was crazy. The life is just too complex and difficult to be fun.

We both met with the owners of the dive operation on Friday to see if we could figure out a way to solve some of the issues with Ben. I made a few suggestions but they were rejected. Ben joined the conversation and the meeting quickly deteriorated into a he say, he said session. Gerri and I left very angry and stayed up late to discuss our feelings. We both agreed it was time for me to come home.

More to come.

Progress - I think!

We finally finished the boat. Well almost. We need to put some hardware back on it and install an engine. A new top end for our engine was shipped to Honduras several days ago but it’s still in San Pedro. Apparently the person picking it up needed some sort of paper work that he didn’t have. I think someone from Paya Bay went to San Pedro with some paper work in an attempt to get the motor out of customs. If they are successful, the motor will be trucked to La Ceiba and then ferried to Roatan. If all that works, we’ll try to get a mechanic to install it onto the lower unit.

Not that’s an entire new story. The drug police showed up a few days ago and want to confiscate our old engine. We don’t have any paperwork for it and they believe it was used for running drugs. There’s a boat on the dock that was used for drugs and they confiscated it yesterday. They sent 6 guys here to repair the boat just so they could haul it away. The police were told we have a public dock and someone just left the boat at our dock one day. Sounds good to me. Frankly, I have no idea about any of this so I keep my mouth shut and stay out of the way when the police are here. They were here for at least 8 hours yesterday and I never said a word to them. I just kept working on our boat.

If they take our old wrecked motor, we may be in trouble. We need some of the parts from it to use for our new top end. We have 11 guests coming including the owner, his family and my wife and as of Friday morning we have no engine.

Hurray, Gerri is arriving tomorrow. Even if the dive boat isn't running, we'll have a great time just being together.

Improved Video

I made a new video of a typical morning at Paya Bay. This one seems to be a little clearer.


MY VIEW