Dave's friend Harman came out in the dinghy and led us in through the cut in the reef, but the outer/inner waypoints from the Rhodes Honduras Guide (now out of print, but we have scanned in the waypoints pages from someone else's book), would have lined us up for a perfect entry. Usually there is a bouy on a rock that you keep close on your right side, but Harman said it's not there now. Inside, the bay opens up but there's one more sandbar/cut to navigate. There is a white bouy marking this that you put 10-15' on your right side. The bar and cut were easily visible in good light, and I wouldn't make this entry in other than good light.
At Harman's recommendation we anchored in about 15' right off the tan house with the red roof on the left (west) side of the bay. There is a little plateau here that makes anchoring easy. Right in front of Harman's place it is 40' deep (!!). But careful not to go too close in toward the shore as it quickly shallows to about 6'.
So we are sitting within sight of Harman's place right now. His 'place' is currently only a dock and some ideas in his head. But the dock is a big start and has only been finished this month. He sailed down here in late November from the Keys, and has to head back next week for his next Boy Scout charter season.
There is 110v power to Harman's dock, but not water. I'm not sure there are pipes to this area, as both Harman and the other family we met building a house here are using watermakers. The Oak Ridge Marina (a 5-boat marina one inlet west of here) has one open slip and water available, so we will probably go there and top off before we head further east.
Harman told us there was wifi here, so as soon as we got the boat settled in, I pulled up the wifi, and had a great signal on an open hotspot named 'TurtleGrass'. But when I pulled up Internet Explorer, I got a logon screen with rates and a cell phone number. Apparently Mark on Aeolus (the blue CSY just north of the tan house) has set up a first-class wifi hotspot, supported by a satellite link. He is selling wifi access to his neighbors and the occasional boater who drops by. We called him on the cell phone (you could also call Aeolus on ch 72, if they are there), and in a few minutes had an account set up for a week's access for $20. You can do less if only staying overnight (metered by the hour) or a monthly rate for $30.
We had a nice chat with Mark and his wife, who are also building here, a few lots down from Harman. As is typical, they built a dock and a small building first to use as a storage unit and a base of operations, while they build the larger house further up the hill. But Mark has already installed a big battery bank, a big bank of solar panels, and a big watermaker in his 'storage unit', as well as a ham shack and a WISP (wifi Internet Service Provider) center.
2010 Update: It's finished! See Mark's new Turtlegrass Marina webpage
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