New Port Royal Roatan Honduras

Feeling our way into New Port Royal

The forecast for the period Thursday 27 to Saturday 29 February was for a fairly intense cold front to work down into the Bay Islands from the Gulf of Mexico, bringing with it strong west and northwest winds, low cloud and lots of rain.  So it seemed sensible to move on to Jonesville, a more populated area and a more protected anchorage to sit out the spell of bad weather.  But we thought that we’d stop in at New Port Royal en route for a spot of snorkelling on the reef at the western end of the bay.

The reef passage into New Port Royal between (right) Lime Cay to the east and (left) the reef, with Conch Cay about ½nm further west

To make the best of the light for snorkelling, and for our transit of the reef pass in and out of New Port Royal and into Jonesville Bight, we left Old Port Royal promptly at 0900hrs on Wednesday 26 February.  There are now 2 marked entrances to New Port Royal.  The easternmost entrance, in the centre of the bay, has 2 large lateral markers, one to port and one to starboard; the westernmost entrance is marked by 6 small pillar buoys, 3 on each side.  We took this latter entry, where we found depths of only about 3.5m minimum but, with the sun reasonably high and the sea smooth, the entrance was fairly easy.

New Port Royal marks the beginning of ‘populated’ Roatan.  There are several small hotels and holiday homes here

New Port Royal is hardly a developed tourist mecca but it certainly marks eastern extent of ‘populated’ Roatan.  As we moved further west from here we found increasing development, both in terms of tourist infrastructure and in terms of local population.  However, the buildings on the shores of New Port Royal seem mostly to be boutique hotels and holiday homes……

Views from our ‘lunch-stop’ anchorage close to Conch Cay (bottom left).  Some of the second homes on the surrounding hillside look palatial – certainly in comparison to the houses we saw on St Helene

…..some of which are almost palatial.  We spent a couple of hours anchored in New Port Royal, taking the dinghy through the cut to the outside of the reef, close to Conch Cay, to snorkel there (faster than getting all the dive kit out).  It was great fun and, as we had found further east, the coral looked healthy and was home for a wide variety of marine life.  As we had lunch, the first 2 cruising boats that we had seen for a long time entered the bay.  Oh, the madding crowds!

New Port Royal, Roatan, Bay Island, Honduras