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Hi gang. We just returned from a 12 day/11 night stay at Henry Morgan Resort on West Bay Beach - had a WONDERFUL time! We dove for 9 days with Aqua Adventures and completed 27 dives, including 2 at Cayos Cochinos. What an amazing dive trip this was!
We've got a big graduation event tonight and will be working at church this weekend, but I'm working on a trip report complete with pictures/videos to prove my claims In the mean time, here's a teaser (best viewed in HD):
OK...finally getting around to trying to write a trip report of our stay at Henry Morgan Resort on West Bay Beach in Roatan.
Our initial plan was to stay at Media Luna Resort on the south side of the island. Unfortunately, the owners decided to close the resort for maintenance during the period of time we planned to travel. With a group of 7 professionals, changing travel dates was not an option. (Which is why we couldn't make it to the ScubaBoard Invasion the week before!) Instead, they offered to accomodate us at their sister property on West Bay Beach, Henry Morgan Resort. We've never been to West Bay Beach before except on an island tour a few years back, but it seemed like a reasonable alternative, so we decided to give it a shot. Especially since they honored the same DEMA special we tried to book at Media Luna Resort. The reason we were so psyched about the DEMA special is that it included a day trip to dive the seamounts of Cayos Cochinos...a very worthwhile experience. We still got to dive with Aqua Adventures - the onsite dive operation at Media Luna Resort. We have enjoyed a relationship with them for several years and really enjoyed being with them again. There is no way they could have worked any harder to make our trip perfect. They went above and beyond the call of duty for us.
At first we thought we were making a compromise, but it turned out being the best thing that could have possibly happened. Three days after our arrival, a front moved through the area and there was a consistent strong wind out of the east for the next week. The south side of the island was as rough as could be. Lest you think I am exaggerating, a cruise ship had to skip their port call on Thursday because the seas were too rough for them to maneuver the ship into port. Had we been at Media Luna, diving conditions would have been quite a challenge. But the West end of the island was flat calm.
Plus the stay at Henry Morgan Resort could not have been any better. Since we were unable to stay at Media Luna as we had originally planned, they upgraded us to VILLAS! Each party in our group had a two-story villa of our own. Ours consisted of a kitchen, dining room, living room and bathroom downstairs along with a bedroom and bathroom upstairs. The villa was spacious and comfortable. Also included were meals and drinks...including alcoholic beverages. Meals were served buffet style. Although I was not much of a fish eater when we arrived, I learned to look forward to trying the fish offering at every meal - it was delicious! They served lots of sea bass and other mild tasting fish, along with chicken dishes and beef dishes. We certainly never went hungry and looked forward to meal times every day. We did take the opportunity to check out other places on West Bay Beach. There were no "crowds" - Henry Morgan doesn't entertain cruise guests, so it was always nice with just a few people around on the beach.
Aqua Adventures dive operation came through for us in a big way. They brought their big boat (45') around from Media Luna and the 7 of us had the boat to ourselves for our entire trip. Manning the dive boat were a captain, a mate and a divemaster - for the 7 of us! We did 27 incredible dives in 9 days, including a day trip to Cayos Cochinos...just before the front moved in. We were escorted by Gary McLaughlin, co-owner of Aqua Adventures. Gary is a well-known fisherman in the area, having caught a world-record marlin a few years ago. He is so knowledgeable about the local waters...he was able to take us across to Cayos Cochinos and locate two remote seamounts that are not even part of the populated area of Cayos Cochinos. It was special, to say the least. The seamounts are covered with lush coral growth and populated by lots of fish life. The first thing we saw after our giant stride entry was a toadfish hanging out under a coral overhang right under the boat. There were hundreds of ocean trigger fish schooling around, a nurse shark, turtles and lots of other fish life. It was a special day, however after the second dive the seas were beginning to build and we could tell the front was moving in and conditions were deteriorating. We all concluded discretion was the better part of valor and decided to head back across to Roatan before things got too rough. Seas were about 2'-4' at this point, and by the time we got back to Roatan they had built to 3'-5' with a few 6 footers for good measure. We were happy to make our 3rd dive of the day on West End Wall
I have to say that I REALLY enjoyed the diving around the west and north sides of the island. The reef structure is much more dramatic than the lovely lush corals of the south side. We dove through beautiful canyons with hundreds of stands of coral, each seeming like a throne adorned with its own special decorations. The sea life was prolific. There were fish of every description present...schools of them. We saw numerous grouper, a grand total of 31 turtles, 8+ spotted eagle rays - and even 1 manta ray! Our divemaster was Derry McLaughlin. We have been diving together for a number of years. Derry is so calm and collected. He calmly sees everything around him and herds it toward us to photograph and observe. The one exception was when he spotted the manta ray...he banged his tank so loud that there was no doubt something exciting was happening Unfortunately, it was a good distance from us out in open water. I shot a brief video of it, which is difficult to see in detail. But I did get a good look at it and saw the fins on its head, so there's no doubt it was a manta.
This was one of two things we saw on this trip that I've never seen before. The other was a pair of decorator crabs...REALLY cool. I did manage to get a good video of them We saw a good combination of big creatures and tiny critters you have to search for. We did miss seeing any seahorses, but heard that they are around. Maybe next time...
I am including lots of links to videos I shot. I don't have the time or inclination to edit them yet. Feel free to look at any or all of them. One thing I would like to mention...there were far less lionfish present on this trip than we have seen on previous trips. That's a good thing!
Glad to hear that you had a good trip back to Roatan. Sounds like you really had a good time. good food and good diving, doesn't get much better. We just got back from Utila. I will not be going back. Not much fish life.
Welcome to the other side of the island and West Bay. We always have stayed there and have enjoyed the diving, glad to see it held up for you because I know you've done a lot of diving on the south side. Awesome you made it out to Chochinos, I've always wanted to do that!
Welcome to the other side of the island and West Bay. We always have stayed there and have enjoyed the diving, glad to see it held up for you because I know you've done a lot of diving on the south side. Awesome you made it out to Chochinos, I've always wanted to do that!
Mike, if you ever have the opportunity, you should definitely do a day trip to Cayos Cochinos. It is really special. Aqua Adventures runs the dive operation at Los Rocas Resort...right at the end of West Bay Beach. They offer trips when they have at least 10 divers. I'm not sure if any other ops run that trip.
Yes, we really enjoyed the diving on the west end. I must admit...it completely surprised me. It's not something we had even considered before. I think now we'll have to alternate between the south side and the west end!
---------- Post added May 19th, 2014 at 08:45 PM ----------
Glad to hear that you had a good trip back to Roatan. Sounds like you really had a good time. good food and good diving, doesn't get much better. We just got back from Utila. I will not be going back. Not much fish life.
Those were 3 lionfish that were killed under the dock just before we left for our afternoon dive. Rather than throw them away, we brought them along to see if anyone was hungry
Well Jackie like we already said many times. .. everything happens for a reason! We were more than GLAD to take you diving on the calm North Side and skip the 23 miles per hour winds on the South!!
Cayos Cochinos will always be our favourite diving spot and we were happy to share it afeccionados like you.
The whole Aqua Adventures staff was happy to have you, Hank and Doc back and to meet the rest of the crew for the first time.
OK...finally getting around to trying to write a trip report of our stay at Henry Morgan Resort on West Bay Beach in Roatan.
Our initial plan was to stay at Media Luna Resort on the south side of the island. Unfortunately, the owners decided to close the resort for maintenance during the period of time we planned to travel. With a group of 7 professionals, changing travel dates was not an option. (Which is why we couldn't make it to the ScubaBoard Invasion the week before!) Instead, they offered to accomodate us at their sister property on West Bay Beach, Henry Morgan Resort. We've never been to West Bay Beach before except on an island tour a few years back, but it seemed like a reasonable alternative, so we decided to give it a shot. Especially since they honored the same DEMA special we tried to book at Media Luna Resort. The reason we were so psyched about the DEMA special is that it included a day trip to dive the seamounts of Cayos Cochinos...a very worthwhile experience. We still got to dive with Aqua Adventures - the onsite dive operation at Media Luna Resort. We have enjoyed a relationship with them for several years and really enjoyed being with them again. There is no way they could have worked any harder to make our trip perfect. They went above and beyond the call of duty for us.
At first we thought we were making a compromise, but it turned out being the best thing that could have possibly happened. Three days after our arrival, a front moved through the area and there was a consistent strong wind out of the east for the next week. The south side of the island was as rough as could be. Lest you think I am exaggerating, a cruise ship had to skip their port call on Thursday because the seas were too rough for them to maneuver the ship into port. Had we been at Media Luna, diving conditions would have been quite a challenge. But the West end of the island was flat calm.
Plus the stay at Henry Morgan Resort could not have been any better. Since we were unable to stay at Media Luna as we had originally planned, they upgraded us to VILLAS! Each party in our group had a two-story villa of our own. Ours consisted of a kitchen, dining room, living room and bathroom downstairs along with a bedroom and bathroom upstairs. The villa was spacious and comfortable. Also included were meals and drinks...including alcoholic beverages. Meals were served buffet style. Although I was not much of a fish eater when we arrived, I learned to look forward to trying the fish offering at every meal - it was delicious! They served lots of sea bass and other mild tasting fish, along with chicken dishes and beef dishes. We certainly never went hungry and looked forward to meal times every day. We did take the opportunity to check out other places on West Bay Beach. There were no "crowds" - Henry Morgan doesn't entertain cruise guests, so it was always nice with just a few people around on the beach.
Aqua Adventures dive operation came through for us in a big way. They brought their big boat (45') around from Media Luna and the 7 of us had the boat to ourselves for our entire trip. Manning the dive boat were a captain, a mate and a divemaster - for the 7 of us! We did 27 incredible dives in 9 days, including a day trip to Cayos Cochinos...just before the front moved in. We were escorted by Gary McLaughlin, co-owner of Aqua Adventures. Gary is a well-known fisherman in the area, having caught a world-record marlin a few years ago. He is so knowledgeable about the local waters...he was able to take us across to Cayos Cochinos and locate two remote seamounts that are not even part of the populated area of Cayos Cochinos. It was special, to say the least. The seamounts are covered with lush coral growth and populated by lots of fish life. The first thing we saw after our giant stride entry was a toadfish hanging out under a coral overhang right under the boat. There were hundreds of ocean trigger fish schooling around, a nurse shark, turtles and lots of other fish life. It was a special day, however after the second dive the seas were beginning to build and we could tell the front was moving in and conditions were deteriorating. We all concluded discretion was the better part of valor and decided to head back across to Roatan before things got too rough. Seas were about 2'-4' at this point, and by the time we got back to Roatan they had built to 3'-5' with a few 6 footers for good measure. We were happy to make our 3rd dive of the day on West End Wall
I have to say that I REALLY enjoyed the diving around the west and north sides of the island. The reef structure is much more dramatic than the lovely lush corals of the south side. We dove through beautiful canyons with hundreds of stands of coral, each seeming like a throne adorned with its own special decorations. The sea life was prolific. There were fish of every description present...schools of them. We saw numerous grouper, a grand total of 31 turtles, 8+ spotted eagle rays - and even 1 manta ray! Our divemaster was Derry McLaughlin. We have been diving together for a number of years. Derry is so calm and collected. He calmly sees everything around him and herds it toward us to photograph and observe. The one exception was when he spotted the manta ray...he banged his tank so loud that there was no doubt something exciting was happening Unfortunately, it was a good distance from us out in open water. I shot a brief video of it, which is difficult to see in detail. But I did get a good look at it and saw the fins on its head, so there's no doubt it was a manta.
This was one of two things we saw on this trip that I've never seen before. The other was a pair of decorator crabs...REALLY cool. I did manage to get a good video of them We saw a good combination of big creatures and tiny critters you have to search for. We did miss seeing any seahorses, but heard that they are around. Maybe next time...
I am including lots of links to videos I shot. I don't have the time or inclination to edit them yet. Feel free to look at any or all of them. One thing I would like to mention...there were far less lionfish present on this trip than we have seen on previous trips. That's a good thing!
PLEASE, If Quoting there is no reason to include the Videos, Even with Comcast 50MPS I though my computer was locked up waiting for thread to load, If I was home on RTB it would not open.
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In the mean time, here's a teaser (best viewed in HD):
