Tropical Storm Sara was treating the Bay Islands gently until the day of our departure. It hit Utila hard. Almost everything close to the water was damaged. Docks broke, beaches and roads flooded, and some buildings were damaged as well. Check out the video below

Then, like it was never there, the sun came out. 

Once we were in the air, the trip was smooth. The flight was almost empty, which made customs fast. We made it to the ferry and pulled into The Lighthouse’s courtyard on a sunny mid-afternoon. 

We’d lost 2 days, so we had no time to waste getting in the water. Since we assigned e-learning to do in advance, there was no classroom work standing in our way of getting in the water early the next morning.

After a refresher for our advanced students they broke off to work with their stellar instructor Harry, and following their first confined water dives, our Open Water folks were thrown in the deep end with their first open water dives that afternoon. The conditions were variable and the visibility was on the low side for Utila, but 50 – 70 ft is still epic by California standards.

There is something positive to be said about learning in less than ideal conditions. In that scenario, you get a better education. You’ll be prepared for more varied conditions and you’ll have a broader perspective earlier on. So you can see in this the advantages of learning to dive in cold water with low visibility, like in California. If you can dive in that, then you are a much more prepared diver overall.

Unsurprisingly, everyone did great, and by Wednesday everyone was certified. We did have more rain during the week, but nothing that stopped us from doing our fun dives and even extending our stay by a day. Working with such amazing vendors and hosts in-country made it easy to extend our reservations to make up for some lost time. 

And just like that, our trip wrapped up with one night in the West End on Roatan and our farewell dinner in the eccentric Lily Pond House.

It’s always tough to leave Honduras, but one party has to end for the next to begin. The next one in February just sold out, but there’s a waitlist, so if you’re interested in joining us in February for some fun diving, let me know. Also, keep in mind that if you have a group of 4 or more people we can arrange for a private trip planned around your schedule.