Fall 2013

Tyll's Dive, Fall 2013

A new blog entry is way over due. What happend between April and now?
It’s not all dive related, but still connected to Tyll’s Dive.
After a great spring seeing many good friends coming back to Roatan for their yearly get away from the cold, we have been enjoying the more frequent visits from Gary, Dory, Tracy and Kal, who are in the process of building or reconstructing their Roatan home away from home.
The Summer months rolled by fairly quick and we made new friends to add to our Tyll’s Dive family.


The Silversides have been back in the swim through again at Blue Channel. Amazing as always.

After several reports of Whaleshark sightings, Mel finally got to see and swim with her first one ever. What a treat for Sean and Virginia on their first diving day on Roatan.

So things began to slow down and we had to do maintenance on the boat. Quite a costly affair indeed. Well if you have a car or a boat you will know.
Have to mention what a great community West End has. During the time the boat was out of the water, we got help left and right so we could keep the business going.
This is Samuel" on "Very Deep", also gently called "The Slow Boat" by our divers.
It got them to the dive sites and back and we all very much appreciated we could borrow it.

Following is a little about renewing Honduran residency.
Our 5 years were coming up for renewal and change of status. Should be straight forward and not too complicated as long the Immigration receives the new 5 year fee up front on time. Then the lawyer puts together an application to be filed.
So far all is good until she try to get a statement from Interpol Honduras,that we are not wanted criminals. But there is a small detail, the Interpol office has been closed down for unknown time, and there is no plan B...Who mentioned fiascos in paradise?

Just recent we had a visit from our very first diver from when we took over Tyll's Dive in June 2002. Last time Nancy visited Roatan was 6-7 years ago. We had a lot to catch up on while her son got certified Open Water Diver. A great week that went way too fast.

In the mean while Jenny Blenny and Ben are touring the States, meeting Tyll’s Dive family every where...

And guess who is here right now? Matt de Jong. Good to see him after so many years.

The June blog that turned into the August blog

The June blog that turned into the August blog.

The biggest event in June was probably Peeter. Peeter is a rescued kitten from West Bay. The litter lost their mother when they were 3 weeks old and a watchman brought them to Celeste at West Bay Lodge who lovingly brought them up. We were ready for a new family member and got in contact with Penelope from Roatan Renegade Rescue who told us to go see Celeste.

Peeter

So a few days later we scheduled a dive to Mandys Eelgarden so the dive boat could drop of Amanda and me to go and meet Peeter. There was no doubt at all about the kitten. Peeter kind of looked up "Hi my name is Peeter, how are you?"
Afterwards Amanda and I walked around in West Bay and felt like being on a different island and being tourists. The watch and sunglasses guys didn't first recognize us, we being out of our natural environment of West End.
You may wonder why Amanda was not taking out the dive that day. She is also having a new family member, although not a furrry fourlegged one, but a little boy. She is glowing and happy to be a real mom some day soon.

Helen




We love Clay and Lisa, they always come back and bring good vipes to this place. Even though Lisa had to study so much this time, we found time to have lots of laughs together. Samuel said, Lisa is always smiling and happy. Samuel got that absolutely right.

We have been studying too: Watussas interacting with Peeter or vice versa. Very interesting. Am not sure if Peeter relates himself more to a Watussa than to a cat.
Also observed we have sucide sugar ants at the house. They climb the water bowl, and then drown. Does that make any sense?
Ever heard of Mini bees?
Mini bees are another thing. They live in a little plastic fitting outside the diveshop. Actually next to the meters. They are tiny, apparently friendly and don't sting. I guess its because you don't see them, and they are just there minding their own business.
Water tap wasps are another curiosity. They like to hang out underneath the water taps. Maybe they are just thirsty???

So who is filling in for Amanda. Melanie did before she went to the Caymans. Mo is still filling in when needed.
We recruited Helen. English science teacher and now Scuba instructor. Dive teacher is more fun than beeing a dry teacher. Her class room is in the sea, decoration is the coral reef and marine life.
Unfortunately or maybe it is fortunately that Ed, Uwe and Kristian do not always follow Helens advice in building bombs out of draino, alufoil and plastic bottles... The yard, the diveshop, The Wet Spot and the Blue Marlin are still intact.


Oh, The Wet Spot is now next door, great breakfast and lunch, and they are actually consistent with opening hours. Not like the Sharkcave. What a nice change that is, and we dont have to complain about the music volume every day.

What happens on thursdays? Karaokee night at the Blue Channel. Mo always fills
us in on how horrible the singers can be and want to sing over and over again. One thursday Hartley decided he can sing Bob Marleys "One Love". And he did. The two words he could remember were "One love" so the song was like this: One Love, One Loove, One love, one Love. one looove etc. Yes he could have read the tele prompter, but he didn't.
Details, details...

Helen just finished a rescue course with Martin who actually has DMP (dive master potential). It went very well. Instead of calling out Pizza pizza they called out Peeter peeter (course code for help help, to not attract a scene in our little community). Austin, thank you for helping out.

One last thing, keep supporting the Roatan Marinepark, read their newsletters and help where you can.

Marquito and Carmen are finally back home on Roatan

Marcos (our boatcaptain) and his fiancee Carmen are telling me once again to thank everybody who helped them getting through the months of uncertainty for their little boy, Marquito. Are the doctors going to remove the kidney or not? Is the new treatment they decided to try out gonna work? And on top of all these worries, Carmen herself had to have kidneystones removed.
Thanks again for all donations and great tip money to Marcos which went to help to pay the hospital bills.
Well, Carmen and Marquito are back on Roatan. Marcos is happy. They came for a visit today at the diveshop. (I know the photo got a bit too much sun}. As I understand, Marquito will still be on medication for a long time still. If no complications occur, they will first have to go back for a check up next year. So fingers crossed. He is a sweet little boy, who has been in and out of hospital many times over the last many months.