Day 91-Kralendijk, Bonaire
See Pictures Here

Current Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Latitude: N 12 degrees 09.27 minutes
Longitude: W 68 degrees 16.78 minutes
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Date and Time: 01/17/06, 2030 AST

We made it! We had a great three day passage from the southern Grenadines to Bonaire. Last night we did everything possible to slow ourselves down so that we would arrive here during daylight hours, and when nothing worked, we sailed a little north until about 0400 and then headed south along the east coast of Bonaire. Much of the island is a nature preserve and the southern tip is all salt flats.

We sailed along the salt flats and then around the southern tip of the island and back up the west coast. Anchoring is not allowed anywhere here in order to protect the coral, so we took one of the town moorings around mid-day. I can’t believe I haven’t been in the water yet, but by the time we got settled in, went to town to check in and have lunch, explored the downtown area, and took a dinghy ride to the marina to pay the mooring fees, it was time for cocktail hour. We had met our neighbors, Lionel and Laurie from Vancouver Island, Canada, when we first arrived today and they had suggested we meet them at the local “yachtie” hang out for Happy Hour. Lionel came to our rescue when we arrived to help us tie up to the double mooring balls. We hadn’t really met Laurie, but we had heard her squeals of delight when she was snorkeling around her boat and spotted a turtle.

Snorkeling is good everywhere here. We moored closer to the north end of town where there are supposed to be an unbelievable variety of fish. I’ll jump in first thing in the morning and report on the sightings tomorrow.

Day 92-We Love Bonaire
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Current Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Latitude: N 12 degrees 09.27 minutes
Longitude: W 68 degrees 16.78 minutes
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Date and Time: 01/18/06, 2030 AST

It is currently 2000 here and we just got home from an all day trek about Bonaire. We started our day with an early morning snorkel around the boat. We discovered that we have our own little troupe of Sergeant Majors that hang out around our boat and there are blue chromis, banded butterfly fish, different varieties of parrot fish, trumpet fish, ocean surgeon fish, and even a few queen angelfish that are helping to keep us company here. As we were preparing to jump in the water, Lionel, our neighbor on Sea Whisper, called over and invited us to tour the island with them in a rental car today. We were delighted with that invite and quickly surveyed the area around the boat and then got ready to explore on land.

I mentioned in yesterday’s log that Lionel and Laurie are from Vancouver Island in Canada. They are heading east as we head west, and we are finding it great fun to share information about where we have been. They have just come from the Curacao, Aruba, and the San Blas Islands and that is where we are headed. They are headed to Trinidad for Carnival Week in early February and will then tour the Windwards where we have been. They learned in Aruba and Curacao that they can take advantage of time share offers to get great freebies. They spend 90 minutes touring a time share offer and in return they get free dinners at great restaurants and free 24 hour car rentals. They estimate that for each 90 minutes spent listening to the time share deals they get about $250 or more in free gifts. Not a bad deal. So today’s car rental was a freebie they were given for their Bonaire time share visitation.

We first headed north through what is known as Bonaire’s wild-west desert landscape. We drove along the coast through an area known as Devil’s Mouth with strangely sculpted cliffs, jagged rocks, caves, and arches. We snorkeled in that area and saw many fish of the same varieties that we had seen earlier in morning around our boat swimming among the gorgonian coral. As we continued our northern tour we came into the land of cactus and had lunch in a little town called Rincon. We then headed to the south end of the island to see the salt flats. We had hoped to snorkel off the southwest coast of the island, but the surf was just too rough. So instead we saw salt flats, slave huts, flamingoes, donkeys, windsurfers, and windmills. I will spend more time explaining these things in future logs as it is late this evening and we plan to start out tomorrow with another drive down the southwest coast to try for a snorkel before Lionel and Laurie have to turn in the rental car (jeep).

This island is so very different from the islands in the Windwards. There is a real grocery store here, the first we have seen since Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, and everything here is very clean and well kept. It seems that every place we go we think it is the best place we have ever been. How does one ever know when they have truly found paradise?

Days 93 and 94-Snorkel ‘Til You Drop
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Current Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Latitude: N 12 degrees 09.27 minutes
Longitude: W 68 Day degrees 16.78 minutes
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Date and Time: Friday, 01/20/06, 2200 AST

In Chris Doyle’s Cruising Guide to Venezuela and Bonaire, the opening paragraph in the Bonaire section reads: “Bonaire is a charming, quiet and extremely clean island with a population of around 11,000 (2001 Census). The main town is attractive, with pastel colored buildings and red tile roofs. It comes with a wonderful selection of waterfront restaurants. This alone would rate it as a great port to visit, but when you throw in the attraction of some of the Caribbean’s cleanest water and easiest and best diving, you have an unbeatable combination.” That pretty much sums it up. We should be leaving here tomorrow morning headed for Curacao, but we have decided to extend our stay until Monday. There’s more snorkeling to be done and somebody’s got to do it, so let it be us!

Early yesterday morning we headed to the south end of town with Lionel and Laurel in their rented jeep to snorkel along the western coast . There is a beach that runs along the west coast of Bonaire all the way to the southern tip, but the sandy beach does not extend into the water. The sand gives way to a hard shelf of old coral that you have to walk across to get into the water. Then there is a sandy bottom that goes out to a coral wall. It is along this wall that you see the fish. This site boasts of turtles and rays, but we saw none. We explored two different dive sites in this area and then headed back to town to turn in the rental car. We then went back to the boat and had lunch on Sea Whisper. Mark needed to run into town to Budget Marine to order a Panama cruising guide but by the time we remember this it was 1230. Nothing is open from 1200 to 1330, we were forced to snorkel around the boats while waiting for the store to open. Luckily, the Budget Marine in Curacao has the book we will not have to pay to have it Fed Ex’d in from the US. Book stores are rare in the parts of the Caribbean that we have visited and most marine supply stores do not carry any books either. Next time we’ll know to buy all the essential books before leaving home.

Around 1400, all four of us climbed into our dinghy and headed across the harbor to Klein Bonaire. This is an island that lies about a mile from our anchorage here to the nearest point, but we needed to head to the north end of the island to snorkel. We tied the dinghy to a mooring at one dive site and then snorkeled along the coast to the next dive site north. The dive description said the fish would be friendly, but it forgot to mention that they would also be bigger than we had been seeing. Many of the fish here were a good foot and a half long and they came right up to you and then followed you in little schools as you snorkeled. Mark and I spotted what we thought was a Queen Angelfish and then saw another one the size of a large dinner plate. Once I got back to my identification charts I discovered that what we had seen was one Queen angelfish and one French angelfish. It was the French angelfish that looked like a dinner plate. We also saw white angelfish with black tipped fins. I’m not sure what these are called but they were beautiful as they swam gracefully through the water with us.

We swam with the current to the north end of the island and then headed to shore to walk back to where we had left the dinghy. When we got out of the water we discovered that the wind had decided to blow hard enough to make it difficult to walk against it. The dinghy ride back against the wind was most interesting. Every time we hit a wave, the water would fly into the dinghy. Mark had to wear his snorkeling goggles to be able to see to steer the boat and I had to use the hand bilge pump the whole time to keep too much water from accumulating in the dinghy. Laurie also put on her goggles and I really wish that I could have taken my camera out to get a picture. We were a very funny looking, very wet crew. We had cocktail hour on Windbird and dinner aboard Sea Whisper. Laurie and Lionel will head for Trinidad tomorrow and we will miss them. We have had a great time together.

Today was a work day. I think we exhausted ourselves yesterday by spending so much time in the water, so we took a break today. I organized pictures to send to the website and Mark worked on our leaky water maker. Late in the day we headed to town to check e-mail and do some web searching for information on our Galapagos tour. We ran into Laurie and make plans to meet at Karel’s, the waterside hangout for boaters, for drinks. We ended up staying in town for dinner and made plans for an early morning snorkel tomorrow. They will be leaving mid-afternoon, but we will get in one more morning of snorkeling together.

I hope to spend tomorrow afternoon walking through town and getting pictures to try and capture the atmosphere here to share with you. It is so very different from islands in the Windwards. And everyone we meet says that Curacao and Aruba are both so very different from each other and different from Bonaire. Not sure you can capture this in photographs, but I will give it my best shot (no pun intended).

Day 95-Make New Friends, But Keep the Old

Current Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Latitude: N 12 degrees 09.27 minutes
Longitude: W 68 Day degrees 16.78 minutes
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Date and Time: Saturday, 01/21/06, 2200 AST

Laurie and Lionel aboard Sea Whisper left late this afternoon for Trinidad. We had snorkeled together this morning and then Laurie, Mark, and I headed into town while Lionel stayed aboard Sea Whisper to prepare for their afternoon departure. Mark and I went to pick up the underwater pictures we had taken with a Kodak “reusable” (but eventually disposable, underwater camera. Our first attempts at capturing the underwater beauty here with a disposable camera were not great, but the woman who developed them had lots of good suggestions for us. We purchased a different type of camera and will try again before we leave here to capture some of the unbelievable diversity of fish life that abounds here.

At noon, Lionel came into town to join us and we had lunch together. We all then headed to the internet café to check e-mail and do some web research. At 1400, Mark and I went to the RCI office to do one of the time share tours. If ever there was a place that I would consider purchasing a time share, it would be here. We probably won’t do this, but it is very, very tempting.

Around 1530, we headed back to the boat to make sure we got there in time to say farewell to Laurie and Lionel. Somehow this afternoon they had met a couple who are moored just down the beach from us who are headed to the South Pacific. As soon as we found that out, we headed out to find them. Eagle’s Wings is the boat and the owners are Ken Cone and Beth Van Zummeren. We introduced ourselves and invited them over for cocktails. We agreed with Lionel that they looked like they might be 35 tops, but they are actually in their early 50′s. They look much, much younger. We were ecstatic to meet someone headed our way and enjoyed our evening together on Windbird. Tomorrow evening we will go to their boat for dinner and continue our conversations about where we are headed.

Tomorrow will be a day of preparation for leaving here. Neither of us wants to leave, but the Pacific calls. Tomorrow Mark will work on the leaky water maker, again, and I will go into town to take those pictures I had planned to take today. We’ll work in a snorkel at some point and then head to Eagle’s Wings for dinner. I think we will not leave here until Tuesday, but it could be as early as Monday. All will depend on how much we accomplish tomorrow.

Day 96-Sunday in Bonaire
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Current Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Latitude: N 12 degrees 09.27 minutes
Longitude: W 68 Day degrees 16.78 minutes
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Date and Time: Sunday, 01/22/06, 2230 AST

Sunday in Bonaire is like Sunday in most of the Caribbean-very slow and very quiet. Very seldom are there any stores that are open and only a handful of the restaurants and bars are open. Only the internet cafes are open. We have gotten used to this and plan our days accordingly. Today we had planned some maintenance jobs on Windbird, among those being the repair of the leaky water maker and some additional research on boat trips into the national park areas of the Galapagos. The water maker is repaired and more research on the Galapagos has been completed.

We had dinner aboard Eagle’s Wings tonight and talked about our plans for the Galapagos and shared knowledge we have gained about transiting the Panama Canal. We hope that we will see them again in a port along the way. By the way, dinner was spectacular. We had yellow fin tuna that Beth and Ken caught with Beth’s signature sauce. It was very good and made us realize that we need to get more serious about this fishing thing.

I did go into town today and took some pictures that I will send along this week. Karel’s, the waterside bar that has Happy Hour with 2 for 1 drinks every night has a Sunday night special-American football. Right there in the little bar by the water was a big screen TV with a football game in full progress. It did make me feel like I was back in Boston for just a moment.

Coming home from Eagle’s Wings late this evening with the warm wind blowing gently in my face made me ask, “What is there not to love about the cruising life?” My answer to that is that I am far from family and friends that I love. For that reason, I couldn’t do this indefinitely, but for the short term, I can’t think of a better way to live my life. Leaving Bonaire is going to be very hard. I could stay here for months. We will stay tomorrow and leave on Tuesday morning, weather permitting, but we will be back here at some point. So far, this is at the top of the favorites list for places we have visited.

Tomorrow I will experiment some more with underwater photography. I sent along the pictures I took with the first camera I purchased. The results were not great but I bought a new camera yesterday and hope that I have learned some of the tricks of trade. What you see underwater here just can’t be captured by an amateur with a camera. It is an underwater world full of diverse fish life representing every color in the rainbow. I shall try to capture what I can, but I think you have to book a flight and come here to find out for yourself.

Day 97-Bad News, Good News

Current Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Latitude: N 12 degrees 09.27 minutes
Longitude: W 68 Day degrees 16.78 minutes
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Date and Time: Monday, 01/23/06, 2200 AST
See Pictures Here

The plan was to leave here today. And then the plan was to leave here tomorrow. Now the plan is to leave here Wednesday or Thursday. The bad news is that it is windy out there and when we checked in with Herb this afternoon, he told us to sit tight for at least another day. He thinks we can then move to Curacao on Wednesday and maybe on to Aruba by Friday, but then we will need to sit tight until the gale force winds off the coast of Columbia settle down. When we leave Aruba, we head for the San Blas Islands in Panama, and the stretch of water between Aruba and there can be really treacherous. So we will do whatever Herb tells us. So the bad news is that we don’t have a weather window right now, but the good news is that we get to stay here at least one more day.

Mark continued to work on the water maker today. He was successful in stopping the leaks, but we still have salty water. So tomorrow we will order new membranes. If we have those shipped to Curacao that might mean another delay, but that is to be expected in the sailing business. You lose time in one place and make up for it by skipping another stop or cutting a stay short. Mark also got the lazy jacks fixed and I did the laundry and went to the store. Somehow these jobs took the whole day and we didn’t get to snorkel. So that will go to the top of the agenda for tomorrow.

Bonaire was a busy little place today. A very large cruise ship came in mid-day today but it left at sundown. All is back to normal in Kralendijk. It is late and Mark and I are in town at the internet caf�. It is time to pack up and head home. I’ll check in again tomorrow with a weather update and a report on our snorkeling adventures.

Day 98-Delayed in Bonaire One More Day

Current Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Latitude: N 12 degrees 09.27 minutes
Longitude: W 68 Day degrees 16.78 minutes
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Date and Time: Tuesday, 01/24/06, 2200 AST
See Pictures Here

Darn. We have to stay here one more day. The weather around island is very windy and Herb says we should wait. So we will wait.

During the night last night, the boat was rocking and rolling on the mooring. And then it rained a real rain, not just a drizzle. By the time we got up the rain had stopped-but just for a short time. We actually had rain on and off all day today. We listened to the morning weather and then took off for a snorkeling expedition. My hope was to use the new underwater camera to try and catch some of the underwater beauty here to share with you, but the unsettled weather has stirred up the water and taken away some of it’s clarity. We revisited some sites we had been to earlier, but the water was cloudy and there was not the variety of fish today. I guess I’ll have to try again in Curacao as I don’t expect the seas to settle tomorrow.

After snorkeling, we made arrangements to have the new water maker filters (membranes) sent to Curacao for pick up there and then we took a taxi to the Warehouse Supermarket to stock up on fresh veggies and other provisions. It was then time to head back to the boat to listen to Herb on Southbound II. After that, we headed back into town to do some research on the internet but stopped by a neighboring boat on the way to give them a weather update. George and Becky Dunn aboard Sirius are waiting to head east along the Venezuelan coast and they have had a hard time hearing the weather reports. Becky had some great information for us about Curacao and we delivered the news that they too need to wait until Thursday to leave. Their boat is named for the constellation, not the satellite radio network, but that started a radio conversation. We discovered that George is past chair of the public radio system in the Cleveland, Ohio, area and does actually have Sirius radio so he can listen to NPR. He and Becky are also good friends of an NPR Foundation member that Mark knows well. Small world.

By the time we got into town, it was sundown and the daily cruise ship visiting in port was ready to leave. We did our internet research and then had dinner in town.

Tomorrow we will visit the two marinas on either end of town to check out future possibilities for staying here for longer periods of time. I really do hope to get back this way. I also want to walk to the hardware store which is a mile or so out of town to try and buy some plastic containers. If there is anytime left and if the water has cleared, we’ll also try to get in a snorkel. There will be snorkeling in other places for sure, but somehow I don’t think we will see the same diversity of sea life that abounds here. I’m hoping to make a list of all of the different varieties of fish we have seen here and will share that with you when it is completed.

Day 99-A Success Story (not for the squeamish)

Current Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Latitude: N 12 degrees 09.27 minutes
Longitude: W 68 Day degrees 16.78 minutes
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Date and Time: Wednesday, 01/25/06, 2300 AST
See Pictures Here

I must admit that I have been keeping a little secret from you. On Sunday, we discovered that we had a little critter onboard and our fear was that it was . . . yes, a rat or a mouse. Yuck! When we got up Sunday morning, I noticed that something that shredded part of a paper egg carton that I had left on the galley counter. We wondered if a bird had flown into the boat during the night looking for nesting material, but in the back of our minds the truth was lurking. We probably had an unwelcome rodent onboard. When we had dinner with Beth and Ken aboard Eagle’s Wings on Sunday evening, we mentioned this and they shared their horror story with a visiting critter. On Monday, they offered their arsenal of critter catching devices and we accepted as we had found more evidence of an intruder. Monday night, there were no takers, but last night I awoke to the “snap” of the trap. We had caught the critter. He was a very healthy looking little rat. We have no idea how he got aboard and we certainly hope he is one of a kind. We stopped by Eagle’s Wings today to return the “arsenal” and Ken asked if we had taken pictures. Pictures! No way. I didn’t want to admit to this invasion, much less document it. But he insisted. He asked if we had the little friend with us and indeed we did. We were on the way to the marina to dispose of the evidence. To make a long story short, we drug our little friend out of hiding and took pictures to document this episode of our story. Please tell me we won’t have a repeat performance.

Our day was a full one. We spent part of our morning exploring the Harborside Marina area to our north and part of the afternoon visiting Plaza Marina to our south. We stopped to talk to some folks onboard Galadrial from Coos Bay, Oregon. We asked how long they had been here and they said five or six years! They stay here for six months and then cruise the Venezuelan Coast for the remainder of the year. Owners of the boat next door to them, Bango, are petitioning to become citizens here. Evidently the charm of this place has rubbed off on others.

When we returned to downtown Kralendijk, we walked to the local hardware store about a mile from the waterfront to buy rat traps to fortify us from future invasions. No luck. But they sent us further north to the local Chinese shop. It was the Bonaire version of a Dollar Store, and they not only had the much needed traps for our arsenal, but they also had plastic boxes needed to store food when an invasion is underway. We got back in town just in time to check out through Immigration and Customs to prepare for departure tomorrow morning. In the Immigration Office, Mark met a couple that we had seen in Bequia. He learned that they are ending a seven year circumnavigation and returning to Eugene, Oregon. We hope to see them again in Curacao and get a chance to hear about their experience.

We stopped by Eagle’s Wings to leave some information on Curacao and to tell them that we hope to see them again along our way to the South Pacific. We also stopped by Sirius to give them an update on the weather and to wish them well on their trip east and then north back to the US. We then returned to Windbird to prepare for departure tomorrow morning. We are having a hard time prying ourselves away from here, but we know that that we must move on.

In between trips here and there today, we did get back to the boat in time to catch Southbound II’s weather this afternoon. Herb said that it looks like we can move on to Curacao, but that we need to wait there until we get the go ahead for the San Blas. Since we have to wait there for the delivery of our water maker parts that works out just fine. It is only 35 miles to Curacao from here, so we should be there by tomorrow afternoon. It is still a little windy out there, but we should be fine. We’ll update you on the trip tomorrow night.

As I close this log we are listening to music booming from the seaside avenue onshore in front of us. There is an election coming up here and the campaigning has been increasing during our stay. As we look onshore we see a parade of a couple of hundred people following a van blaring live music Caribbean style. May the best person win.

Day 100-Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
Longitude: W 68 degrees 58.74 minutes
Air Temperature: 82 degrees F
Water Temperature: 80 degrees F
Date and Time: Thursday, 01/26/06, 1700 AST

We left Bonaire at 0830 this morning. Parting was difficult, but the time to move on had come. Last night was the first night since we had been there that we did not have rain, so we took that as the omen that it was a good time to move west. We had an uneventful trip to Curacao with 25 knot winds coming from the east as we headed west. We rolled out the head sail and used that as our only sail. Without the main sail up, it was a little rolly, but we made great time. We arrived here in Spanish Waters at 1430. It is windier here in the anchorage than it was in Bonaire, but that will help to cool us down. The average temperature inside the boat in Bonaire was about 85 degrees F and that is the case here, so any wind is welcome. The outside temperature here is still 82 degrees but the water temperature in this protected bay is only 80 degrees. . We are now only 80 miles from the Venezuelan coast and I think as we travel further west to Panama, the temperature will begin to climb.

It was too late when we arrived to catch the bus into Willemstad to check in with Customs and Immigration, so we will do that early tomorrow morning. Willemstad will be the first city that we have been in since leaving the US, so that might take a little adjustment. The terrain here looks similar to Bonaire, but I can tell already that the culture here is very different. The bay where we are anchored certainly doesn’t have the character that the waterfront in Bonaire had. Willemstad is supposed to be a tropical Amsterdam, so I think it will be beautiful but will feel a little too big for me. I miss Bonaire already.

Today’s sail took us above 3,500 miles traveled since we left Boston. Those are miles traveled over water, so during our passage to St. Martin from Hampton, Virginia, we traveled more than 1200 miles when the true mileage as the bird flies is only about 800. I guess we traveled 400 miles up and down those huge waves!

We went to shore to Sarifundy Marina for Happy Hour and met lots of boaters from here. Many here are from the Netherlands and from South Africa via the Netherlands. Tomorrrow, we will meet more folks and report in on our impressions of Curacao.

Day 101-A Visit to Willemstad, Curacao
Latitude: N 12 degrees 04.78 minutes
Longitude: W 68 degrees 51.74 minutes
Air Temperature: 82 degrees F
Water Temperature: 80 degrees F
Date and Time: Friday, 01/27/06, 2200 AST
See Pictures Here

We started our day taking a dinghy ride into the fishing village here in Spanish Waters and then walking to the bus stop. We had been told that the bus would take us to Willemstad, and indeed, it did. The couple from Double Dutch that we had met last night at Happy Hour at Sarifundy’s Marina were on the same bus and helped to give us better directions to Customs and Immigration. Until now we have had cruising guides to give us details on how to find things in each port, but the cruising guide for Bonaire, Curacao, and Aruba has not been updated and is out of print. We had information from cruisers we met in Bonaire, but it was sketchy.

Customs was not far from the bus stop, but to get to Immigration, we had to take a ferry across the water from Punda to Otrabanda (the other side). Punda is the business center of Willemstad and Otrabanda is the old residential quarter. We then had to hike a ways and work our way through a maze of waterfront buildings to find the Immigration Office. Today was election day in Curacao and most everything closed at 1100, but thankfully Immigration was open until noon. Once we finished with that process we headed back to the downtown waterfront in Otrabanda and walked along Breedestraat. We found the Museum Kura Hulanda and had a wonderful tour with a guide named Dennisha. A Dutchman named Jacob Gelt Dekker privately funded the development of this anthropological museum that opened in 1999 and “it offers a world-class chronicle of the origin of man, the transatlantic slave trace, West African empire, pre-Columbian gold, Mesopotamian relecs and Antellean art”-all in a very small space. It was fascinating and we could have spent many hours there. Mr. Dekker has a home that is actually part of the Museum and spends time here every year. He is only 57 and got his start by establishing the One-Hour Photo development business. He has traveled widely throughout Africa and the Middle East gathering the relics for this museum. Whomever he has hired to be the curator has done a phenomenal job. I was very surprised that taking pictures was encouraged, but I took advantage of the offer and will have those added to the photo gallery as soon as I can get to a high speed connection to send them to the website via my son Justin.

We had lunch at the Gouverneur De Rouville overlooking the waterfront and enjoyed the view of all of the candy-colored waterfront buildings. The architecture here is referred to as “wedding cake” and that is evidenced in the yellow, pink, turquoise, purple, and green buildings with their intricate while trim.

Curacao has a population of 150,000, with 125,000 of them living in Willemstad. It is a city and comes with all of the problems cities have, but it does have a charm that comes from its mix of Caribbean and European culture.

Tomorrow we will take the Sarifundy Marina shuttle to the grocery store and to Budget Marine. They are holding a copy of the Panama Guide for us. If time permits we will try to get in a snorkel in the afternoon. We found out this afternoon that our watermaker parts that we ordered on Tuesday are already in Curacao. We called a distributor in California on Tuesday. They called the factory in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the order was shipped immediately via UPS International. The order went from Minneapolis to Louisville and arrived here in Curacao yesterday-before we got here–and went through Customs. They were sent out for delivery this morning, but because it was Election Day, they will not be delivered to us in Spanish Waters until Monday-if we are lucky. This is island time.