by Judy Handley | Jan 23, 2006 | Bonaire and Curacao, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 98, Year 1: Bad News, Good News
Date: Monday, January 23, 2006
Weather: Very Windy
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
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.
by Judy Handley | Jan 22, 2006 | Bonaire and Curacao, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 97, Year 1: Sunday in Bonaire
Date: Sunday, January 22, 2006
Weather:
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
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.
by Judy Handley | Jan 21, 2006 | Bonaire and Curacao, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 96, Year 1: Make New Friends, But Keep the Old
Date and Time: Saturday, January 21, 2006, 2200 AST
Weather: Non-stop Sunshine
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
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.
by Judy Handley | Jan 20, 2006 | Bonaire and Curacao, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Days 94 and 95, Year 1: Snorkel ‘Til You Drop
Date and Time: Friday, January 20,2006, 2200 AST
Weather: Sunny and Warm
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
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).
by Judy Handley | Jan 18, 2006 | Bonaire and Curacao, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 93, Year 1: We Love Bonaire
Date and Time: Wednesday, January 18, 2006, 2030 AST
Weather: Beautiful
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F Current
Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
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 they 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?
by Judy Handley | Jan 17, 2006 | Bonaire and Curacao, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Date and Time: Tuesday, January 17, 2006, 2030 AST
Weather: Beautiful and Sunny
Air and Water Temperature: 82 degrees F
Latitude: N 12 degrees 09.27 minutes
Longitude: W 68 degrees 16.78 minutes
Location: Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
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.
