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.
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| 060122 Day 97 Caribbean, Bonaire–Tour of Kralendjik |
