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We left Aves de Sotavento at 10 in the morning, the wind was blowing about 12 to 15 knots and the swells were quite a bit down but had these confusing square waves pop up here and there, just very unsettled. We motor sailed with jib out at first but the side ways roll from the choppy swells was so uncomfortable we pulled the main up to stabilize the motion which helped. Sid had one fishing pool set up and was just letting the other one out when we had a bite already, the hook wasn’t even in the water for one minute. It was a small black fin tuna but really to small so we let him go. Half way to Bonaire a beautiful Tropic Bird tried unsuccessfully to land on Paradise and a few minutes later we saw a man of war jelly fish float next to the boat. They have this moon shaped body which looks like a blown up balloon and floats on top of the water. It’s purple body surrounded with a bright pink rim makes it look really pretty but the color reminds you off it’s excruciating painfully sting. This is the way they travel by sailing on top of the water, really cool. 
10 miles off Bonaire some big bottle nose dolphins joined us and plaid for a while on Paradise’s bow. Two huge cruise ships passed us when we approached the southern tip of Bonaire. Here is where the real fun began, the swells subsided as we headed into the lee of the island, the wind was a steady 10-12 knots and filled the spinnaker up nicely and let us sail around the southern coast and half way up to Kralendjik and we finished the last leg in 15 knots with jib and main. The trip was 42 miles and we arrived just before sunset. As we approached the moorings a dinghy headed our way and I recognized the grin immediately. Blake from Slow Mocean had been following our Blog and knew that we were coming. He then helped us to get on the mooring, what a nice guy, thanks Blake. After we had settled in we called Randy and Lourae AKA Pizazz. We had met them some 8 years ago in the San Blas Islands and they were headed for the South Pacific. We talked them into going up to the Seas of Cortez before heading west, which they did. They then came back to Bonaire built a house and sold Pizazz. Yes, and they are the famous Pizazz who wrote the Pizazz Passage from Bonaire to San Blas. After the call we lowered the dinghy and went ashore to check in. We headed straight to the customs office to check in which was a breeze the officer was very polite and efficient. Since Immigration is closed at this time of day we had to go to the Police Station. We ended up talking to the two on duty cops for at least an hour and Sid exchanged some LAPD stick pins for one of theirs. By this point I was starving and at Karel’s Bar where we had our dinghy tide, we enjoyed a couple of cold beers and some munchies.
At nine the next morning Lourae picked me up and took me shopping, yeah groceries here I come. After two months of not having seen a store this could be dangerous to our wallet! I was really curious to find out what European goodies I could find here and was not disappointed especially when I found my favorite seasoning Aromat which I only by in Switzerland and had run out a long time ago. Going through the store made me feel like it was Christmas.. Lourae had more fun watching me find all the goodies than me finding them. That same evening we had dinner at their house “Villa Blue”. Wow, what a house! They designed it themselves with a computer program and really did a heck of a job. It just takes your breath away when you walk through the tall entrance door into the spacey living room with an 18 foot tall wooden ceiling, being able to see every single room as those doors are wide and open and then the wide open sliding door to the patio with infinity pool and a magnificent view over the island. After a tour of the new house we enjoyed a wonderful stuffed salmon dinner and talked up a storm until almost two in the morning. It was really great to finally catch up with them.
The following two days Sid cleaned boat and I did laundry. Ouch and double ouch!!! After 9 loads and 3 dryers and I had to wash them, the bill came to US$ 75.00. I think I understand now why cruisers walk around naked on their boats! As for shopping I found it a bit of a hit or miss. Each store has different products so you can’t just shop in only one store, you need to hit them all to find what you need. All gets shipped in from Curacao on Thursday or Friday but sometimes the boat does not show up which leaves especially the produce section empty for almost two weeks. Here you can’t really plan a dinner in advance they may not have the ingredients. Oh yes and if you see something you eventually need buy it when you see it, it may never show up again. Since none of the stores have air-conditioning (only in the produce/meat section) some of the stuff on the shelf is bad already. Milk and Cream get sour fast after opening.
Paradise needed a bath badly and to do it right we had to go into the expensive marina. Just before we moved into the marina the Bonaire Coast Guard boarded us to check our paper work. They were very nice and before they left Sid gave them LAPD patches and one officer took his patch right off his sleeve and handed it to Sid.
As Sid started hosing down the boat we were amazed at how much dirt came out of the sails. The Harbor Village Marina is small and very quite but at night the mosquitoes rule and w donated a lot of. Randy and Lourae knowing how hot and mosquito infested this marina is offered us to stay at their house while at the marina. We could not say no to this incredible offer so every evening around five we were picked up, driven to their home where cocktails and infinity pool awaited us. Then we had a sundowner on deck with some spectacular sunsets and wonderful home cooked meals either by Lourae or Manuela or joint efforts and interesting talks until the pillows called us to bed. Early the next morning after breakfast and coffee we were dropped off again at the marina and work continued. It felt like going to work. The days were hot especially in the marina by 2 PM we were beat and needed a break. We could not wait until we were picked up again, driven to Villa Blue having a cold cocktail in the pool the rest you know.
The house is really amazing, our bedroom had 8 corners the ceiling is 18 feet high and the breeze that came in through the three giant windows made for a cool night sleep. It was fun watching bats sweep down on the pool to drink water at night and in the morning to wake up to the chatter of parrots and wild cry of donkeys, little different than the roosters.
Sid had to change the membrane on the water maker and while doing so two elbows for the high pressure side broke off due to corrosion. There are no spare parts here in Bonarie as a matter of fact there is not much at all hear for boat repairs. He was at Budget Marine asking where he could get parts as the manager’s father was there a retired plumber and happened to have two in his left over stuff. How lucky can we be?! Of course we ordered two new ones and had it shipped via Global Mail. We were warned not to write Netherland Antilles on the address rather Caribbean Islands otherwise the package will go to Holland first. Blake on Slow Mocean waited over one month which did in deed go via Holland.
After a little over one week Paradise was all cleaned up and ready to get back on a mooring. The one we chose we found out it was in front of one of the 7 Bonaire Webcams, how kewl is that. We received the funniest emails from our family and friends watching us:
http://www.bonairewebcams.com/YellowSubPierCamLarge.php
If you don’t dive Bonaire seems a boring place and most boats only stay for a couple of weeks, not realizing how much there really is to Bonaire. Bonaire is part of the Netherlands Antilles with its sister islands of Curacao and Aruba, both a little to the west. Other Antilles Islands include Saint Marteen, Saba and Statia, all located in the Windward Islands. Bonaire’s main industry is tourism especially for the diving. The other industry is salt production which is sold world wide for industrial use (pools, icy roads etc.). Bonaire is also well know for great wind surfing as the wind always blows usually right around 20 knots and bird watching with over 200 species including the Lora a small green parrot and the pink flamingo.
It is a wild dry island covered with cactus, scrub, gumbo limbo trees and lots of corals which at one time lay under the sea level. The highest elevation is just a little over 800 feet which is in the northern part of the island. This region reminds me of a wild-west desert landscape. The southern part is flat with mainly mangroves and a huge area of salt flats, where you will find the most flamingos. The water surrounding the whole island is a national park and anchoring is not allowed, unless it is a brick on a rope which all the locals use when fishing. Some 40 moorings are available for cruisers at the cost of 10 dollars per day and you have to purchase a park pass to snorkel or dive which is 25 dollars per person per year. The moorings are huge cement blocks with each two floats to tie up. There is only a small shelf of shallow sandy bottom before it plummets from 40 in a sharp angle to over 80 feet of depth. The bow is in about 20 feet of water while the stern is just at the 40 foot mark where it drops with a drastic change of color from light to dark blue. Best thing is you can dive right of your boat.
It was time to play now. Lourae and Randy took us for a sail on their 24 foot Corsair “Moko Jumbie" trimaran. We had a blast that thing goes so fast you can feel the acceleration each time a puff of wind hit. We sailed as fast as 12.5 knots, had lunch at Klein Bonaire with a cool snorkel, saw a white spotted gray eel amongst a lot of reef fish.
Every Wednesday Randy meets with his buddy’s for breakfast what we girls call the “Old Farts Breakfast Club” and introduced Sid to them. They had fun and it also turned out to be a weekly event for Sid.
Our neighbors Phil and Nell onboard Moon Dancer (we originally met in Trinidad) invited us to dive with them as they have three rigs and lots of tanks. So all we had to do is rent one BC, regulator and belt. While Sid joined the Old Farts Club I went diving with Phil and Nell. It was incredible to float underwater next to this hill of nothing but different types of coral, sponges and thousands of colorful reef fish. I was in ah and really enjoyed my first dive after some 8 years. A few days later Sid went diving with them. He had a blast as well. Then the third dive all four of us went. This time we went to the “Something Special” dive buoy which a couple hundred yards next to the Village Marina entrance. The special thing about this dive is there is an underwater web cam mounted in about 45 feet at the midsection of the reef: http://www.breathebonaire.com/
This was an incredible dive, first thing I saw was what I thought could be a shark, but as the fish slowly turned and revealed his side I recognized it as huge tarpon of about 6 feet long. After about 150 yards we found the camera and of course all posed hoping our friends at home would watch as we had arranged a time for this event. Unfortunately the camera was damaged and had filled up half with water so the view was not as good. Then we followed the reef. It’s just amazing how many different species of coral and sponges there are, there is so much to see you don’t know where to look. One coral head especially impressed me and as I swam closer I noticed a tail fin of a very, very big fish. The fish had nestled himself into the coral so all that was sticking out was its huge fin on one side and a set of large teeth surrounded by big lips on the other. It was a pargo of at least 30 pounds, wow. I was glad to be able to get the attention of my diving buddies to see this huge fish as well. Later when we returned he came out of the hiding hole and tired to tell Sid that this was his territory. This was indeed one of the best dives we’ve ever done.
We also did an island tour with Randy and Lourae with Clyde and Fiona onboard Argo. All six squeezed comfortably into their car with a beer and champagne filled ice jest in the back and off we went. First they drove us along the road hugging the coral cliffs of the north western side of Bonaire heading north. We drove along a inland salt water lake and were excited to see Flamingos. From there we drove to the east coast and stopped at a place with caves and Indian paintings. The drive then took us inland to Rincon the first settlement in Bonaire from there back to the East coast where Blokarts awaited us. A Blokart looks like a three wheeled lounge chair with a bicycle handle bar and a sail. You lie in the seat buckled in and with one hand steering while the other hand controls the sheet for the sail that makes the three wheeled lounge chair move and so you land sail around a race track. What a hoot, we all had a blast blasting around the track and passing each other over and over. My favorite was passing other Blokarts on the inside in the turns just like in a NASCAR race. If you’re not careful or push the limit chances are the wind will topple your cart and you lay sideways on the track. Lourae and Clyde managed to do that. This was really a hoot and we all laughed so hard we could not wipe of the shitty grins off our faces for days. We haven’t done anything this fun in a long time, what an experience. After the excitement we had lunch in Rincon then followed our tour to Seru Largo with an incredible view over Kralendijk and half of the island. From there we followed the road, which by the way here are so narrow that two cars can not pass so one always pulls over to let the oncoming car pass. This area has a rocky shore to one side and the salt flats on the other and saw many pink flamingoes. The southern most part is where the salt is harvested and we also stopped at the old slave quarters. We had a fun day, actually we had many fun days and dedicated Saturday as a rest and only rest day.
Have you ever had one of these WOW days where you can’t stop saying wow? As we were resting in the cockpit around 4 PM I noticed a young women approaching the dock near us, her eyes were fixed on our boat as she came out to the end of the dock. I was just going to mention this to Sid as she called “Paradise”. Then “Manuela it’s me, Donna”. I jumped into the dinghy and headed over to the dock and couldn’t believe my eyes to see Donna with a huge grin on her face.
We go way back with Donna: Two years prior to cruising on our 6 weeks camping trip to Bahia de los Muertos in Baja de California we met Alan and Donna with then one year old son John. In those days they were living in their pop-up-camper in the woods in Durango collection wood and making furniture then selling them and with the money they camped in Muertos for the winters. When they learned of our boating life and cruising plans they squeezed everything out of us about boating and cruising. Two years later after a fun summer in the Sea of Cortez passing by Puerto Escondido on our way back to La Paz a boat named MacNab hailed us on VHF. I had no idea who MacNab was until she brought our Muertos history back. A couple of months later MacNab dropped anchor next to us in Punta de Mitta, PV, Mex. That was the first time we saw them since Muertos, now they also had a little daughter Anna. We had put the cruising bug into their heads and one year after Muertos they started their journey on a small 26 foot Bristol Cutter. We parted ways and now and then we received greetings from friends who ran into them. Years later as Sid was assistant dock master at the Sheraton Marina in New Bern MacNab anchored in front of the marina and was surprised to find Sid there. I was in Switzerland at the time so I missed meeting them. By now they had another son, three kids on a small sailboat. Then we lost contact again. A couple of years later as we headed up the St. Johns River to Jacksonville a Bristol Cutter was heading south and passing us, it was MacNab again. On the drive by they told us that they were underway to St. Augustine. When we were settled into the marina we rented a car drove to St. Augustine and met up with them. We had a wonderful day in the park, the kids were just amazing, instead playing with the swings they were climbing the tall trees like little monkeys. For a few years we stayed in contact via email but then my emails were returned as unknown. So we once more lost contact with MacNab but we were sure someday to run into them again. One day came Donna was standing right in front of me on the dock some 8 years later. She shared the sad story of Alan’s cancer passing when she was pregnant with her 4th child. She was then and still is living in Deltaville in the Chesapeake Bay and in the mean time has found a wonderful boyfriend Leroy who also has 4 kids. Donna’s mother takes the kids once a year so that the two can escape on a vacation and they chose Bonaire. We sat in the cockpit of Paradise until late at night and had one story after another. Leroy truly enjoyed himself listening too all our adventures we shared with Donna. All we could say after they left was wow, wow, wow. They were here for another week so we had plenty of time to catch up some more and had a wonderful time. Leroy promised he’ll make sure that we will not loose contact again. Wow, wow, wow….
There was not much of a cruising community, most boats stayed a few days then left and neighbor boats rarely waved to each other, frankly we’re not used to this and so I decided to get the boaters together. The Wanna Dive Hut has a fun Thursday night Happy Hour with free rum punches (What a starter). Thought it would be easy to lure cruisers there, everybody likes free. Lourae had a better idea and offered her house for a potluck. We had about 20 people at the potluck and it was really nice to finally meet all our neighbors. Everybody had especially fun talking to Donna and Leroy.
Same day as Donna left our buddies on Moon Dancer left for Curacao along with many other boats as the trade winds had slowed. 42 moorings only 6 boats remained. The turnover here is so fast there really isn’t a chance for a cruising community to build.
We thoroughly enjoyed Bonaire; the anchorage is calm, except when the dive boats race by leaving a pretty good wake. The water is absolutely clear and it feels like sitting in an aquarium, no matter when you look in the water there are colorful reef fish looking back at you. I actually started recognizing certain fish and it didn’t take much longer before we named them. Some times some big grouper or snapper was on the hunt for food which would look so darn good in my frying pan, but then again he is part of this beautiful aquarium.
Not just all was rosy, the water maker parts arrived in Curacao only 5 days after the order went through but then it took another 10 days to finally get the part to us in Bonaire. Luckily these are now spare parts as Sid was able to get it fixed. The fridge wasn’t running right since we were in the marina and sent numerous emails to the techs at Glacier Bay. After many more emails we finally received an answer. The technician wanted Sid to look at the window where the oil is, run the engine and see what happens, if the air bubbles don’t disappears it needed more coolant. Nothing was wrong with it and Sid wrote the tech back with his findings, never heard from him again. Funny though ever since Sid looked at the window the fridge seems to work better, I wished all repairs were that easy.
The alternator took a dump too and while working on it Sid also found a water leak. We had a back up alternator but since this engine is over 20 years old it was a different model, they don’t make the old one anymore. The adjusting arm was not long enough and Sid had to chase down a mechanic who could fix it. He also had to chase down some tools and Moon Dancer let us borrow their generator to run the fridge and top off the batteries. At Budget Marine Sid ran into the same old man who helped him with the water maker fittings and again was able to help and two days later the engine was fixed.
Our cruising life has settled to an almost routine life. Wednesday’s Sid still joins the “Old Farts Breakfast Club” while the ladies have their own. Every Saturday Lourae takes me shopping, especially to the Venezuelan butcher who sells the most delicious rotisserie chickens. Once a week we get together with Villa Blue for dinner and whenever they take “Moko Jumbie” out for a sail we’re on it. Our max speed now is 14.7 knots I just wished this on Paradise.
I joined a Gym twice a week for Zumba, a type of Latin dance aerobics. I was always a fan of Morenge, Salsa and Samba so this was up my alley. Except the dance speed was doubled I was sure I would through my back out the first time I joined. I laughed my ass off on my lack of coordination, didn’t know I was this spastic and that there is such a thing as dyslexia of body parts. It’s a lot of fun and we all laugh more than we dance.
On May 19th I hit the big 50 or is it my 20 Anniversary of my 30th Birthday, Sid’s sure that’s the one?! We celebrated it with a nice dinner at the Mona Lisa restaurant with Randy, Lourae and Stan and Magi on Inner Wisdom.
One of our biggest Blog fan Bill was tired of watching us on the web cam and decided he needed to come for a visit. Just before Bill and his wife Nell arrived a wind reversal was predicted, which is not a good thing as the wind comes from the SW and right into the mooring fields and depending on how strong the wind is the waves can break right under the boat, not a good place to be. Although they predicted a weak wind reversal we didn’t want to take a chance and headed back into the marina. Besides this way we didn’t have to worry about Paradise while having fun with our guests. They stayed at the Golden Reef Inn about one mile from the marina and had a wonderful surprise as their 1 bedroom apartment was upgraded to a 2 bedroom. The Inn was full and I think it helped a bit us knowing the owners Ed and Liz that they were the lucky winner of the upgrade. Ed even suggested that we could use the second room, so we did move into the apartment with Bill and Nell until the wind reversal. Two days later Paradise was gently bobbing again on the mooring. Every day we went diving, the day we went to the Wind Sock area just a bit south of the airport is where there are seas horses. Didn’t see any but did see a turtle and the underwater scenery was the best we’ve seen so far. Since we were on the southern part of the island we decided to show Bill and Nell that part, drove along the salt water ponds with the huge salt mountains then ponds with flamingos, by the lighthouse and had lunch at Jibe City where a big lagoon invites all the wind surfers. Lunch was wonderful we sampled a platter with many local appetizers sipped on a pitcher of sweet sangria when thick clouds started rolling in due to a tropical wave. We didn’t think much of it but as we drove back to the marina and the clouds darkened and the wind started to pick up we had Bill drop us off at the marina so that we could get Paradise ready for the blow. As we left the marina in our dinghy 3 foot wind chops awaited us. The wind was blowing from the southwest and it was a challenge getting back to Paradise, her bow now bouncing 6 feet out of the water. The same time we noticed all the locals getting their little boats off the moorings and towing them towards the marina. It was a wind reversal caused by a strong squall. It only took us a split second to start the engine and get the heck off the mooring and headed across to Klein Bonaire where we took refuge in the lee of the island. The wind kept blowing around 25 knots but we were in calm water and truly enjoyed the new surrounding. We were just sorry that Bill and Nell couldn’t join us. Eventually we ventured ashore walked along the white sandy beach, swam in the crystal clear water, had a cocktail onboard while waiting for the wind to calm. A few hours later the wind gave up a bit and changed direction due east again. Still a huge squall was hanging on the horizon so we waited a bit longer but the squall never closed in so we headed back to the mooring field where our neighbor boats still hobby horsed around. Seeing them bouncing around uncomfortably we changed direction and headed once more into the marina and took our old slip and spent another fun night at Bill and Nell’s. The marina was so nice and never charged us for that night.
Bill, Nell and us go back to New Bern NC. They sat at my table for lunch at the restaurant I worked at and then they met Sid at West Marine where he worked. Later that day we had them over for cocktails in and on Paradise and stayed friends ever since. As we headed up into the Chesapeake Bay a few months later we rendezvoused in Urbana for the Oyster Fest. Bill and Nell invited us then to visit them at their home, directions followed as: head up the Poquoson River until you get stuck in the mud, drop anchor, the house will be 2 miles from there, key is…., truck key is….., bring your shower stuff and laundry and make yourself at home.
So it was nice to have them here and we kept them busy all day long. We went diving each day at a different location and also explored the rest of the island including the National Park which only has dirt roads to drive on. That was fun bouncing over the bumpy wash board roads and we stopped at every mentioned historical or some rather hysterical sites. The last 7 Kilometers were tough and we all agreed we would not drive this route a second time. We also wanted to go diving in the park but the water access was pretty tough so we decided the best diving area was right under Paradise.
Bill is the funniest email writer I know so I asked him if he would write an article for the Blog as well:
This past week Nell and I experienced the true meaning of life "in and on Paradise". What an unbelievable adventure we had in Bonaire with Sid and Manuela!!!!! On and off their boat, above and below the water. An absolutely amazingly good time. What great hosts.!!!! We were treated like royalty from the time our plane landed to the last minute it left for home by Manuela and Sid.
Manuela met us at the airport and helped us with every thing from our luggage to getting our rental truck to showing us the way to........ and checking in at the Golden Reef Inn.
Good thing Nell and I were rested because it was non stop adventure from then on!!! After we checked in we picked up Sid at the marina and we rolled, nonstop from then on the rest of the week.
LeRoy suggested we "Bring plenty of books to read" in one of his emails. I had about worn him out asking questions in preparation for visiting "Boatbumms" since they just got back from Bonaire and knowing they had been to Bonaire quite a few times. Soooo thanks much Leroy. All your tips came in handy for sure!!
We hardly had time for a "nap" at night much less read any books. Heck, we never did get around to reading the material about the island that was given to us when we checked in. Most days we went way past........as Sid says, "cruisers midnight (9pm). It was most often near landlubbers midnight (12:00) before we crashed. Then up early the next morning (hey, it was early for us vacationing folks) for diving and or exploring the island. I don't think we missed any parts of the island. We would have never got to see and experience all the wonders this place has to offer if it wasn't for Sid and Manuela!!!!! What a beautiful, amazing, interesting place. A lot more history there than we imagined. I think the only thing we didn't get to do was land sailing. The days we could fit into our busy schedule, the wind just wouldn't cooperate. Soooo, I guess that means we will just have to go back............
Two nights for dinner we ate to die for meals on Paradise. Prepared by a world renowned chef, Manuela. Assisted by Captain Sid who also made us great cocktails. Fresh Mangrove Snapper and all the fixings one night. Lobster, yea, Lobster and Chateau Briand with all the fixings (all fresh home made at that, just a note here, you don't get nut'n on Paradise unless it is made from scratch!!!!!) another night. Complete with Caribbean sunset, and of course candle light.
We washed it all down with Captain Morgans and wine........what a life. Somebody has to do it.
Other nights, Chef Manuela prepared luscious meals where we were staying. Absolutely delicious!!!!!!!!!! We ate like we were at a ten star resort every single night !!!!!!!! Unbelievable.
We all got in quite a few dives all over the island including one night dive off of Paradise. Absolutely amazing down under..........
We also headed to Klein Bonaire on Paradise which was absolutely the best. I know we started out to go diving on Klein Bonaire island, but ended up taking a cruise around part of the island since the wind turned on us and it was too rough to dive over there. We ultimately got to see the island from a whole different vantage point. And it was absolutely beautiful. How lucky can we get. Cruising on Paradise, in Paradise, in the Caribbean Sea with a refreshing drink taking in the sea breeze. It's all to die for............Nell and I had to pinch ourselves to see if all this was really real!!!
We capped off our last evening on Bonaire with a wonderful dinner at Randy and Lourae’s house. Absolutely gorgeous place. Thanks sooooo much for inviting us up to your "Paradise". Nell and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. What great hosts.
Our last day we spent on Paradise enjoying the best home made, from scratch, of course, it's the only way one is going to get ANYTHING ON PARADISE!!! (ain't no pre made, bought stuff on this floating resort !!!!!) ..........Bloody Marys. And of course we were taking in all the Caribbean breeze and sight and sounds we could before we had to be on our plane for home.
Nell received a HOMEMADE gift of necklace and ear rings. Custom made by Manuela. Absolutely gorgeous. They looked stunning on Nell. Everything Manuela does is from scratch, homemade, and absolutely perfect. What a great gift. Nell absolutely loves them. Made from jewels Manuela found in the Caribbean Sea.
A short dinghy ride back to the marina, Sid took us to the airport in our poor ole boo booed truck...........well, that is another story we will have tell at the next happy hour.........one that Sid would just like to dump at sea.
Sid and Manuela, thanks sooooo much for such a wonderful time. There is just no way to describe the amount of fun we had this past week. We did soooo much in this short week I can't hardly remember it all!!!!!!!!!! It went by sooooo darn fast. This was truly one of those vacations one just cannot put into words how great it was. Pictures won't even do it justice. But they would help.....a little............You guys are just absolutely the best hosts and the best couple there is. Thank you for such a great wonderful time.
As you say "hugs and kisses"
Bill and Nell
PS: I AM NOT A WRITER.........
GEEZ.
We had a great time with them and I’m sure Bill and Nell never thought in their whole entire life they would ever have to deliver Orville Redenbacher Popcorn, Scott sponges and some Trader Joe’s stuff to Bonaire. Thanks again for all the goodies!
OK gang grab a cocktail and we will start the next Happy Hour Bill mentioned to tell the story Sid would just like to dump at sea.
Ready?!
On Bill and Nell’s last evening we were just going to leave to pick them up for dinner at Villa Blue. As Sid drove out of the two big trucks that were blocking the view and the road looked clear. Sid headed out and a car was speeding and slamming the brakes on leaving 70 feet tire skid marks crashed into the side of the truck. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt the girl hit her head on the wind shield and had a bad headache. I was tossed from the right pack passenger seat across to the backrest of the driver’s seat and hit that pretty hard. My ear and shoulder was burning. Sid said he was fine but did also hit his shoulder. Two hours later the scene was cleared, paperwork was signed, Randy drove us to pick up Bill and Nell and later at Villa Blue the BBQ was sizzling with different assortments of meat Sid barbequed, the drinks were flowing and we put the accident behind us. I have to mention though how impressed we were with the accident procedure. The insurance companies in Bonaire were tired of getting ripped off by the cops so they have their own investigator for accidents, a mini van with built in office, computer and all. The trained inspector takes photos, notes, files paper work and the next day all Sid needed to do was to present the paper work to the police at the station. The whole ordeal was painless (expect for the bumps and bruises) even at the car rental place bringing the damaged car back all Sid had to do was to pay the deductible from the insurance. I have to add though if you don’t speak the local language you’re automatically at fault.
Life in Bonaire still keeps us busy. Sid still keeps up with the “old-Farts-Breakfast-Club”, while the young ladies have breakfast somewhere else. One of Sid’s Breakfast-Club buddies dives every day and most of the times right were our boat is so we eventually joined them. I tell you the dives were getting better and better. Jim pointed out a frog fish, a really weird looking creature that we would have never seen as it is really small and blends in with the background. We saw several turtles and watch them dig their heads under rocks to eat whatever they’re eating. Sid saw a scorpion fish, plus we saw many eels, not to mention all the other colorful tropical reef fish.
Thursday nights, Wanna Dive Hut has an all you can eat BBQ night for 10 bucks with free rum punches a cool hang out for anyone. When we looked for the best deals in renting dive equipment we found Wanna Dive the best. They give local price to the cruisers for tanks and refill.
I was still doing my Thursday and Friday laugh session at Zumba. and Saturday of course shopping with Lourae.
June 11th we woke up to the roaring sound of thunder as a fairly big size squall brushed Bonaire. Didn’t get any rain out of it, but sure was a change being blinded by lightening. The tropical waves are strengthening and it was just a matter of time now until the first Low would turn into a storm. We felt safe here in Bonaire, doesn’t mean they never get hit by a hurricane but the chances are really small.
After two weeks we finally did get some rain out of the tropical waves. The waves at this time come by every 3 to 5 days and one did build into a Low and finally turned into the first Tropical Storm “Alex” and first hurricane of 2010. What surprised us is that the wave already had changed direction northward and passed just a bit north of us, which is good for us but not so much for the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast.
The future waves did bring more water where we were able to fill our water tanks.
One afternoon we noticed this upwelling in the bay we guessed due to current or tidal change, but it was a phenomenon we’ve never seen here. It looked really weird as the upwelling inched its way slowly towards the boats, lasting about one hour. Then we noticed these reddish patches floating by. Then the water around us went red as more of those patches floated by. We realized that these were patches of krill. Although krill are miniature shrimp, these looked more like crabs, therefore of course everybody had a different opinion. The latest news was that they were land crabs. In any case they were a nuisance and made swimming around the boat impossible as they crawled all over you and pinched the skin with their tiny but very sharp pinchers. We also were reluctant to run the water maker or fridge in fear the krill could clog the strainers. It lasted about one week before the critters were completely gone but not before washing onshore leaving a horrible stink that wouldn’t go a way for days. We had fun watching the divers though especially the two families, 4 kids and 4 adults all divers. We were guessing, we’re so mean, how long before the first scream and who would scream first. Didn’t take long for the first kid to scream then she started crying while the adults helped her getting back to the beach. One mother and daughter floated out to our boat and started talking to us about the krill. We told them to hang onto the line of the flopper stopper which they gladly did. One minute into the conversation the girl stared squirming: “Ohmygosh they are crawling into my suit”, her mother trying to calm her, said that it was no problem and us telling her they don’t bite (didn’t know yet they did). The mother now started squirming: “Ohmygosh they are crawling into my suit”. They didn’t stick around for long and didn’t take much time either to swim the 80 feet back to shore. We knew swimming was out for a while.
Before and after the krill invasion we’ve been enjoying some more diving and found many incredible spots. Each one had something new to offer. At the Small Wall we found a cave on the foot of the wall, fairly good size and on the bottom nestled into the sand was a giant stingray (would have barely fit in our cockpit) resting but keeping one eye on us to see if we were a threat. Same dive we saw a slipper lobster or Spanish lobster resting in a giant sponge. That night we did a night dive under our boat. Wow, really kewl. The parrot fish were all nestled in coral beds and sleeping. One big slipper lobster was wandering around for food. Another type fish (soap fish) we’ve never seen swam around looking for food and many little beautifully colored crabs and shrimp roamed around also scavenging for food. One little crab looked like an orange piece of sponge I would have never know it was a crab had it not moved. The eyes of the shrimp all sparkled like little diamonds in the light of our underwater lights.
The best dive spot is over at Klein Bonaire called Forrest. As soon as you look into the water from the dinghy the view takes your breath away when you see the yellowish coral heads scattered on white sandy patches surrounded by different type plants and colorful fish playing around. Then two big angel fish come towards you right into your mask. You can almost hear them say: “Oh hi, oh, oh, let me look at you oh let me look, oh, oh, so nice to see you, oh, oh this is so exiting”, while they poke around your mask. If you’re slow and gentle enough they even let you pet them. The bottom under the dinghy is in about 15 feet of water and gradually sinks to about 20 feet from there a steep hill plummets down to 120 plus feet and when you follow the wall you dive over one valley after another with corals and plants we haven’t seen yet. This is truly the best dive we had and we of course came back a couple of days later brining some food for the cute angel fish which they gently took our of our hands, attracting all kind of other fish surrounding us.
Our neighbors Maggie and Stan on Inner Wisdom drive around the island every other day to chase down donkeys and took us along for a ride. Bonaire’s wildlife consists of mainly iguanas, donkeys and goats. We managed to see a family of wild pigs. The bird life is a bit more exciting. Bonaire doesn’t get much rain especially the last year has been very dry which causes a problem for the donkeys to find food. So Stan and Maggie feed them on a regular basis and even bring water for them. It was really fun feeding the mama’s with babies.
They have been in Bonaire for over 6 months and introduced us to their friends Anna and Henk who live ashore and provide free wifi for us cruisers. We were invited for dinner at Henk and Anna’s but before dinner we went to Inner Wisdom as I had a dental appointment with Stan. I had a chipped tooth and we had talked about what the options were about fixing it. He offered to fix it if we had a dremel. So I sat in the dentist chair on his boat, which was me lying on the couch with my head in his lap and he had Sid’s dremel in his hand. Sid was holding a flash light while Maggie was filming the procedure and the gargle water next to the dentist lounge was a glass of wine. It was pretty funny. Stan even sanded my long K9 teeth down. We laughed so hard and continued having fun at Henk and Anna’s. We had left the dinghy at the Paradise Moon dock in the marina and when we returned late at night, “happy”, driving the dingy home we made it just to a couple of feet from Paradise when the engine stalled. We were lucky we had enough speed left to coast along side the boat. Sid investigated what could be wrong with the outboard when he realized that someone had stolen our gas tank and we never even noticed it that’s how happy we were LOL. A bummer that when you finally get to a place you think is safe, you find out there is no such thing. Unfortunately the gas tanks are hard to come by and are very expensive $110 and we had it just filled up with 30 dollars of gasoline, but luckily we still have the dinghy and engine so now the new gas tank is chained onto the dinghy and motor as well.
A couple of days later Inner Wisdom left for the Aves and we took over their mooring which is the best in Bonaire the first one right next to the marina so we have no boat on one side which gives us an incredible view of the northern part of Bonaire with its beautiful sunsets. Not just that but the mooring came with a car. Stan had leased a car for 6 months and he still had 8 days left on the lease so he wrote it over to us and we have a car to get around. We took up their duty of driving around and feeding the donkeys.
Irene and Roland the Dutch/Swiss couple we met swimming buy our boat invited us for a Swiss meal at their house. Days later when Holland was playing Cameroon we went to the Wanna Dive Hut to watch the soccer game and ran into them as their resort is right across the street from the Dive Bar. They were just trimming palm leaves of their palms. As we chatted I mentioned the donkeys and since she was going to bring the leaves to the donkey sanctuary she invited me to go along. Roland was so happy that he could join Sid watching the soccer game instead of having to help her. We drove to the sanctuary which is right next to the airport. First I was introduced to the ladies running the sanctuary then we drove to the donkeys and as they told as backed into the side road for an easier getaway. I had no idea what to expect and in no time we were surrounded by 300 donkeys all wanting dessert. Irene of course, having done this many times before knew the drill, got out of the car and started unloading the palm leaves. I got out of the car and stood there for just a second too long watching the big heard approach and was boxed. At first a bit intimidated I realized that they were as docile as puppies. But it was too late for me to help Irene I couldn’t even move. Eventually I managed to open the door reach for the camera and take some photos. The leaves were gone in no time. As we sat in the car again we had to slowly drive away which were following us and stuck their heads through the window, too funny. Back by the entrance of the park we were let into a pen where they kept the babies, one was just one month old, how cute. This was really a fun visit.
One morning we woke up this weird looking mega yacht was floating in the bay, later we found out that it is a “Giga Yacht” and belongs to a Russian multi billionaire 36 years of age and his wife who is a super model. Once it was voted the ugliest yacht in the world and true when you see it first you don’t know if it is ugly or what. By the way “A” is the 11th biggest privately owned yacht in the world. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303695604575181911796253780.html
A couple days later Moon Dancer our diving buddies came back. Sure was a happy reunion. Boats still stuck around for bout 2 weeks max and nobody seems to be interested in getting to know one and another, when 4th of July rolled in nothing happened, nobody wanted to celebrate. Sid and I heard that Captain Don’s had a 4th of July celebration with fireworks so at 9 pm we snuck over there by dinghy tide up to one of the moorings in front of their dock and waited about 5 minutes before it started. It was amazing we were positioned right under the fireworks. Happy 4th of July!
Our visa ran out on the 13th of July so had to go to immigration to get an extension. We knew it was going to be tough as pretty much nobody gets an extension. We had to wait a while for the Chief to arrive and he was a pretty unfriendly dude, ordering us to sit down as he went to get our paper work from the secretary. After he let us sit in the hallway for what seemed an eternity he finally came back handed us our passports and told us flat out no. Sid’s protest about having an important dental procedure done didn’t do any good he just said that it was not a good reason. He didn’t answer to my question what a good reason was. (Reminded me of Trinidad when they thought a broken foot wasn’t a good enough reason to stay.) So I pulled Sid’s pension deposit slip out, handed it to the “Chief” and told him that we are not going to be a burden on the island. He looked at the slip, thought for a few seconds, excused himself and left us alone for another who knows how many minutes, then came back asked for the passports to take a copy after that wanted to know if we had a phone, which we didn’t so he offered to send us an email to let us know. Before he stomped out again Sid asked him if we could have our paper work back. “Paperwork???” The secretary had neglected to give him our paperwork including the letter from the dentist. When he saw the dentist note he changed completely around, was super friendly and apologized that it had taken so long and promised to send us an email within a couple of days. Since it fell on a weekend we gave him until Thursday. No email had arrived so we went back. A new officer was now dealing with us and same thing as unfriendly as she could be until the chief came in, recognized us, apologized that he hadn’t sent an email yet but that he was glad we came back and gave us a 2 months extension. Yeah, what a guy!!!
Amazing how busy one can get on a small island like Bonaire. Kim on Gabrielle organized Fish Idea Seminar learning all about the fish we daily encounter on our wonderful snorkels or dives. We finally saw our first seahorse, fairly big sized and all black but unfortunately within a week it died. Oh and the dive stores here swear that there are no sharks in these waters, wrong, I saw one swimming away from our boat while I was snorkeling. One day snorkeling in the shallows along the mooring field I saw a lionfish, they are really beautiful fish but they are not native to this area and since they have no predators they decimate the fish count in Bonaire and the rest of the Caribbean. Divers carry wine corks on a long red or yellow ribbon and tag the area where they see lion fish. Trained lionfish catchers will capture them and use them in research. Unfortunately since it is against the law to use spear guns here in Bonaire many lionfish are getting away and since they can reproduce 3 times per month they are taking over the reefs. Lionfish are eating machines they eat and eat throw everything up and start eating again. Next day we watched divers leaving the water and Sid noticed that they had the lionfish bag with them, so we rushed ashore and asked them how badly they wanted to catch a lionfish. 10 minutes later we met them where I had seen the lionfish to show them were. It was fun watching them how they lured the fish into the see-through plastic bag with the assistants of two fly swatters. They were really happy as this was their 50th lionfish. On the way back to the beach I found a dead baby angelfish and the head of a nurse shark, the couple took them both home for their young kids to dissect.
We also watched the sergeant major laying eggs, which are attached to any structure, like the mooring blocks. The male changes his color from yellow and black stripped to the color of the eggs, purple and black striped and he’ll guard the eggs. One nest in particular stood out as the eggs were arranged in a perfect heart shaped form, how unique. Then right next to our boat I noticed a suspicious looking knot on the sand, which I’ve never noticed before. After staring at it for a few second I noticed that it was slightly expanding, as if it was breathing. I pointed it out to Sid and as soon as we swam right over it, it would pulsate. Could it be an octopus? As Sid dove down it slowly spread out and started opening like a sundial, became really huge and the color turned white, then it closed up again turning dark. This happened every time we got close to it. It was really fascinating to see the octopus showing his aggression. Sid left and I watched it for a bit longer. He finally stretched out as long as he could get and swam 6 feet away from his spot and wrapped around a rock and it was like he wasn’t even there, he was so well camouflaged.
We still did the routine thing and Sid added one more. Every Friday afternoon the local kids meet at the Sailing Club and sail around the bay in their Sunfish little sailboats. Sid ended up volunteering to stand by with the dinghy to help and also to teach the kids. He had a lot of fun and one kid specially was so grateful he proudly gave Sid a Bonaire cap. How cute.
Then at the Old Farts Club he learned some Dutch; in Holland they have a “Bob”, which is the designated driver. Bob of course is an abbreviation: “Bewust Onbeschonken Bestuurder” try to remember that one; I think we stick with “Bob”
Our neighbor Clayton on Argo had a big heart scar and needed to be airlifted to the States. He was a Dan Diver member and they sent in a Learjet to pick him up the following day. In Miami a medical team was waiting for him and brought him to the hospital. He needed a pacemaker had some insurance problems but managed to get the surgery done. He has one more procedure done so they will be in the States for a long time. They had barely time to get the boat docked in the marina before they headed off to the airport so we secured their boat and kept an eye on her, aired her out, checked the batteries, flushed the water maker and cleaned out their fridge.
By now the moorings were filled up again and finally some fun cruisers had arrived, we knew a couple of them and the party began. Lourae invited us all again for a potluck and since there were 25 people needing 3 taxis I was furious when the taxi drives I had used before doubled the price. Now what, Sid remembered the old, old school bus that now and then drives around town for events and so I hunted it down, didn’t take much effort to find it, after all Bonaire is a very small island. We all met in at the marina parking lot and Sid and I had a 4 gallon jug full of rum punch ready, it was a happy group by the time the bus arrived. What a great way to get up to Villa Blue, besides the bus has the loudest air horn which announced our arrival at Villa Blue. Randy and Lourae laughed so hard when they saw the junk bus arrive in their posh neighborhood. We had a wonderful potluck.
The motor broke once more but it was a minor detail Sid could fix within an hour.
Finally we had a fun and active cruising community. We met at least once a week at the Paradise Moon Bar for Happy Hour, went to the Wanna Dive Hut for their all you can eat BBQ night with free rum punch. One Sunday we invited all cruisers via VHF radio to join us for a noodeling party behind “Paradise”. When they arrived they found a line stretched from the stern of Paradise to a mooring closer to shore which served as a parking lot of the dinghies. Behind the boat two other lines were attached to hold on and each line had floating mattress attached, we call the bar, and the end of the line had another bumper attached. Our little blow up cooler with drink holders was filled with ice, rum punch and cups and was floating between the two mattresses. And on some lines off the stern two more bottles of rum punch were dangling as back up. Everybody had so much fun that we were forced to do it again, in all we did 3. Each time we had around 30 people floating on their noodles sipping rum punch by Jimmy Buffet. What a hoot and everyone enjoyed it.
Roxanne on “Bamboo” and I organized a BBQ potluck with games on Klein Bonaire. We played Charades, Trivia (the winner of each question had to drink a shot of a concoction Sid made or designate someone else to drink it) and a Dunking the Tampon game now that topped the whole day. I lined up 8 guys on the beach, in front of each was a beer bottle 1/3 filled with water, we then attached a line around each man’s waist. To each string another was attached hanging down between their legs and at knee heights, oh shock a tampon was dangling. The rules where simple at the count of three each man had to crouch over the bottle without help of hand and try to get the tampon inside the bottle into the water let is swell enough so it wouldn’t come out of the bottle, standing up and with bottle dangling run to the finish line. It was so funny we all were screaming.
After one month the fun community crumbled again each went their way again. We also were on our last days and all the fun dwindled down.
One week before we left Sid slipped and fell and hurt his foot and I had a weird heart palpitation and had an EKG done which the heart specialist confirmed. We all think that it could be the onset of Menopause, yikes.
There was not much wind in the whole entire Caribbean and what we noticed during those times that early afternoons a cloud builds up over the northern part of the island and just stays there and grows. Mark a local warned us about these clouds. Without warning the wind can blow 40 plus knots through the anchorage. Each time we saw this happening we prepared Paradise for the worst. The most wind we ever received was 15 knots, made the anchorage a bit lumpy but doable. On our Anniversary same one ugly cloud built up then some heavier clouds due to a tropical wave approached from the north east and joined the stationary cloud. Boats started to turn into the cloud’s direction. We were ready for the worst. (This is kind of funny, just the day before when we visited with friends our friend said: “Wouldn’t it be cool if a lightening bolt hit one of Chavez’s oil tanks”). Then we saw two lightning strikes hit the northern part of the island, Sid and I looked at each other “no way!” Tons of rain came down but never made it to us. When the rain finally was over we noticed some gray fog hugging the two humps of a hill and thought nothing of it until that fog went straight up into the air we knew then one of the tanks at BOPEC which belongs to PDVSA, Venezuela did get hit and was on fire. Also a second tank was hit and was smoldering but luckily they controlled and extinguished the fire. The other on the other hand turned into a blazing inferno. The cloud from the smoke grew so high into the atmosphere it started to develop it's own weather. Black soot rained down onto the National Park. Later on we went to Inka's house for her Birthday and house warming party and learned that they finally had extinguished the fire. We had a wonderful time at the party and met many new Bonairians. About 9ish we heard roaring thunder a clew for us to return to the boat. Luckily one guest was leaving as well and drove us back. By the time we arrived back at the boat the lightning show was over but learned the following day that it brought in a wind reversal and made the anchorage uncomfortable. The following morning Sid woke me up early. The fire at BOPEC had picked up again and a humongous cloud was towering over the north end of the island, it looked like a volcano eruption. Again it created its own weather and black soot rain fell over the park again, not good.
Because of Inka's Birthday we had our Anniversary dinner postponed to the 9th which we then celebrated at Villa Blue with Randy and Lourae and Barb and Chuck on Tuson Takk II. I had prepared a wonderful Fondue Bourgignonne which we all enjoyed with an incredible view over the bonfire at BOPEC. The fire was now really out of control and flames shot 300 feet up into the air, it was amazing. The following morning only some smoke lingered and it looked like the fire was under control and only one hour later I saw flames again, oh no. They finally did extinguish the fire and we also found out that the same day another tank in Curacao also belonging to PDVSA was ablaze by a hit of lightning but they killed that fire right away. The weather didn't look all that good either. A Low built right over the Grenadines and was threatening to turn into a tropical storm. It was a possibility for us to be in the way but for sure we knew we would get more wind reversals. To be on the safe side we moved into the marina, you just never know. Besides Paradise was do for a bath again.
Unfortunately our time in Bonaire came to an end, we had a wonderful time but it never is easy to say goodbye or what we say “see you later”. We spent our last evening with some of our friends at the Paradise Moon Bar for Happy Hour. Amie, Pam and Karl of Paradise Moon Bar have always been so wonderful to us thanks guys. Randy and Lourae without you guys Bonaire would have been half as enjoyable and fun, thank you so much for all you’ve done for us, you are true friends.
We got an early start and after we had checked out with the port authority and the marina a huge cloud popped up out of nowhere and started growling at us. We better wait a bit, we thought. After that growler another showed up and just behind it another one. By the time all had passed it was noon time and too late for us to head out so we spent one more hot and mosquito infested night in the marina. Paradise Moon Bar was happy to see us again for Happy Hour and we had dinner at the Sunset Resort which has the cutest patio overlooking the beach and the burgers were wonderful (can’t believe we didn’t go there until the last evening).
Just after the sun came up the following day we scooted out of the marina towards Curacao.
Fellow cruisers if you need info on Bonaire go to:
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