Monday 23rd April
Kralendijk
Bonaire
12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W
First thing in the morning Gerry and Dale gathered up the boat documentation, passports etc and dinked into customs and immigration. Whilst they were gone I caught up with my blog notes and began loading them onto the site. After about an hour Gerry reappeared, when I asked how it had gone he said that it was like the mating of elephants and they had to go back. Why? Apparently the customs people had asked if they had flare pistols on board (what boat doesn’t?) and when they said yes they were told that they had to hand them in until we leave the country. What a pain in the b
utt, it means that we have to retrieve them half an hour before we leave the country – just another thing to add to the job list! Anyway Dale and Gerry went back with the flare pistols, Lorie went with them as they were also going to have a quick look at the marina we were planning on going into for a couple of days. I decided to stay onboard as I was half way through loading the backlog of blog notes and once I was on a roll I didn’t want to stop. They all returned at lunchtime with the news that the marina was disorganized and they could find no one to acquire a slip allocation from so they went to a different marina and made arrangements there for us to go alongside at 13.30 hrs. We had some lunch on board and then got ready to move into the marina. When it was time we decided to fill up with fuel at the fuel dock before tying up in the slip. We followed Gypsy Palace to the fuel dock and then had to do a bunch of circles and figure of eights whilst they filled up with fuel first – there was only room for one boat at a time on the fuel dock. Once they had finished and moved away we tied up, filled the jerry cans and topped off the main tank. We cast off and headed across the marina to the slip we had been allocated – both Gypsy Palace and us were on the same end slip. As Gypsy Palace were already tied up we had to go in behind them; Gerry decided to back into the slip as he wanted to be into wind and also all the plug ins for power and water were in the center of the slip so it meant it would be easier 
for us to run lines to them. It meant that the sterns of both boats would be together in the center of the slip and we had to be careful not to touch Gypsy Palace’s arch with our arch as we tied up. Dale and Lorie kindly caught our lines and helped us into the slip, Gerry said that it was a breeze getting into the slip stern to stern (he has done it many times before) but Dale seemed very nervous about it, it’s a good job it all went well! One we were tied up, plugged into shore power and water Gerry got out the deck wash down gear. I offered to help scrub but he said I could get on with finishing loading the photos onto the blog site once we had cleared all the cushions etc. out of the way for the cleaning session. So whilst Gerry acid washed the deck I finished loading the blog, feeling a little guilty but not too much! At the end of the cleaning Gerry came below and asked what was wrong with the air conditioning – it wasn’t running. He ended up re priming the cooling water line but still it didn’t want to run, so out came the manual. Gerry then reset the incoming voltage and after letting the unit cool down it started and stopped again at will. After resetting the temperature control we
left it, thinking to look at it again later. We showered and then set out for dinner at the restaurant in the marina. The food was nice but I could have eaten a lot more vegetables than they served up, Gerry said the same thing. The short walk back to the boat finished us off for the night; we were pleased to find that the air conditioning had kicked in and was working properly again on our return to the boat –just in time for a good night sleep in cool air.
Bonaire
12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W
First thing in the morning Gerry and Dale gathered up the boat documentation, passports etc and dinked into customs and immigration. Whilst they were gone I caught up with my blog notes and began loading them onto the site. After about an hour Gerry reappeared, when I asked how it had gone he said that it was like the mating of elephants and they had to go back. Why? Apparently the customs people had asked if they had flare pistols on board (what boat doesn’t?) and when they said yes they were told that they had to hand them in until we leave the country. What a pain in the b
utt, it means that we have to retrieve them half an hour before we leave the country – just another thing to add to the job list! Anyway Dale and Gerry went back with the flare pistols, Lorie went with them as they were also going to have a quick look at the marina we were planning on going into for a couple of days. I decided to stay onboard as I was half way through loading the backlog of blog notes and once I was on a roll I didn’t want to stop. They all returned at lunchtime with the news that the marina was disorganized and they could find no one to acquire a slip allocation from so they went to a different marina and made arrangements there for us to go alongside at 13.30 hrs. We had some lunch on board and then got ready to move into the marina. When it was time we decided to fill up with fuel at the fuel dock before tying up in the slip. We followed Gypsy Palace to the fuel dock and then had to do a bunch of circles and figure of eights whilst they filled up with fuel first – there was only room for one boat at a time on the fuel dock. Once they had finished and moved away we tied up, filled the jerry cans and topped off the main tank. We cast off and headed across the marina to the slip we had been allocated – both Gypsy Palace and us were on the same end slip. As Gypsy Palace were already tied up we had to go in behind them; Gerry decided to back into the slip as he wanted to be into wind and also all the plug ins for power and water were in the center of the slip so it meant it would be easier 
for us to run lines to them. It meant that the sterns of both boats would be together in the center of the slip and we had to be careful not to touch Gypsy Palace’s arch with our arch as we tied up. Dale and Lorie kindly caught our lines and helped us into the slip, Gerry said that it was a breeze getting into the slip stern to stern (he has done it many times before) but Dale seemed very nervous about it, it’s a good job it all went well! One we were tied up, plugged into shore power and water Gerry got out the deck wash down gear. I offered to help scrub but he said I could get on with finishing loading the photos onto the blog site once we had cleared all the cushions etc. out of the way for the cleaning session. So whilst Gerry acid washed the deck I finished loading the blog, feeling a little guilty but not too much! At the end of the cleaning Gerry came below and asked what was wrong with the air conditioning – it wasn’t running. He ended up re priming the cooling water line but still it didn’t want to run, so out came the manual. Gerry then reset the incoming voltage and after letting the unit cool down it started and stopped again at will. After resetting the temperature control we
left it, thinking to look at it again later. We showered and then set out for dinner at the restaurant in the marina. The food was nice but I could have eaten a lot more vegetables than they served up, Gerry said the same thing. The short walk back to the boat finished us off for the night; we were pleased to find that the air conditioning had kicked in and was working properly again on our return to the boat –just in time for a good night sleep in cool air. Labels: Bonaire
posted by SV Orpailleur at 11:14 a.m.
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