Friday 4th May

Kralendjik
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

It’s beginning to look like we will be leaving here without the spare part. Gerry and I we into the marine store first thing in the morning (well around 10.00hrs). The manager had found the tracking number – our part was put in with something else and has apparently done the round the world trip - it has been to Curacao, Venezuela, back to Curacao and is on it’s way back to here – yeah right! We have to return at 16.00hrs to see if it has arrived. Having gone through this disappointment our next plan was to stock up on the groceries that we were originally going to get yesterday, before we got to the supermarket Gerry complained that he had tooth ache and perhaps he should see the dentist whilst we are here. I felt sure he was having sympathy tooth ache following my filling falling out the other day but I said that if it was hurting to go straight away and see if he could get it fixed immediately; with the weekend coming up he stood a better chance today than over the weekend. I took of in one direction to the supermarket and Gerry went the other way to the dentist, we arranged to meet back at the supermarket. I browsed the shelves and picked a few things that we needed but was very disappointed with the vegetables, they were the dregs of the barrel and I came away without the things we really needed. Gerry was there as I got to the check out so he paid the bill and helped me carry the bags to the dinghy. The story with the dentist was that he had to return in half an hour so by the time we walked to the dink and loaded it up it was time for him to make his way back to the chamber of horrors. I thought I’d go and see what vegetables the Venezuelan street vendors had so I arranged for him to pick me up at Karel’s dock when he was done with the dentist. The vendor’s stalls were full but unfortunately with all the things I already had enough of, even so I stocked up a little more with tomatoes, onions, capsicum and cucumbers. I then spotted a bunch of cilantro behind the stalls and with much pointing and pantomiming asked if it was for sale, I was told no – much shaking of head and more pantomiming. I pulled a sad face and shrugged my shoulders and the poor old man gave in, pulling a small bunch of the stuff from another bag he had hidden, when I offered money for it he just smiled and waved me away. I thanked him in every language I know how to, I suspect I missed the only language he speaks but he got the idea! I wandered back along the waterfront to Karel’s dock where I bought a cold drink and sat reading the latest compass paper. By the time Gerry arrived to pick me up I had read it entirely and could have probably finished it again! He had the funny face of a dental patient – lopsided grin and the slurred speech of a drooling drunk – YES I laughed at him! It turned out he need to have a repair to a filling in a tooth which had been filled when we lived in PNG – it’s done well to last this long. Of course being Gerry it required an X ray, anaesthetic and sympathy – he got 2 out of 3! OF course it also cost more than mine did but even at $130 it was cheaper than it would have been in Florida. Back on the boat we had lunch, with Gerry dribbling and drooling from one side of his mouth and then it was all too much for him and he had to have a sleep whilst I used up the last of our over ripe bananas and made some banana (and chocolate chip) bread.At just after 16.00hrs we got back in the dink and roared off back to the marine store, well Gerry went to the marine store whilst I did a second sweep of the supermarket and to my delight the fresh fruit and vegetables were just being put out on the shelves, needless to say I stocked up. In fact I stocked up so well that I had to wait for Gerry to come and pay the bill as I didn’t have enough cash on me for what I wanted to buy., luckily he appeared just as I got through the check out! A thing to note about these islands is that they don’t tend to give you bags for your groceries so we are now in the habit of taking our bags along with us if we are going shopping. oh and unlike the States they don’t pack your groceries for you either. Once we had everything packed into our bags we set off along the road to a small restaurant we had noticed – it claimed to serve Indonesian and International food. We were the first customers at just after 17.30hrs; we ordered drinks and then perused the menu, selecting a mixed plate of Indonesian food each. I have to say that it was one of the best meals I’ve eaten here, I’m sorry we didn’t find it whilst you were with us Dale and Lorie. And it was cheap! – It came to $45 including 2 rum and cokes, 3 beers 2 sodas and 2 coffees – what a bargain! We had quite a chat with the owner’s wife who came in for dinner whilst we were there; apparently they have recently taken over the yacht club apartments to run as well. All in all it was a great experience and once we had paid up we gathered our shopping and returned to the dinghy dock which was now crowded with the Friday night revelers, loaded our dink up and motored out to our boat for the night. I expect you are wondering about the spare part by now? Well good news and bad, it has arrived however the new cylinder end which connects to the quadrant is the wrong size. The store manager is having a sleeve made that reduces the diameter to make the end fit, all this should be ready by 10.00hrs tomorrow – who’s holding their breath? Not me! Even if it’s all ready we still have to fit it on the boat before we take off so I guess we are now looking at tomorrow evening before we leave here.

Thursday 3rd May

Kralendjik
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

Waiting, waiting, waiting it is beginning to get a bit tedious now. Gerry took off first thing in the morning to check on our part arriving. When he returned the news wasn’t good – some parts had arrived but they were still at customs and they couldn’t be sure that ours was amongst the bits that had arrived anyway. He was to return at 16.00hrs to find out. We spent the whole day reading and veging out it was again too windy to go swimming or snorkeling. Just after lunch Gerry made a run to the marina –to dump our trash and as we were going to be staying another night, pay for the mooring ball. By the time 16.00hrs came around I didn’t want to go into town even though we needed some groceries – that could wait until the morning. Gerry took off to the marina store by himself and returned shortly afterwards without our part; apparently it hadn’t been amongst the bits that arrived. From what he said I think he had a few words at the store about the tracking number for the parcel – they had lost the number or something, anyway they were going to chase it up and Gerry was to return in the morning to find out where it was. For the first time on ages Gerry cooked dinner – a delicious beef stroganoff, of course it meant that I had to do the dishes, and yes he had used just about every one in the boat! I’m not complaining though, it was lovely to have him cook for a change.

Wednesday 2nd May

Kralendjik
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

Another day of “hurry up and wait”. It really gets quite tedious having to wait around for spare parts, especially as the weather was perfect for a sail to our next port of call. Gerry made a run into the marine store to see if there was any news on the part – he returned with the tale that there was a parcel at customs but that we wouldn’t know until tomorrow if our part is in it, he has to go back in the morning. Whilst he was gone I began the odious task of cleaning up the mess from yesterday, stripping the bed linen off and shaking it out, removing things from shelves, cleaning the shelves and the jars down then replacing them, vacuuming the places that could be reached with the vacuum cleaner, wiping down surfaces – it seemed to go on forever! I then sanded the driving seat and applied another coat of varnish just as Gerry reappeared from his trip ashore. I continued with domestic chores – vacuum bagging meat into individual portions and mixing up marinade for some prawns that we had bought. Coffee break followed extending into an early lunch and as I prepared the lunch I noticed even more sanding dust that I had missed. Post lunch I spent pulling stuff out of places that even I had trouble believing the dust could get into. Following the clean up it was time to catch up with blog notes and then begin prepping stuff for dinner. We decided to go ashore for a pre dinner drink at the Karel's bar - it was full of people from a cruise liner that was docked just down the way, we knew this as there were no other dinks tied up to the dock and all these people sounded like tourists! Anyway a couple of drinks later and we got back in the dink and returned to our boat for a spectacular dinner that I cooked! The sun set was mediocre as there was a haze around the place so still no green flash Ray (Thanks for keep reading my drivel by the way!) Lyn and Peter have emailed me to say that Peter saw the green flash when they were on their cruise around the BVIs in March - we just want to know how much red wine he'd had to drink before seeing it! (Lyn didn't see it so we are certain that the wine must have played some part in the sighting - where's the photo to prove it Peter?) I'll not give up though I have the camera at hand every night just in case! I have high hopes for the Pacific, with 3000 odd miles to sail in one stretch I will have plenty of nights to watch the sun setting over the water, trouble is you'll have to wait if I get a photo of it until we are in civilzation with a decent internet connection which will allow me to up load the picture! We have worked out a way to keep the blog going whilst we are "between Islands" in the Pacific, My sister has agreed to load the site for me as long as I can email her the text by satelite phone, there won't be any photos though, it's too hard to email them so I'll have to add any (all the fish we catch plus the green flash) when we have a decent connection at the other end. My sister actually loaded this blog and I've just edited it - amazing what you can do from this distance apart (she's in England and we are currently in Bonaire). At least there will be some news of where we are and how we are going, even if it des get boring and repetative.

Tuesday 1st May

Kralendjik
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

Here we are on the second public holiday in a row – today it is for Labour day and yet again almost everything is closed for the day. We timed the ordering of spare parts badly as the customs offices don’t clear anything on public holidays and even if our stuff has arrived in the country we won’t be able to get it until Thursday at the earliest. So here we sit – waiting, something we are not terribly good at. We have had an email from Dale and Lorie telling us that they have arrived in Puerto Rico, their passage was not the most pleasant but they are safe. Gerry made a quick run into immigration to let them know that we weren’t leaving today as we had originally told them, as to be expected they were not in the least concerned and told him to just come back in when we were ready to leave. Again it was a very windy day here, far too windy to get in the water so we kept busy by making even more mess on the boat than normal. I decided to sand back the wood slats on the steering seat and re varnish them, Gerry not to be out done then decided that if I was going to get a brush out and ruin it then we might as well sand back the wood work around the stove and sink in the galley and re varnish that at the same time. The difference between the 2 jobs? The seat was done out on deck and created little to no mess as the wind blew all the sanding away (besides it was done with a fine grade sand paper on a block) where as Gerry got out the power sander (more grunt – see Tim the tool man Taylor for details!) to sand the kitchen top surrounds. You would be correct in guessing that he didn’t move anything in the kitchen or cover it to protect it from the sanded varnish/wood dust, nor did he close the a joining bedroom door and just about everything in the surrounding area – bed, clothes, shelving, spice racks, cooker, air vents, carpet, doors, steps, glasses rack, kettle, pots and pans etc. is covered in a fine film of orange/brown, with the exception of the edges that he applied masking tape to so that the varnish would only be applied to the wood. I applied 2 coats of varnish to the seat slats and then left it to dry completely, thinking that I would give it another coat in the morning to finish it off. Gerry made a good job of varnishing the kitchen surrounds, the problem now is the age old one – it makes the rest of the wood work look in need of attention. By late afternoon the varnish was touch dry but not sufficiently dry to even think about using the stove or the sink so we decided that we would eat ashore. We cleaned up the obvious mess, thinking we would do the rest in the morning. We clambered in the dink and made our way into Karel’s dock, we had decide to try Mona Lisa’s for dinner and made our way straight to the restaurant. Sitting outside at one of the tables were Heather and Scott from the boat Scott Free, whom we had met in Los Testigos. After exchanging greetings we joined them at their table and proceeded to order our dinner, they were already eating theirs. We caught up with their journey to here and told them about ours, shared our possible onwards routes and enjoyed some chat and gossip about the sailing experience. They had arrived just that afternoon and were very tired so after finishing eating we all made our way back to our dinks and our boats for the night. We invited them for drinks the next evening if they had no other plans but they were trying to get into the marina for a couple of days so we arranged to call them and leave the evening flexible. Although it doesn’t sound like we did much the time flew by. Hopefully we will have some idea in the morning if our spare part has arrived (or is even on its way).

Monday 30th April

Kralendijk
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

It was a public holiday here today to celebrate Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands birthday. The town is unbelievably quiet, there is just no one around – this is probably due to the fact that there is a festival in Rincon (the second largest town in Bonaire) and most people have made the trip there for the day. Again Gerry was up and fiddling with the generator first thing this morning – this time he was trying to locate the source of the vibration that he has noticed, personally I think he just likes to take the generator apart and make out he’s doing important stuff! Despite his best efforts thought there is still a vibration; this generator is definitely his nemesis and will be the death of him for sure. I kept out of the way of flying tools and foul language by going out on deck and reading my book until he had finished. The wind was less ferocious today so we decided to get in the water for a swim. We donned the snorkeling gear and took the plunge; the water was cold but quite refreshing once your teeth stopped chattering. We made our way along the line of moored boats taking in the sights at the edge of the reef. There were hundreds of fish, mostly small ones but we spotted the occasional parrot fish, puffer fish and trumpet fish along with jelly fish hiding in the coral that makes up the beginning of the reef. We noted some car tires had been dumped/ placed in a couple of locations and we think they have been deliberately placed there to encourage reef growth; other than the tires there was no trash to be seen anywhere – it was pristine water. A few feet from where our boat is moored the reef drops off and you really need to scuba dive to take advantage of the sites. All along the coast there are designated dive and snorkeling sites, many of these are in the areas where the moorings for boats are situated so you have to be extremely careful not to run over anyone in the water snorkeling or diving. The clear water makes it perfect for diving and snorkeling. As we began to get cold we returned to the boat, showered and had coffee and lunch. Then it was time for Gerry to get his beauty sleep whilst I typed up blog notes and made fish cakes with the left over cooked fish from last night. When he’d had enough sleep Gerry and I made some hors d’ouvers and cocktails and sat out in the cockpit watching the sun go down. It was a brilliant sun set but I still haven’t seen the green flash; maybe May will be the month!

Sunday 29th April

Kralendijk
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

Congratulations to the Aussie cricket team - World one day cricket champions. Go Aussies!

How very strange it was waking up to find no Gypsy Palace alongside us. Gerry was up and making noise early, having checked the final score of the one day cricket final he got out the boxing kangaroo flag and ran it up on the flag halyard then it was time to get down to the serious stuff. He wanted to check out the generator as he had noticed that the voltage from it was lower than it should have been. He was banging tools moving bits of the casing around so I did the wise thing and stayed in bed – out of his way whilst he prodded and probed the thing. He eventually put all the bits back together and I got up. We had a cooked breakfast for the first time in a long while and then it was time to get stuck into other boat jobs. Gerry had planned to install a computer fan on the side of the seat covering where the water maker is housed to give it some air circulation, this was going to involve removing of seat cushions, tools spread everywhere and noise whilst he drilled the holes for the fan. Again I did the wise thing and got out of the way, I went out on deck with the snap tool and replaced some snaps that had rusted off then I cleaned the Strata glass curtains which were covered in dust from the marina, applied silicon spray to the catches that were getting a bit stiff and began cleaning the stainless steel in the cockpit that was getting a little rusty. By this time Gerry had finished his installation and as lunch time approached he said that he fancied a beer so we climbed in the dink and headed into Karel’s bar. As we tied up we noticed that we were the only dinghy there, then I remembered hearing a lot of radio chatter yesterday about invitations to a game of dominos being played today on one of the boats in the marina – obviously a lot of the cruisers had gone to the game. We had just one beer at the bar and then went for a walk down the road to the city café where we stopped and had some lunch. The whole town seemed to have died overnight, there was hardly anyone around. I paid a quick visit to the vegetable market after lunch and topped up on tomatoes, avocados and pineapple, then we bought an ice cream each and made our way back along the beach front to Karel’s bar where we collected our dinghy and made our way out to the boat. The walk along the waterfront is quite amazing, the water is clear and just a few feet from the shore we could see parrot fish swimming along. A few feet further out, perhaps about 70 foot, the reef begins and you can snorkel off the back end of your boat in water that changes from pale turquoise to clear indigo blue unfortunately it was too windy to go swimming off the back end of the boat that afternoon – we would save that for another day. Exhausted from our morning activities and the stroll along the waterfront Gerry hit the bed for the afternoon whilst I played spider solitaire on the computer. We cooked up some of the fish that we had caught for dinner and spent the evening watching a movie.

Saturday 28th April

Kralendijk
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

We listened to the weather report this morning and speculated as to when Dale and Lorie would leave for Puerto Rico. It wasn’t too much later that Dale dinked across to tell us that they had decided to go at 16.00hrs today as the weather seemed good for their passage. We arranged to meet at the dock for lunch and carried out a few “boat jobs” before getting in the dinks and heading to Karel’s dock. We tried a couple of places for lunch but they were closed and we ended up at the city bar where we had burgers and discussed the route and weather for Dale and Lorie’s trip. We were all a bit subdued as it was going to be hard to go our separate ways from here – if only the dreaded WORK stuff didn’t have to be considered! After lunch Gerry and I went in search of some bread whilst Dale and Lorie went to clear out, retrieve their flare gun and prepare to get underway. Dale radioed us to come over for the final goodbyes, photos and promises, we dinked across and spent half an hour saying goodbyes then it was time for them to leave. We watched from our cockpit as they dropped their mooring lines and motored away from the field, turning back towards us to raise their main sail, it was a very sad moment. Thank you for sharing part of our passage with us, showing us some of your favourite places, sharing some fabulous and some not so fabulous meals with us, sharing boat problems and sometimes solutions, sharing your last vegetables and coke, teaching Gerry to fillet fish, and following us when the sails went up!
Fair winds and following seas, with none of the “COOPER FACTOR” to make your sailing hairy. Keep an eye on the ‘pit growth Lorie, Dale has spare elastic bands and don’t forget to braid the hairy legs when you go ashore – don’t want to scare the natives! Oh and stop telling people you work in law Lorie, we know what you really do – we have the video to prove it! We know that you will be reading this at some stage so stay in touch; you will always be welcome where ever we are. We love you guys and will miss not having you along side us for the rest of our trip.

Friday 27th April

Kralendijk
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

A very happy birthday Dale, we are glad we got to spend this momentous occasion with you.

A bit of a reluctant start to the day as far as I was concerned, today we were going to be leaving the marina and going back out onto a mooring for the remainder of our time here. It was also the day of reckoning as far as obtaining the new hydraulic cylinder went – if it hadn’t arrived today we would have to stay here until next Thursday due to public holidays to celebrate Queen Beatrice’s birthday and the May day labour day holiday. Gerry was up and doing the peeling off of the masking tape from around the toe rails – unfortunately the sealing wasn’t quite up to his standard and will have to be repeated – probably whilst we are out on the mooring. We tidied away the tools etc. which were scattered from the bow to the cockpit and then Gerry went and fetched our propane and the laundry which was ready to collect. Whilst I secured the loose stuff in the salon Gerry got rid of our trash and went to pay the marina bill. Then it was time to leave the marina, Gypsy Palace was ready a bit before us so we threw their lines off and pushed them clear of the dock before getting our engine cranked up and following them out of the marina. We motored down the mooring field looking for 2 moorings close together, eventually finding them and tying up to them. Gerry decided that he was starving and we made steak sandwiches for lunch from the leftovers from last night. We had just finished eating when we heard a knock on the boat, I went outside to find Lorie snorkeling around off the back end of our boat, she had knocked to see if I wanted to come out and join her, I explained that I had only just eaten and didn’t want to jump in the water straight away. We arranged to go into town a little later on. Gerry and I read for a while and then it was time to dink across to Karel’s dock and hit the town. We arrived there at about 13.00 hrs only to discover that the shops all closed for lunch between 12.30 and 14.30. Gerry took off to go and see if the hydraulic cylinder had arrived, Dale went in another direction to check out if customs and immigration were open over the public holiday, that left Lorie and I to do what we enjoy doing most – browsing around the shops in peace looking for those elusive little “some things”! We all met back up a little later, the guys had finished their jobs, unfortunately the hydraulic cylinder hadn’t arrived so we will be here for another week and Dale found out the details of when the customs and immigration offices were open. As they didn’t really want to go browsing with Lorie and me they took one dink and returned to the respective boats whilst Lorie and I continued to leisurely shop. We managed to buy a couple of souvenirs but were a bit disappointed with the choice – there didn’t seem to be anything specific to the place. We eventually returned to our boats having made plans to meet up at the dock for dinner. I found Gerry fast asleep and had to wake him up in time to get back for dinner. We met up at the dock and had a drink at Karel’s bar, then went to The Ribs Factory for - you guessed it – a rib dinner. The restaurant overlooked the Karel dock and bar where a Mariachi band was performing for the crowd that had gathered there; we got free musical entertainment whilst we ate as well as a terrific view of the sun setting over the water. We all toasted Dale and sang happy birthday in a dreadful 3 part harmony (or as Lorie said – maybe it was just 3 different keys!). Having eaten our fill we clambered back into the dinks and roared back out to our boats for the night.

Thursday 26th April

Kralendijk
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

Gerry took our propane tank across to the marina office to get it filled this morning, it wasn’t empty but it was getting down and we don’t want the hassle of trying to find propane in a tin pot place further down the track. It will be ready to collect tomorrow, along with our laundry which was supposed to be back today but wasn’t. When he returned from the office Dale, Lorie and I joined him in the car for the shopping trip. We knew we were going to have to cart the shopping back in 2 lots as there is no room in the car for it plus the four of us. We all browsed the shelves, adding all sorts of things to the carts, finally we decided that we had probably broken the back of the shopping list and made our way to the check out, we were surprised that it didn’t come to as much as I had expected but I have to add that there would have been a lot more in the cart if Gerry hadn’t been doing his shopping Nazi bit. Gerry took Dale and Lorie back first with their shopping and then came back to the store to collect me. On our way back to the dock we stopped at a dentist and asked about getting an emergency appointment, I was told to return in half an hour. We had just enough time to get to the dock and unload our shopping and put the frozen and cold stuff into the fridge and freezer then it was back to the dentist. Gerry returned the hire car whilst I had my tooth fixed. Luckily for me the filling that fell out was small, I needed no anaesthetic and the new filling cost $88 a lot cheaper than the original one which was done in Jacksonville, I just hope this one lasts longer! Having returned to pay the dentist bill for me Gerry then walked back to the boat with me, passing a few green parrots on the way. We had lunch and then spent the best part of the next 2 hours re arranging the food in the various lockers to fit the new stuff in. I began to vacuum bag some of the stuff and Gerry took off outside to finish sealing the edges of the toe rail. Once we had finished with those jobs it was time for Gerry to apply the sealer to the toe rails and change out a couple of LED bulbs on the switch panel in the Navigation station whilst I sat and typed up blog notes. Once these jobs were completed Gerry had to have an afternoon nap, I decided to go and see if I could get a couple of photos of the green parrots called Loras, they are indigenous to Bonaire and seem very noisy like our rainbow lorikeets in Australia – probably the same family. Anyway I found a few in the sea grape bushes close to the dock but they flew off as soon as they spotted me, I spent the next half hour wandering around the bushes and managed to get a couple of pictures, they are quite hard to spot in the trees as they are the same colour as the leaves, I hope you can pick them out OK, if not click on the picture to enlarge it. Back to the boat and it was close to dinner time, it was Dale’s last day of being 53 years old so we went to an Argentinean steak house for dinner and had enormous steaks – so big that we all had a doggie bag to bring home. I finally gave Gerry his birthday present, which I had bought in Puerto Rico and had had to keep hidden until Dale’s birthday as Lorie had bought Dale the same thing in a different colour. Both men appreciated the effort we had gone to for them. After dinner we strolled back to the marina for our last night there, tomorrow we would be going back out to anchor.

Wednesday 25th April

Kralendijk
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

Happy birthday Lee, We will be drinking rum and eating chocolate just for you today!
Our sincere thanks to all the diggers on ANZAC day 2007.

Another day in the marina means another day of doing those irritating little jobs. Our day started with me masking the toe rails down both sides of the boat, ready for painting them. Gerry gave the auto pilot well a scrub out then he began painting the toe rails. With the spray paint being blown in every direction by the wind I retreated to the safety of the interior of the boat and began to defrost the fridge and freezer. Gerry gave up with the spray can and just sprayed paint into a container and then applied it by hand – this worked for a short while then his patience ran out and he decided to go and buy a can of paint instead, off he went in the car. Meanwhile I answered emails and finished the defrosting – a horrid task at the best of times which is made worse by being on a boat. I sorted through the squelchy green things that always seem to be found at the bottom of the fridge and ditched some questionable produce before repacking the food back in the fridge and freezer. Gerry returned whilst I was still doing this and he continued with his painting until the toe rails were all shiny silver. Then it was time for lunch which we ate on board. We spent the afternoon doing more jobs – cleaning the Strata glass, beginning to clean the stainless steel, re housing some of the stuff inside the boat etc. Not very exciting but things that we had to get done. Mid afternoon we took the car and along with Dale and Lorie went in search of the supermarket. We were quite surprised to find that the warehouse / supermarket was very well stocked with most of the things that we needed. It was only a discovery trip so we didn’t actually do our shopping – that would be a task for tomorrow. After exhausting ourselves looking at supermarket shelves we thought we needed a cold drink so we walked along the town main street looking on the shop windows, making a few detours inside the jewelry shops, not that we found anything we couldn’t live without; until we reached the café/bar. Luckily (?!) for us it was just about happy hour and drinks were 2 for 1 so we had a few and then went looking for somewhere to have dinner. We had noticed an Indonesian place and thought we would give that a try; we walked up the 3 floors to the place only to find it was closed. A quick re think found us sitting at an “international cuisine” place on the water front. The food was very nice and we were pleased with our second choice. A small debate went on as to who would be driving us home as Gerry had drunk a few beers, in the end he drove anyway as there seem to be no laws here about drink driving/ wearing seat belts or anything else to do with cars and the road. We went to bed and some time in the middle of the night I woke up with a piece of filling falling out of a tooth – oh joy! Something else to fix!

Tuesday 24th April

Kralendijk
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

How nice to wake up to cool air and plenty of water. Gerry got stuck into the “jobs” as soon as there was enough light, he tore apart our auto pilot as it has been leaking hydraulic fluid periodically; he planned to get a replacement cylinder here or if that wasn’t possible to try and get it re sealed. As soon as the shops were open he took off in the dink to see if he could get a replacement part plus some of the things that we had on our “ongoing list”. I gathered up laundry, sorted it into bags and then started to do washing – just the stuff that I knew would dry quickly on the boat rails. I was about half way through the washing when Gerry reappeared, he was grumpier than usual – the store needed more information on the type of auto pilot in order to locate and order the spare part; it meant downloading the manual from the web site. Soon he was on his way back to the store, hopefully for a more successful outcome. Lorie and I dinked across the marina and left our heavy laundry loads with the dock office – it will be gone for 2 days, Just as well we have enough clothes to see us through! On our return I finished hanging out the washing I’d done on board and then Gerry arrived back only to head straight out to organize a hire car. When he returned again it was just about lunchtime so he asked Dale and Lorie if they wanted to go out for lunch, they didn’t but we went as there wasn’t any bread on the boat to make sandwiches with. We went back to the place that we‘d eaten at on our first night here – they did good burgers fairly cheaply and that’s what Gerry fancied for lunch. The burgers were good but the service was slow, it took us and hour and a half to have lunch then we returned to the marina to pick up Dale and Lorie for a tour of the island. A word or two here about the hire car – I think it should have been called “hire a wreck”- it was a Suzuki jimny (like a jeep), with the back window missing, the 2 rear seats had no locking system so they were permanently in the recline position, the zippers were missing on the side windows and the whole interior was covered in orange dust! Lorie and I climbed in the back and decided it was very uncomfortable. Gerry drove us all around the island; we visited the salt ponds and saw the salt mountains waiting to be transported on the cargo ships, we visited the sites of several different coloured obelisks – which were used to indicated to cargo ships which dock to go to in order to pick up their cargo, then it was on to the slave huts which have been restored for historic purposes. The next bit of the tour took us around the southern tip of the island where we finally saw the ponds full of flamingos which Bonaire is famous for. Lorie and I climbed out of the car and walked over the scrub to try and get close enough to take photos of them, they seemed very shy birds as they began to move away from us as soon as they noticed us approaching; we did get some photos though. As a lot of the trip was along the coast road we saw how the weather had deteriorated on the same passage we had taken to get here – the waves were crashing on the beach with unbelievable ferocity. The trip turned inland for a while and became quite boring – not too much to see apart from cacti and a few rocks, then we hit the shoreline on the other side of the island and followed it for a while finding the nudist colony and the popular windsurfing area. We made our way to Rincon, the second biggest “city” and planned on taking the loop coast road back – only to find that it was closed to traffic and we had to retrace our route to return to Kralendijk. The car spluttered and died on us at the bottom of a steep hill, Gerry turned it over a couple of times and got it going again but from there on we were concerned that we wouldn’t make it back so we headed straight home. Once we were within sight of the car hire place it all seemed to be working OK again – obviously we had taxed it too much doing a round island trip! We stopped at a supermarket to pick up some soft drink and then made it back to the Marina. After a shower and change of clothes we were back in the car and heading out for dinner. I had read about Richards – a restaurant which the cruising guide recommended and suggested we try to find it. We almost gave up as we were heading away from the popular town area and seemed to be running out of restaurants but we found it and what a find! It was a terrific restaurant on the water front, the food was fantastic – the best steak I’ve had since Ruth’s Chris. We all agreed it was well worth finding. Dinner eaten, it was time to head back to the boat for the night.

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 butt, 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.

Sunday 22nd April

Kralendijk
Bonaire

12 09.387 N
68 16.822 W

Another one of those 08.00hr starts. We planned on arriving in Bonaire early afternoon so that we could pick up a mooring in daylight. Overnight the wind had died away to nothing so as we hauled up our anchor and began to motor away from our overnight anchorage we discussed tactics for the trip with Dale and Lorie. We all agreed that to get there we were going to have to motor sail. We hoisted our main sail and were managing 6 knots with it and the motor, it was just enough. Dale wanted to run his generator for a while so he tried to goose wing his sails and turned his motor off, the result was a slow and wallowing ride; he eventually hauled in the sails, turned off the generator and motored for most of the trip. Just for a laugh we threw the fishing line in the water again, we nearly had heart attacks when the peg flew off the rail and the last of the line vanished off the back end. Gerry said words which I can’t begin to repeat here but the gist of it was what were we going to do with more fish? He tugged on the line and said that there was something on it so he slowed the boat down and I began to haul in the line. As the lure came into view we both laughed and breathed a sigh of relief we had cleanly hooked a piece of rope! I dragged it up and unhooked it then released it back to the deep. We decided not to tempt fate any further and reeled the line in and packed it away for the rest of the trip. The wind was all over the place but not where we were – we motored for a while, flew the jib for a while and then when we finally turned around the southern bottom end of Bonaire we managed to fly both the jib and the main for the last hour and a half of the trip. As we went along the coast to Kralendijk we noticed the restored slave huts (restored for historic purposes) and the huge mountains of salt. Bonaire has 2 main industries – salt production and tourism. We could understand both, the salt flats are huge and the waters around Bonaire are to be seen to be believed, they are just magnificent – clear blue of every shade imaginable. We hauled our jib in and then dropped our main when we reached the commercial dock as the mooring field was just behind it. Bonaire has a huge mooring field and you aren’t allowed to anchor anywhere – you must use a mooring. We motored to a mooring and a couple of men in a dinghy helped us to tie on to it, it turned out they were our neighbours – from Denmark. Dale and Lorie moored a little way away from us and once we were all settled in we all dinked into the nearest bar for a drink followed by an early dinner. Conversation was a bit slow; we were all tired after a day of sailing/ motoring, salt air and sun. It was going to be an early night for all of us. The checking in would be a thing for the morning.

Now that we have an internet connection again I will be loading photos over the next few day so check back to April 7th to see them.