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20th Nov 2008 - 4th Dec 2008
Bonaire - Bon Bini
Bon Bini – that’s Welcome! in the creole Papiamentu dialect of Bonaire. We made the 418 nm sail from Vieques Puerto Rico to Bonaire and arrived in 78 hours. We’ve spent a week in Bonaire enjoying their beautiful water. The island is very different from the other islands we’ve visited. It is only about 20 miles from Venezuela but it is Dutch with a strong European influence. The locals speak Dutch, English, Spanish, and Papiamentu which is a creole combination of all three! So you almost think you understand since about every third word sounds English! All the signs have things repeated in three languages. The terain is dry and rocky with cactus and low trees. The water is absolutely beautiful. Bonaire is about 24 miles long and 3-7 miles wide with about 13,000 people. The flat water and constant breeze make it a great stop. It is extremely deep very close to shore so the marine park has installed moorings for the yachts right off the main town of Kralendijk. No anchoring is allowed to protect the coral. This is the place for diving so we did some exploring underwater and on the land!
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Diary Photos
| 20th Nov 2008 |
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| Bon Air Compressed! |
| The diving in Bonaire is exceptional and easy. You can pick any depth and access from the beach, a dive boat, your dingy, or even right off the back of Liward. There must be over 300 different dive spots. We love the underwater hair! Lili’s looks like Lyle Lovett! |
| 21st Nov 2008 |
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| Flying the New Spinaker |
| The first two days of our sail from Vieques was awesome and we flew the new spinaker since the wind was behind us. We only saw a couple of big ships and one cruise ship. |
| 22nd Nov 2008 |
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| Another Squall! |
| You never get the perfect weather window and this trip was a mix of weather. We knew the third day was going to bring scattered squalls so we were expecting a little weather. But the scattered sqaulls seemed to turn into solid squalls. So we thought we’d try to show you a picture of the radar with one of those squalls approaching. It’s not a great picture but you get the idea. Liward is located in the middle of the screen and that big yellow blob is……well you know what that is! But the boat rode great since the wind and seas were behind us. We are use to this type of weather sailing off the Texas coast , so it wasn’t that bad! |
| 23rd Nov 2008 |
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| Caribbean Flamingos |
| Bonaire is known for their flamingos and we saw some right away! Their pink coloring is caused by the shrimps they eat. Bonaire is one of the few places left for them in the Caribbean. |
| 24th Nov 2008 |
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| Flying Flamingos |
| We got pretty close to this one before he got startled and flew away. We didn’t realize flamingos make such a squawking sound! |
| 24th Nov 2008 |
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| Salt Pans |
| The southern part of the island is dominated by the salt pans. This is where the salt is collected using the sun and piled into these pyramids. Big ships then come in to load it. In the 17-19th centuries Bonaire had one of the most successful salt industries in the world. |
| 24th Nov 2008 |
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| Steve's Brain! |
| The beaches are covered in pieces of coral, in fact there is very little sand. We were very lucky to find Steve’s brain...brain coral that is. So here’s Steve brain…….Here’s Steve’s brain on the beach……..Any questions? We did make sure to put it back. |
| 25th Nov 2008 |
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| Cruel Slave Huts |
| These restored slave huts show the cruelty that the slaves experienced working in the salt pans. The doorways were only about 3 feet tall so they had to crouch down to enter. And each hut housed 4 men. On weekends they were allowed to walk home to their families which was a seven hour hike. Slavery was not abolished in the Dutch islands until 1863. |
| 25th Nov 2008 |
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| Turquoise Lizard |
| Even the lizards in Bonaire pay tribute to the turqoise water. This little guy had turqoise strips, dots and feet. Looked like he had gotten into some paint! But its his natural color. |
| 25th Nov 2008 |
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| Steve will play for Gumbo! |
| He really will play for drinks and dinners! We have to do something to help with the financial storm! This job is the perfect location and commute....waterfront bars! |
| 26th Nov 2008 |
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| Beach Sculpture |
| The windward side of the island is very rough and windy, with lots of beach trash. Someone got artistic and left this piece of beach sculpture. It is amazing how much trash plastic ends up on the beach. There is a lot of open ocean on this side of Bonaire. The other numerous item is shoes! We have a friend who did a study and found that the ratio of left shoes to right shoes found on the beach is 7 to 1. So we are continuing his research. But we have come to the conclusion that if you lose your shoe offshore, throw over the other one so that someone has a chance of finding a complete pair! |
| 26th Nov 2008 |
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| Don't forget your Flip Flops! |
| Everything in Bonaire is based around water sports. So forgetting your flip flops is a real problem. The southern part of the island hosts a big wind surfing and kite surfing bay. This day we saw two pairs of shoes waiting to be claimed! |
| 27th Nov 2008 |
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| 1000 Steps |
| Bonaire is known for its beach diving. You can just drive around the island and stop at one of the dive spots and hit the water. The spots are marked with yellow painted rocks like this one called “1000 steps”. |
| 27th Nov 2008 |
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| Beach Access Diving |
| We SCUBA dove twice on Thanksgiving day so we decided to call it “Tank”sgiving day. |
| 28th Nov 2008 |
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| Arid Terrain |
| We almost thought we were in west Texas when we drove up to the northern part of the island. It is very arid with scrub vegetation. But we found mesquite trees! And just like Texas they use dried mequite wood for BBQ here in Bonaire! Some things are just universal! |
| 28th Nov 2008 |
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| Cactus Fence |
| Now this is using your natural resources. These fences are made from cactus cut from the plant and bent through the wire. Then the cactus starts growing again and you have a perpetual, inpenetrable fence! |
| 28th Nov 2008 |
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| Cactus Tree |
| This is the land of cactus and we thought this cactus tree was pretty impressive. They even cook a cactus soup here. |
| 29th Nov 2008 |
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| Whose in the Mirror! |
| Wild donkeys roam the island feely. This one decided to have a closer look. We could make some comments about the reflection in the mirror! |
| 30th Nov 2008 |
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| Caves |
| These are some caves that have Indian inscription from the original Arawak Indians maybe as far back as 300BC. In one of these caves, the star watcher or “simacan” could see the horizon and the coast to align the stars. |
| 30th Nov 2008 |
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| Indian Petroglyphs |
| Here are some of the inscriptions found on the cave ceiling. It supposedly shows stars, planets and, comets. The simacan was the living calender for the Indians! |
| 30th Nov 2008 |
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| Happy "Tank"sgiving |
| Steve is at home under the water as he is riding waves. But he did manage to find probably the one and only surfer on the island of Bonaire, “Tonky”. They caught some waves on the east side, along with some adventure like getting the truck stuck for two hours in the mud! |
| 31st Nov 2008 |
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| Fins Up |
| Liward was moored just right off the beach and one morning we had some snorklers come by and start up a conversation. Here are the girls with their “fins” up! We met these two fun couples from Annapolis and California who were sure enjoying the water of Bonaire. |
| 31st Nov 2008 |
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| Great Thanksgiving with New Friends |
| So we decided we would invite Elizabeth, Jen, Ryan, and Vic to the boat for Thanksgiving Dinner. We still had a stateside turkey tenderloin in the freezer from our last trip back to Florida and they brought all the sides! So we had a great evening complete with our hand-shaped turkey table decorations! |
| 31st Nov 2008 |
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| Angel Fish |
| The coral and fish in Bonaire were some of the nicest we’ve seen in the Caribbean. So we thought we’d share some of the underwater life we saw. Thanks Ryan for sharing some of your great photos! The French Angel Fish are very graceful and about the size of a dinner plate. They eat sponges, just taking a few bites and moving on to the next. |
| 31st Nov 2008 |
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| Banded Butterfly Fish |
| These Banded Butterfly Fish always seem to be seen in pairs. They just flit around the reef looking for food and don’t seem to be bothered by us! |
| 31st Nov 2008 |
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| Gold spotted eel |
| This gold spotted eel just looks like a snake! So even though its harmless it’s not Lili’s favorite! They usually hide during the day and can move around under the sand. |
| 31st Nov 2008 |
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| Sea Turtle |
| It is always fun to spot a turtle. We see plenty of them while we sit on the boat at anchor. They come up for a couple of breaths and then dive back under. Sometimes they are so close we can hear that first inhale! |
| 31st Nov 2008 |
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| Trunk Fish |
| We have nicknamed these trunk fish the “helicopter” fish cause they always seem to hover. And their little fins just don’t seem big enough for their body! |
| 31st Nov 2008 |
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| Spotted Eagle Ray |
| Right under Liward we “spotted” a Spotted Eagle Ray. We followed him for about 10 minutes as he was digging in the sand for mollusks. |
| 1st Dec 2008 |
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| Santa Arrives |
| Our last day in Bonaire we saw the kids all running down the waterfront and realized that Sanikolas or Sinterklaas was arriving by tug. On the front of the tugboat were the Zwarte Piet(Black Pete) in their dutch costumes with blackened faces. Legend says that Sanikolas will spend the next two weeks on Bonaire to see if his information on the kids is correct. On December 5th he’ll leave gifts in the shoes of the nice children who in turn leave grass and carrots for his horse. The naughty get put in Piet’s bag and taken back to Spain to be trained! So they passed right by the back of the boat……have we been naughty or nice this year! |
| 2nd Dec 2008 |
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| Klein Curacao |
| We hope to be in Cartegena for Christmas so its time to leave Bonaire for a day sail to Curacao. But we got a late start so we stopped in the little island of Klein Curacao. This is an uninhabited island which is extremely flat. Luckily there is a lighthouse located there. It is in bad shape but the light still works. |
| 2nd Dec 2008 |
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| Beach Hut Shopping |
| There are some empty huts on the beach for the tourists that come over sometimes so we decide to find one that we like. |
| 3rd Dec 2008 |
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| Room with a View |
| And this is it. Home sweet Home for the day. We hook up the two hammocks and make ourselves at home. But the flip flops get left by the door…….we don’t want to track sand inside! |
| 3rd Dec 2008 |
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| Uh Oh! |
| On the windward side of the island we see a sailboat crashed on the beach. We find out that the sailor fell asleep and ran right up on the island a few years ago. |
| 4th Dec 2008 |
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| Land Mark |
| And here was a freighter that also had a bad day. We could see this wreck for miles before we could even see the island. It seems that every island always has a wrecked freighter and it sure does take a long time for them to rust away. |
| 4th Dec 2008 |
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| Willimsted, Curacao |
| So now we are in Curacao. It is a little larger island, 37 miles long, with over 130, 000 people. The main town of Willemsted looks very European complete with a pontoon bridge and floating market. So we’ve bought some groceries and fixed a few boat projects and we are waiting on a good weather window to head to Cartegena, about 500 nautical miles! With any luck we’ll be there to celebrate Christmas…..or Feliz Navidad! |
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