We have been monitoring the weather very closely and hoping for a weather window to sail to Bonaire. So far it does not look very good. For the past few weeks we have had very windy days and nights in St. Marten and the long range forecast is for very windy conditions until the end of January. However, on Tuesday January 12th the forecast started to change and with any luck there was a short window opening up. We contacted our friend Denis Webster who provides forecasts to a group of cruisers FOD's (aka friends of Denis) to get his thoughts. The window was going to be short but long enough for us to get to Bonaire. The timing could not have been better as Ron Gow was flying in on Sunday January the 18th and he would do the trip with us.

We also had an opportunity to meet up with Kokopeli again before they depart on a trip back to Florida to sell their boat. If anyone is interested they have a Tayana 42 that is ready to go cruising. We met up with them and Lima at a place called The Yacht Club which is on the Dutch side for the bridge opening and of course happy hour and dinner.

In the meantime, our good friends on Plan to Sea were sailing over from Virgin Gorda and we had not seen them for 2 and half years. It was going to be a short visit but one we were really looking forward to. They arrived late Saturday and we met up with them for a few cocktails. On Sunday morning we met up with them and their cruising friends for breakfast at Sarafina's, a local popular french bakery. We the showed them where to buy groceries, beer and wine. The last stop was to introduce the to Michael and Sally of Shrimpy's Laundry and Yacht Services.

We spent a week getting ready for the trip to Bonaire. After 5 weeks in St Marten, Michael had stocked up the boat with many cases of beer and wine. Last minute food was purchased and meals were prepared. Additional fuel was purchased and the tank was topped up. Everything was put back in its designated storage spot. We were now almost ready to go. The plan was to leave Monday January 19th. Ron arrived late Sunday afternoon and we had a farewell dinner with Michael and Sally.