Ahhhh....the sounds of Bonaire: the bomp, bomp, bomp of the bass blaring out of "Karol's Place"; the eardrum-piercing whine of pocket-rockets drag-racing along the short strip of "Main Street"; and, my personal favorite, the constant yap yap yap of the irritating little dog on shore, just off our bow. What is an island escape and visit to paradise to some is a re-entry into civilization for us! Albeit a gentle one, as Bonaire is a small lightly-developed island with crystal-clear water, beautiful snorkeling and diving...and the best Italian restaurant in the Caribbean. But, compared to Los Aves where the only sounds we heard were the lapping of the sea and the cries of the birds...it's still a bit of a jolt.

We arrived yesterday afternoon after a beautiful sail from Sotavento. Hey, I just called our sail "beautiful"! That's huge for me - I never thought I'd refer to an 8-hour sail as "a beautiful sail"! Truth be known, I don't really like "sailing" all that much. Never have. For me, the main appeal has always been about adventure and exploration; I've viewed sailing as sort of a means to an end...a way we can explore all these cool places in our own little "floating home". Kind of like a floating Eurovan.

But, it turns out there are a few parts of sailing I have found that I do really like: I like pounding into big waves (weird, I know); the challenge of short-tacking thru the shallow coral reefs; trying to "surf" down the big-but-not-big-enough waves (don't know that I'd like that if they really were big enough, though!); and the gentle sails where I can sit on the foredeck and contemplate life, listen to my IPOD, or whatever. But, overall, the sport of sailing is a bit too cerebral or mechanical for me, I guess. "Sheet the sail in, let the sail out, figure out how to rig this or that, blah, blah, blah" And then there are all those damn knots! I'm a bit of a mechanical buffoon, so all that knot-tying and line-rigging just doesn't come easy to me. And, let's not forget the throwing-up part...that's pretty fun!

Anyway, back to our beautiful sail before I convince myself again that I don't really like this "sport". Yesterday we were "running wing-on-wing", which means the wind was coming from behind us - that's the running part - and we had the mainsail out on one side of the boat with the genoa - the sail in the front of the boat - hiked out on the other side, kept in place by what's called a "reaching pole". That setup is the "wing-on-wing" part, which presents the maximum amount of surface area of our tired, old sails to the wind, and allowed us to sail an average of 5 knots in light to moderate winds (5 to 15 knots).

So, when the wind comes from behind so do the seas, of course. And "following seas" create the most uncomfortable motion for both Louis and I; we always get seasick. Our worst seasick episode ever was our very 1st sail from Bonaire to Curacao last May, with the previous owner, Bob. Both Louis and I were violently puking over the rail, and even that night as we anchored off "Klein Curacao" we were both still a bit queasy. Turns out we had a combination of food-poisoning and sea-sickness, but we didn't know it at the time. Bob must have really been wondering what the hell we were doing buying a sailboat - we certainly were! Anyway, another triumph about yesterday's sail for me was that I didn't take meds, (except for some natural stuff), and I didn't get seasick! Yahoo!!

Anyway, as we approached Bonaire in the late afternoon light, we turned beam-on to the winds, and our last hour or so was a beam reach in 15 knots of wind with calm, flat seas - a perfect end to our day!

p.s. Pictured above are the old slave huts of Bonaire; extremely hot, cramped quarters.