It's now Friday and it's been a sort of busy week. As I wrote about our Xantrex Link 2000 going crazy, at one time it was showing us using 250 amp hours. Just not possible so after reading the manual(I've read it countless time but another one wasn't going to kill me)I detached the wire to the main battery bank shutting off the Link. Waited 45 seconds and plugged it back in. Came on just fine but still reads that I'm using about 9 amp hours at any one time. Something is bleeding off some amps some where. I turned off all the master switches in the electrical panel and it still showed the same. As the battery voltage wasn't taking it in the shorts, I'm just going to leave it alone for a couple of days and see if it continues. There are a lot of systems that are hardwired right into the banks(thanks to a previous electrician)that finding the exact one would be a real hit or miss job. Plus, I've had this before and it seems to straighten itself out eventually.

It's been cloudy and overcast all this week, at least until yesterday when we(more like me) decided it was time to get off the boat and go grocery shopping again. Yesterday, just to make it hotter, it decided to be a beautiful HOT, SUNNY day. We headed in after the primary battery charging and then took off with our cart for the different stores. Most are all in the same two block area making it easy to shop between the stores for the better buys and see who is cheaper. It's about 1.5 miles to the stores with some places having sidewalks but most not so it's down into the hard pack dirt beside the road making sure to get the occasional stone inside my Crocs. We hit the farthest store(Van Der Twill) first and enjoyed their air conditioning. Nice to cool off. We slowly browsed up and down all the aisles tossing in the occasional items but since we had stocked up so much in the US Virgins, there really isn't that much that we needed. Total bill for this store was about $50. We did stop at the end of our shopping and had one of their "Toasties", a ham and cheese sandwich nicely toasted like a Panini. Cost was only $2.25 for each one so it's a great deal. Meanwhile, we used their free internet to get some computer stuff done.

On to the Grocery Warehouse were we again went up and down the aisles choosing from this and that. We'd noted some of the prices from the earlier store since we knew that the Warehouse had the same stuff since we had seen it during an earlier trip but couldn't remember the costs. Most were close or the same price but some were cheaper. We did find that they sold chubs of hamburger for just about $3.49 for a pound(from the US!). Much cheaper than buying fresh plus it comes frozen so it's easier when it hits our Engel freezer back on board. Again, our bill was just over $50.00 and we took off for Digicel. We'd stopped by on the way out but they were quite busy and we knew we would enjoy their air conditioning after our return walk.

We stopped in and after a short wait(darn it) we got our internet re-topped up as they couldn't do it the last time we were there. We left nice and cooled off and headed for Puff, a short walk away and then back to Zephyr to store everything.

This morning, as Tracy was preparing French Toast, she pulled out the loaf of bread we'd stowed in the fridge only to find that mold had found it's way into the bag. Now we are very careful with bread knowing that they don't use the preservation methods we use in the US. No preservatives in the normal loaf you can buy here(and most of the rest of the world). Need a slice? Get a pair of tongs and reach in carefully not touching the inside of the bag with your hands and pull it out. Reseal the bag and put it back in the fridge. Even being this careful, we had mold so it's back to town and off to the closest store(Tops), a smaller grocery store that sort of close to the docks and has some thing that we run out of regularly. No big hurry as bread isn't big on our menu

We've had an influx of boats this morning with several being from Brazil. It's time for boats in the Caribbean to find a place to hide for the hurricane season. We're one of the few US boats here in Bonaire. We got used to seeing so many US flagged boats up in the Virgins, it's almost strange at the lack of them here. Lots in Grenada and Trinidad but not here. Oh well, it's a nice place to spend some time. Always a breeze with good shopping and not the expensive internet we've found on other islands. In the morning, I tend to turn on the radio to listen to some music and I just can't find an English speaking station. Now when you listen, you hear the occasional phrase in English but for the vast majority, it's Dutch. Luckily, English is spoke by just about everyone here on the island so communication with locals is easy.

We checked out Budget Rent A Car on the walk back from the grocery store and found we could have rented a pickup truck cheaper than the golf cart we rented a couple of weeks ago. Sure would have been kinder on our joints. We may rent one in a couple of days and tour the island again, this time seeing the big National Park on the north west corner of the island.

It's now Saturday morning and the two boats off our port side took off early this morning probably headed for Curacao. It's only about 40 miles but if you leave early, it's easy to get there during the day. Where we have to take moorings, there, it's an anchor fest. We've read of people yelling at boats as they come into an anchorage telling them they can't anchor where they want to as it MIGHT be where their chain is on the bottom. It will be interesting when we leave here to see what it's like. The two boats that left this AM didn't stay long and we never saw them do any diving but they did some swimming around their boats. If you don't dive, other than it being a better place to hide from a hurricane, with a charge of $10.60 per day to use a mooring, it's not a cheap place to stay though it is cheaper than in St. John in the USVI where the National Parks charge any where from $13.00(Senior citizen price) to $26.00 for younger peoples boats.

Yesterday afternoon, I took one of our big tubs and a mop and tried to get our "dirt dunes" off the deck. It's like sand dunes only dirtier. It took some scrubbing and rinsing but I got rid of most of them. Still more there and it's on any canvas that's out there(sail covers, etc)so until we get free flowing fresh water, it could be a while till the canvas gets washed. It rarely rains here and if it does, it's for just a few drops before the clouds pass us by.