We had a perfect weather window (15-20k, few isolated squalls) and great downwind sailing with the full main and the jib poled out wing and wing across the 425 miles of the Caribbean to Bonaire. At 6.4 knots per hour average speed, sometimes surfing down a wave at 10+ and sometimes battling current at 3.7, we thought we made great time! It took us 67 hours - about 12 fewer than planned, and we had to slow down so as not to come into a new port in the dark. Friends on Dulce Vita who were in St Thomas, and friends on Tusen Takk II who had traveled just before us to Bonaire in lighter wind - good trawler weather for them - held an SSB "watch" with us morning and evening all the way.

With just two of us, we managed four-hour watches at night and varied the schedule during daytime to allow Roberta to get some sleep as well as fixing meals, writing the log, listening to the morning weather broadcast on the SSB and chiming in on the morning and evening SSB nets. Days Capt. M did most of the steering spelled by R for daytime naps... it was quite nice until the wind picked up more than expected by as much as 10k and the auto pilot QUIT 26 hours away from Bonaire!

Those last hours were some tough ones. Already tired, this event made it really hard. The person hand-steering can only do that... not write in the log every hour, not pull on lines, not adjust anything, not go potty, and it is hard to even eat. At night, sailing becomes almost a video game, watching the wind gauge and the chart plotter. Roberta can only hand steer in rougher weather for about 2 hours max due to her rebuilt shoulders and just the sheer physicality of the effort. She sometimes uses her whole body to turn the wheel when a wave hits the boat a certain way!

We made it to Kralendijk, Bonaire at about 7:15 in the morning where great friends Barbara and Chuck from TusenTakk II (a lovely Kady Krogen trawler) welcomed us two exhausted sailors by dinghying over to hand up the pennants to our two mooring lines. Boy was it good to see their friendly faces!

Anchoring is not allowed in this gorgeous marine park, and the moorings each have two lines - one for each side of the bow just for extra insurance! Interestingly enough, we are moored right across from the Venezuelan Consulate!

Wanting a good night's sleep, we managed to stay awake all day until 7pm and then slept for 13 hours!

Three days later, Celilo has had the salt washed off, the auto pilot weirdly decided to work again when Michael tried to figure out what was wrong (so we now have to decide what to do with it before another crossing???!!!), and Roberta made a new courtesy flag - the Netherland Antilles ensign is no longer the appropriate flag. We have explored the cute little town, met new friends, and have begun to learn "the ropes" here (laundry, wifi, garbage, communications, dinghy docks, dive shops, grocery stores).

Michael has been in the water every day. He reports that the snorkeling right under the boat and to shore is spectacular. Roberta looks on longingly - she decided to let a bad rope burn on her left hand (her first one in all her years of sailing!) heal before diving in. The island map is ringed with dive sites... over 100 of them! We have collected info about renting tanks, paid our park fee, and hope to begin our season of diving soon. More later!