The 3.5 day passage to Bonaire started from Tyrell Bay, Carriacou on the 25th of October. Following outward clearances we took our documents to the fuel dock and topped up with duty-free fuel which is some of the cheapest fuel in the Windwards. The 390nm passage was slow, easy and uneventful (by the way, thats good) with mostly westerly gentle to moderate breezes. Along the way we caught a few barracuda and half a mahimahi that another fish saw an opportunity to take a piece of.

Bonaire was our first ever night approach into a strange anchorage however with reasonable residual light offering visibility and calm waters we managed to safely scout the mooring field till we found an available ball at 00:15 on the 29th Oct. And we didn't even manage to wake our neighbors on SV Fox (ex SV Moose)! We cleared in at the friendly Doane office the next day and then proceeded to Harbor Village to pay the $10/day mooring ball fee. The mooring consisted of 3x 3te concrete blocks that are wired together and 2x ⅝” polypro lines up to small buoys which we cleated back to our bows in 3m WD - only meters away from a 45m drop off. For an extra measure of security, I installed our own third dyneema line to one of the blocks as the weather forecast was calling for heavy clouds and winds which spells squalls to me. And sure enough during our few weeks in Bonaire we had numerous periods of high winds and squalls with associated thunder and lightening roll through. One struck just behind the boat, right onto the land, however the EMF (electro-magnetic forces) knocked out our wind instruments. Damn near knocked me out of my chair. For the next week I was continually checking the boat systems for any other damage but none was found. I did however have to replace our Raymarine ITC5 and wind transducer in Curacao which I was ordered and delivered from Defender.

For us, Bonaire is all about the water - its pristine, has great snorkeling and diving right from the back of the boat, 45m drop off, 60-80m viz. We met some wonderful cruisers and found the townsfolk quite friendly. It was also nice to hear some Dutch again (I lived for many years in Holland). The Jan Thiel (ex-Albert Hien) grocery store had an impressive assortment of foods - lekker Dutch cheeses, breads, ertensoup and more. Other than the dives viewing the coral and its fishy residents we dived the impressive Hilma wreck at 30m - twice. But despite Bonaire’s marine park status and abundant healthy coral, there is still a lack of large marine life - fish. Perhaps there are just too many divers about? We did see a nurse shark, rays, morays, tarpons. We did a lot of snorkeling including around Petit Bonaire with Irene and Duncan from SV Fox. And best of all - we got Rose introduced to scuba with some shallow dives around Emerald. She’s now hooked! We rented a car for 3 days and explored the national park in the north end of the island, photographed the flamingos and donkeys and circumnavigated the rest. Ive never seen so many cactus! Later we had our dear friends Michel and Linda from Holland join us onboard for three weeks of live aboard while in Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba.

It was a good day sail to Curacao and our first stop was Spanish Waters which is impressive at first sight but later that impression diminished as the water was to unclean for swimming and water-making - a huge change of activities from what we were doing in Bonaire. Buses run from the fisherman’s dock area into Willemstad and we cleared in. First to the Customs building and then across the cool floating bridge to Immigration. We also had to purchase anchoring permits for Spanish Waters and the other two bays we would later visit. Willemstad is pleasant, colorful but the walking along its inner streets reminded me of the Kalverstraat of Amsterdam. Fort Rif, which was once an impressive fortress, now encloses tourists shops and restaurants and caters to the clientele of cruise ships that visit daily. Later we sailed up to pleasant St Marta’s Bay with its very narrow and shallow entrance and spent a few days here and received visitors of Linda’s relatives that live in this area. The no-seeums are quite aggressive and we had coils out to combat them. Our next stop, back down the coast, was Piscadera Bay which was the most pleasant and we had it all to ourselves. An easy entrance, breezy and close proximity to buses to Willemstad and the Centrum (another amazing) supermarket. Angie from SV Antje, who we shared many an anchorage with in the Indian Ocean, dropped us a line that she was making a port call (she’s presently working on a cruise ship) in Willemstad. So we spent the day with her catching up, laughing and tasting fine rums.

Following our outward clearances of Curacao we day sailed the 80nm to Aruba. It was a 12hr sail on 25th November with fresh to strong breezes clipping us along nicely. Upon arrival in Oranjestad, one is required to pull your yacht alongside their wall at H-berth and this is not the best experience. It was blowing 20+kts and swelly and we managed to put a good nick in the gelcoat on the aft sugar scoop while docking. The immigration and customs officers took our papers and left and then returned some 10 minutes later and we were free to go. I certainly wont be docking here to clear out no matter what they say. We then sailed around to anchor off in Paardenbaai (Horse Bay) where there were 3-4 other yachts anchored at the end of the airport’s runway. Im not going to gloss over Aruba - its the epitome of Americanization - its over commercialized, lacks any local culture, expensive, casinos, a mini-Las Vegas. Daily cruiser ships and jets landing every 5 minutes. Horrible! Michel and Linda have a sister in Aruba and they disembarked here after a great 3 weeks with us. We spent the next day driving around with them, visiting the San Francisco light house and stopping in at yet an even more impressive supermarket - Super Foods. After all, this will be our last opportunity for good provisioning before we arrive in Colon a month from now.

So decided we would not visit Colombia and rather sail direct to the San Blas islands to allow us more time in this archipelago so Ive been busy studying the routes, weather, cruising books, researching the confusing Panama clearances and reading of the recent events following hurricane Otto’s destructive visit in this area earlier this week.

Let's go sailing!