Bonaire
17 January 2025 | Bonaire
Donna Cariss

As predicted, I didn't sleep and as Pete awoke for the toilet at 3am, we decided to depart Spanish Water. There was a three quarter moon, well on its way to setting but it would provide some light for navigating the other vessels at anchor. Pete raised the anchor, with me on the helm and we slowly made our way around the back of the boats around us, before Pete took over the helm and I moved to navigation. There was a local yacht with 2 strobe lights, one at its bow and the other at its stern, flashing alternately, which caused us some confusion, as they were about in line with some channel markers. The pilotage out of the anchorage and through to Sandals resort was stressful, especially once the moon had set and the channel became narrow and shallow. At one point, Pete turned the wrong way, confusing himself, as we were heading south, so what is a turn to starboard on screen is a turn to port. Eventually, we cleared the channel and turned towards the east, along the south coast of Curacao. At this early hour, there was no wind and we appeared to have a following tide, so we pushed on, under engine, through the dark, identifying other vessels via their lights. We saw a cruise ship coming towards us and a couple of tankers alongside. We could also see the lights on Klein Curacao. We passed north of Klein at around 0620 hours, as the dawn was breaking beautifully and we were treated to a sunrise unobscured by clouds. The swell was around 0.8 metres, on the nose, along with the wind but the trip wasn't as bad as we had expected and we continued to average around 5 mph, under engine. At 8am, I went back to bed and slept for just over an hour. On my return to the cockpit, we spotted a catamaran on the horizon behind us. Was it Chase and Natalie on Benevah and would it catch us up. The answer to both questions was no and they didn't arrive until early afternoon. We picked up a visitor buoy outside Nautico Marina at just after 11.30am and were pleased to have made the trip back east in 8.5 hours. We were back in the crystal clear waters of Bonaire.
We launched the dinghy to go ashore. We weren't far from the dock, so we would not be needing to use the outboard engine. Pete could row instead. The customs office was located by the cruise ship dock, a short walk down the promenade. They were friendly and efficient and having cleared the boat in, they said that Immigration were on their way to meet us. The formalities completed, we headed to the tourist office to enquire about paying our tourist tax, US$75 per person, per visit. The office was closed until Monday, so we went in search of lunch. We found La Cantina, a brewery and eating house, with a lovely courtyard and a chatty bar tender from Alaska. It was great to have real beer, rather than lager, for me, at least. I tried the Bonaire White Sands, which has a citrus taste to it. We ordered chicken wings and bitterballen, both were delicious and plentiful. La Cantina would become our favourite place in Kralendjik. We found a Chinese run supermarket to buy a couple of things. It was called 'Top Supermarket' but was anything but, with a strange collection of goods and an unfriendly guy at the checkout. On our way back to the boat, we bumped into Chase and Natalie on their way to clear in. Back on board, we had a swim. It was like being in a bottle of Bombay Sapphire; crystal clear water which appeared bright blue from the surface. We were unsure who to contact to pay for the mooring buoy but assumed that someone would call round to see us at some point. Sure enough, Raoul turned up at 4pm and instructed us to go to the marina to clear in, pay our tourist tax and pay for the buoy, before 5pm. We gathered our papers again and hastened back into the dinghy. It was about a 15 minute walk north to the marina. By 5pm we were US$395 poorer, having paid for 7 nights on the buoy at $35 plus tax per night and $75 each for tourist tax. The lady also explained that we would need to pay another $40 each if we intended to visit the national park or to enter the water within the marine park. We never paid this fee, as we didn't manage to get a trip to the national park and we didn't scuba dive or snorkel, other than right by the boat. Before getting back on board, we had a beer at 'It Rains Fishes', the rather upmarket bar and restaurant opposite the dinghy dock and were surprised to be charged only $11 for 2 beers., not cheap but not off the scale either. We cooled down again with a beer float, off the back of the boat, bobbing up and down on our noodles, had dinner, followed by a couple of G&Ts and a fabulous sunset. The cruise ship had still not departed when I went to bed around 8pm. That's unusual as most ships leave by 6pm, so they can open the casinos on board. It was a quiet night and we both slept soundly.
I was up at 6.30am on Saturday, feeling refreshed and raring to go but Pete slept on for another couple of hours. At 9am we visited Epic Tours, to pay the charge for using the dinghy dock ($10) and a deposit for a gate key. We walked 25 minutes to the laundry, did a full wash and dry and then walked another 15 minutes to the Warehouse supermarket, which was fantastic. However, they charged us for 72 beers instead of 12, which took about 20 minutes to sort out. We collected the laundry bag on our way back and called into La Cantina for a beer but had lunch on board this time. We had a swim and watched an osprey hunting around the boat. We had agreed to meet Chase and Natalie at El Bigote, a Mexican restaurant out towards the marina but when we arrived, they were fully booked. As it turned out, Chase and Natalie were downtown still, so they acquired a table at Hanging on Sunsets, overlooking the sea. We had fizz (the girls) and beer (the boys) and tacos. The food was great but the bill a bit pricey at $123 per couple. We rowed back to the boat and had another good night's sleep.
On Sunday morning, Pete woke up full of cold (or man flu), so it was a slow start. I persuaded him to come ashore and do the historic town walk. It wasn't very impressive, to be honest, although the town is pretty and charming, with lovely shops, bars and restaurants. We had beer and bitterballen at Bubbles and returned to the boat so Pete could spend the afternoon sleeping. The night was disturbed by loud music and revving motorbikes, until 3am, not to mention Pete's snoring.
Monday, we walked to Budget Marine, to purchase a spare impeller and a new 20 litre diesel tank, as one of ours had split around the nozzle. We dropped the tank off in the dinghy before making our way to Warehouse again, to do a larger shop. Lunch was a shared grilled ham and cheese at Rumba Cafe. In the afternoon we snorkelled around the boat, seeing a box fish, many zebra fish and other small fish. Just behind the stern, there was a sudden drop off to about 20 metres. For the previous few evenings, the people on one of the German catamarans had been playing loud music in the late afternoon and early evening but not today. Pete swam over to ask why not. They were worried that people were annoyed by it. That's how we met Karsten and Maria on Makarena. They shouted us over to join them for a beer but we had lifted the dinghy, the tea was ready and Pete was still full of cold, so we took a rain check. Tonight's sunset included a green flash and then we had a full moon. We had rain during the night.
Tuesday was a very wet day and there was flooding in the streets of Kralendjik. Pete slept late but eventually we ventured ashore to Pier Dos for a beer, where we were soon joined by Chase and Natalie. There were lots of Brits around, as the P&O ship was in. Back on board, once the rain stopped, we watched Karsten and his friends playing on wake boards and a motorised board, which kept us entertained. The rain returned, along with mosquitos, so all the hatches had to be closed overnight.
On Wednesday we took a sightseeing tour around the island, excluding the national park. Unfortunately, nobody will run a tour for just 2 people, so unless you are holidaying in a group, you have to do tours with the cruise ship passengers, which means seeing things in a rush, due to the limited time they have ashore. We spent the morning jumping in and out of the little minibus, taking photos, with no stop longer than 10 minutes. The salt flats were interesting, in their different shades of pink, depending on how many of the bacteria were still alive. This area is famous for pink flamingoes, which get their colour from the bacteria but there weren't very many around today. Sorbon Beach was lovely, where the kite surfers and windsurfers go. It would have been nice to spend a couple of hours there. The north of the island was mainly nice sea views and a view of Klein Bonaire from Seru Largo. The local life museum certainly wasn't anything to write home about. We missed the distillery, as we ran out of time, having been held up by the many golf buggies being driven around the island by tourists. We had lunch at La Cantina, used the ATM to replenish our stock of US dollars, for the rest of our trip and returned to the boat. We had sundowners on Makarena with Karsten and Maria, where I also met their cat, Balou.
Thursday would be our last day on Bonaire. We had decided to return to Curacao on Friday, as the wind was forecast to pick up strongly from Saturday onwards, with an increase in swell and a lot of rain. It would be our last chance to snorkel on some of the reefs, so we tied the dinghy to our buoy and set off for Klein Bonaire in the yacht, under engine. You can tie your boat to buoys around the island and along the coast of Bonaire, to dive or snorkel. Halfway to the island, the engine overheating alarm went off. Pete went over the side with mask and snorkel but there was no blockage in the water inlet. The impeller was fine too. The antifreeze was low again. Pete topped it up and we motored back to our buoy. There would be no snorkelling today. Pete changed the air filter and then went to Budget Marine for more antifreeze, a filter and a strainer for the watermaker. I waited in Pier Dos, having a coffee, as my flipflop decided to fall apart. There I met Chase and Natalie, who had been joined by friends, Ashleigh and Chris, the first to arrive for Natalie's 40th birthday. Pete and I went to La Cantina for the final time and then to customs to clear out. We had a swim and I could see something large below me in the water. Pete had his mask and snorkel, as he was scrubbing the log wheel. He took a look and there was an eagle ray, which he followed all the way to the dock, where he watched it feeding. In the evening, we met Chase, Natalie and friends at El Bigote for Mexican, which was a fantastic night. We were sad to say goodbye but hopefully we will meet again in the future. Overnight, the motorbikes were revving again, well beyond 3am.