Klein Bonaire and New Year
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Sun 3 Jan 2010 04:20
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Klein Bonaire is a small deserted island opposite the
capital Kralendijk and about 0.7 miles by dinghy. It is very flat and covered in
scrub, but has dive/snorkeling sites all round it. We made the trip across
twice. The wind was behind us when going which of course meant we were
bashing into it on the way back, so just as well that we had wetsuits on as
being quite small, the dinghy ships a lot of water when going into a big
chop.There is a water taxi across, but at £10pp we went on our own. Possibly for
that reason there are never many people over there.
 The main beach on Klein Bonaire, looking
north west.
 The same beach looking the other way, with the
mainland on the left.
 Wetsuit rolled down to the waist and coral shoes
on - didn't want to step on something sharp or with
teeth!
 Over the edge! - the seabed literally goes
over a cliff down into very deep water.
The coast all round Bonaire has a narrow shelf and then
plummets into the deep. It makes for good snorkeling when over the edge. You can
look out into the deep for big fish and turtles, and back to the shallows for
the common reef fish.
 A Filefish
 A small Yellow Spotted moray eel with a Soapfish
wrapped around the rock.
 Fish a bit closer home - Sergeant Majors
under the boat. My attempts at antifouling the propeller haven't been too
successful.
A primer, 2 coats of hard antifouling and 2 coats
of soft antifouling are all starting to come off after just a month in the
water.
 A Palmeto in the shallows - it's bigger than
it looks at about 2ft long.
The New Year here definitely came in with a bang!
It's our Bonfire night and New Year all rolled into one. Fireworks were
being let off from Boxing Day, but on New Year's eve they were being let off
every few minutes from 6pm onwards and at midnight there were fireworks
going off in all directions. All the hotels, the bars and individuals, all
completely uncoordinated and it went on for an hour and a half non-stop. We've
seen better fireworks, but never sustained for this long and the noise was
deafening - we could have been in a war zone for 90 minutes!. They included
Chinese-type fire crackers that were 20 yards or more long and the biggest
bangers we have ever heard - more like mortar shells! We finally got to bed
at 02.30.
Now we're completing all the sorting out and other jobs that
we couldn't do in Trinidad (such as replacing the teak dowels on some of the
deck screws - we have about 50 to do). Then it's preparation for the next
passage. The trip along the Colombian coast is the Caribbean's Bay of Biscay.
It's always a lot windier and the continental shelf is very steep, so the seas
build up quickly. We are planning to go well off shore (50 -100 miles or
so) and it should take 4 to 5 days. So we're studying the forecast on a
daily basis and hope to leave in about a week, but not before we have hired
a car and had a look at the island and its flamingos,
Much to our amazement our spare fridge controller has arrived,
in Panama..It came from Annapolis in the States and we had the
choice of getting it sent here, and probably having to wait for it, or getting
it sent to a marina in Panama. We chose the Panama option as the marina there
said they would hold it until we arrived. So it was ordered on the Monday after
Christmas and much to our surprise it arrived at the marina in Panama
on New Year's Eve. Some friends who have already reached Panama have
already picked it up and will hold on to it until we see them again in
February.
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