We opted for an overnight sail to Bonaire with a view to arriving after sunrise and as it was about 30nm to the bottom of the island we needed to be doing less than three knots. Bearing in mind that 6kts for us is a good passage speed with all our sail up you might think keeping below three knots would be a doddle. Now we know how the rowing boats do it because with no sail up at all we were struggling to do less than 3.5kts! The boat headed perfectly in the right direction steered by the Hydrovane but it is important to distinguish between speed through the water and speed over the ground because, as you will of course recall from previous offerings, they are not necessarily the same. In the Caribbean there is a strong west setting current and combined with 15kts of wind from behind us, neither sails nor oars are required to maintain 3kts over the ground. So we arrived a little early at our first waypoint from where we had to change course to head NNE up the west side of Bonaire. With the wind from the east we needed some sail to maintain speed in the right direction and discovered that with a small amount of genoa we could maintain the right course. By reducing sail further and oversteering with the Hydrovane we found that the boat settled on the right heading and the speed fell to 1.5kts. It was a bit like heaving to but in a controlled direction. As a result we arrived at our second waypoint opposite the main town of Kralendijk (Crawlendyke for those of you not familiar with Dutch) bang on time.

There were two notable aspects about the voyage across from Grenada. The first was the stupendous lightning at night in the southern skies. The thought of one of these storms catching up with us was terrifying but fortunately nothing came within 48 miles according to the radar. The storms seem to be associated with the mainland and someone did tell us that people come to visit northern Venezuela just to watch the lightning. The second was a tiny stowaway that came aboard just as we were leaving our bit of Venezuela. It had all the characteristics of a swallow but without the long forked tail. Annie is researching the identity of the creature with our bird watching friend Jayne on Delphinus but at the moment it is either some kind of Martin or a juvenile Swallow. Either way it was after a roost for the night and hunkered down on the port rail close to the cockpit. We spent the whole night creeping around the boat trying not to make any noise, silently adjusting the genoa when we needed to, and closing the curtains to avoid shining any light on our stowaway. At one point I even had to crawl on my hands and knees along the opposite side of the boat to the bow in our efforts not to disturb it. He or she stayed with us until dawn. Thinking we had safely delivered it to Bonaire we were astonished to see (or at least I was, Annie being down below deeply asleep at this point) that after several minutes of vigorous preening it headed off - in the direction of mainland Venezuela!

Bonaire is one enormous dive site. The waters are pristine and for your boat the only options are the marina or a Park Authority mooring - anchoring is strictly prohibited as an anchor chain might catch on the coral and destroy structures that have taken centuries to build. We opted for a mooring buoy opposite the main town and climbed into the dinghy to go ashore only to find that the outboard engine wouldn’t start. Not a flicker. A quick look under the cowl convinced me that it was a lot more complicated than our old submersible Mariner and being a new engine it was a job for the professionals. Our new Swiss neighbour, Rito, kindly offered us a lift ashore but when he came across in his dinghy to pick us up his outboard failed to restart. So whilst Rito rowed back to his boat we inflated the kayak and gracefully paddled our way to the “dinghy dock” which is the jetty at Karel’s Bar where the tourists and yachting glitterati take their sundowners. As we arrived Annie nipped up onto the jetty leaving me still in the kayak, hanging onto the jetty and contemplating my own exit strategy. The only option was to pull myself up onto the jetty as I moved from sitting to kneeling to standing and then fully onto the jetty. As I pulled up the kayak slid sideways underneath the jetty taking the lower half of me with it, leaving me hanging on with my arms to the top of the jetty. I was completely stuck and as my strength waned so did my sense of humour. It’s amazing how Annie sees the humorous side of such incidents when not directly involved. By grabbing someone else's dinghy I was at least able keep my shoulders above water before ignominiously hauling myself up into their dinghy and then onto the jetty. 

It is really hot here and although a brisk walk was helpful in drying out my sodden clothing, even the locals are finding it too much at the moment. So imagine our joy at finding that Budget Marine (where owner Peter is the first port of call for sailors needing assistance) had moved from where shown in the guide to a location rather further away. Eventually we came across it only to find that the man himself would not be there until the following morning. After buying some new mooring lines we trudged back to Customs and Immigration where, mercifully, things were friendly and straightforward. We revived over a beer back at Karel’s.

The great thing about Bonaire (for us) is that it feels like we are moving into a new part of the world. It historically was a part of Holland, there is still a strong Dutch influence (a lot of Dutch residents and tourists) and many of the locals speak Dutch and Papiamento, the local patois, as well as Spanish and English, and it has much more of a South American feel than where we have been. The island economy is primarily diving tourism, salt production and for reasons yet to be determined a large oil terminal attracting huge tankers. So, plenty to explore and lots more diving………………………