Leaving Antigua was hard, but it was great to be at sea again and as the Tot club rum haze cleared to remember our objective and look forward. It was a great sail, but rolly to Bonaire, here are the log entries for the trip.

Wednesday 22/02/12 N14 23 W65 19                                                               Log 5574      Miles Covered 13,146         

Our first full day at sea. Goosewinged with no pole I was beginning to regret not buying a new one in the USA, I was hoping to find something second hand, that will teach me now we were rolling around with the headsail flogging and then filling with an alarming bang, we cant do the Pacific like this!!!

Last night the generator stopped for the very first time, after all those hours (550) oif perfect service, Typical. I actually impressed myself by having a rum to think things through and then successfully diagnosing a broken impellor blade blocking the water system, repaired at sea, another drink to celebrate!!

A&A watched ‘Lost’ all day and we had a night watch whilst Phaedra slept singing and playing guitar. New watch system, Skipper 24 on and 0 off!!! Novel but sustainable, not so sure. 164 miles run.

Thursday 23/02/12 N12 31 W67 50                                                                  Log 5773      Miles Covered 13,345         

Great sailing, wind changed to the east and we started to make good speeds, 199 miles run today midnight to midnight.

Friday 24/02/12 Bonaire                                                                                 Log 5828      Miles Covered 13,400         

We had to slow down in the morning to arrive in daylight. The island appeared low lying and at first it was difficult to identify the off lying island, eventually picked up a buoy at 0745 whilst crew slept. I went ashore to clear in but everyone was needed and so I toured the town and looked for a diving shop. Also found Budget Marine and enquired about batteries…amazingly I could have got AGM batteries well five at least, now for decisions as the batteries do seem okay at the moment. Had lunch at a Balinese restaurant..Aston had Iguana Stew! In the afternoon Aston and I went to buy a diving license and have a bouyancy test..we passed and then had our first dive alone on the beautiful reef.

Saturday 25/02/12 Bonaire                                                                                                                                            Log 5828      Miles Covered 13,400                                                                                   

Aston and I were up early to dive, two dives from a boat that were stunning. After dives we went to service our own regulators and buy Aston a mask and fins, he now has better stuff than me!!!! Lunch with Phaedra and Atlanta in a Indonesian influenced  café whilst it rained hard outside and then back to boat for an evening of Risk!

Sunday 26/02/12 Bonaire                                                                               Log 5828      Miles Covered 13,400         

We took the dinghy along to the dive shop and hired four bottles for our first real expedition as divers, without any guides or instructors. Our small 9ft rib became the dive boat and poor Phaedra and Atlanta had to sit on top of tanks and BCD’s as we made the ½ hour passage across top the dive sites. The ‘girls’ played on the beach (well I don’t think Phaedra did much playing!) whilst Aston and I had 45 minutes of beautiful coral gardens and amazing fish, Aston saw a turtle. To compensate P for not having had a great lunch out and for having to come and wait on a tropical beach in the sun (and wind I must admit) I took her for dinner and then the dangerous Sambuca in the bar next door whilst the children stayed aboard. It is great that we can now do this although we never go far and we always have a VHF radio for contact…their radio names are ‘Deep Blue’, mine ‘Hammerhead’…..for no good reason!