Diving in!

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Fri 13 Dec 2013 22:03
Sunday has now officially been declared a day of rest on both Seaduced and Suzie Too. We all felt the need for a bit of exercise and as the island seems fairly flat, cycling was the way forward - or so we thought.
We had a bit of faffing around to do first thing though. Suzie Too had broken free of one of her mooring lines which, when looking underneath the boat, had chaffed through on the keel. As there were no more free moorings, extra lines were added to the block to hold her. We also had turned stern to the shore at least once during the night, most likely due to the lack of wind. One thing that is relatively common here is a 'wind reversal'. Although the winds generally comes from the east, our proximity to the land and currents of Venezuela mean that on occasion, the wind can be turned to westerly, pushing all the boats towards the shore. Bearing in mind we are only about 30 metres from shore, this would be an issue. There is usually a fair amount of warning before this happens and the marina staff do come out and ask all the moored boats to either leave, or head into the dock. Furthermore, the two moorings we are on are the most likely to be affected by any current, or so we are told. A fruitless search along the shore for another suitable mooring, means we have to stay where we are. And so passes the whole morning!
By 1pm we are all getting fidgety and ready to go cycling. We load the bikes onto the dinghy, remember how to unfold them once we get to the dock, pump up the tyres and we are ready to wobble off - all a little out of practice and more than a little unstable!

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Christmas cactus tree Bonaire style!

After about an hour we arrive at a beach bar cum surfer hangout, Jibe City, on the west side of the island, with a fabulous swimming area. After a well earned beer (or 3) and healthy salad lunch it is time for a swim. The water, as it is so shallow, is lovely and warm. Then it is time to head back, a different route this time which takes us past the flamingos hanging out on the lake. A quick call into the supermarket on the way home bags a few goodies for dinner.

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The fab beach at Jibe City.

The supermarket was a bit of a revelation - fantastic choice, but everything is labelled in Dutch, with hardly any English translations at all. The island as a whole speaks about 8 languages, Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese, the local dialect Papiamento, plus obviously some more I don't know about yet! The children are all taught in Dutch at school, and all the street and road signs are Dutch. It is very confusing and when you walk into a shop you never know how you will be greeted!
The main attraction here is the diving. The whole of Bonaire is a designated marine park with hundreds of species of fish on almost all of the 65 dive sites around the main island and Klein (Little) Bonaire.

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Klein Bonaire - there is nothing here not even a beach bar!

David & Suzanne are relatively new to diving so, for a first go, we just jumped in off the back of the boat, which is rumoured to be one of the best dives on the island. We swam down and along the wall behind the boat which was lovely. Nice and easy for a first dive. On Tuesday, we headed out to Klein Bonaire. The nice thing here is that although the area is a marine park, the authorities are perfectly happy for you to go diving on your own. Also, as well as boat diving, there are a lot of dives easily accessible from the shore.
In order to go a bit further afield, out of range of our dinghy, we signed up for a dive boat trip up to the north of the island on Wednesday. The two dives there were spectacular, with eels, turtles and more fish than you could shake a stick at - brilliant! The only problem was the sun going in between dives making it a little chilly, even the water temperature here is quite a bit cooler than we are used to at only 27 degrees, (yes, I know we sound a bit spoilt, but when you're used to 31+....)

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Lionfish - also a problem here as well as the rest of the Caribbean.

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A free swimming turtle - always a treat to see.

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To give you an idea of what it is like diving here

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Shivering on the way home on the dive boat!

Having realised that all we have done so far is have fun and socialise, (we joined in the local cruisers and divers get-together on Wednesday night and met a couple we last saw in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico last January), we are having a day of jobs and boring stuff today, (Friday). A bit of laundry, cleaning, emails, banking etc, all the things we have been putting off or ignoring all week. Suzie Too have headed to the dock to fix their watermaker and a few other smaller things. This hopefully will mean we have time to relax over the weekend and head back to Jibe City on Sunday where we fancy trying our hand at paddle boarding - watch this space......

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