Bonaire again
Winya_wynah
Thu 26 Mar 2009 19:11
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Still on a mooring off Kralendijk, we are almost
ready to leave having got Chartplotter/GPS up and running again. We have
found some rust remover that has us cleaned up like a new pin then a little more
marine polish and we'll be our own signalling mirror.
Alot of boats are leaving as crews are only granted
90 day stays and as some came for Xmas they need to move on. That
puts an end to the Thursday Happy Hour, Friday bridge and the Sunday
dominos I guess. Also the Thursday clean up where divers and snorklers
gather debris from Hurricane Omar, still on the bottom since last year, and load
it on to a Marine Parks boat for them to dispose of. Last week A
helped swimming around for nearly 2 hours. This week it was cancelled as
they could not spare Park staff.
It will be sad to leave this mooring as we have a
full aquarium just off the back. We are safe on the mooring with a few
very protective damsel fish defending the concrete blocks we are secured
to from any fish they don't approve of, or any snorklers they take a
dislike to including us. The British Army probably don't have as many
Sergeant Majors as we have under the hull, waiting for a hand out I think.
We have a pair of French Angel fish come to greet us whenever we get into the
water, and some big trumpet fish trying to be inconspicuous hanging amongst the
finger corals and weed. My favourite by far is the octopus, I have a daily
game of hide and seek with him/her although it does not appear to be
my turn to hide yet I still play. S/he can be almost as pale as the sand
and sandy rocks just before the reef or darker deeper amongst the coral.
Yesterday was a good ploy, the colour of rust, he was in the end of a pipe
(possibly an old lamppost, debris from Omar perhaps) with just body showing
and eyes sticking up he looked for all the world like a hinge on the end of the
pipe. Don't think I would be as good at the hiding bit anyway. Yellow and
purple hog fish make up a local clan,they seem to have alot of babies in
the shallows too. Finally a midnight blue parrot fish very elegant but shy
swimming into the depths of the reef when we approach.
Today it has rained hard a couple of times so
cleaning all the dust from the decks while we can, be nice to look white
again.
Then there is just the job of provisioning for the
weeks ahead and filling up the water tanks, and lastly clearing
customs.
Next you should find us in the San Blas Islands
heading for the Panama Canal - we still need 3 line handlers...
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