It has been something of a tedious day today. No sailing wind and the old faithful Perkins droning away on a grey and overcast day, interspersed with light rain showers. The forecast is for much of the same tomorrow.

So I sit hear at the “nerve centre” of Zipadedoda, communicating with the world, checking weather reports and generally passing the time in as meaningful way as possible.

We did have some wind briefly at 0700 this morning. So it was with much excitement that we got out the Genoa. (The main was already fully up).  But the wind became cyclonic and eventually dropped to less than 4kts apparent.  So it was back to 1500rpm and pushing onto Bonaire. Our normal cruising speed under engine is 7.5knots BTW in flat seas. But for several hours today, we had strong surface currents (in our favour for a change) and so we were achieving 9.5+ knots SOG.

We tried fishing as well. This did create some excitement when on one occasion it looked like a Gannet was going to swoop down and take the lure. But thankfully he changed his mind at the last minute, and passed up on a tasty morsel,  that might have given both of us more excitement than we bargained for! We did also have something quite big on the line for a while, but I had been asleep down below, and by the time we put the engine in gear, together with my befuddled brain. Our fish was off! Made a mess of the line though, so I suspect it had been a Wahoo.

This is quite a busy shipping lane with VERY large tankers and container ships passing us relatively slowly, usually in the dark. So we call them up on the VHF radio for a chat, just to make sure they have seen us! Then agree who is going to give way. This can be something of an achievement when the guy on the other end of the VHF radio is Chinese and has very limited Ingerish………., and is driving a 500,000 ton super tanker, travelling at twice our speed, plus some!!

There was a stunningly “moody” sunset tonight.  Let’s hope it bodes well for tomorrow. All being well we will be in Bonaire by 10PM local time tomorrow. Then it is a case of refuel, replenish stores and a quick Taxi ride around the Island before heading off for the San Blas Islands on Sunday.

So little time and so much to see………………………….