Logbook

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The weeks off the beaten track, barely without seeing another boat were beautiful and recharged our personal batteries, especially after the quite stressful time in Trinidad. But, at a certain point, any battery is fully charged and one looks forward again to new, different discoveries.

It was the same with us and we welcomed the change upon arrival on Bonaire. There were again many yachts. There were again shopping opportunities, many restaurants and more. Well, Kralendijk, the (only) town on Bonaire is not really huge, but there are possibilities. The Dutch influence, organized and European, is clearly visible. But it’s nice that the simple life of the Caribbean with lots of time is still present.

Without possibilities to anchor (sea grounds along the coasts deepen very quickly to several 100ft) we were tied to one of the many mooring buoys for the two weeks. Bonaire set these also due to ecological reasons – anchoring boats damage the corals a lot with their heavy iron hooks! The government is doing a lot in this aspect and Bonaire became worldwide one of the best protected marine environments.

There we relaxed, went shopping as desired, laundry hadn’t to be done by hand anymore, electronic contacts and ideas could be made again and Kyle had again new possibilities to explore (e.g. nice big playgrounds).

Of course we explored also the island from South to North. Next to the huge saline fields in the South we ran into heritages out of slaving times. Small groups of tiny little huts showed how those workers had to live. And we also saw our first flamingoes on Bonaire, although quite far away. But Kyle saw them and even recognized them in his little animal book.

The northern part of Bonaire has more hills which could already be called mountains. This area is covered by a big national park. On dirt roads one can observe real nature: bays with beaches, water spouting cliff formations but especially lots of quite dry vegetation – cactus by the ton! Iguanas are a further highlight. Close to a well we found dozens of them. The ‘tiny dinosaurs’ are used to humans and come (very) close quite fast – most probably and unfortunately they get fed by people too often. And of course we saw again flamingoes, many of them! They also are not stressed anymore by the cars driving by and the people observing them. That way we were able to get close to those big pink birds.

We not only went ashore but did lots of swimming without a beach – directly off our stern from the bathing platform. Especially Kyle had lots of fun with his little floaties on his arms. He swam or rather kicked quite some distances and discovered soon the ladder off our stern to climb up and down. Not much later he even jumped by himself off the bathing platform into the water! It’s really indescribable how beautiful and clean the water is.

Our further planning foresaw to welcome guests onboard in Curaçao. And the problems of our engine seawater pump and the maybe slightly bent prop shaft were not solved yet. Therefore we didn’t stay as long as many others and left this beautiful diving paradise without a single dive…

Pictures to this logbook entry: South Caribbean VI - Bonaire - North South Caribbean VII - Bonaire - South South Caribbean VIII - Bonaire - Turquoise Waters