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Diane's DiaryNovember 3 Wednesday Bad news- Bush won the election again! I can't believe it. I really think he's a terrible President and definitely would have voted for Kerry. Bush won about 51% of the vote and Kerry has already conceded. More cloudy weather again today although the wind is up today. Larry started working on installing the new regulator today- except that was not the problem after all! Turns out it was a fuse not the regulator. So, we spent $400 for nothing and wasted so much time. Oh well, maybe we can sell the part in PLC. Anyway, the problem is all fixed now - he worked on it from 9-10:30. After that, we had to run the engine to charge the batteries, as they were low. I cut up vegetables and got the conch prepared to make conch fritters for lunch. It's another stormy day outside so Larry went to the Internet café in the afternoon and I stayed on the boat taking a nap and reading. Larry came back around 4:30pm. We had chicken Italiano for dinner tonight. In the evening, I read a bunch of new SSCA bulletins Larry just downloaded when he went to the Internet café. November 4 Thursday We have another cloudy, overcast day with no wind. We had rain during the night - not a lot- just enough to wake us up and have to close all the windows. We have mosquitoes again- not too many but enough to drive you crazy with their buzzing while we are trying to sleep. We had rain for about half an hour this morning. I made bacon and eggs for breakfast. I did a few emails and only got to update my logs by 1 day. We ran the engine from 9-10:30 and also ran the water maker. Hope we get some sun or wind soon- this is getting ridiculous! We went diving to Something Special at 11 am - a few dinghies were on it so we were able to join them. It's a nice easy close dive and I always enjoy it. I'm still coming up some at the end of the dive but now this weight is definitely correct- I'm just still a little nervous diving so think that's the problem. Around 5pm we stopped by Dolphin Street and Ishmael for a few minutes on our way into the Wanna Dive Thursday night party. We stopped and had an ice cream first. We always have a good time at this party and it's nice to get off the boat for a while. It's really the only time we go out of the boat at night. Sometimes we just get bored staying on the boat every night. November 5 Friday We have a very light wind so I was woken up during the night when it got hot in the boat. At 5:30am we were both woken up with more lightning and showers and both couldn't get back to sleep. At 9:30am we left for Immigration as our 2 weeks is up and we need to get renewed. Afterwards, Larry went to the Internet café and I walked down to the Warehouse supermarket- about a 15-minute walk away. However, they do drive you back to downtown for free. I managed to spend about $60USD but didn't buy very much as prices are very high. We got back to the boat and at 2:15pm we went diving to the Cliff - it's still about a 15-minute dinghy ride away but we didn't want to go any farther as it was already late in the day. We got back to the boat around 5pm and I started making pizza. However, I should not have made this tonight, as it was already late when I started making the dough and we didn't eat until after 7pm. It takes a while for the dough to rise so that's where you need some time. We actually had sun today - the first day in a long time. However, the sun was only out about 80% but it was better than nothing. We have a SE wind about 10knots so we are getting some sun although we are a little rolly since the wind is from the SE- not too bad though. November 6 Saturday Bonaire is having a charity swimming event today so all dive moorings around us are closed until 1pm when the event is over. We can understand that so will honor their request and not go diving (unless of course we just went off of our boat) until the afternoon. They raise money for charity with this year's monies going to help the hurricane victims in the Caribbean this year. So, Larry changed the oil and fuel filter today. I did some more laundry, Last year we never had this much rain so I saved up most of the laundry and only washed clothes a few times. We had a huge pile of clothes when we finally got back to PLC. This year we've had so much rain I have been able to keep up with the laundry on a regular basis. Of course we wear a lot more clothes here in Bonaire than we do in Las Aves or Los Roques- there we mostly just wear bathing suits. Anyway, I did have to use about 3 gallons of our water, as I didn't have quite enough rainwater to finish all the wash. We ran the water maker for 1.5 hours - the port tank is 3/4 full and the starboard the same except we also have a 5-gallon water jug all filled up so that would fill the starboard side. I also made a meatloaf and cut up some carrots for dinner. I'm tired when we come back from diving so it's nice to have dinner all prepared and ready to go into the oven. We didn't go diving until 2pm so it was too late to go very far so we just went to Something Special. I always enjoy this dive. We got back to the boat around 4:30pm, had drinks, dinner and spent the night reading. One thing I can say- most cruisers definitely read a lot! November 7 Sunday We decided to go to a newly reopened dive site called Petrie's Pillar that was closed last year. Apparently, the Marine Parks periodically close dive sites to help the site. We heard this site was very crowded with dive boats since it just reopened so decided to go around lunchtime so we would have a chance to get on the mooring. Most of the dive boats go out at 8:30 and 2pm but later we found out they also go out at 11:15am. We got to the site shortly after 12, there was a dive boat already there and we asked if we could join them. They were extremely nice, said yes and even helped us tie up. When they saw me with our water bottle they offered to fill it up for us which was very nice. I enjoyed the site a lot although Larry didn't think it was all that great. We had heard from the dive boat that a turtle was in the water so was anxious to see it. We looked for it on our return and did see it. Awesome! We didn't see it for very long though as it was swimming off. There was not a lot of fish at this site but I enjoyed the coral. I would definitely dive here again. November 8 Monday I made some cheese omelets for breakfast and read my book until we left at 10:15 am to pick up our dive tanks and go out to Klein Bonaire. We had about 60% sun- not great but far better than we had been having. We dove at Sampler. We had never been to this side of Klein Bonaire before and both enjoyed the dive. We had a SE wind so this was the lee side of the island today and very well protected. The coral was very good though there wasn't a great variety of fish. The dinghy ride back to Bonaire was a little hairy since we were against the wind and the current but it wasn't as bad as I though it was going to be. We got back to the boat around 1:30, had lunch and ran the water maker for an hour. We are down to less than 1/2 tank in our port side so we need to start running the water maker some more but aren't getting enough electric to do so. I had a problem with my regulator, as something is loose so we decided to go down to Carib Inn where we bought it to get it fixed. Bruce fixed it at no charge- something just needed to be tightened with a special screwdriver. I called a bunch of rental car companies for car rates- most companies had mainly stick shift cars, which I can't drive, and Larry isn't so great at either. So we wound up going with Hertz although the car is almost $43 day and doesn't have AC. We want to go up to the national park this year and you have to have a jeep to go up there as the roads are very bad. Hope we get up there as the road is often closed when it rains. Anyway, we got back to the boat around 5:30pm. November 9 Tuesday We have no wind; no sun and almost 100% cloud cover. We listened to the weather and George said we are going to get thunderstorms today - another trough again - ugh! We certainly have had our share of bad weather out here. He also said we would have SW- W winds for the next few days. Great! We heard that Anita from White Tiger passed away and was very sorry to hear about that. It's the third cruiser we have known this year that has passed away. I made homemade tortillas and taco salad this morning so we could have it for lunch. While I was doing it, Larry went into the marina to get rid of the oil, dump the garbage and bring in the propane tank. Our mattress is getting bad again and think we need to buy another one. We had gotten it replaced in Trini a few years ago but they are not the same quality mattress as a bed at home and don't last that long. Anyway, we are both not getting great nights sleep as the bed is bothering our backs. Don't know where we can get it replaced though - the foam in VE is the cheap stuff and doesn't last very long. Anyway, we took a walk to Kooyman and to the Chinese junk store. The weather was dark and gloomy and it looked like it was going to rain. Not a good day to be diving. Larry went to the hardware store and I to the Chinese junk stores- there are two of them. Anyway, the hardware store closed for lunch at 12 so since we had just gotten there Larry couldn't buy anything as it was closing. It turned out good that we left anyway as the sky was very dark and ominous looking. It looked like it was going to rain shortly and about 2 blocks away from the boat it started to rain- not too hard but by the time we got back to the boat it was pouring out with a strong West wind. It came down so hard we had to close up all the hatches and put the hatch boards in as the companionway was getting wet. We had a very severe thunderstorm with lots of rain, thunder, lightning and west wind with winds up to 25 knots. This was not good and we carefully watched Destiny. Our stern was perpendicular to the shore and we were afraid the mooring line might break. We are only about 100 feet from shore anyway. Thank goodness we were onboard and still not shopping! The storm lasted for about an hour. After we had lunch I tried to take a little nap but never got to sleep. I was going to make some brownies but the boat was rocking a bit so I decided to hold off a while and just do some emails instead. Then bam - out of nowhere we got these huge west swells coming into the anchorage. The boat started rolling about 40 degrees and we were not comfortable at all! Should we go into the marina or not? Will the swells just quiet down in a few hours? Will there be space in the marina if we wait and decide to go later as many boats were heading into the marina? If we were going in, we should get in before dark while we can still see. Also we did not want to get a middle slip as this would mean a med mooring and we certainly didn't want that! Dolphin St passed by in the dinghy- they were going into the marina to see if there was going to be space. On the way back, they said they were going into the marina. I wasn't keen on spending the extra money as we just spent $400 to have the boat part shipped in. Larry said it was up to me to decide. Everyone seemed to be going into the marina and we all were afraid the mooring lines would break or we would have to go into the marina at night when there was no one around to help us. George said we are going to get West winds for the next few days anyway so I decided we should go in. Larry had to take the dinghy down and this was some feat as the boat was pitching so much. It was 5:45pm by this time and we wanted to get in before it got dark which was within the next half hour. We had to take down the forward awning, cockpit curtains, get the fenders on, and put things away that were sliding around. Larry's toolbox with all of his nuts and bolts came flying out of a drawer and scattered around the boat. No, we were not comfortable at all at the mooring! Lots of things were falling all over the boat. Dolphin Street went into the marina first and said we could still get a side-to slip so this cemented our decision to go into the marina. Since many other boats were also going in we might not get a slip at all if we waited much longer. We actually wound up getting the last side-to slip available although it was in a terrible location - right near the local fishing boats. Also, it will be a difficult slip to get out of with the fishing boats right here but the marina said they would help push us with their dinghy when we go to leave. We were actually lucky to get them to turn on the electric- apparently they don't turn it on until you give them a credit card and by this time the marina office was closed. It turns out that all but 3 cruising boats came into the marina including all the catamarans. That shows you how bad it was out there! Anyway, it's nice to have free showers, cable TV and a small pool again! It's also nice that we're not rolling anymore! However, the marina is very hot with lots of mosquitoes. We need to get some screens tomorrow as we got bitten alive with all of them even though we sprayed the boat well. November 10 Wed Larry and Tom, from Ishmael, walked to the hardware store this morning- we definitely needed screening so we could make some mosquito nets. I made butterscotch brownies from my favorite cookbook- they came out excellent! I also made some bread as we were out and there wasn't a store nearby. Well there is a small one but I'm not sure if they had bread. After lunch, I did some more laundry as we filled up 3 buckets of rainwater from all the rain we had last night. I also helped Larry with making the screen. By this time, my hands were really hurting. I really notice the arthrosis the most when I have to wring out clothes using my hands a lot. Anyway, we only finished making 1 screen since it took so long to do. So, we put it up in our bedroom, & had to close off the rest of the boat so we didn't get the mosquitoes in. We did put our old screens into the 2 small hatches plus had the small hatches in the galley & aft cabin opened. Ishamel lent us the movie, "Das Boot", the new released Director's format. I wanted to watch it but Larry wanted to watch a TV movie - True Lies. We had already seen this before several times & I wasn't interested in watching it again. So I just read while he watched TV. |