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Diane's Diary

Bonaire 2005 - Part 5

November 4 Friday

This morning we dove at the site Andrea I, as we had not been on the site yet this year. It was OK but Petrie's Pillar right next door is definitely a lot better. When we got back to the boat, someone on the dock said customs was at our boat, as they were to all other boats in the marina, looking for boat papers. Larry said we should go back to Immigration this afternoon as we were supposed to go this past Monday. Luckily, someone in the parking lot of the marina was going into town and drove us. Immigration still doesn't have our paperwork so they said come back next week. Unbelievable! They really give Bonaire a bad name with their unfriendly attitude. We stopped at the Tourist Office to get the email address of the Governor. I spoke to the head of the Tourist Office- she called the Governor while I was talking to her. He said Bonaire is "responsible" for cruisers who have checked out of Venezuela before they arrive in Bonaire. Does this mean if we have a problem in Venezuelan waters on our way here they'll send a boat to help us? I don't think so! I want to write an article about what's happening to cruisers on Bonaire and tell all cruisers to write to him and let him know cruisers do count! Maybe we should all just bypass Bonaire and spend our cruising dollars elsewhere! Anyway, we had an ice cream in town - OK but it's the same $2 per cone price as in PLC where the ice cream at 4D is outstanding!

We got back to the boat around 5pm and had drinks. I hadn't prepared anything for dinner so wanted to make spaghetti carbonara only to discover I didn't have enough eggs. I called Geri and she said I could have 3 of theirs, as they wouldn't eat them as they were leaving for the US soon. We took showers, had a late dinner and stayed up till 11:30 watching TV. Normally, I am in bed by 10pm- see what TV does to you!

November 5 Saturday

It rained out again last night so we were up during the course of the night playing close the hatches again. Geri took me food shopping in her car this morning. Sometimes it's so nice to have the freedom of having a car again! I do miss having a car sometimes but don't miss the headaches of owning a car! I didn't catch much rainwater last night as I only had one bucket out. Today I'll make sure I have another bucket out! Anyway, we got back from food shopping around 11:15am. It had rained while we were out shopping and Larry was trying to locate the source of our starboard side leak. He now thinks it's the chainplate. That is the easiest solution so I hope it really is that and not another part that is leaking that isn't as easily accessible. Anyway, it's stormy and overcast out so we think we'll just do a night dive tonight.

We just went out to Something Special for the dive as we know the spot and can't get too terribly lost there! We didn't see anything unusual on the dive except I got really cold at the end. We are now diving for around 75 minutes so have increased our bottom time considerably. I really think I just need a new wet suit. I've had this one for 5 years so it's time I bought a new one as this has lots of patches and is starting to get thin in some spots. We didn't get back to the boat till almost 9pm so had a very late dinner. Next time I think we should just eat an early dinner. We stayed up late for us since we got back so late from the dive.

November 6 Sunday

A strong tropical wave came through last night with east winds up to 25 knots and very gusty. I had put another bucket out to catch rainwater and caught a full bucket between the 2 pails. So, we were up and down again last night playing close the hatches. It really does disturb your sleep patterns. I woke up tired because of it. It was gray and gloomy out but we had arranged to meet Sally at 18th Palm as she had directions on 2 frogfishes. We had not been to this site this year yet. Just as we were about to leave the boat another squall came through so we waited until it passed before we left. Sally was already diving the site by the time we got there. We couldn't find the frogfish - I think she had bad directions! Visibility was pretty poor but I liked the site. I saw a huge Culebra snapper. We were going to do a 2-tank dive today but it turned out the dive shop didn't have any spare tanks to lend us so we only did the one dive. On our way back to the dive shop, the sky got dark and gloomy and I knew we were going to get hit with another squall. And I was right - it hit as soon as we got to the dock at the dive shop. Fortunately, the squall didn't produce too much wind and not a lot of rain. It's a good thing we didn't have the 2 tanks, as it wasn't good weather to do one dive let alone two.

I tried to lie down in the afternoon as I was tired from last night but I just couldn't sleep. I worked on my logs for about an hour. We watched TV at night- got to get in all the TV while we can, as we won't have it again soon.

November 7 Monday

Another tropical wave will come in tomorrow so we decided we might just as well stay in the marina another day. This weather is getting ridiculous- I have never seen such a bad season before. We usually don't get waves this late in the season but, we have had a very unusual hurricane season and the most active one in a very long time. Though it was about this time last year when we had all that rain in Bonaire and had to go into the marina too. I think October and November are just 2 bad months down here, as we seem to get a lot of storms at this time of year.

We were able to get 2 tanks from Wanna Dive today so went way north to dive as we seldom go that far up as it's a long dinghy ride. We went to a new site- Kali's Reef- 2 sites north of Barkadera. It was a very nice site and a good dive. I saw a turtle. I would definitely dive this site again. Larry went down to 125' but I don't want to go that deep- I am content with going to around 80' at the most. Maybe I would feel more comfortable if I had a dive computer but right now I don't like to dive that deep. Then we went to Petrie's Pillar to see the seahorses again. Visibility was very bad at this site. Another dive boat from Divi Flamingo came on while we were diving - they know better but don't care about dinghies. Our dinghy was banging away on the side of their boat but most dive boats just don't care if they damage our property. They probably feel we are interfering but we have paid our Marine Park tag so have just as right to dive as they do.

We got back to the boat around 4:30pm tired after the 2-tank dive. We had had a light lunch so were hungry so we took an early swim, showers, got back to the boat and had dinner before 6pm. We of course watched TV at night. The tropical wave hit later that night so we were up playing close the hatches again. We had lots of wind but not too much rain. It gets very hot onboard with all the hatches closed so we try to open them up again as soon as the squall passes.

November 8 Tuesday

We are finally leaving the marina today! We still had some large wind squalls as the wave is still around this am. So, I worked on my logs from 9-11am, went to pay the marina bill and finally left the marina around 12noon. Oh, a car with a trailer attached to it went into the water near the marina this morning - car and all! So, they got a tow truck to fish it out and we watched the whole thing from our slip. It was still gusting when we left the marina and Larry wanted to go diving with the big boat out to one of the further sites but the weather was still rough, we were getting lots of squalls, we only had one tank with us so I convinced him we could do it another day. So, we went out to the mooring, it rained some more and finally the sun came out- the tropical wave had finally passed by.

I fried up some chicken cutlets right after lunch so I would have dinner all prepared when we got back from diving. Sally and then S/V Amorita stopped by just as we were getting ready to go diving. So we didn't get diving until 3pm and since it was late, we just dove off the boat. We wanted to see how the bottom looks after 15 nights in the marina anyhow. We didn't get back to the boat until 5:45pm so I was glad I had dinner all prepared. We had chicken cutlet in mushroom sauce over rice with carrots for dinner. No more TV at night so it's back to reading again at night.

I reported Divi to the Marine Park and they seemed concerned about the problem dinghies were having with dive boats. They said under no circumstances should a dive boat go on our dive site if we are already there. They said it's dangerous for us as well and we should report them if they go on a site with us any time. We didn't get any water in the marina since we have the water maker and we have to run the engine anyway. Besides water is .13 gallon so it really adds up. We are almost out of water so need to desperately run the water maker. We ran the water maker almost 1.5 hours today but of course that was only about 6 gallons and as we usually use about 10 gallons a day. We know we are leaving in a few days so we have enough water until we leave even if we just run the water maker a few hours a day. We know we'll be running the water maker on the way back to Venezuela since we can run the water maker with the engine on. We just need to get through these next few days so we'll just have to watch our water use.

November 9 Wednesday

We took the big boat out to the Hilma Hooker dive site this morning. We borrowed 2 tanks from the dive shop so we could do a 2-tank dive. We ran the water maker on the way down to start filling up the tank again. We didn't want to interfere with the dive boats so we didn't get to the site until about 10:30am when they were just about leaving. I would have liked to dive the Hooker again as I didn't have a good dive there the last time we did it but Larry didn't want to do it. We dove first at Angel City but again visibility wasn't that great. We next did Alice-in-Wonderland but visibility was very bad, we couldn't see the second reef and I definitely had a panic attack when we couldn't see it. Larry wanted to continue to this second reef but I couldn't do it because of the lack of visibility and the fact that we had quickly gone to 80' crossing the reef definitely freaked me out. This was our second dive of the day and the second dive is supposed to be shallower than the first so you don't get the bends. Larry was mad at me but I couldn't help what I felt. We ran the water maker on the way back to the mooring for another hour so we got about 10 gallons of water today. We didn't get back from the dive shop till almost 6pm and I was really wiped out. It's a good thing I had chili already made so I didn't have to cook.

It was a very hot night with little breeze so it was hard to sleep. We didn't have the screens up and had a lot of mosquitoes in the boat.

November 10 Thursday

We spoke to our friends on Mima after the security net this morning- a lot of people joined in and listened in to our conversation! They are on their way to Cartagena so I don't know when we will ever see them again. We have hardly gotten to see them at all this year so are very disappointed we won't be seeing them much. We will really miss them a lot. Sally came over and stayed for about an hour- we didn't want to throw her out but we wanted to do our last dive and we had lots of things to do to get ready to leave. We picked up our tanks and than headed over to Klein Bonaire to do our last dive - at Monte's Divi. The water visibility was better here than on the mainland but it still wasn't terrific. However, we had a very nice last dive. I was really cold at the end of the dive- water temperature has gone down about 4 degrees since we got to Bonaire. Plus, I think my wet suit has just about had it and I need a new one.

We got back to the boat around 3pm after paying our bill at the dive shop and getting our tanks filled. Larry went shopping, as he needed a few things at the hardware store. I started putting things away to get ready to leave. We went to our last Wanna Dive party at night. Sally invited the people on S/V Caravela to go too. I don't think she should have done this as it's supposed to be for Wanna Dive's customers and invited guests. I sprayed the boat with bug spray when we left for the party and put the screens back up as we definitely had mosquitoes onboard.

We got back to the boat around 7:30pm and there was not a lick of wind out and it was as hot as hell out. We have a good weather window for the next few days so will try to leave tomorrow. We had a light E- SE breeze about 12 knots, which later died completely at night.

November 11 Friday

The weather appears great to leave - we have almost zero wind which would make the passage east much easier since we have to head against the winds and seas. We had wind from almost every direction today including west- a good time to leave! It's extremely hot though with no breeze cooling us off. We worked from 9- 10:30 to get the boat ready to leave. I made some corn muffins, cleaned the kitchen, put away stuff. I also made some oatmeal muffin mix, as we are getting low on breakfast items. Then we went to customs which was quick but we got stuck in Immigration as there was a Dutch couple getting a hard time to clear in since they did the same thing we did in taking a lot of time to go through the islands. I went to the supermarket and Larry went to another store in town. We met at the Flamingo supermarket but I had forgotten to ask Larry to go to the bank, as I was concerned the supermarkets would close for lunch. However, he couldn't get any more money out of the bank as it said funds were restricted. We have a difficult time calling Citibank from Bonaire - we can't call them collect as we have to pay for the international part of the call so we'll just wait till we get back to Venezuela to call them. We can always cash a check when we get to PLC if we have to but we usually get a lower exchange rate for checks.

We got back to the boat, had lunch and went to the marina to dump the garbage and pay our Internet bill. We stopped by Freestyle to say goodbye but they weren't home. We stopped at HonaLee as they had just come into Bonaire. Alan was just leaving to pick up Cherna so he stopped by briefly with her when he picked her up. By this time it was getting late and we still had to take up the dinghy and take the awning down as well as tie down all the dinghy stuff like the gas can, etc. We discussed going back through the Aves and Roques as we love it there but Larry said since we weren't planning on spending a large amount of time there it would be just better for us to just head to the north coast of Venezuela as we would have a much easier trip. We finished working at 5pm and we were both just too tired to leave. We could have done it but we were both tired already and since we would be up the whole night it was just better to rest tonight and leave tomorrow when we were both fresh. It's better not to start the trip when you are tired anyway. Thankfully, I had dinner all ready- leftover chicken cutlet in mushroom sauce. We went down below at 6pm to ward off mosquitoes and get under the screening - that's the time the mosquitoes come out! We spent a quiet night reading and went to bed early at 9pm but I couldn't sleep. It didn't help that some people were playing on a dive boat near us making all kinds of noises jumping off the dive boat into the water. Then the weekend disco started at 11pm and that also kept me up so I didn't get a good night's sleep. Another reason not to leave today is the sailor's superstition not to leave port on a Friday!

November 12 Saturday and November 13 Sunday- my birthday!

We're still doing last minute prep work to leave- it seems like the work to leave is never ending. I made a big lunch of some leftover spaghetti and meatballs so we'll just have a light dinner of sandwiches on passage. I did some emails letting Mom and Dad know we are leaving Bonaire. S/V Caravela wanted to come with us but after our trip last year going back we preferred to go by ourselves and besides they weren't quite ready to leave so I gave them a bunch of cruising notes on the areas. We took the awning down after lunch and it was amazing how much hotter the boat got without it. I wanted to clean the water line but Larry said not to bother. We are very low on water, after Larry had to use lots of water to wash the salt off the dinghy stuff before he could put it away. We needed to run the engine as the batteries were low but figured we would be doing it when we left later today so just left it. We have more wind today than yesterday so yesterday was definitely a better day to leave. However, the winds are still light, from the east about 10 knots.

We left the mooring at 3pm and ran the engine for 2.5 hours to charge the batteries. We also ran the water maker as we are almost out of water. We had a beautiful motor sail down the coast of Bonaire. We were going 6.5 knots and the same when we turned off the engine. The wind was from the E- NE so we were able to sail towards Ensa Cata, which meant we were going further east than normal and would cut off a day from our trip and save 40 miles of easting. I was somewhat nauseous from the passage but not too bad. We had a huge squall around 10pm, which lasted for around 1.5 hours with winds in the high 20's. I was on watch but woke Larry up when I saw we were going to get hit by the squall. Larry took the boat off autopilot and just hand steered. We had the jib up but couldn't roll it in during the squall so just left it up. We should have rolled it in before the squall hit. We had lots of rain and low visibility and were worried about seeing other ships - they would be mostly tankers and we know they don't keep a watch out for us! We certainly don't want to run into one of those! Naturally, the wind shifted from the squalls and was coming more from the E-SE now, which meant we had to continue motor sailing, as we couldn't maintain our course without the engine on if we wanted to make our Ensa Cata. If we had just continued sailing, we would have gotten to the coast way west and then would have had to motor into the seas- not good as the seas were up from the squalls. I went down to rest from 12-2am but couldn't sleep. I was on watch from 2-5am when I saw 2 tankers in the distance but they didn't come near us. I was off watch at 5am and promptly fell into a deep sleep.

I was sleeping very soundly when at 6:30am, the motion of the boat changed and I woke up sensing something was different. Sure enough, the wind had picked up and we started to get hit with another squall. This one was stronger than the last but thankfully we saw it coming and got the jib rolled in before it hit. We had lots of rain, wind in the 20's, high seas and low visibility. I was really seasick and was throwing up when I went on watch. We got to Ensenada Cata around 9:30am. Would it be too rolly to anchor? We really didn't want to push another 50 miles to the next port as we were both tired and the seas were still up so it would not have been a good trip.

We got into port and the sun was coming out- naturally right in our faces so we had a hard time seeing the fishing net. However, some fisherman pointed it out to us and we could see the end. We anchored in about 20 feet of water around 10am- about 19 hours since we left Bonaire. The anchorage was somewhat rolly but tolerable and was certainly better than trying to go east at this point with all those lumpy seas from the squalls. Also, if we had left, we would have arrived in our next port of Caraballeda in the dark- something I didn't want to do. Anyway, it was a lousy birthday although Larry did give me a nice Bonaire T shirt as a birthday present. We were both tired but just couldn't sleep so we just relaxed and read. Around 6pm, we got hit with more squalls and heavy rain with low visibility. We hoped it would clear up so we could leave later tonight. We don't want to stay here another day but will if the storms continue. Our next port takes us past La Guaira- a very big commercial port with lots of ship traffic. We certainly don't want to pass through there if visibility is bad as it would be very dangerous with all the ships around.