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Diane's DiaryNovember 17 Monday At 9am we got the dinghy down so we could go to shore. We put the canvas up also. We left about 10:30 am for customs and immigration. No charge for clearance so that's very nice. We walked around town and it's very nice - clean and no garbage in the streets. VE has tons of garbage all around. We ate lunch out which was a very nice change - just hamburgers and fries but the bill came to almost $20 for both of us. Ouch! I can see Bonaire is a lot more expensive than VE already! Don't think we will be eating out very much! We also stopped by the tourist office and Larry of course wanted to go to Budget Marine so we walked over there. They were closed for lunch so we just walked to the water and sat on a bench admiring the view. We walked back to the store after they reopened after lunch. We went to the marina around 3pm to pay for the mooring and Larry walked over to another hardware store while I looked in the marina store. We got back to the boat around 4:30pm. We had a light dinner with some soup I made since we had such a big lunch. We had absolutely no wind at night and lots of mosquitoes. I didn't get a good night sleep due to the heat and mosquitoes buzzing around. I tried using the mosquito coils, battery operated mosquito devices and citronella candles but nothing seemed to work against those pesky mosquitoes. November 18 Tuesday I didn't get good nights sleep due to the mosquitoes and lack of wind. It rained a few drops during the night- just enough to have to get up and close all the hatches. At 9am Cherne (Allen's wife) took me food shopping in her car, which was very nice of her. We went to 2 different grocery stores. Food here is about 10 times more expensive than VE. I will try not to buy a lot just what we need to get back there. However, they did have cheddar cheese and real Philadelphia cream cheese that we haven't had in so long. Lettuce was almost $3 head so I don't think I will be buying that very much! At 5pm we left for a fish presentation slide show that started at 6pm. HonaLee told us it would take about 10-15 minutes to walk there but it took around 30 minutes. Plus, it was all in the dark on the way home. There are no sidewalks so you have to walk on the unpaved shoulder of the road so this can be dangerous. Anyway, the fish lecture was very good and we really enjoyed it. She gives a different presentation every week so think we will go to this every week. Plus, it's free so that's good. Most of the other lectures don't start until 7pm and a few are at 9pm which is definitely too late for us as we usually are in bed a little after 9pm. November 19 Wednesday It was very hot last night with little wind and lots of mosquitoes. I made some cheese omelets with some cheddar I bought yesterday. VE does not sell cheddar cheese for some reason. You can find it in the expensive gourmet stores like La Cava but it was almost $20/lb. so there was no way I was going to buy it at that price. I will probably bring some back to VE with me. Anyway, I went into town at 9:30am to go to the supermarket and stop at the bank. I towed another dinghy back- a big heavy jet boat one also- but the girl didn't seem too appreciative of the favor. The boat was an American catamaran too. Larry had to run the engine for 2 hours because the batteries were so low. In the afternoon we went snorkeling near the marina entrance and it was surprisingly pretty good. We saw a few spotted drums and a scorpion fish- the poisonous fish that is very dangerous if you step on it. At 6pm, we went to a pizza dinner with HonaLee at an excellent pizza place- Pasa Bon Pizza. The pizza was very good but expensive. We had a large pie, I had water and Larry had 1 beer and the bill was $25USD! Don't think we'll be able to do this very often! But since we had not eaten dinner out in over 2 months it was a very nice treat. Afterwards, we went in their car for ice cream. So, it was a very nice evening out and we enjoyed ourselves. November 20 Thursday We had another bad night's sleep last night with no wind and lots of mosquitoes and no-see-ums. We are spraying ourselves with bug spray before we go to bed. Plus, I have the mosquito coils and citronella candles going. But nothing seems to get rid of them. Larry doesn't want to put the screens up as he took all the pieces that hold up the screens down so we could get them varnished. Plus, having the screens up cuts down on the ventilation coming in - we already have almost none so it would be even worse without the screens. We are investigating taking a dive course. Larry really wants to take it but I am very skeptical after trying to dive almost 25 years ago in Club Med Martinique. I couldn't clear my ears and ruptured my eardrum. Since then, I have been afraid to dive. Anyway, HonaLee told us to see a cruiser here - Ann from Sandpiper. We have been trying to call her all week via VHF or having the marina call her boat but haven't been able to get a hold of her. Anyway, HonaLee saw her and told us to go stop by as she is in the marina so we did. We spoke to her but there was no discount - the price would be $315USD per person plus 5%tax so she was not giving us any discount. We got back from seeing her around 10:30 and than went snorkeling up to Andrea I and II that many people recommended to us. It was about a 15-minute dinghy ride away. The snorkeling was very good even though it was overcast out. We really enjoyed it. We got back around 1pm. After lunch, we checked out 2 other dive shops near by to get their prices on taking a dive course. They all want at least 300 to 325 and 5% tax per person. There was no wind at all out plus it's cloudy so we have to run the engine every day just to charge the batteries. HonaLee stopped by and offered to get anything for us while they were going to the supermarket. They also told us of Ray on sv Precocious Gale who just got certified as a dive instructor so we'll ask him also. We would rather give another cruiser the money plus hopefully he'll give a good discount since he will have no overhead. We'll go speak with him tomorrow. November 21 Friday It was hot out again last night- with lots of mosquitoes and no-see-ums. I went over to Precocious Gale in the AM. We know them slightly from Margarita but didn't know them really well. He will get back to us with a price. At 10:30AM we went snorkeling out to Klein Bonaire by dinghy. It's a small island about ¾ away from the mainland. Unfortunately, there was a SW wind blowing so it made the snorkeling difficult, as it was very rolly. We saw lots of great coral but very little fish. It was a rough trip back to the boat. We got back at 12:30 and just in time to help Halliday Girl back onto a mooring. I lay down to rest in the PM, as I was tired from lack of sleep at night. We don't get a good night's sleep with all the mosquitoes and the heat. Anyway, Ray came back with a price on the course in the PM- $450 for both of us including only 1 book. Both Ray and Halliday Girl said we could borrow an extra copy of theirs so we would only have to buy 1 book. We both really liked Ray and got a good impression that he would be a good teacher so we decided to take the class. We save at least $200 taking the course from him over the dive shop. Plus, there would only be the 2 of us in the class so that's definitely very good as a small class size is important in diving. The last time I learned to dive in Martinique we had around 10 people in the class and that was far too many. Anyway, we'll start the course with him on Monday. He will bring the book over for us to study for the weekend. He suggested it would be better if we could read the entire book and take the exercises before the class starts. The class is full time for 3 days plus a final exam at the end. If we don't finish the book by the end of the weekend, we would have to read it at night after a full day of diving so Ray suggested it would be better to read the book at our leisure over the weekend. I cleaned the waterline on the boat. We had an oil spill on the starboard side from where we do not know. I used Joy and it seemed to come out fine. Halliday Girl came over for drinks at 5pm and we went to Bobby Jans, a local ribs place, for dinner that's only opened on weekends. Larry didn't want to go, as he hates ribs so he stayed but I went. I enjoyed the ribs but they weren't that fantastic but the price was right - about $5USD. All the cruisers go there on Friday night so it was nice getting to meet some other people. November 22 Saturday We were both up again around 4pm as there was absolutely no wind and lots of mosquitoes. Of course, Murphy's Law says there will probably be lots of wind coming from the east (that's right on out nose!) when we leave to head back to PLC! Anyway, we slept until 8am, as we were tired from the interrupted night sleep. I went into town for a few groceries and than spent the rest of the day reading our dive study book before the class starts on Monday. It took me a lot longer to read it than I thought it would! I made a big pot of homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs for dinner. November 23 Sunday I did some Thanksgiving emails in the AM and we spent the rest of the day reading our dive study book. I finished 4 chapters and their quizzes so I only have 1 more left to read. Larry finished everything! It was a very quiet day and we didn't even get off the boat since we had so much reading to do! November 24 Monday We started taking our dive course today. I must admit I was very nervous after my last bad experience diving in Martinique 25 years ago! I didn't have any trouble with clearing my ears at all- I just need to go slow on the descent and seem to be OK. I did have lots of trouble clearing my mask underwater though. I got a lot of salt water up my nose and just shot to the surface. But we were only in about 10- 15 feet of water so all was OK. The course is constructed so you must pass every part of it otherwise you don't pass the course so I need to be able to do this. The course lasted from 9-6 so it was a very long day although we did have a 2-hour lunch break. I did enjoy the dive part but not all the exercises they make you do. But everything is for a purpose and to show you what to do in case you get into any trouble so I think it really is necessary and helpful. I was really tired at the end of the day, as we are not used to all this physical activity in one day! Thankfully, I had some leftover Just Delicious soup leftover so we had this for dinner, as I was just too tired to cook. The water is so crystal clear around here that it makes diving a lot easier though I still don't feel completely comfortable with diving at this time. I think in time I will get better though - that's if I pass the course! I had to finish reading chapter 5 tonight and do the exercises. November 25 Tuesday Day 2 of our dive course. I made macaroni salad and corn muffins in the AM before we left for class. I finally got to clear my mask when we went into shallow water and found out what my problem was. I was tilting my head up to soon when there was still a lot of water in the mask so it was running back into my nose. Now I just try to take it all a lot slower and only tilt my mask up at the end when there's just a lot less water in it. It seems to have worked and I feel a lot more comfortable. We will just have to see as we do this exercise many more times and is definitely the one I have problems with. I also seem to be having some problems with buoyancy but Ray, our instructor, helped me with it. We got back to the boat at 4:45pm and left at 5:20 using our dinghy and followed Ray, Gayle and Ashley in their dinghy all the way down to Plaza Resort to watch the fish lecture. It was very good and we really enjoyed it. This one starts at 6pm every Tuesday night, which is a great time for us, cruisers as we generally go to bed early. The other lectures start at 7 or 9pm and we could make the 7pm lecture but the 9pm is just too late. Obviously, these are geared for the tourist that fly's in and is short on vacation time. Anyway, tomorrow is the last day of the class. So far, it seems like all is well and it seems like we'll both pass but you never know! November 26 Wednesday Today the third and last day of our dive course and we were diving all day doing exercises and having a fun dive. We started the course at 10am this morning, as Ray had to do something earlier. We didn't finish until 6pm and by that time I was really bushed. During our 2-hour lunch break I made a chicken Italiano for dinner so all I had to do was bake it when we got back. Thank goodness it was all made as I was very tired from all the diving and would never have been able to cook, as I was just exhausted. Anyway, we have to take the final exam tonight but it looks like we both passed the course! So we are both thrilled! Hope we pass the final exam and then it's a done deal and we will have officially passed! November 27 Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving! Ray came over from 9-10:30 to go over our final exam- we passed! The wind had died during the night and lack of it caused me to wake up around 3am. At 6am, we had lots of on again, off again rain so we had to get up to open and close the hatches. After Ray left, we went into town so I could call Mom and Dad and Aunt Mary for Thanksgiving. I had not spoken to them for 2 months so it was nice to hear their voices again. I think they were surprised we called. Afterwards, we did a little shopping and bought some reef shoes- ours had just fallen apart. Anyway, at 6pm, we went to Halliday Girl- a Canadian boat no less- to spend Thanksgiving. Skyus had just come in today and they came over also. We just had a pasta dinner, appetizers we all made, salad and a cake. It was a very nice enjoyable dinner! However, I did miss my family and my Mom's great cooking. Wish we could have been there for that! |