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Diane's DiaryDecember 24 Wednesday Larry went to the Internet Café and to the gas station this morning. Thursday and Friday are both holidays so we are not sure if the gas stations will be open. We are going through a lot of dinghy fuel going to all the dive sites! I baked some English matrimonials and my famous cheesecake so I could give some Christmas presents. Halliday Girl brought us over a plate of Xmas cookies. We have no plans tomorrow so that's kind of sad. I definitely miss my family during the holidays but it is too expensive to keep flying home. I will make some lomito for the day. I listened to Xmas music while I cooked. I also made some chicken Italiano and some macaroni salad. So, I was very busy cooking and cleaning up! We went diving down near the airport but when we went to dive I discovered my regulator was missing! I must have left it in Wanna Dive's regulator cleaning tank. I hope it's still there as it cost over $300USD! We dinghied back and thankfully it was still there but they were just about to use it. Bob, the owner, had it. They knew it wasn't theirs so I don't know why they were going to use it. But at least I got it back! Anyway, since it was late by this time we decided to just go to the Cliff dive site, which is nearby. December 25 Thursday - Merry Christmas!!!! Merry Christmas, although it doesn't quite feel like it down here without the snow, cold and friends and family. Santa brought me a Bonaire T shirt and Larry got the rest of the books on fish he had been wanting and a T-shirt. But our real presents were all that dive gear we just bought. We dinghied to the boats bringing them the treats I made although the brownies did not come out as good as they normally do. I gave them to: Halliday Girl, Precocious Gail (we also gave Ray a bottle of rum), Night Winds, It's Good and HonaLee. Allan gave us some delicious fish he had just smoked. Then we went to the phone so I could call Mom and Dad and Aunt Mary. Mom and Dad were home but Aunt Mary was not. It was nice to hear the sound of their voices again! Dad is still having problems with a pinched nerve so I hope he's OK. It was really good to hear the sound of their voices again. We went back and had lunch. After lunch we went diving to Front Porch as they told us there was a seahorse and frogfish there. We couldn't find either so the dive was definitely disappointing. We had a beer at the local bar near the dive shop- pretty expensive at $2 each for a small beer! Anyway, we had Swedish meatballs and lomito for dinner. It just didn't feel like Christmas and I definitely missed seeing all the kids open up their presents. It definitely felt lonely too spending Christmas by ourselves - wish Mima were here with us! December 26 Friday The wind was down so we decided to dinghy over to the island of Klein Bonaire. It's only about 3/4 mile from Bonaire but if the wind is blowing, it's hard to get back so we only go when the wind is light. Anyway, we wanted to dive the site called "Forest" as we had heard so much about it but a dive boat was already on the site and no one was aboard to see if they would allow us to hook on with them. So, we dove a site right near it that was OK but not terrific. We left the boat to get out there around 10:30am but guess this is a bad time to go as most of the dive sites were already occupied. Visibility is definitely decreasing and is not as good as it was before. The water is definitely getting colder and is bringing in plankton so that's why the visibility is decreasing. We got back to the boat around 2:30. I was starving since we had not eaten lunch. I tried to take a nap but Larry had to run the engine so I couldn't sleep. We needed to charge the batteries- we just aren't getting enough sun or wind to keep the batteries full. I made chicken fajitas for dinner and we spent a quiet evening reading and relaxing. December 27 Saturday We had zero wind last night so it's very hot with lots of mosquitoes. We didn't get a good night's sleep. I woke up at 7am, listened to the weather (a cold front is going to come in bringing with it some starting tomorrow), went back to bed after the weather and slept until 8am. I made some scones for breakfast and they came out great. We definitely have coach roaches on board - we either picked them up in PLC or I suspect, the store in Los Roques that sold me eggs in a cardboard egg container. We left the boat at 10:30am, stopped at Wanna Dive to pick up our tanks, and dinghied all the way to Barkadera which is a long dinghy ride away. We had just gotten to the site when a dive boat pulled up to us. We were not thrilled but can't really say no to them as they have first right on the site. It was a very nice dive site although we did experience some current here. I brought some cookies for us to eat after our dive so we wouldn't get hungry like before. We got back to the boat around 2:15 and had a late lunch. At 3:30, I went into town to do a little grocery shopping. December 28 Sunday We continued our Advanced dive class today with Ray. Today was our elective course- a wreck dive. We arranged with Ray to dive the Hilma Hooker as we had heard so much about it. We had zero wind during the night with lots of mosquitoes again. The temperature fell to around 75 at night as a cold front was coming down from the US. In the forefront of this system, we had the zero winds. We also had cloudy overcast skies and clocking winds from all directions. We were debating to do the dive at all today since it was cloudy out and that really affects visibility. But we finally decided to just go. Ray brought his family with him so even though he has a 25 HP dinghy engine, with 3 people and dive gear in the dinghy, it took them 30 minutes to get out to the site. Anyway, we had very calm seas getting out to the dive site and that was great since it's such a long dinghy ride away. When we finally got to the dive site, the skies cleared. Since it started out such a cloudy day, no other boats were there so we had it all to ourselves. Anyway, the wreck was an excellent dive site and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I did forget to bring my dive gloves though- this is one of the few times you are allowed to wear dive gloves on Bonaire while diving. The only other times you can wear gloves is if you are doing a "garbage" sanctioned dive and if you have a medical need to do so. Anyway, the wreck is down to about 100' of water. We dove to about 90' to give us some more bottom time. I really enjoyed the intrigue of a wreck dive. We were not allowed to penetrate the wreck, which is OK by me now although I enjoyed wreck diving so much I would like to do it in the future when we become better divers. I definitely would like to penetrate a wreck also but don't think we are ready for this at this time. We saw some really big tarpon fish- around 5 feet long or more! Anyway, we went back to Wanna Dive, had a drink with Ray and his family, went back to the boat for lunch and at 2:30pm left for another dive. While we were having a drink with Ray, the wind shifted and our dinghy went under their new dock and got grease all over it! This was very upsetting to us as the cover is only a few years old and we know the grease will not come out of it. Larry tried with full strength Simple Green when we got back to the boat and it got some of the stains out but not all of them. We rarely do 2 dives in 1 day but know we will be leaving Bonaire soon and want to get in as many dives as possible. We got all the way out to the Small Wall dive site and were putting our gear together when I noticed my tank had not been filled with air. We were right at the dive shop and saw them fill it so maybe something was wrong with their compressor? We went back to the dive shop, they were very busy but graciously said we could use one of their tanks at no extra cost until they got a chance to look at it. This was extremely nice of them and great PR! We really appreciated it. It did not cost them any extra to do this but certainly was very nice of them and we would definitely recommend them after this fantastic attitude! Anyway, it was late after this time so we just decided to dive close by at Something Special as it was already after 3pm by this time. We didn't get back to the boat until after 5pm. we had bagels (frozen) and cream cheese with Allan's smoked fish and Just Delicious Minestrone soup for dinner as it was so late. December 29 Monday Larry walked to the Koolyman hardware store and to get more dinghy gas. We certainly are using lots of dinghy gas and at $4gallon from the marina it's quite expensive. It cost $3 gallon at the gas station and is only about a 10-minute walk. The only problem is that the gas is heavy to carry. I defrosted the freezer and it was very bad. We went out diving with Ray again to continue our Advanced dive course. We did buoyancy control today and we were both happy we did it. I got to remove 2 pounds of weights. Ray also told me to lower my BCD, lower my tank strap 1-2 inches and hook up my octopus better. We went back to Wanna Dive and waited to get our tanks filled as we are going to go on the night dive tonight. The night dive will be the last course of our Advanced Dive class. We got back to the boat around 2:30pm. We have a NE wind of about 20 knots now, which is good except we still have some mosquitoes as we had some rain during the early morning hours. We had an early dinner and went on our night dive around 6pm. The sun had not gone down yet so we had some visibility and it gradually turned dark as we were diving. This was much better than just going down when it was completely dark out. I thought I would get a little freaked out diving in the dark but I surprised myself and actually did quite well. I was a little scared in the beginning until I got used to the dark but than I adapted quite well and really liked the dive. The only problem was the cold - I ended the dive shivering and was really feeling the cold even with a shorty wetsuit on. Larry didn't have any type of wetsuit on and even he said he was cold at the end of the dive. If Larry was cold, I know it really was cold out as he is almost never cold! Both Ray and Gayle also said they were cold at the end of the dive. But I would definitely like to do a night dive again. We just need to get some night lights as we only had one- Ray lent us the rest for the night dive.. Each person needs one light plus a backup light. Ray and Gayle also had lights on their tanks so you would know where someone was in case their light goes out. This was definitely a good idea and we will buy them also. Also, they hang a light down from their dinghy so they can find their dinghy on the way back. I would not have even thought of it if they had not mentioned it. All of this is just extra safety protection as night diving is definitely scarier compared to diving during the day due to the reduced visibility. We did not wash our dive gear out since it was so late and dark after we finished the dive. We just left everything in the dinghy and will wash everything out tomorrow. We were both so cold we had 2 cups of hot chocolate each! We haven't had that in a long time! December 30 Tuesday Ray came over at 9:30am to go over the rest of our course tests. We have passed Advanced Diving and will now get those Advanced PADI dive cards also. I made some salami rolls for the New Year's Eve party tomorrow night on Night Winds. They have invited all the boats in the anchorage to go. Since we have no other plans, we are going to go. The wind has really increased- about NE15-20 knots. I think the winter winds are finally on us. I was woken up last night at 4am by the sound of the high voltage alarm going off. Now that really is a change as we have been getting low wind for so long it's a pleasure to have the wind again. The only downside is that it's quite windy using the dinghy and it's harder to get to the dive sites. Anyway, we went to the dive shop this morning to fill our tanks and wash off our equipment from last nights' dive. The wind was really blowing at the dive shop, onto the dock and creating a huge surge on the beach. We returned Ray's night-lights he lent us. I then went to call DHL and Citibank. Larry ordered a new ATM card on 12/15 and it still hasn't arrived yet. We also jerry jugged 18 gallons of water. We were tired from all that diving yesterday so decided not to dive today. We are going to the fish ID class tonight though. December 31 Wednesday New Year's Eve Well, the wind is still blowing a lot so I drove the dinghy to the dock near us and walked the rest of the way into town. It was just too windy to drive the dinghy to the closer dock and besides I wanted the extra 10-minute walk. I called Citibank and DHL again - looks like we will get the ATM card today finally. It will be delivered to the marina before noon today. It only took 16 days to get! I complained to Citibank about this as we should have had it within 5 business days at the very least- don't understand why there was such a delay. I went to the supermarket to pick up some more bread. It was extremely crowded and the shelves were really bare. The last supply boat from Curacao arrived on the island 12/18 and the next one won't come until 1/8. Unbelievable that there are no food deliveries to the island for almost 3 weeks! Another cruiser told us about this so we had stocked up in advance. Anyway, Larry had to reinstall Word on the PC, as somehow it wouldn't start up again. So, I went by dinghy to the marina to pick up his ATM card and jerry jug some more water. We left at 1:30pm to go diving near the airport. We wanted to dive at Windsock Leap but there was a dive boat there already so we went to 18th Palm instead. It was an OK site but not somewhere I would come back too. However, we did see a school of squid and some new species of fish so that was nice. We went near the huge pillars that support the airport runway but they did not have any growth on them. The weather has turned a lot colder and especially with the wind, it makes it feel colder out. OK, I won't use the term "wind chill factor" as we don't have that down here! But we definitely feel the cold more now that winter is upon us. I have a pain in the right side of my tooth- this is the same one that gave me problems in Trinidad a year ago. Hope it's not too serious but don't think it is since it hasn't hurt for the last year or so. We need to go to the dentist when we get back to VE anyway. We got back at 4:30pm and took a short nap until 6 although I didn't sleep at all due to all the firecrackers going off. It started to rain around 6pm and rained on and off the rest of the night. But luckily, it held off for most of the time for the New Year's Eve party on board Night Winds. We arrived about 8:20pm and stayed till around 1pm. Both the fireworks and party were excellent. We had a fabulous view of the fireworks. There were lots of different people setting them off and they were a lot better than I expected- some of the best I have seen in years. It was a good party also with most of the cruisers in the anchorage coming. Everyone brought a dish and a bottle so there was a lot of food and booze. Night Winds has one of those Coke machines on board and if I ever had to do it again, I would definitely consider buying one. It probably cost the same as buying the soda bottles themselves, but liquid is very hard to store so having the CO2 cartridges and machine would be take up a lot less space. Anyway, the rain held off for the most part but really came down again about 12:30. We waited till it stopped before we went home. We finally got into bed after 1 am- very late for us! Oh, I watched what I drank making very weak drinks so didn't get drunk at all. |