|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Larry's LogWe had hoped for a restful night that evening but the mosquitoes made sure that it didn't happen. The marina was hot, had no wind and was full of the little pests. I don't know how many we killed but the remainder certainly wouldn't let us sleep. I worked on the web site for several hours overnight since I couldn't sleep and then in the morning, or later in the morning, around 7am I went in the cockpit and saw an oil slick, probably made by one of the local fisherman who had left earlier. After eating breakfast, I walked to the hardware store again, with Tom this time, to get some mosquito netting. I got that and a toolbox that looked good and we walked back. On the way back we walked by the shore road and there were only 4 cruising boats still on moorings - it was calm but there was still some swell coming in. After lunch, while Diane used the rainwater she caught for more hand laundry, I worked on making screens for the hatches. I worked on it a while and then Diane finished up while I went to listen to the weather. We only made one for the large forward hatch since the second roll of screening I bought wasn't big enough. We made the screen so it fit over the open hatch so we could close it from inside without removing the screen. That was the biggest problem with the wooden ones we already had - along with the fact that there were gaps between the frame and the hatch sides. We finished the screen and put it on just in time for dusk. We closed the companionway and used the screen boards for the hatch near the mast and the galley, along with the one we just made. After a nice dinner of shrimp with pasta, we watched TV for the first time in months. The screen worked pretty well overnight but there were many insects already inside the boat - they hide during the day and then come out at dusk. We killed quite a few and fortunately finally slept well, at least until it started to rain. We slept fairly late, about 9, since we were so tired. The wind was from the west as predicted and we were glad we were in the marina. I went to the hardware store again to get more screening and Tom gave me a lift to the dock since he was going in anyway. As we got out of the marina entrance, we realized it might be a mistake to have gone this way (by dinghy) since the wind was still from the west at about 10 to 12 knots and kicking up quite a chop. He was going to drop me off at the 'green' dock but the waves were almost breaking over it so we went to the one closer to town. It wasn't quite as bad but it was still tricky getting in and onto the dock. Tom went to run his errands and I started walking to the store. By the time I got there, it was almost noon so I just bought the screening and walked back. I got to the marina at about 12:30 and we had lunch. I had walked back along the shore road and the waves were still bad - only 3 boats were now on moorings and they were bouncing around pretty well. After eating, Diane and I started making more hatch screens. She did the one for the main hatch and I did one for the companionway. It took all afternoon to make them but we finished by our deadline - dusk. After showers, we had a light dinner and relaxed in a bugless boat (mostly anyway). Friday we had a busy day walking around Bonaire. Although it was only partly cloudy, we didn't go diving since we had some errands to run and Diane wanted to go to a special lunch for her birthday she had called about earlier. In the morning we did some things around the boat and helped Sally on Zahi get her dinghy on the dock so she could clear a drain plug. Then around 11:30, I got the dinghy down (and squeezed passed the boats) and we went to town. We tied up to the dock we usually use now but it was very rough with the west wind and waves coming in and then bouncing off the sea wall back toward the dock (only about 50 feet from the wall). We tied up OK but the dinghy was bouncing off the dock pretty badly sometimes so we decided to go back to the marina and walk over to the restaurant. Back at the marina, we tied up the dinghy to the finger pier, rinsed off some of the salt spray we got from coming back and started to walk. It took about 30 minutes and was a little difficult to find the restaurant but a nice taxi driver who we asked directions drove us the last quarter-mile. The restaurant was a local cooking school and the lunch started at 12:30 so we were a little late since we had such a roundabout way of getting there. There was no problem though and the staff had put out a little 'Happy Birthday' placemat for Diane. The waitresses were all students as was the chef, although there was an instructor supervising both the wait staff and the cooking. The meal was pretty good (not as good as the CIA (Culinary Institute of America)) but the homemade ice cream for dessert was excellent. We stopped at several stores along the way back (I managed to find Diane a birthday card in English) and finally got back to the boat about 3:30. We had some rain during the day and the hatches had been open but there wasn't too much water below. It was too late to dive so we put our stuff away and went into the small pool the marina has. That was very pleasant until some kids also decided to come in and play with a basketball. We stayed a while but the noise was a bit much after a few minutes. We went back to the boat, relaxed, had a drink and just watched TV after dinner, just like 'real' people. Saturday, November 13: Happy Birthday Diane. I got her 2 cards, both in English and a little present from one of the local shops. We had no rain last night and very few mosquitoes so we slept pretty well. In the morning, we just relaxed a little but Diane started making her birthday cake while I walked over and picked up the mail for David and Terri on Sylvester. They had left almost 2 weeks ago to go back to PLC and didn't want to wait any longer for it. We said we would pick it up and either bring it back ourselves or give it to another cruiser heading back that way. Later in the morning we walked to the shore and it seemed OK to go diving so we decided to try it after lunch. Unfortunately, after we ate and got all the dive gear in the dinghy and picked up the tanks, it looked like more thunderstorms and the wind was again from the west. We saw Bart, one of the owners of the dive shop, coming back from fishing with his young son and he said that if we went to the south side of Klein Bonaire it would be fine but Diane was nervous about it so we went back to the boat. We put all our gear on deck and I hoisted the dinghy. Tom had just changed his oil and transmission fluid and had a problem. The plastic dipstick top to his transmission had broken. I offered to look at it so I stepped across and just about that time it started to rain pretty hard. The majority of the plastic top to the dipstick that threaded into the transmission had broken off; leaving just the top and the actual metal tube that measured the oil. I tried using a wide screwdriver to get it out but it was just destroying the plastic so I suggested to Tom that he leave it that way and not try to remove the remaining plastic until he had a replacement dipstick. He had probably tightened it too much but making the top from cheap plastic was inexcusable. I then looked at his Winlink setup since he could connect but would be disconnected before sending or receiving any messages. It looked fine so I suggested he go on the Winlink site when he went to the Internet next. Finally, he said he was having a little trouble with his VHF so I got my SWR meter and tested it. That too looked OK. He told me some stories about the 'trouble' and I agreed that they seemed to show some issue but I couldn't see anything. The SWR was 1:1.2 and the power output seemed a little lower than normal but not too bad. After a beer, I stepped back across to Destiny and Diane and I went to the pool again. It was very nice until the kids showed up again 10 minutes after we went in. They were pretty good since Diane said it was her birthday and would they not splash until we left. Well, we didn't stay too long and they started as soon as we stepped out. The rest of the day was just relaxed although it had become very humid and warm. Although there was no rain overnight, the next morning was very overcast. Throughout the day, the wind was from the west, either northwest at about 12 knots or southwest at 8 to 10 knots, so we didn't go diving again. We also saw boats that tried going back out to the mooring come back in so we were glad we had just stayed for the full week in the marina. In the morning, we spoke to Promesa who was somewhere on the Colombian coast, slowly making their way to Cartagena. They were doing fine and enjoying the trip although the weather for them wasn't very good either. Our morning was pretty boring - I did some chores in the morning and finally sorted the mess made by the box of nuts and bolts falling when we rolled so much before coming into the marina. In the evening though, after going to the pool and eating a quick dinner, we went to a slide show presented by one of the dive resorts called Discover our Diversity. We walked over with Ingemar and Laurence from Dolphin Street only to find that the show was last night. The newspaper had it wrong - seems it's been on Saturday night for years. We walked around the nice grounds of the resort a little and then came back to the marina. Oh well... Monday morning I realized it's been 3 days since we had rain overnight but we woke up to cloudy skies again. However, the wind was back to the east, a good sign. In the late morning though, the wind shifted to the southwest and then slowly clocked to the northwest by the late afternoon. We talked about what we were going to do about leaving the marina - we had reserved a car for tomorrow and Ingemar and Laurence said they would like to share the car so we needed to see what we could do. We didn't do much in the morning although Diane defrosted the freezer and I dug out the hose to fill the water tanks and put the diesel from the jerry jugs into the main tank. The 4 containers only filled the tank to about three-quarters but hopefully it will be enough to get us back to someplace in Venezuela to refill it completely. Gas and diesel are very expensive here. In the afternoon we finally went diving again, this time to a spot called 'Closest Point" on Klein Bonaire. I wanted to go to Klein Bonaire because the wind was still generally from the northwest (although only about 5 knots) and the visibility along the Bonaire coast was not good until you got pretty deep - about 60 feet - from all the west winds we've had the last week. I had wanted to go further around the south side of the island but Diane wanted to stop at that one since it was closest, so we did. Unfortunately, there was a strong current and as soon as we went down, Diane felt it pushing her and she went back up. I told her to use her fins more and to go fairly deep to avoid the current, which we did. The site was pretty although not outstanding. Diane had used a fair amount of air at the start so we turned around and basically drifted back towards the dinghy. On the way back, we saw lots of other divers, obviously from a dive boat, which just started their dive. We came back and surfaced a pretty long distance down current from the dinghy. We started swimming on the surface but had a hard time going against it. Diane was getting nervous. I told her to rest and that I would go back to the dinghy, get in and then come and get her. We were both swimming when a dive boat came over and gave us a tow on their boarding ladder to a line that was trailing behind the dive boat that was also on the mooring with our dinghy. It was the same dive boat that we shared Petrie's Pillar with about a week ago. The divemaster on the boat called out to us to just hold on and he would pull us back towards his boat. Once there, he very kindly said to just take off our fins and climb aboard to take off the rest of our gear. We did that and he was the same guy who was so nice before and he helped Diane with her stuff while I got my gear off. I then got into the dinghy and he handed me the tanks and Diane gave me the rest. He had even put out a fender where the dinghy was along the side of his hull. He gave us some advice about diving in current the next time but based on Diane's face, we would try very hard not to do that again. We were about to leave when the divers from his boat came up, also pretty far behind the boat, even from the line he was trailing. We offered to go help them get back so he gave us a long polypropylene line to tow them. We went over and tried towing 4 at once but couldn't steer properly so we asked 2 divers to let go and we slowly got them back to the line from the boat. We went back and got 2 more, repeating the process. In all, we helped 7 divers get back to the dive boat. Once all of them were back, we went back to the boat to give one of the divers his camera back. He offered to buy us some drinks but we said no problem and went back to the dive shop, dropped off the tanks, rinsed the gear and went back to the boat. On the way back, we stopped at Dolphin Street to discuss renting the car. We decided to rent it tomorrow evening so we could use it to get gas and groceries that night and then get an early start on the park tour the next day. Of course, we had to go back and forth from the boat to get the phone number for the car company (the marina office didn't have it or a telephone book either and the 2 phones in the marina didn't work). We finally confirmed the car, let Ingemar and Laurence know we had and went back to Destiny, had a drink, went to the pool and relaxed the rest of the evening. It had been a tiring day. Tuesday morning we woke to a cloudy day but had no rain overnight. The park road closes when there's a lot of rain. Unfortunately, it started to rain about 8:30 and rained all day, sometimes pretty hard. It was a real washout and we had to cancel the car, naturally, and at this point, we're not sure when we'll be able to do the tour. Diane stayed busy in the morning by catching water and doing some cooking. I just watched TV mostly. We spoke to Lynne and Lois from Spice Island Lady, who had just arrived in Bonaire to sail Odetta back to PLC. Don Dawes, who owned Odetta, had died tragically a few weeks ago while he was here. We had spoken to David and Terri on Sylvester before they left, about his passing, but it still didn't seem to make sense why he died. The afternoon was pretty much the same except Diane worked on the PC. Although the rain finally let up by the evening, it stayed overcast. The weather forecast that afternoon wasn't too encouraging either. |