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Larry's LogSure enough, it started to rain overnight and rained all morning and most of the afternoon again. Diane collected more water and I went out afterward and helped put it in the tank. We actually filled the port tank with rainwater and started on the starboard tank as well. It had rained so much that the road near the marina was completely flooded as the salt ponds just on the other side overflowed and went across the road and poured into the marina. The water turned muddy brown and was full of debris. The flow also caused quite a current inside the marina - and the area where the flooding was the worst had a significant standing wave. A local fisherman we spoke to said this was the worst he had seen it in 'a long time', lucky us! The rain eventually let up and while Diane napped I went out to take some pictures. The flooding was pretty bad and the road was blocked for quite a while and flooded all day. Bob from Caravela, came over about 3 to ask if anyone wanted to go shopping as he had a rental car and was willing to go wherever people wanted to shop. Not one to miss an opportunity, Diane went and made some calls to see if other ladies wanted to go but she wound up as the only one to go. I worked on the web site while she was gone. It had stopped raining completely and the wind was now from the northeast at about 20 knots. Hopefully this means a change for the better. The next day though, unfortunately the change in wind direction hadn't indicated better weather - it rained over night again and we woke up to 100 percent overcast, and although the wind was still northeast at 10 to 15 knots, it was gusty. I had to get up overnight and put on another spring line since our anchor was hitting against the dock every so often once the wind picked up during the night. The extra line helped but if we stay, I'll have to adjust the lines to get us further back in the slip. That also means adjusting where Ishmael lies next to us since they hadn't moved yet either. At around 8:30, it started to rain again and kept raining. We decided to stay in the marina so while Diane started catching water again, I started adjusting the lines. I asked Tom on Ishmael to tighten his spring line to the boat on the other side and I used another stern line to the big primary winch so that the pull was more direct since the stern line from the cleat also pulled us forward (the boat was longer than the slip). After about 30 minutes of working in the rain the boat seemed much better oriented and was away from the dock in front. Diane and I put some more water in the starboard tank and then I cleaned the boat a little more - easy to do with the rain then washing away the dirt once I loosened it with a rag. In the afternoon, I helped Lois with the radio on Odetta. She and her husband Lynne had come from PLC to bring the boat back to PLC for Don's family. They were busy trying to get the boat ready to leave and also trying to see a little of Bonaire as well. They hoped to leave next week. It rained most of the day with just a few breaks. According to a local who also had his boat in the marina, it was supposed to be like this for another 2 days. Supposedly the island hasn't gotten this much rain for 60 years. Friday was a slow day for us mostly but in the morning, Ishmael left to go back to a mooring and Dolphin Street did as well. We had decided to stay another day, as it still looked unsettled. The day was partly cloudy with the wind from the east to southeast at about 10 knots. After lunch, I took the dinghy to town and went to the Internet place. I tried updating the drivers for the wireless adaptor I had bought but it still didn't work any better so I had to use their adaptor again. While in the mall, I heard it rain again, and pretty hard. When I got back to the dinghy, I had to pump it out for a while and then headed back to the marina. I noticed though, that all the moorings at the north side of the anchorage were taken. We would have to be closer to Karel's Bar when we came out tomorrow. We left the marina the next morning, Saturday, at about 11:30. I had gone out with the dinghy around 8:30 to put a fender on the mooring we wanted - I thought the one near Ishmael I saw yesterday would still be free but it wasn't. I had to get the third one down from Karel's Bar (meaning we would be up with the music tonight). It took a little time to get the cable TV wire in, take down the forward awning and get everything stowed from the cockpit. We took showers and while Diane went to the office to pay our bill, I brought in the electric cord. A guy from the marina read the electric and water meters and then someone else helped us off the dock although we had very little trouble getting out, despite the southeast breeze that tended to blow us back against the pier. The dinghy was alongside on a short painter and stayed that way until we got closer to the mooring. About 100 yards away, I got in the dinghy and Diane drove the rest of the way to the mooring where I took the lines already setup for the mooring and got us on. It was actually pretty easy although the mooring lines were pretty disgusting from growth. By the time we finished and I put up the forward awning again, set up the solar panels, etc. we had lunch. We decided to skip diving today and just relax since we were invited to Odetta for drinks later. I did go into town to see if the NAPA store had gotten their shipment in but it had closed at 12:30 on Saturday (I had forgotten it was the weekend) so I consoled myself with an ice cream and went back to the boat. We went over to Odetta around 4:30 but picked up our dive tanks first. Lynne and Lois were aboard, getting the boat ready to go back to PLC to try to sell it for the Dawes family. They had never been through the Los Roques, Las Aves or the western coastline of Venezuela so over drinks and snacks we talked about the trip east from Bonaire. Barret, Mindy and their son Tristan from Papillon came over a little later and we had a nice time, getting back around 7:30. Back at the boat, since we were so close to Karel's Bar, we had the feeling the band was playing in our cockpit. They started about 10 and didn't finish until after 3am. We had gotten up since it was impossible to sleep but tried a few times. Of course, once they finished, an hour later it started to rain. The next morning though we were up in time for the 8:15 net and at 8:30 I went in the dinghy to find a spot further north. I had hoped for one near the marina but I did manage to get one about 8 moorings further up. I put the round fender on it and went back to Destiny to eat breakfast and we moved to that one a little later, the same way as yesterday with Diane driving the boat and me in the dinghy. I had a little trouble untwisting the mooring lines themselves but had no problem then putting our lines on the pennants. We left the engine running to charge the batteries while I got the forward awning back up and straightened out the mooring lines some more. In the afternoon, we finally went diving again, but just off one of the moorings since Diane wanted to see the seahorses again. We tied the dinghy to the back of Papillon and went in. As soon as we did, we saw a Spotted Eagle Ray, a large one about 3 feet across, gliding along the bottom in 25 feet of water, stopping sometimes to dig in the sand for food - it was the first one we had seen. He didn't stay long of course but it was great to see it. We went to look for the seahorse and found one but not the second. The visibility was greatly decreased from before the bad weather but it was still 30 to 40 feet. The rest of the dive was nice but saw we nothing unusual. That evening, Bob and Linda from Caravela came over for drinks and snacks - we had a nice time visiting with them. They knew a lot of the same cruisers we did and we had seen their boat in other places but had never really met them before Bonaire. Monday morning, Barret, from Papillon, came by about 8:30 to let us know he had put a 'floater' (lifejacket) on the mooring next to his since the boat there left and we had said we wanted to move further north in the anchorage when we could. So, once we finished breakfast we moved again, this time to mooring 6, just a little down from where we were a month ago. The mooring was a little different than the others though and just before we went diving, I went in to check it. The 2 mooring lines were attached to blocks that were separated by about 30 feet and the north mooring line had some other lines attached to it. But the lines were very thick and seemed ok. I remarked to Diane that we should probably move moorings again though since one line was attached on the west side of the mooring block (instead of the top as was the case for the others I had seen) and would chafe if we got a west wind again. We went diving after I looked at the mooring. The dive shop had gotten a little busy with Americans coming down for Thanksgiving week so we had to wait a while to get our tanks but only about 10 minutes. We decided to go to the north side of Klein Bonaire since the wind was from the southeast and tried a site called Knife, one past Sampler that we had been to before. The site was nice but we saw the damaged areas of coral from Hurricane Lenny in 1999. There were still some very beautiful formations but nothing unusual in terms of fish. We got back and had to stay off the dock since they had a boat dive going out. We finally dropped off the tanks and had to wait off the dock again, but finally got to rinse the gear and then went back to Destiny and had lunch. We mostly just relaxed the rest of the day and I ran the engine in the late afternoon so the voltage, hopefully, wouldn't get so low overnight - the alarm is annoying. We had more rain overnight again, sometimes pretty hard. The wind tends to die at night so the boat gets hot and about 4am I just couldn't sleep anymore so I got up and worked on the web site. I wanted to finish up some things so I could do an update. (Have to keep my fans satisfied!) In the morning, since it was rainy and completely overcast, we went into town and I went to the Internet place while Diane did some shopping. I tried again to get my wireless card to work but no luck still and I emailed the company giving them more information (they had given me something to try but it didn't work). We went back for lunch (it had rained again so I had to pump out the dinghy) and didn't do much in the afternoon although I organized some of my storage areas a little. Later in the afternoon, Barret and Mindy from Papillon came over and we talked about the route back to PLC via the coast, which we had done last year, versus going east through the islands. They stayed for a while and we enjoyed their company. Barrett's brother was visiting and was watching their 1-year-old son so it was a treat for them to be out 'by themselves.' It looked like it would clear up some on Wednesday morning so we went diving around 10:30. It had rained a few times overnight - it's getting very tiresome. We picked up the tanks and went to Andrea 2, where we had been several times last year. It was a pretty spot with lots of soft coral but we were a little disappointed today in the fish life. The visibility was also not back to what it was last year. However, Diane did see a small turtle just before she got out of the water - I typically get in the dinghy first and get everything in the boat and put all the gear away and then she gets in. We got back to the shop, dropped off the tanks, rinsed everything and went back to Destiny to eat lunch. Of course, it started to rain once more. Lois, from Spice Island Lady (now Odetta temporarily), had checked with the marina to see if we could get a spot for a Thanksgiving potluck party but they wanted a pretty hefty fee so we had to cancel. Diane tried again later to get a spot that we knew wasn't used near the small pool but had the same result. I suppose we'll just spend the holiday by ourselves. We didn't do much in the afternoon but on her way back from the marina, Dolphin Street hailed Diane to say they were leaving tomorrow for Curacao and then Cartagena. She came to get me and we went back to say goodbye. They were a very nice family and we would miss their company. Happy Thanksgiving from an almost sunny Bonaire. It didn't rain last night for the first time in about 2 weeks and although there were clouds when we got up, the sun was trying to break though. We went into town in the morning since Diane wanted to call her parents and aunt for the holiday. I got on the Internet while she tried to get through; it took quite a while - I think the lines were just busy. Anyway, she finally did and I finished up on the 'Net and I went to the NAPA store where I got some engine oil and Diane went to the market just past NAPA. Back at the boat, we put the stuff away and had lunch before going diving. Amazingly, it was still pretty sunny. We went to dive site to the south since coming back, called Eighteenth Palm. We had tried to go there last year but there was always a boat on it when we tried. We tied on and just as we were about to go in, a 'snorkel' boat came over and asked to tie on also - he would tie us to his stern. We couldn't really refuse so we let go and managed (our equipment was already in the water) to get to the stern of 'Sea Cow', where we tied. We got in and dove on the inner reef of the double reef system there. The dive was a good one. The visibility was still only about 50 feet but we still enjoyed it. When we got back to the mooring, 'Sea Cow' had already left. After going to the dive shop, we just went back to the boat, relaxed, ran the engine to charge the batteries, ran the watermaker (it needed to be run as I hadn't done it in 2 days) and had a nice bottle of wine before dinner. Dinner, although not roast turkey, was lomito (filet mignon) with risotto and steamed carrots - very nice. Friday we had some more rain overnight but the morning was just partly cloudy and we decided to go diving in the morning and then maybe do a night dive from the boat. We picked up our tanks and were at the Front Porch site by 11. We went there since it was close, Diane wanted to find the seahorse there and I wanted to finally look at the wreck of a small tugboat that's at about 90 feet. It was a very good dive and although we didn't find the seahorse at first, we did see it at the end when we noticed another diver pointing something out. We went down to the wreck and saw a big grouper, a new species - a Black Grouper - at about 3 feet. I also saw another new species of goby, a Lined Goby, hiding in a sponge. We also saw a wide variety of fish - Spotfin Butterflyfish, Soapfish, a Scorpionfish, a large Horse Eye Jack, and several other uncommon fish. Afterward, the dive shop couldn't fill the tanks while we waited but they could do it by the evening so we said we would pick them up by 5, in time for our planned night dive. We stopped by Papillon to say goodbye as they and Odetta were leaving tomorrow morning to head back to PLC. Lynne and Lois had stopped by to say goodbye a little earlier. There were also some other boats leaving so Bonaire was going to empty out a bit now that the weather was getting better. Mindy was swimming nearby later though and said they were delaying by 12 hours so they would be leaving at 4pm, not 4am. We went to pick up the tanks, stopping to talk to Sally on Zahi in the marina first. We made arrangements to meet at her boat at 12:30 on Sunday to go to Petrie's Pillar again so she could show us the frogfish that were there. Once we had the tanks, we went back to the boat and relaxed for a few minutes before I got the equipment ready and we went in. The dive started at 6:20 and while we could have waited a little more, it was still pretty dark below. First we found the sleeping seahorse that was almost directly under our boat and then continued to the south. We failed to notice some southward current though, although it might have started after we began the dive but on the way back, Diane had a bit of a hard time (mostly because she doesn't use her legs to fin but relies on her hands too much.) Regardless, the dive was excellent and we saw lots of things we don't normally see during the day. I saw two new species of fish, a Mimic Cardinalfish and a Bridled Burrfish, as well as some invertebrates, a Banded Coral Shrimp and many Sponge Brittle Stars (a type of starfish). We also saw many Yellowline Arrow Crabs which we've seen only once before. There was also a large (4-5 foot) Tarpon that followed us around and unnerved both of us when he would come within 2-3 feet from out of the darkness. He was following us to possibly get a fish as we illuminated them with our lights (other divers had told us about this behavior). Another very interesting sight was a very large group of Trumpetfish (60-70 individuals) that were 'sleeping' vertically among a clump of Rope Sponge. Usually they hunt separately, although they do orient themselves vertically quite often as camouflage. We were down about 54 minutes and really enjoyed it, even though Diane had a hard time getting back. We'll definitely do another night dive. |