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Larry's LogOur first full day in Bonaire was interesting, and OK as it turned out, but there were some moments. Last night we had more rain and no wind, meaning we didn't sleep well and had to get up several times to close the hatches. It finally quit raining around 3am and we got to sleep, even though it was still very hot. After we got up (a bit late for us), we had some breakfast and went in to see the Immigration people. We brought various other documents that we had been told they might ask for, like proof of insurance and a recent financial statement (neither of which we had ever been asked for in any other Caribbean country). Anyway, we got to the office and they were pleasant as I filled out the simple form. However, when they saw we had left Puerto La Cruz on August 4, they asked if we had any papers showing where we had been for 2 months. We told them that we had been through Los Roques and Las Aves. In Los Roques, you can't check into the park if you have cleared out of Venezuela and there is nobody to check in with (except to tell the Guardia Nacional in Sotavento that you're there), so there were no "official" papers. The woman who had been helping us spoke to the man in the next desk and they went to another room. A few minutes later, he came out and said that he had some bad news- they weren't going to allow us to stay. He had called the chief of immigration and that was the rule. We tried explaining again but, while trying to be nice, he was adamant that they would not clear us in. When we said that we had done the exact same thing for the last 2 years, he simply said that it wasn't good now. We then asked if we could appeal it and he pointed to the police station and said that his boss was in a meeting there and we could try talking to him. We knew that would be pointless since he had just told us, through his officer, that we couldn't so we asked about talking to the Governor. He said, again nicely, that we were welcome to talk to him but that at that point there was nothing else he could do for us; bureaucracy in action. Needless to say, we were upset. We went down the street to the tourist office and asked if they would call the marina for us. We had heard that the marina manager might be able to help in these situations. The man there was very nice and he got the marina for us. But, we then found out that the manager was on vacation, possibly not even on the island. We explained the situation to the accountant, who said he knew the manager had helped before with these problems but he wasn't sure what had been done or who had been spoken to. We hung up the phone and weren't sure what to do at that point. Diane said we should just go to the Governor but I wasn't so sure. Luckily, we spoke to the man who was in the office and explained the situation to him. He went to speak with the tourism director and then said we should go and speak to the chief of immigration, possibly it might help. By that time though, it was getting close to lunch when all the offices would be closed. After some discussion we went over to the police station and asked for the chief of immigration but he was still in his meeting and we were asked to come back after lunch. OK, what else can we do? As we walked down the street, we saw the guy from the tourism office and told him what happened. He suggested we just go and talk to someone at the Governor's office. He wrote down her name and so we hurried over before they closed. At the government building, we asked for the Governor's assistant; she came out (we couldn't go in since we had shorts on) and we explained our situation - we liked Bonaire and wanted to stay for at least a month to dive and possibly participate in the annual Bonaire Regatta but were being denied entry; this was our third time here and we had visited in exactly the same manner over the last 2 years and why the sudden change? She was very nice and understood our problem. There were other people who had been in our situation and said there had been some changes in the immigration rules but that they weren't communicated yet. She took our names and asked that we wait a few minutes (we couldn't wait inside the building but at least there was shade). She came out and said she had spoken to the Governor and someone else and said that we should go back to Immigration at 3pm. She said we would be able to check in at that point. We were very happy at that news and thanked her very much. It was only about 12:30 and we didn't feel like eating out so we went back to the boat, had lunch and relaxed a bit - it was still overcast but clearing and still almost no breeze so it was very hot. We went back to shore at 2:30, walked over to the office and saw the same woman who had helped us first that morning. She hadn't been told about anything but said that her boss, the chief of immigration, was due back by 4:30 and could we come back in a while. We didn't have much choice so we asked if she would just call the marine store I had already contacted about a replacement outboard propeller. She did that and the store was open. After thanking her for the call, we walked over and bought the replacement prop - one with a slightly lower pitch so that the dinghy would plane easier with a heavy load. He also explained why the rubber disintegrates - he said it was due to the high sulfur exhaust from the high sulfur 2 cycle oil that was made in Venezuela. He also said that the gasoline was also made that way. I had heard that Venezuelan fuel had high sulfur content and of course, that sulfur mixes with water to create sulfuric acid which, naturally, corrodes the rubber bushing as the exhaust passes through the prop. It also eats the pistons and rings inside the engine. He recommended using the Yamalube oil, which he sold but it was pretty expensive so I'll have to think about it. Anyway, we bought the prop and he reminded me to make sure to replace the prop spacer when I put the new prop on. The manual calls it the thrust washer, so I will make sure to do that. After finishing there, we walked back to the Immigration office but she still hadn't heard anything and asked it we could come back at 4:30. We agreed (no real choice) and walked over to the Budget Marine store, the local chandlery, and also the NAPA store nearby. Diane went to some of the local markets while I browsed "my" stores. We met and went to a third market, didn't buy anything and finally walked back to Immigration. Amazingly, as soon as we tapped on the glass and she opened the blinds, our documents were done and she handed them to us. OK!! The clearance was for a month but we could ask for another 2 months after that. We thanked her and went back to the boat, feeling relieved. After a cooling swim (good snorkeling even right near the boat), a stiff drink, and the now refreshing breeze that was filling in, we felt much better, if a bit tired. The next day we had a busy morning but the afternoon was slow again. The first thing I did after eating breakfast was put on the new prop. This time, I had Diane lift it with the engine hoist and then while I held it and guided it, slowly lower it into the bottom of the dinghy. It was blowing nicely, about 12-15 knots, and the boat wakes were making the dinghy bounce around a lot. Doing it that way safeguarded it from me dropping it overboard. Once in the dinghy, I got off the old prop, cleaned up the shaft and the spacer (thrust washer in the manual) and greased everything. I then put on the new 8" pitch prop and took it for a ride. I got up on a plane easily and although I think the top speed is somewhat slower, it should plane now with Diane and I and the dive gear. Once the prop was done, we went into the marina to sign in and drop off the garbage. It was pretty full with just a few slips left, although the moorings were only about half-full. We went over to say hello to Bob and Geri on Freestyle but they weren't there so we just went on to the WannaDive shop nearby. The owner/manager, Bob, remembered us and we signed up for our air refills. Then it was back to the boat. By then, it was almost noon so we relaxed and had lunch. We talked about diving after lunch but we were still tired so we decided to just relax and do some things around the boat; Diane did some hand laundry and I setup the dinghy hoist tackle and some other small things. We then went snorkeling in the afternoon just near the boat. Again, it was pretty good - I saw several interesting things, like a group of Rosy Razorfish, a Pearly Razorfish, several large Rock Hinds, a Web Burrfish and a new species, a Chain Moray Eel. The eel was in 1 foot of water hiding under a limestone ledge right near shore. The wind had been pretty good so the batteries were OK but I ran the engine anyway since I also wanted to run the watermaker. I had also finally gotten a response from the maker of the wind generator about the problem with it decreasing output at a lower than expected wind speed. He suggested some trouble shooting things. I tested the diodes in the rectifier and they were fine but when I tried to test the resistance between the wires of the generator, I couldn't get a good reading. I suppose it was because the unit was still turning so I'll have to do it again when I can stop it. Unfortunately, I mistakenly put a wrench across the positive battery wire and the rectifier heat sink and blew the fuse to the battery. I thought I would change it tomorrow since the engine was still hot and all the wiring is next to the engine, mounted on the side bulkhead, but by the time I was ready to go to bed, the engine was cool enough if I put a cloth over it so I changed the fuse before going to bed (just in case there was any wind overnight). It rained again Wednesday night, starting around 3am this time, and was on and off until about 8am - not conducive to sleeping. It was also very calm; almost no wind. We spoke to Steph on Mima for a while on the SSB and after Diane mentioned that we weren't getting any output from the solar panels. I expected nothing from the wind generator since there was very little wind but the solar panels should have been producing something. I checked the panels themselves and they were fine. I checked the voltage regulator, also OK. Then I checked the fuse, and that was also OK. Except for the wire, everything seemed fine. Then I looked at the fuse holder and it was a little bent out of shape so I squeezed the little tabs together and put the fuse back in, and it worked again. I thought that was pretty strange but at least I didn't have to do any major repairs. We decided to do our first dive after lunch so we could put up the awning and run through the dive book again. Since it was now blowing about 12-15 knots, it was a little difficult putting up the awning but Diane helped and we managed, although it took about 40 minutes. After we finished that, I started to get out dive gear together and we then had lunch. We finally went into the water about 1:30 and had a very good first dive. Although we just went near the boat, there was a lot of fish life, some of it very interesting. We saw all 4 species of large angelfish - Queen, French, Grey and Rock Beauty. We also saw a 3 foot Cubera Snapper, a Sharptail Eel and I saw my second Orangesided Goby, right under the boat. We practiced removing our dive masks and putting them back on under water as well as taking the regulator out and replacing that. In all, it was a very good dive. By the time we got back to the dive shop, rinsed off the gear and took showers, it was almost 4. They filled the tanks for us right away so we brought those back with us and we put all the gear on deck and then changed to get ready to go meet Bob and Geri at 5 in order to go to dinner and a slide show later. We took the dinghy into the marina, left it at their boat and went to the pizza place we had been to last year. The pizza was pretty good and then we drove (they had a borrowed car) to the Carib Inn for a sea turtle slide show. That was also very interesting. There were the 4 of us and 2 other cruisers there so it was a small group and we all asked questions about the sea turtle program on Bonaire. The presenter also gave us some hints on making identification easier - distinguishing between a Green and Hawksbill isn't so easy sometimes. We had a very nice time and got back to the marina about 8:30. They invited us in for a drink but we had to pass since I had to get back and run the engine to charge the batteries - they were pretty low when we left earlier and I didn't want to have to run the engine too late. As it was, we had to run it until almost 10pm; I don't like to do that since it is late and the engine is noisy, especially in a mooring field where the boats are fairly close. Oh well, sometimes its unavoidable. The next day was busy with a dive. We planned to go diving at on of our favorite places called Something Special but as we were going over in the morning, a dive boat was closer and also going on. We decided to go up further north to The Cliff. When we got there and started putting gear on, I realized I had forgotten my dive computer. We dove without it and just dove very conservatively. The dive itself was OK - the visibility was only just fair in the shallow area (about 30-40 feet) but much better as we got deeper (60-70 feet). We didn't see anything new but the reef was nice. We turned around, went back to the mooring area and looked around the bottom near the dive mooring and I saw a Rainbow Wrasse; an adult male in bright colors. I had seen one before but never with such coloration. We ended the dive with a 3 minute safety stop and I estimated we had been in the water about an hour. At the dive shop, they filled the tanks for us again right away and after we rinsed off the gear and showered, we went back to the boat for lunch. Diane was going shopping with Geri, from Freestyle, and some other cruising ladies at 3 so she took the dinghy and I stayed behind. While she was gone, I put up the wind scoop, put up the forward awning over the wind scoop, tested the wind generator with the blades stopped (not much wind anyway), ran the engine and watermaker again and then just read for a while. Diane got back from shopping a little after 5 and after putting the groceries away we went to shore again to go to the weekly rum punch party at the WannaDive shop in town (they had just started them again this year). I didn't think we would go but Diane wanted to so off we went. We had a nice time and met the people who publish the Bonaire Reporter, a local English newspaper. Diane told them about our experience with Immigration and they said to send an email to them fully describing the problem. They said that the immigration policies came from Curacao but we then told them about Ellida, with Graham and Liz, who also weren't admitted to Bonaire but had no problem in Curacao. We got back to the boat about 7:30 and just had snacks - they had served some peanut chicken on skewers at the party that was very good. |