Sunday afternoon and we head off to the beach at Luc Bay. This is a windsurfer’s paradise with shallow blue water and lots of wind….. The dark patches in the photos is sea grass which is being cultivated for the turtles as this is a nesting place for them.  We enjoyed a lovely lunch in the beach bar and then took to the water – amazed by some of the gravity defying leaps around us and the skills of some of the youngsters.

We had a really chilled afternoon people watching and then headed back up the coast to Morphie for a quiet night in after another spectacular sunset.

Monday morning and we headed off early to return the truck. We were sad to see it go as we had had such good fun exploring the island. But we had pretty much done it all – so it was time….. After dropping off the truck we wandered back to the dive shop and did a single dive on the house reef. And we saw four huge tarpon just hanging around…. We also saw a huge shoal of blue tangs but sadly couldn’t find the seahorse that is supposed to reside on this reef…. Was a good long multi-level dive and we were underwater for almost an hour.

After cleaning and stowing all our gear we headed back to Morphie – with an initial panic because we couldn’t see dink on the pier!   He was still there… but had been pushed underneath… so the top of our outboard got a bit scratched up. Grrrrrr…. this is because people here tie up their dinghies so tight that they bounce others underneath the pilings. Oh well – what can you do???  Anyway… that was us for the day…. we just spent the rest of the day and evening on board.

Tuesday morning we were up really early, had a quick breakfast, made rolls for our surface interval, before heading into town.  We have booked to go boat diving so had to be at the shop ready to go by 8.30 am….. All sorted and there were four of us – which we were pleased about when we saw the size of the little boat that came in. But hang on, loads and loads of tanks on board. Then we find out that there are another 10 people coming from the other dive shop. Going to be a bit tight!

Went and picked them all up – got our gear ready to go – and we headed across the channel to the coast of Klein Bonaire. The first dive of the day was at Leonora’s Reef. A lot of the dive sites have girls’ names – apparently because they were all named after girlfriends of Captain Don!   Not sure whether that is urban myth, but makes for a good story….

This site was a typical sloping reef with huge coral formations with hollow centres – these are the ancient ones because corals age from the inside out and begin to die where the coral polyps are the oldest. Estimates of age for some of the formations here have been placed at over 75 years old.  Unfortunately the visibility wasn’t so great as the weather was overcast so a bit gloomy and a bit busier than we have got used to with so many divers in the water. But they all kept a reasonable distance so we had a good time – with loads and loads and loads of beautiful fish, including a few free swimming eels.

The second dive was Carl’s Hill – and the main feature of this dive is the sheer wall that begins 20 yards offshore and drops to a sandy bottom at 70 feet. The face of the wall is covered with sponges and gorgonians and a seldom seen species called featherbush hydroid which sits on the upper face feeding on the plankton. Again large schools of blue tangs and a few bar jacks were around. We also saw some great little stuff in the shallows as we finished our dive on top of the reef for our safety stop. Really enjoyed boat diving and was glad we had signed up for this.

Back on board in the middle of the afternoon for a short time then we headed back into the bar…. Time for more football!   This time it was Brazil –v- Germany.   We were anticipating a good match and a great atmosphere as there is a huge Brazilian following here and we had been entertained by them royally during this World Cup. Oh dear….. oh dear….. Terrible upset. The supporters couldn’t bear to watch – and the few German fans celebrating didn’t help matters either. Head in hands and everyone left pretty downcast after such a terrible result for them. Had to feel sorry for them…. After the game we headed back to Morphie for a quiet evening on board – and no cars noisily patrolling the waterfront tonight with flags flying and horns blazing. Not sure that the Road Runner counts LOL

Wednesday we were up pretty early and got busy. Boat jobs beckon – Morphie needed some tender loving care down below, particularly the wood. So we changed beds, scrubbed floors, polished walls and generally gave her a spring clean. She looked and smelt lovely afterwards! We then headed back to the bar for the 4pm kick off – tonight is going to be fun – Holland –v- Argentina. Hup Holland Hup!!!  The locals were in festive mood and were clearly expecting to celebrate big time tonight.

Well the match wasn’t great….and they just couldn’t score. As the time went on it got more and more tense – felt just like watching an England match!!!! Then extra time…. still 0-0. Oh dear.. penalties looming.. and this time they didn’t swap the keeper.

Not sure what is going on…. Oh dear…. all over…. Holland are out!  Absolutely shock and horror all round…. We had intended to go to the cruisers “burger night” in the marina after the match – but ended up chatting with other people we had met so didn’t move…. and had a pretty late night in the end!

Thursday morning and we were going to go diving…..but didn’t feel like it after the excesses of the night before. And to be honest we were both pretty tired – we have been quite busy since we got here and think it just caught up with us – so ended up doing nothing all day! Just reading, snoozing and chilling. Was lovely!!!!

Friday morning – today – and we were up early to another stormy, windy and slightly miserable day. We have been surprised by the amount of Sahara dust that is getting dumped on Morphie – but mustn’t complain as the presence of this in the atmosphere suppresses tropical storm activity! But it doesn’t rain here that often to wash it off….

Our first task today was to head off to the smart modern laundry – on foot this time – to get the sheets and towels done.

Then to the bank for more drinking vouchers and finally to the local Chinese supermarket as we had managed to run out of soft drinks again – and then back to Morphie. Richard then ran ashore to Budget Marine to drop off our cooking gas bottle as they think they know someone who might be able to fill it. This has been a constant problem up and down the island chain with the US fittings on our bottles – so today Richard ordered an adapter which we hope will help us resolve this once and for all!!!! So fingers crossed for Monday when we go to pick it up. And that’s it for the day folks! Another early night beckons.

Tomorrow we’re planning to do our final shore dive – and then bring the gear back to Morphie to dry off and get it packed up for the season. And I think there might be another football match to go and watch in the afternoon????

Bye for now.

Jan

Wednesday morning and we were up reasonably early to go to the dive shop to pick up our gear and four filled tanks. There is a lot of choice here with 63 dive sites dotted along the coast and they are all for independent exploration. The small dive guide is our bible as it gives information about each site such as strength of currents, whether it is a beginner, intermediate or advanced dive, maximum depths etc etc….  In making our decisions we’re looking for clues into the entry points as we are shore diving and we need to park, kit up, and then walk into the sea. Well – a lot of them don’t have specifics about the entry site but there are a few clues in the names like Rappel, 1000 Steps and Bloodlet…..

Today we had selected Bachelors Beach and Chez Hines with the backup site The Lake, which came highly recommended. So off we go – errrrrr….. we are not able to park even vaguely close to Chez Hines so we scrub that.  So we drive to The Lake – errrrrr…. might be a lovely dive but I really do not fancy sliding off the top of jagged rocks into the depths below – going in might be OK but could not see how you would get out!!!  So scrub that one too…. Off we go again – this time to Aquarius. Yay there is a small channel through the rocks we can see – so we go for it. Getting in was fine – although I was really cautious because I’m concerned about my dodgy ankle as I step from rock to rock.

Aquarius has a sandy bottom and is home to many schooling species. Nice corals here – more colourful than we had seen so far – and we had a great time. Then we moved on to Bachelor’s Beach which has steps down to the small beach – so great easy entry although getting off the bottom of the steps onto the beach below was a bit of a challenge!   Another lovely site and one of my favourites so far….. The coral formations here were much larger, there were more soft corals and it looked like a forest at one point as they swayed together in the swell, as well as huge purple tubes dotted around. The sheer volume of fish is huge – from tiny fry through to very large parrots and trigger fish – and they are all pretty curious and it is not unusual to get a few of them eyeball to eyeball!!! There are a few small critters of note too if you look hard enough. But still no turtles or eagle rays…. Check out some of our favourites.

After diving we headed back to the shop – cleaned our gear and stowed it for another day – and then back to Morphie. We made water and charged the batteries for a while and then decided not to go ashore….. so had a quiet and chilled evening on board.

Thursday morning we were up early and having a cup of tea in the cockpit when we see dolphins playing in the channel between Bonaire and Klein Bonaire… They didn’t come very close – and of course the camera was being charged so no chance of photos – but great to see them. Oh yes, and a turtle popped his head up to say hi too!   What a great start to the day….

Today we are exploring the Washington Slagbaai National Park. This park covers a significant portion of the top end of Bonaire and we get free entrance with our diving tokens. So we packed a picnic lunch and headed off… arriving at the park around 10.  I was quite taken by all the cactus fences surrounding properties on the drive there – bet that keeps intruders out!

At the welcome centre there is a little museum which was interesting about the history of Bonaire – and we spotted a hawk!  We picked up our park map and decided to go the yellow route through the park – which is 34 km long and takes about 2 ½ hours if you don’t stop….. Driving off and it is just dirt roads – but not too bad with concrete reinforcement at dodgy bits – and then you enter into a moonscape!  Mountains; rocks with fossils embedded; the towering terraces caused by the rise and fall of the ocean dating back 1 million years; the crashing dangerous sea onto the lee shore; the wind turbines; the blowholes; the sandy inlets; the fresh water lakes; more salt; more flamingos; dive sites designed for mountain goats; cliffs; and some old ruins and renovated historic buildings. We were blown away by the sheer natural beauty of it all….

We eventually ended up at a little beach for our picnic and enjoyed a short time bobbing while watching all the macho posturing of the ‘look at me’ divers as they surfaced with all their knives; their BCDs equipped with every useless object you could find in a dive shop; and their huge camera / light displays. Quite funny!!! Actually this dive site looked great – and we were a little jealous – but realistically there was no way we would have fancied having tanks in the back of our truck while we bumped and shuddered along these tracks…..

After a while it was time to head off again to drive the final 7 kms to exit the park before it closed – and this was the worst bit of the whole day. The tracks got increasingly narrow, windy and steep. Richard enjoyed his attempt at rally driving while I was just glad to escape without serious injury LOL!

Phew – finally we arrived back to Kralendijk having had a fantastic day out – pretty tired and a little bruised! – so we had a couple of restorative cold beers watching the sunset whilst sitting on the pier before we retired back to Morphie for the night.

Friday and we are off diving again…. This time we planned to dive Alice in Wonderland and Tori’s Reef.  Alice in Wonderland has a split reef and you have to watch your depth gauge carefully – but we managed to navigate ourselves around and get back to exactly where we started. We are getting lots of practice at this!!!  This is a very popular site – so we saw other divers underwater. We were a bit shocked to see how bad some of them were particularly with buoyancy issues. They weren’t crashing into the coral thankfully but they were all over the shop… with flailing arms and legs….one woman even managed to kick Richard in the face as we passed by….   We also saw quite a lot of solo divers too which surprised me – but everyone to their own I guess – or maybe their buddy was too far away for us to see ?!?!?   We enjoyed this dive but didn’t really see anything different. The next dive was Tori’s reef which was a bit of a struggle to get into the channel out over the rocks – but we managed it. This is the number two dive in the whole of the Caribbean for fish diversity – and I can see why. Another huge aquarium filled with loads and loads of critters….. Nothing of particular note – just overwhelming numbers, although I have to say that parrot and angel fish do seem to go to the toilet quite a lot and they particularly like to do this on top of our heads LOL!!!! More favourite things below…. 

Back on board – sitting in the cockpit watching the comings and goings and we admired this nice yacht coming into the anchorage….. He went towards a couple of mooring balls – and then carried on going – straight towards the wall….. And then he ran aground. Oh dear….. So Richard is in the dinghy to offer international rescue services – one of the guys took a line to the mooring balls behind and the owner of the yacht started to winch that. Another guy took a line to the dinghy and started to pull – Richard went to the other side and pushed. Eventually they got him free and safely onto a set of mooring balls. There is a reef ledge just along the waterfront but it looks like he grounded before hitting that – which was a bit of luck because I don’t think he would have got off of that without doing some major damage…. Excitement over and we got ourselves ready to go out to dinner.

We had dinner at It Rains Fishes – a beautiful waterfront restaurant we are moored almost directly opposite. Richard had a duo fish soup starter whilst I had shrimp croquet – followed by steak for me while Richard was tempted by the steak and lobster combo. The food was fantastic, cooked beautifully, and the ambience was great – although one of the tables behind us was a bit noisy, so not quite the romantic evening it would have been otherwise!  We did succumb to deserts too – I had the chocolate duo while Richard tried out the home-made tiramisu ice cream – but I forgot to take photos.   Doh!!!

Oh yes we watched the firework display further down the coast which presumably was for US Independence Day. Hope all our American friends had a good one…..

Saturday we were up early – more diving – this time to Andrea I and Bari’s Reef. The entry at Andrea I was difficult – climbing carefully over jagged rocks and then pulling ourselves over flat boulders to get into deep enough water to get the fins on…. But it was worth it – this was a very interesting dive site in terms of different topography, more twists and turns, more colours, and the biggest parrot fish we had ever seen in our lives!!! They were absolutely humongous…..and when they crunched down on the coral the noise was very loud….. We also saw a few barracudas, a giant pufferfish, some nudibranches, lots of cleaner shrimps, and were blown away by the place. This is the number one dive site for fish diversity in the whole Caribbean and it lives up to its name.

Back on land – doing our surface interval eating digestives and sipping water – we were joined by some huge iguanas…. They were easily four foot long – and were very keen to sample our biscuits!  I know you are not supposed to feed wild animals but this was just too tempting – they loved them LOL… 

Back in the truck and we headed off to do Bari’s reef. Entry was easier from a sandy beach – but I didn’t realise there was a step down and got caught by a wave coming in – so managed to fall on my bum in a very unladylike fashion on the way in…. And of course there were people around to see this! Ooops….. No harm done apart from to my pride – and we descended. Bit gloomy here but at least the reef wasn’t a long swim away like some of the other sites. This place had been recommended to us – but to be honest it wasn’t a patch on our earlier dive… The topography was boring, the corals looked a little beaten up without much colour and although lots of fish around, just the usual suspects. Oh well – never mind.

Back to the dive shop to clean and stow the kit – then back to Morphie for a couple of hours relaxing. We chilled out reading and snoozing – then got ready to go out again. Time for more World Cup football – Holland are playing – so we want to be part of the orange world!   Back to Karels – and we managed to get a spot near the bar – and we watched the match. Well….. the Dutch were going mad!!!!  They had so many chances and so much of the possession – but just couldn’t get that ball to go in the goal. Then it’s extra time….and groans get louder as the tension rises. Then they fail to score again and it’s coming down to penalties. Quickly they swapped their goalie out – and the locals explained that their normal goalie isn’t so good at penalties as the other one – and the whole bar held it’s collective breath!!!

Thankfully they made it – hurrah – orange drinks all round…. Lots of shouting, screaming, car horns, dancing, firecrackers, laughing…. just complete excitement. Well done! Really good time had by all.

And after the game…..while the whole of the island was celebrating….there was the most beautiful sunset ever.

Today – Sunday – and we have to give our truck back tomorrow   As we had quite a bit to drink last night celebrating along with the rest of the bar – we decided not to go diving. So I’m blogging while Richard is doing boat jobs.  Later on this afternoon we plan to go to the beach for a bobbing session…..

Bye for now

Jan

Friday morning and we got cracking.  I cleaned more stainless and even climbed up to wash the huge amounts of Sahara dust from the solar panels.  Richard did more maintenance and other cleaning jobs down below…… Phew…… Really hot and humid here now – so everything seems to take so much more effort than before.

After an early dinner on board we headed into the town square where there was a commemoration evening for Captain Don – the Dutch guy who introduced diving to Bonaire having shipwrecked his yacht on arrival – having somehow managed to rescue his scuba tanks.  He was something of a character, ran his own dive operation, and lived to a ripe old age. It appeared that he was universally loved and there was a constant scroll of photos of him on the big screen throughout the evening.

The evening included the kids with the local dance troupe doing a modern dance after  a rendition of Mary Poppins!  Couldn’t believe that here we were in Bonaire singing along to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocous!  Completely bonkers….. Oh yes, and that wasn’t the only thing that surprised us – there was a full-on kebab van doing proper doners…. and was the busiest food outlet of the night! We can only eat them after a drink, not before or during LOL!!!!

Then it was the turn of the fire dancer / eater to entertain us – and his friend on the mike got some local kids to dance and then their parents. All good family fun…..

Oh yes, and we bought a single raffle ticket, and guess what!  We won!!!  Seriously – the first ticket of the night was ours and we won two t-shirts from one of the local dive operators. We never usually win anything….!!!!

Overall we had a great evening and thought that Captain Don would have been proud. We listened and watched some local teenagers that had won the equivalent of Britain’s Got Talent and were now appearing in Curacao. Eventually we called it a night and left.

Saturday dawned and it was miserable – raining intermittently and grey. The wind had dropped as well so our battery bank was feeling the pain!   Oh yes….and the fridge and freezer are working….but they are drawing way too much power.   Need to get this sorted next season pronto!    We were on board doing boat jobs most of the day and headed in for sundowners….. We caught the end of the Columbian game and enjoyed the spectacle of the VERY noisy and excited fans celebrating their success…..

We then headed back onboard for a quiet night and a spectacular moody sunset.

Sunday morning and we were up early. The Dutch were playing again in the World Cup so we wanted to be part of the orange world.  So we went into the bar for the 12 noon kick-off – Hup Holland Hup!   Well…. it got quieter and quieter as the game went on – oops looks like they might not make it – so you can only imagine the noise and cheering and general excitement when Holland scored and eventually made it through! Phew….. Having enjoyed a few Coronitas (baby Coronas) we decided not to watch the next game and went back on board for a quiet afternoon / evening.

Monday morning and we headed into town to hire a car. Well, actually, it’s a pick-up truck. They don’t allow you to have dive gear in the cars so this is what we ended up with instead. All very new and shiny and probably the best – and definitely the most expensive – rental we’ve had this season.

The rules were carefully explained to us – no locking doors; no leaving anything in the truck; leave windows open and any contents on full view. All very alien – but apparently, if you leave it open the local vagabonds can check it out and will leave it alone. Leave a bag inside and they will steal it. Lock it up and there is clearly something worth stealing inside – so they smash windows!  Not what we were expecting but hey, if the locals say this is how to do it, then who are we to argue????

Now that we had transport we decided to explore a bit of the island. Bonaire is largely desert and volcanic rock and is very desolate in places – and completely different from the lush green islands that we have visited. But it has its own beauty – a bit like Anegada – with coral strewn beaches and empty roads and the sea has the most visibility than we have ever encountered. Watching parrot fish from the jetty or the pier when you know the water is 20 feet deep is something very special.

We went down the west coast of the island and noticed all the yellow boulders on the shore line which link to yellow markers in the ocean – all marked dive sites ready to be explored. Looking forward to doing this soon!

We then visited the slave huts – the slaves imported here were largely involved in the production of salt – and marvelled at the huge mounds of salt being harvested…. There were flamingos in the salt lakes too… Amazing.

Further down the coast and we came across a number of obelisks – these used to be coloured red, white and blue to match the Dutch flag – and were identifiers for ships coming to collect salt with the different coloured obelisks identifying the grade of salt available at each location. The slave huts were incredibly small with just a tiny doorway and a window to the rear – quite sobering to realise that people lived in this barren land in such harsh conditions.

We then headed off to Luc Bay – a windsurfers paradise…..   Had a sandwich and a soda before moving on…..

We then visited the donkey sanctuary. Originally the donkeys were involved in the movement of salt – and were left to run wild on the island when machines took their place. A Dutch woman decided to rescue them from a life of scrounging and being injured / mistreated – so she managed to obtain an area equal to six football pitches and now rescues them.  Males are castrated immediately and the females – who are usually pregnant when they arrive – are sterilised after they have given birth. The new arrivals, mothers and babies are kept separately until they have settled – being fed three times a day, and some of the newborns with additional milk – and then they are left to roam around the area and are fed twice a day. We visited the babies first – and Richard decided that a selfie with one of the little ones would be a good idea, hilarious result! – and then we drove into the compound.

As we drove along we met a few donkeys here and there and we gave them carrots…. Oh yes, and then they all materialised out of nowhere and started chasing us. It was funny to start with – then they stood in front of us, wouldn’t move, would run alongside and we would worry about hitting them…. All for carrots!   Well, in the end, it wasn’t funny as they were getting a bit naughty so we just chucked carrots out along the side of the road and only fed a few by hand when we were sure there were none hiding around the corner!  Check out the photo of one running alongside……

Later on we ended up back in the bar for a couple of cold ones before retiring back to Morphie to watch another sunset and have a quiet evening on board.

Tuesday morning and we were out and about early. We picked up four dive tanks – two smaller ones for me and two normal sized for Richard. Decided to go down this route – and I wore my really old 1mm suit rather than my normal 3mm one – just to reduce the amount of weight that I have to carry. Shore diving is much more strenuous than boat diving…..

Our first site was called 18 Palms – after the palm trees that line the road. This dive was very similar to the ones that we had done off the back of Morphie – and nothing in particular to note other than the huge shoals of fish that were around. They weren’t particular big fish but wow – definitely another aquarium job!   Then we moved along the coast to Windsock (named because it is close to the airport) – which had a pier to the right and a split reef to the left. The coral here was different – with large bombies along with quite a bit of fire and stag coral. Loads of soft stuff in between too…. We stayed around 20 metres / 60 feet on the way out and 10 metres / 30 feet on the way back. The navigation was tougher than the others but we managed to get back to where we had started from and had a great dive. The fish here were larger than we had seen – of particular note are the parrots, trigger fish and porcupine fish who are up to two feet long!  And then the huge shoals of blue tangs come along….following the goat fish who churn up the bottom….and another very large wrasse. He was probably three feet long. The coral here had more colour to it – and there were loads of purple sponges lying around. This was also a nursery for sergeant majors and others. Fantastic!  Here are some of our favourite dive buddies…..

Oh well…. back to the truck – back to the dive shop, cleaned and stowed all our gear – then back to Morphie who really likes her mooring balls……

And then we picked up the laundry.    Yes, I know…. more laundry….. but sheets and towels are really hard to hand wash and get dried – so we end up collecting them until we find somewhere to get them done. The laundry here was great – very very clean, loads of machines etc, free wifi and ability to buy soft drinks. We were about to start watching the USA game on the TV too but the woman who worked there switched it over to some cheesy Spanish soap opera!  Oh well… never mind. Laundry done – and we ended up back in Karels for a couple of beers just to catch the end of the match. Huge crowd in – and split loyalties – so was a pretty good atmosphere. Was a tough game…. Well done Belgium – bad luck USA, you played well. My loyalty was with the USA of course – not because we have loads of friends there actually – but really because their manager Jurgen Klinsman used to play for Spurs (Tottenham Hotspur) many years ago and I loved watching him in action!!!!

After the game we had a quiet night on board and enjoyed the unusual sight of a small cruise ship in the harbour…..

This morning – Wednesday – and we went diving again. More details to follow in the next blog. Bye for now

Jan

Sunday we had a busy morning cleaning all the salt off Morphie – she was absolutely caked in it…. Happy that she was sparkling again we headed ashore in the afternoon to explore the town of Kralendijk. We wanted to work out where a few things were eg a dive centre; a laundry; a supermarket; an ATM; a car-hire place etc etc…. All very sleepy with a mix and match of architecture – some looking very Dutch – but none of it looking very old!  As expected, the town was closed but we managed to find most things that we were looking for, and filed away their locations for another day. Some strange decorations outside one house too – would be good to go for Guy Fawkes night?!?!?!

On the way back to dink we went into Karel’s beach bar for a couple of beers – and ended up watching a bit of the latest World Cup football. Some Dutch cruisers came in – and were pointed in our direction by the bar staff as we had been asking a few questions – and they gave us the low down over a beer or two. The most useful information we found was that we had to go into the marina for pay for the mooring balls – not what customs had told us at all! They said that someone would come round to collect the fees. Hmmm….. Also we found out that the marina has a fuel dock – so useful for petrol and diesel – and, if the wind backs and the mooring balls become untenable, they move everyone in there instead. We were very grateful to them both for spending some time with us. We were feeling tired again pretty soon so headed back out to Morphie for a quiet evening on board and a lovely sunset.

Monday morning and we got up early as we needed to go in and clear immigration. All done quickly and no dramas….. and no money exchanged hands either! Nice…. We headed back into town to the supermarket for some soft drinks and fresh bread and then wandered to the dive shop to get our marine park ‘tokens’. These are compulsory if you want to snorkel or dive in Bonaire. They only cost US $25 each and give us free access to the Washington Slagbaai National Park as well as all dive sites – which we thought was pretty reasonable. What we hadn’t anticipated was that – before we are allowed to go diving – we have to do a buoyancy check with the dive school. OK – fine – we’ll sort that out later in the week, but at least we are good to go snorkelling. The mooring balls sit on top of the most gorgeous blue water – and right behind us we have navy blue as the depth drops away – so quite excited by the prospect! The water clarity here is amazing – you can see huge parrot fish just sitting at the dock and even coral under the surface at the water’s edge…..

We then headed along the coast to the marina office to pay for our mooring ball – but it was closed – oh yes, forgot, there might be an important football match on today. We had already noticed that all the locals were dressed in orange!!!!

So we thought – why not, when in Rome and all that…. So we headed into the bar to watch the match – Holland –v- Chile – and the place was rammed. Was a fantastic atmosphere – the Dutch are really passionate about their football – and we even got complimentary orange shots every time they scored!

The next match was Brazil –v- Cameroon and the supporters started to come in for that…. the bar staff changed their shirts and the orange world turned yellow and green. So we ended up staying for that match too – and again the atmosphere was great with banter between supporters and the cacophony of sounds from the trumpet things they all like to blow at every opportunity! Was a real family affair….

When it was all over we headed back for a quiet night on board but had to listen to the multitude of fans who had taken to their cars driving along the waterfront with flags and trumpets and drums and just plain old celebratory noises! When we got back on board we had a ‘welcome to Bonaire’ letter from the marina office giving us their opening hours and saying it was mandatory to check in with them on the day you arrive after you have cleared customs and immigration…… Errrr…you were closed from 2pm Saturday until 9 am Monday – and we came by today at noon but you were closed. And, of course, now you have closed for the evening….. The letter threatened us with a fine so we guess we’d better make that a priority for the morning! Oh dear…. Never mind, nothing we can do, so we just turned in for an early night.

Tuesday morning and we are up early….. had a cup of tea and then headed around to the marina. The guy was busy when we got there so we waited a while until he turned his attention to us. Was going to grovel a bit – but he was lovely and took our money happily, along with some great tips about free shopping buses etc etc….. So looks like the ‘welcome letter’ is just a bit of a frightener to make sure you come and pre-pay! When we got back, after some breakfast, I started on the stainless steel cleaning – and Richard was doing some maintenance jobs, like freeing up a Y valve that had jammed; he fixed both furling drums / lines that had played up on the passage down; and also cleaned down below. We stopped for the occasional cold drink and finally gave up working at 4pm. By now we were pretty hot and tired – so decided not to go ashore – and just sat in the cockpit quietly.

Well……..it was quiet……..until the Colombia fans decided to make their presence felt after they had qualified for the quarter finals! A real mix of people here – and of course we are only 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela – so shouldn’t be surprised that most South American countries have a representative sample!

Eventually after about an hour of madness and mayhem they quietened down and the only sounds were the gentle lapping of the water against the hull….. Pure bliss – and wonderful sunset……

Wednesday morning and we are off to sort out our diving. We arranged for an afternoon buoyancy check and decided to go for a ‘tank tracker’ card – which means that we can take tanks away with us, get them swapped out for full ones, and pay at the end. All very civilised! All sorted – and we headed back to Morphie via a local cafe for something to eat. Was horrified to see that they were avidly watching Geordie Shore – with Spanish subtitles – and hope to god they don’t think that all English people behave like that!!!!! I’d actually never seen it before – but a simple example of how bad this programme is – one girl asked her friends what happened on dates because she was good at sex but hadn’t actually ever had a date before!!!!! OMG – this cannot be for real…..

Back on board and we went snorkelling for about an hour. There are some very big fish living just under Morphie – including some French Angelfish who appear pretty territorial and get quite close to let you know that this is their territory.  Very funny….

After lunch we kitted up and headed off to the pier at the dive shop. The pier is really high and it was a bit of a feat to get out of dink….. We made it but wasn’t easy for sure! Was glad I was wearing my wetsuit so protected my knees from the clambering up….. In the dive shop we sorted out tanks / weights and kitted up. We walked across the road and into the sea. We thought a buoyancy check would be a ‘test’ dive to ensure we were capable – but no, all the girl did was sit on the pier, check we could go down and up, and then left us to it. So we headed out onto the house reef – dropping down to 20 metres on the way out and came back at around 12 metres. This was our first completely unguided dive – and we were very happy with how it all went. The topography is a lovely mix of soft and hard corals on a gentle sliding slope down to about 30 metres and then it drops sharply off into the blue – as we came through the channel between Klein Bonaire and Bonaire it was 200 feet and further out it goes down to 5,000 feet – and is so deep they train submariners here apparently!!!!! The usual suspects were in attendance….but much larger specimens than we had seen elsewhere in the Caribbean. The visibility is about 100 feet / 30 metres. And no lion fish!!!! Hurrah….. Think we are going to enjoy it here.

Back on board – along with four filled tanks for another day – and we chilled out for a couple of hours while we were drying our gear before stowing it all and then headed back into town. It takes about 2 minutes in the dinghy! Richard took me out to dinner at The Mona Lisa – which had pretty standard Dutch fare but was executed really well and was very tasty. Decided to start with a draft beer – and didn’t realise that they would be quite so big at 0.5L!!! We had one each and enjoyed a really nice dinner before heading back to the dock for a glass of wine before heading back on board. Was a late night for us – we didn’t get to bed until 10pm!!!!

This morning – Thursday – we got up and had a cup of tea before kitting up to go diving directly off the back of Morphie.  Yay!!!!  We planned our dive and were in the water about 9.45 am. Headed off down the reef to 20 metres and turned left into a slight current. Great fish around – especially the large tarpon and the huge wrasse – and some pretty impressive shoals of decent sized fish. The coral is pretty and very healthy albeit not particularly colourful although lots of Christmas tree worms that pop back into the hole when you come by….. But when swimming in an aquarium where the fish come up close to have a look at you it really doesn’t matter… Back on board after a 46 minute dive – and we had some breakfast during our surface interval.

Back in the water again and this time we turned right….. so had a little drift dive in the current…. and then worked our way back. We saw two goldentail moray eels – one of them swimming freely – and loads of cowfish. a very large puffer fish and a little porcupinefish… This time we were in the water for 55 minutes. Check out some of our favourites from the diving……

Back on board and we are chilling and relaxing now – and have decided not to go ashore tonight. Planning loads more overland and underwater explorations over the next couple of weeks….. We are enjoying being somewhere completely new – although miss our cruising buddies!

Bye for now

Jan

Tuesday night at 11.50 pm we picked up anchor and set sail towards Bonaire.    It was lighter than we expected but was mainly due to the light pollution from Charlotte Amalie itself – the moon had not come up yet!   Once we were clear of the well-marked channel we headed into the wind and got our sails up.   The forecast tonight was for very light airs but we are about to go into our shift pattern for our first night at sea – so we put a reef in both the main and the genoa.  Our first waypoint was 144 miles away and our course was 228 degrees.  This was east of the direct course to Bonaire to make best use of the currents.

About 12.30 am on Wednesday morning we were sailing along nicely on a beam reach so Richard went off watch and took himself off to bed….  For this passage we were using the aft cabin as we were going to be on a port tack all the way and this berth is secure.    Nothing much was happening – very light airs around 10-15 knots.  We were moving along nicely at 5 knots so pretty happy with that.    Richard then popped his head up – can’t sleep with the nodding motion in the back cabin so was moving into the saloon instead.   Fine….  no worries.   About 2 am I changed course to allow for the strong current that was pushing us west so our heading was now 215 degrees.    But was still a nice reach and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

At 3 am we changed shifts just as a cruise ship passed us to port and a cargo ship was coming up behind us.   I took to the aft cabin – found it cosy – and had a good sleep.   Richard carried on that course for a while and the cargo ship passed us to port eventually.  It was a beautiful night with just the moon for company and slight seas around 2-3 feet.   I can wax lyrical about sailing at night – the river of phosphorescence in the water as it goes past the keel with sparkles lighting up as it goes alongside the hull….  The only way to describe this is to think of a leprechaun sitting on the bow throwing copious amounts of glitter into the water LOL.  With the moonlight shimmering across the water too it is just plain beautiful!   As it started to get light Richard spotted St Croix to port.

At 6 am we changed shifts again – Richard back to the saloon and I’m on my own.   And the wind moved forward of the mast so was tracking at around 60 degrees….   The wind was building and so were the seas.   We now had swells and a squally gray day with gusts up to 23 knots.   We enjoyed some great sailing.

Because it was an overcast day our batteries were feeling the strain so we motor-sailed for a couple of hours to top them back up again – and, of course, they were not helped by the freezer or lack of solar power.   The remainder of Wednesday was more of the same…. no ships and the wind settled back to a reach.   Around 5 pm we decided to reef the genoa for the overnight passage….. and the furler jammed!   Great….   Richard went forward and spotted that the furling line had jammed beneath the drum so ended up having to rethread the whole thing – while I tried to keep the genoa full of wind to avoid any damage to the sail.  All fixed, phew, and time for our night shifts to resume and I enjoyed a spectacular sunset.

Thursday morning – around 4am – we reached our first waypoint.   So we had a slight change of course to our second waypoint which was another 70 miles away.   Beautiful sunrise as well……  During Thursday the wind remained steady at around 17 knots until around 5pm when the wind dropped to 9 knots and moved to 120 degrees.  Normally we reef for the night passages but this time we decided to throw caution to the wind and leave a full genoa out to maintain our boat speed.   Although the winds were light the seas were becoming increasingly swelly….. and we kept having to point higher to counteract the strong currents.

During the early hours of Friday the wind started to build so we reefed down again and we had 20 knots sustained with significantly higher gusts.  The waves were now building because of the 300 mile fetch from the Caribbean island chain and we were getting slapped every now and again by a rogue one.   We motor sailed again for a couple of hours to top up the batteries….. there is a real lack of solar power right now with these grey days.   The waves were now breaking too and were coming slightly at us.  Definitely a bit bumpy!   During Friday afternoon the wind eased back for a short period before it started blowing again and at 5pm we reached our second waypoint and changed course direct to Bonaire which was another 239 miles away.  We continually kept tweaking our course to keep to the east of the rhumb line.  Around midnight we had a ship pass our stern…the first we had seen for a while.

Saturday early morning and it was horrible.  Our weather guru had warned us of a tradewinds surge coming Saturday night – we think it arrived early!!!!   Wind was now sustained at 24 knots and gusting 28…. the seas were now 10 feet and were a bit confused coming at us from all directions.   This was not fun, especially when the waves broke over the top of us.  I seemed to get wetter than Richard though, not sure how that works!   As we were nearing Bonaire we were expecting to see more commercial traffic and we started to spot vessels on our AIS – most of which were cargo ships or tankers.   This was definitely the worst part of the passage although things were not quite so daunting in the daylight hours.

At 6am shift change Richard is heading off to sleep and I’m taking charge.   I just sit at the helm and spot a huge and I mean HUGE ship coming out of the gloom straight towards us.  And of course no AIS signal either!!!!   I shout at Richard to come back up – he looks bemused – so I let off some working class language to alert him to the immediacy of my request!!!!!     OMG this guy is pounding into the waves and clearly hasn’t seen us….   He is about 2 miles away and we were not going to take any chances so we run downwind towards him…   Dorra the tanker passed us about half a mile off and we breathed a sigh of relief as we resumed our course towards Bonaire.   Oh yes, and I let Richard go back to sleep now the drama was over!

At 8am Bonaire appeared out of the gloom and we were relieved to see her.

At 10 am the wind was sustained at 26 knots gusting 33 knots and we were getting closer to the island.  Because we know that the wind always howls when you get near an island we decided to drop all sails and motor in.   Man did it blow!!!!!    At one point we had 2,500 rpm on the engine and we were barely making 2 knots as the wind and waves were now coming straight at us as we rounded the island.   We endured these conditions for three hours plus and it was horrible…. just plain horrible.    As we continued along the west coast of Bonaire the wind continued to howl although the sea started to moderate.   As we got between Klein Bonaire and Kralendijk the sea flattened dramatically and we were able to motor along the waterfront to find a mooring.   Moorings are compulsory here….and at 2pm we were safely secured and had arrived!!!   Hurrah…..we made it!!!!    445 miles in total which took us 84 hours and an average speed of 5.3 knots – we had planned our passage based on an average of five knots to ensure that we arrived in daytime….  So pretty pleased overall with both ours and Morphie’s performance…..

We quickly got cleaned up, dropped dink, put the outboard back on him, and headed into customs and immigration.    Customs were there – and very helpful – but no immigration.   They said come back Monday and gave us the form!   Very laid back…..    We then headed to the nearest bar to our boat – Karels – and had a couple of well-deserved cold beers and a burger in paradise.   Let everyone know that we were safe and back to Morphie for a looooooooong sleep.

Saturday afternoon we went to bed at 5pm and Richard slept for 14 hours straight!!!!   I didn’t – kept checking the batteries bizarrely – but felt rested by Sunday morning……  We plan to go exploring and do some diving – so bye for now and I’ll leave you with some pictures of the Bonaire waterfront taken from Morphie.

Jan

Friday afternoon and the refrigeration guys were running late – thank goodness for that local phone!!!  So we agreed that I would go ashore – alone – to get the blog published while Richard stayed on board doing more boat jobs, just in case…. When we climbed into dink we realised that he had deflated down one tube (side) – we looked like right old cruisers putting slowly along with only half of the dinghy inflated!!!!   Richard dropped me off at the marina and headed back to fix the problem. I took myself off to the coffee shop taking a few more photos of the marina along the way.

Luckily dink didn’t have a leak – more just the valve stopper had come out somehow – and the heat forced the air passed the valve. Well, that’s what we think anyway, as since dink has been pumped back up he has been fine since! Richard came and picked me up once I’d finished blogging and radioed him for a lift using the mobile VHF.

David and JR from Reefco arrived later in the afternoon and fixed the fridge in short order – it just needed more gas. The freezer, however, was being problematic. They identified that they thought that the Smart Speed Control box was playing up and potentially needed more gas too – but as the freezer was so ice-bound it was possible that this was causing issues too as air circulation is crucial in these Frigoboat units. So we left it that I would defrost and restart the freezer over the weekend and they would return on Monday if it didn’t resolve itself… Oh well…. never mind…. Luckily we had purchased some chemical icepacks which were already frozen solid….so I put all our frozen food into a coolbag and had my fingers crossed…while I forced it to defrost using warm water. Managed to get it ice free and drained in two hours – phew – and restarted it. Immediately it started to cool down so we repacked it and hoped for the best. After a busy day we went ashore for a couple of hours for sundowners – this time at a posh wine bar called Grand Cru – and then had a quiet night on board.

Saturday we were up early and had already done some hand washing and were busy down below getting the boat ready for sea as well as running the generator and making water. This time we were getting the life-raft and grab bag ready, as well as charging up the hand-held Garmin, the hand-held VHF radio, testing the EPIRB etc…. and Richard popped his head up into the cockpit and spotted another Island Packet coming close by. It was Latitudes! They had read our blog and realised we were still around so came to see if they could find us… They anchored in front of us and then Nancy and John came aboard for a quick catch up and look around.

We stayed on board Morphie while they headed off shopping – and we then rejoined them onboard Latitudes for sundowners. It was interesting to see the differences between the two IP 370s – ours being a 2008 and theirs being a 2012 model – the main ones being a different make of cooker (ours is Force 10); the much softer leather fabric on their saloon cushions (although they have no hard backs to keep them in position); the position of some of the electrics and, bizarrely, the plugholes in the sinks; no drain holes in the fridge / freezer (and the best news for them – different controllers!); and the most significant of all, an electric fresh-water head!!!  Of course that doesn’t include any of the stuff we have added to go cruising……

At this point we were going ashore to watch the first England World Cup football match against Italy.

Nancy and John had decided to stay the night in the anchorage so came ashore with us as well……  We had a great evening in the Fat Turtle – including some bites for supper – and enjoyed ourselves a lot.   Shame about the football result!

Sunday we carried on with boat preparation for the passage….and were pleased to see that the freezer was still coming down in temperature… Fingers still crossed though.   In the morning we waved goodbye to Latitudes as they left for the rest of their trip – was so pleased we managed to hook up again!

And that was it for the day really – we had a quiet evening in the cockpit having enjoyed another moody sunset over St Thomas and the comings and goings of the little sea plane.

Monday morning – the freezer is still pulling a huge load but is refusing to come down the final few degrees….. So we called David again and he agreed to come out after lunch.  So we went ashore for some last-minute shopping – we particularly needed a new kettle – and some more drinking vouchers as Bonaire uses the US dollar…  Back on board lunchtime and David turned up as promised. He recharged the freezer with a little gas and immediately the temperature went down. Fantastic!  And for no charge either today!  Great guys these – would definitely recommend Reefco to anyone who needs this type of service in St Thomas. While he was on board David also said that the controller was definitely (quote) “a pile of junk”!  It doesn’t stop pulling amps even when the freezer reaches its set temperature so I have to manually intervene to avoid the batteries being drained – in his opinion, we need to consider putting a Merlin controller on as a replacement on both the fridge and freezer.  Eric – on Cutter Loose – did this earlier this season so maybe it’s time we should follow his example!   Reefco has them in stock so we may do this here if we don’t get a weather window soon.

Later on we went ashore for internet and have identified a potential weather window for Wednesday – so we have e-mailed our weather guy to get him to look at it for us. Fingers crossed – much as we have enjoyed ourselves here in St Thomas we are keen to move south this time of year as we are into the hurricane season already.  We had another quiet evening on board – with another sunset – before another early night.

Tuesday morning and two cruise ships have come in early….. We go in to the marina for a breakfast bagel with coffee and the internet. We enjoyed the sights of the ships on the way in and also the huge jet boat that was coming in for his first passengers / victims of the day!   Once ashore we spotted this gorgeous little dog chilling – so had to have a picture and a quick pet.   Ahhhhh…..

Finally online and yes – we have a response from the weather guy – we are definitely good to go!  But there is an expected surge in the tradewinds on Saturday night in Bonaire so we need to arrive before then. That means we have to leave tonight – wow! Wasn’t expecting that.  But we are ready so decide to go and request a detailed forecast from midnight on that we know what to expect throughout each stage of our passage.

Because we thought we might be off Wednesday I had brought our boat papers ashore so we headed to the plush Customs office in the marina. Oh dear…door locked. Went into the marina office to ask about opening hours – to be told that this was for marina guests only!!!!  So superyachts get their own customs and immigration office – and the rest of us have to take the dollar bus down to the ferry ferminal in town and clear out there!!!  Hmmmmm…… No choice so off we go – and arrive at 11.45 am. The lady in the office is keen to close at noon for lunch so helps us fill in the forms – even splitting them so that we were both busy at once – and we were in and out in just under 10 minutes flat. The nicest experience in an US office for sure!!!!

Back on the bus to the marina, we pick up dink, and took our final photo of Morphie at anchor in Charlotte Amalie.

Then back on board for the final preparations noting that we now have three cruise ships in!  Right – ready to go – everything stowed, food ready, fridge stocked, passage plan sorted etc etc…. Richard returns to the marina to pick up the personalised weather forecast.

Basically we have mild conditions 10-12 knots Tuesday night, with 2-3 foot seas and these persist throughout Wednesday. Wednesday through Thursday we are expecting 17-22 knots and six foot seas. Friday a tropical wave is forecast to pass north of us limiting wind to about 20-25 knots and six foot seas. Trades surge Saturday night so need to be in by then otherwise we are facing much stronger winds / bigger seas. He also gave us a current-optimised routing to do the easting early – in lighter conditions – before running south. Fantastic advice – let’s see how it all pans out!   Richard comes back onboard armed with all this information – so we refine our passage plan, set up the waypoints on the chart plotter / charts and phew, finally ready to go!

We have a few relaxing hours in the cockpit enjoying watching the skills of the cruise ship captains as they depart – reversing alongside each other down the dock and off out to sea. Glad they will all have left before we do!

We go to bed for a few hours around 7pm with the alarm clock set for 11 – which arrives way too quickly!   We do our final checklists – picking up our anchor and setting sail at 11.50 pm. Destination is Bonaire, distance is 450 miles, and the expected passage time is around 3 days 12 hours if we average 5 knots per hour (allowing for strong currents and mild conditions). Excited, a bit apprehensive….but we’re off!

Catch up with the next blog tomorrow about our passage…..   Bye for now

Jan

Sunday afternoon we went ashore primarily to get some cash.  An ATM had been installed behind Myetts relatively recently so we had all things flexible crossed. And yes….it did work….. hurrah!!   We now have some drinking vouchers and can give our credit cards a welcome break!!

Back on board for a short while before we got ready to go to the Elm. Arndt had pulled in too so we had agreed to meet him. We caught up with Steve and the gang and had a chat and then settled into the best seats in the house for dinner and the music. Usually Malcolm (Manpot from TTOL fame) has this table but he wasn’t coming and had told Arndt that we could have it instead. VIP treatment!  Had a wonderful welcome back hug from our favourite waitress and we settled in and enjoyed the spectacular sunset.

Shortly afterwards we were approached by the gang from Latitude – another Island Packet 370 which was out in the bay. We had watched it come in but had assumed that charterers were on board as we had seen the Island Yachts logo on the side. But they were the owners – along with their daughter – and their boat had actually replaced Morphie in the fleet – and we had been in email conversations and they are followers of my blog!   What a small world….. We quickly invited them to join us and the conversation flowed….

The band were great, the food was lovely, and we had a really nice evening. I even danced a bit – although it always gets a tad tedious when one particular rasta guy asks me to dance. I said ‘no’ my husband wouldn’t approve…..so this guy asks Richard for his permission! Which he thankfully refused…. I know that this guy is probably fine but I’ve seen him getting jiggy jiggy with so many tourists over the years he actually gives me the creeps! We said our goodbyes to everyone and were back on board, quite late, but with arrangements to meet up on Tuesday for a Soggy day.

Monday morning and we went ashore to get more drinking vouchers…. The limit on this ATM was quite small so wanted to top up. Well it said yes again but only spat out $40. Panic! The machine didn’t give me a receipt so I asked for another transaction and managed to get a receipt showing that $40 was all I received. So all I can do is hold on to that and wait until the transaction comes up on line….. To cheer me up, Richard took me out to breakfast at Rhymers and we enjoyed the views of the anchorage as well as some Facetime with Rachel, Kiera and Finlay. Was lovely to speak to them all again….. well, actually, we just made faces and noises at Finlay as he’s not old enough to talk yet!

Back to Morphie – waving at Latitude on the way – and we headed off across the channel to Diamond Cay. This is between Jost van Dyke and Little Jost van Dyke….and is a favourite anchorage of ours because we often see turtles here. As we approach the anchorage a power cat comes charging through at high speed to overtake us – obviously concerned to grab the last mooring ball. We let him go – we’re going to anchor anyway! Well…. he did grab the last ball… but not in the way he planned to as he propped it and was facing the wrong way when we arrived. Have to say we felt that he got what he deserved for his un-seamanship behaviour! And it took him quite a while with divers in the water to get free…

While we are watching all the drama we spot turtle heads breaking the surface when they come up to breathe. Yippeee they are around….. So we went off for a lengthy snorkel. The water was pretty murky – as there was a bit of a swell running and it was a bit gloomy – but we did manage to find some turtles, a stingray and some other usual suspects, who all tend to hang around by the old broken dock in the warmer thermoclines that are always present there. Good fun….

In the afternoon we headed around the corner to Little Jost van Dyke to a new beach bar that we had heard about – the B-Line Bar. Pulled dink up on the beach and chatted to Jerry, who we remembered from his days working at Ivans. Had a lovely time bobbing and having fun in the water – although we did get rained on a few times….

We helped a family with their dinghy and got them underway at the point we spotted that Zanshin was anchoring. Then the family’s dinghy conked out and they were drifting – so Arndt did the international rescue for them that time! He then joined us in the bar and we had a nice time together until the sun went down. There were quite a few goats wandering around and I loved this little one who was using the wall as his back scratcher!

Back on board and we had a quiet night enjoying the views out to sea between the islands.

Tuesday morning and the plan was to sail back to Great Harbour and meet the gang from Latitude in the Soggy Dollar Bar. Unfortunately during the night I was taken ill…… and couldn’t face even moving the boat let alone going drinking. Felt rough all day so Richard kept himself busy doing various boat jobs and I stayed in bed….. So sorry to have missed them – they were good fun – and hope that we may bump into them again before we run south as they have some time left on board after their daughter flies out.

Wednesday morning and feeling a bit better… so decide to move on. Coming out into the channel I enjoyed the views of Sandy Cay, although pretty overcast and the sky is also heavy with Saharan dust at the minute.

By the time we got ourselves organised and anchored in Great Harbour the time was getting on…. so we stayed onboard and just went ashore for sundowners at Corsairs. While chatting to JR – the chef – he was asking about some English food that he had heard off and was desperate to try, namely bangers and mash. How funny! And coincidentally I have quite a supply of English sausages on board….. so I agreed to bring them lunch on Thursday. We spent a few hours in Corsairs and met quite a lot of people – including a couple who were on their second trip to the BVIs since getting married there six months ago. This place is definitely addictive! After an enjoyable time we headed back on board for a quiet night.

Thursday morning and finally feeling completely recovered from whatever bug it was that I’d had….. Leisurely start to the morning and then I cooked up the lunch and headed ashore to Corsairs around 1pm. Plated up and we all ate perched in the bar. Vinny and JR really enjoyed it!   Bit random and like taking coals to Newcastle…. but was a fun thing to do!

After lunch we got Bun to take us across the hill to the Soggy Dollar. We enjoyed lovely views of Great Harbour and White Bay doing this trip by road and the best bit is that I don’t get wet on the way!!!!

Arrived at the Soggy Dollar and enjoyed sitting in beach chairs, bobbing, chatting with other tourists and generally just chilling. Love this place. Again was pretty busy in the anchorage but not so much in the bar – so got some time to chat to Winsome, Shaneek and Mic again. We don’t even have to ask for drinks – they just appear when we walk up! This is such a great way to spend an afternoon.

We were picked up by Bun’s friend in his safari bus for the trip back to Great Harbour – recovered dink from the dock and went over to see Ardnt who was now anchored behind us again…. and went on board to have a look at his new boat, a Jeanneau 54. All electric with mod cons like dishwashers, washing machines, air con, electric winches, electric toilets…. Amazing and absolutely huge – particularly as he is a solo sailor. Back on board our – tiny!!!! – boat and we chilled for a while before getting cleaned up and headed back out for dinner at Corsairs. Arndt and I felt virtuous by having salad and then ruined it by sharing a pizza…. Richard was much healthier by eating the fish with rice…. Overall, this was another great end to what had been a full-on, fun day.

Friday and we planned a quieter day. We headed ashore to go to the supermarket to pick up some more bits and pieces – saying hi to the gang in Corsairs along the way and end up agreeing to cook shepherd’s pie for them for Sunday lunch!!!! – and then wander along the road to Foxys , primarily for internet. We haven’t been here for a while – and nothing much has changed – although the front bar was open, and it was quite busy. We heard that Foxy was around but we didn’t actually see him this time…. The ceiling full of old t-shirts and sailing burgees is looking incredibly shabby and dirty…..and covers most of the area. Have to say, must be getting old, but can’t imagine sitting here eating under the cumulative dirt and dust from so many years of accumulation….. But plenty do and no-one dies so I’m sure it’s fine really – and not something that I’ve given even passing thought to in the past. Thankfully while online I found out that the $40 transaction was recorded correctly – so panic over!

Back on board around lunchtime and I baked some bread for lunch. Spent the rest of the afternoon making water and cleaning Morphie up down below. We had decided not to go ashore later – and had already invited Arndt over for sundowners at 5pm although he didn’t make it. Couldn’t raise him on the VHF either – although I could see he was on board. Oh well… never mind… we had a nice evening alone in the cockpit and had an early night.

This morning – Saturday – and I’m up early to get this blog done. Then we came ashore to find out that the power and internet problems are still going on….. so had a great breakfast at Corsairs while we await for it all to be restored.  Thankfully it all came back…..   Later on we are planning our final Soggy afternoon. We also plan to check out One Love, Gertrudes and Ivans too…… It is looking pretty benign out there this morning so looks like we can dink around the headland today.

Tomorrow Sunday, sadly, is going to be our last day in the BVIs – our parcel has arrived in St John, US Virgin Islands, and the weather window is looking good for Wednesday next week to make our passage south to Bonaire. But we’ll keep you posted.

Bye for now

Jan

Tuesday came and went….and we were so engrossed in boat jobs we didn’t actually make use of any facilities in Nanny Cay marina. Shame – the new pool looked great! We had a quiet night on board enjoying the beautiful colours of the sky as the sun went down.

Wednesday morning and we were up early…. Did some final boat jobs and Richard treated me to breakfast out. Bit disappointing but at least I didn’t have to cook it! We then went to get some drinking vouchers but the ATM said NO. We think it was the machine rather than our card…. so we decide to try somewhere else rather than risk our card being eaten. We are now ready to leave and I request assistance to help us off the dock. The very wobbly pontoons here are very low down – I actually needed steps to get on and off Morphie – so we wanted someone just to hold our nose while we backed out into the wind. Well the guy turned up while I was on the dock….and started to untie us. Err….can I get on first please? I got on quickly and we managed to back out of the slip and then immediately turned to go alongside at the fuel dock. We used our new fuel filter funnel – which slows down the whole process – but at least we know that water and muck has been removed first!   Finally fuelled up and having paid our (huge!) bill, I asked the same guy if he could be ready to release our lines for us. Something was clearly lost in translation as he just untied us there and then – and we hadn’t even started the engine!!!!  When I shouted at him he grabbed the rail as we were drifting away…. thankfully the engine started immediately and we regained control quickly. It could have been an absolute disaster and we were shocked at the whole stupidity of it all!   Really think they should train their dock guys better!   Rant over…..

Leaving Nanny Cay we had a lovely brisk sail down the St Francis Drake channel to Norman Island. This is home to Pirates and the Willie T so we planned to stay here for two nights. We stooged around until we found a nice spot in 20 feet to anchor – without impeding any mooring balls – and got a good set first time. It is now mid afternoon so we got cleaned up and headed over to the Willie T as we could see there were quite a few people there…. And there were but most of them left as soon as we arrived! Was it something we said???

Anyway, nice to catch up with the staff – and then more people arrived. We had a really fun few hours and spent some time with two couples who had come over on a little speedboat for a day trip. And of course there were some beverages consumed….and some people jumped off the top of the Willie T – but this was a family afternoon so there was no nudity or lewd behaviour! Oh yes…but there was some weird behaviour….with these two young women hula hooping all afternoon on the dinghy dock!!!

Back on board for dinner and a quiet night….whilst enjoying the spectacular sunset.

Thursday we did a few boat jobs – lazed around a bit – and then went ashore to Pirates. This was destroyed by fire last year and completely rebuilt so there is a new beach bar now (which wasn’t open) alongside the restaurant.

We had planned an afternoon of bobbing but rain stopped play a few times….but didn’t stop the pelicans fishing and entertaining us. We also managed to order a crucial spare part that we need for our trip down to Bonaire – our SSB (long-range) radio has very poor reception and needs boosting, so this is something to help it out. That will arrive via US Priority Mail into St John, US Virgin Islands – so we will not start planning our passage south until that part has arrived and been installed successfully. Which means we’ll have a little more time in the BVIs but hey, someone has to do it!!!!

As the beach was a bit of a washout we went back to Morphie, grabbed a bite to eat, and then decided to revisit the Willie T.  We weren’t planning to stay too long….. honest! … but got into conversation with an older British couple who spend most of their time doing boat deliveries.  When I asked them what trip stood out in their mind – and the answer was France to Hong Kong. They had also been through the Panama Canal 19 times. Wow!!! What an amazing couple. We also met up with a recently retired American couple who had just purchased a large gentleman’s cruiser – 75 feet – and were enjoying their first time in the Caribbean. Oh yes, and they had crew and a bigger engine on their tender than Morphie has!!! How the other half live eh???

Well….we had to stay longer than planned as the rain came down hard again….but it was fun to watch people trying to get into their dinghies after they had drunk too much rum. Although it was amusing I do wish people would be a bit more careful – this is not Disneyland – and people have died in this anchorage having fallen off boats……

Friday morning we sailed out of Norman and listened to a Virgin Islands Search and Rescue Operation on Channel 16 for a missing diver off Peter Island – but didn’t hear the outcome so just hope it all turned out OK for everyone concerned.

We had a glorious downwind run towards Tortola passing the Indians to starboard. We decided to pull into Soper’s Hole as we needed some fresh produce as well as some drinking vouchers. Well – the fresh produce in the large supermarket was pretty good quality so that was a success. But the ATM had been removed and the wall bricked up! Damn…. But we are off to Jost Van Dyke next – and most places there take credit cards so we’ll just have to rely on those for the minute…. Not ideal but what can you do?

We left Soper’s Hole and again had a fantastic beam reach across to Jost Van Dyke – although we had to duck a few boats as always.  By the time we had set our anchor in Great Harbour it was quite late so we decided to get ourselves – and Morphie – cleaned up and headed into Corsairs.

Vinny and Lori knew that we were coming as we had been in email contact….but they could not believe that it was 18 months ago since we left!   Had a great time catching up – met the new chef JR and Kenny a new server – enjoyed some good food, shared some memories, and had a wonderful evening!

Saturday and we are returning to the Soggy Dollar!   Yippeee……  We have a lazy morning, make some water, do laundry, have lunch, and then motor round the headland in dink. It is very busy and as beautiful as we remembered. All the islands and all the places we have visited just don’t come close to this place!

We work our way through the crowds towards the bar…. and Mic is making a whole pile of painkillers and is engrossed. So I say hi – he looks up and tells everyone they have to wait for their drinks as his UK family have come back to see him!  Hugs all round! What an amazing welcome…. We have a great afternoon catching up with the others too – Shaneek, Simone, Sana – to name just a few. And of course bobbing in that beautiful blue warm water…. Loved it!

Back around the headland later in the afternoon and we realise that Zanshin has anchored behind us. So we go and say hi to him – and arrange to see him later in Corsairs. A Soggy afternoon made us a bit tired so we had a kip before heading in…. a bit later than planned. But Arndt was still there and had a beer with us. A chilled end to a great day.

This morning – Sunday – we had a leisurely start and Richard even cooked me breakfast!  A rare treat…. Late morning we motored over to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola – which is only a couple of miles but straight into the wind / waves. We have primarily come over to see the Elmtones – who are playing live tonight at the Elm – and to see if we can get some badly-needed drinking vouchers!   Arndt has also come over and is anchored in front of us – so a good night at the Elm beckons.  While I’m blogging Richard is cleaning some rust stains off the hull and washing down the rail. Really looking forward to tonight…. and the rest of our BVI holiday!

Bye for now

Jan

In Leverick we found a really nice anchoring spot at the back of the mooring field which will keep us away from all the madness and mayhem of the weekend ahead!!!  We got ourselves settled and then went ashore and immediately bumped into Chris and Tracy – who we have been talking to on-line for a long time….. So was great to catch up with them plus Monica and Nick who run the resort. We met quite a lot of new people too, although we knew many of them virtually by their TTOL presence. Really fun afternoon had by all.

We headed back to Morphie for a shower and dinner and then went back out. The Jumbies were performing and we hadn’t seen them for a very long time – so enjoyed the show, which was quite different, particularly the Michael Jackson one-glove dancing jumbie!!!!  Had a great evening, including a little dancing, and headed back onboard. The anchorage was really quiet and was so flat calm it actually felt like we were in a marina! Lovely….

Saturday we had a lazy day on board – did a few jobs – and headed back into the marina for a few drinks around 5 ish. We chatted with loads of people including an older American couple who had sailed the Pacific on a 30 foot yacht in the 80s. They had fascinating tales and some really useful advice for us for the future. We left them to eat their dinner in peace and headed back to the bar and caught up with the rest of the gang again. We had a great fun evening.

Sunday and it’s the Poker Run day. We went ashore around 10 – the little helicopter who was going to film the event had already landed in his very tight spot – and some boats had started arriving too…….

And then the people starting arriving too…… Not sure on the maximum numbers that should be on that ferry, but looks like it may be exceeded!

And then even more boats and people – it is organised chaos!  We got our Poker Run tee-shirts – and thought one of the predominant sponsor’s names was a little unfortunate to say the least. Check out one of our shoulders in the selfie!

We wandered around admiring the boats….

We talked to the gang who were all volunteering selling Poker hands, tee-shirts, giving away beer to the registered boats… and noticed a couple of people in lemur costumes hitting each other with their tails… Didn’t realise that one of them was actually Richard Branson dressed up – poking fun at the furore that has surrounded his decision to install lemurs on Mosquito Island!   [Photo borrowed from Facebook – thanks Bruce!]

Found a good spot on top of the fuel dock to people watch…. And then suddenly they are off, followed closely by the helicopter…. And the water was boiling…..

We headed off to the bar – saying hi to Mickey and Minnie Mouse on the way – and then the clouds rolled in for a quick cooling shower.

Then we realised that a VISAR rib (Virgin Islands Search and Rescue) was towing back a large power boat…. OMG it has a huge hole in the side…and people are clearly injured…. Then the next one comes in and the whole front of the boat has been smashed off – we were surprised it was still able to float. The police congregate, the crowds watch, the VISAR volunteers are truly professional tending to everybody, some injured people go off in an ambulance and others are taken on the two VISAR ribs…. We retreated to a safe distance hoping that everyone was OK.  Speaking to Nick later – who knew both crews as the event’s patron – he confirmed that Top Gun lost its steering and had veered off into the side of Red Zone. Sadly – according to the latest local news reports – four people remain hospitalised with two in a serious condition. Terrible news – our thoughts and prayers go out to them.

Later on in the day we had a pizza lunch and caught up with some of the gang who were taking a breather before the boats came back in.

So we went back to Morphie for a break and returned later – suitably cleaned up – for the post Poker Run party. There was a DJ – the top prize of $8,000 was awarded – there were girls quirking on the catwalk across the pool, there were people enjoying the pool, there was a model show… and then the sun went down for the night as local guy Elvis started strutting his stuff with his band. It was absolutely rammed with people everywhere and boats were rafted into places you would not believe….

Later on we joined the gang at a table…and had more laughs…and eventually returned to Morphie at about 10 pm. We did ask Nick about the injured people during the evening but he said everyone was fine – clearly he was trying not to put a damper on the day for us, if the local news reports are to be believed (although I did note they were ‘unconfirmed’).  You could tell he was pretty shaken up by it all….

Overall it was a great day and we thoroughly enjoyed it, although obviously saddened by the accident – so glad we stayed around.  Nick, Monica and the volunteering gang did a fantastic job and worked really hard.  Safety was very much highlighted throughout the day, including disqualification for anyone speeding through the mooring fields – and big kudos to them all for bringing together a great event!   In fact, apart from the mooring balls very close to the entrance to the marina / fuel dock where they would have been impacted by all the arrivals and departures, I would say the anchorage was pretty much business as usual.  We were sorry that Arndt didn’t make it across from Saba Rock….

Monday morning we were up at a reasonable time and got ready to pick up anchor and go alongside the fuel dock.  Full of boats filling up … and the minute a little boat took off another one snuck in.  Was getting a bit fed up and radioed the fuel dock to ask if they had a queuing system.  Er no was the answer….  We picked up a mooring ball for a while as some of the huge power boats were refuelled – not a 10 minute job! – and then slipped again as a large sport fisher boat moved out ready to go into the vacated space. And guess what – a very large power catamaran just barged in, taking advantage of his manoeuvring superiority with his twin engines…… and then the wives got off with their handbags and went shopping.   Grrrr…….  Pretty fed up by now – we had been waiting over an hour – and we need to get going.   So we decided to just leave after making some loud comments as we went past the power cat which just vented our frustration at the waste of time….   Bye gang….. so sorry we did not get the chance to say goodbye properly.  As we left Virgin Gorda we admired the construction of Richard Branson’s new resort on Mosquito Island…  Looks like it is going to be pretty nice!

Had a lovely downwind sail – under genoa alone – to Tortola…. passing the familiar sights of the Baths, Round Rock, Ginger Island, Cooper Island and Peter Island on the way. And of course altering course any time another boat looked like getting close – even if we were the stand on vessel….

About a mile off of Nanny Cay we radioed in for our slip assignment. They answered on Channel 16 and asked us to switch to 68. And of course we couldn’t hear them on 68. So we tried 16 again…and switched again…to no avail. Thinking maybe it was our RAM mike playing up I went below and did it from the VHF itself. Same thing…. So tried our handheld…. Same thing….. Grrrr…. So I stooged while Richard got us ready for both port or starboard slip and we headed towards the small entrance…. and then I finally made contact on channel 16 followed by 69. Funny how that works eh??? Every time…… Got our slip assignment and ended up alongside some Puerto Rican speed boats from the Poker Run.

We got ourselves organised and I checked us in. Not the greatest welcome to be honest – think she was fed up with the radio antics which were our fault of course!!!!  She was also very unhappy that all the measurements on my boat papers are in metres when she wants them in feet.  And although we have been here before we weren’t on the system which means more work for her.  At this stage I found it quite difficult to keep the smile plastered on!   Oh yes, do we get a discounted rate because we have come in for work to be done?  (Which was suggested by the rigging company itself).  No came the sharp retort. I left at this point…

Back on board and I strip beds and sort laundry…. and take myself off to find the self-service machines.  Richard was getting stuck into replacing the copper earthing strip in the bilges, which had deteriorated badly.  Laundry done and when I get back Richard is still down various holes….. so we clean up and have a quiet night on board with a chicken curry.

This morning – Tuesday – and we were up early waiting for the riggers. They arrived, dropped the genoa, and went up the mast using the genoa halyard.

They fixed the problem we had identified and inspected all our rigging. No problems found other than a couple of maintenance pointers – all of which, in their opinion, will comfortably wait until we haul out in Curacao.  Overall they thought she was in good order. Hurrah!  Well done Morphie!  So good news all round.

Richard has just gone off to Budget Marine to buy some more things armed with a credit card so that could be dangerous….. and I’m here blogging while I have an internet connection, although a bit flaky as it fades in and out.  We have a guy coming over to look at our outboard again too soon.   Richard has spent more time on this than anything – it just gets stuck and the revs race – so I get slammed into the dock – or it dies and won’t idle.  Hopefully we’ll get this fixed once and for all!

We are planning to stay here tonight and head out tomorrow for Norman Island – with fingers crossed that the outboard doesn’t need too much work…..

Bye for now

Jan