BONAIRE- PANAMA

Bonaire

We picked up one of the moorings off the main township in Bonaire and after being processed at Immigration by friendly staff there we went into town to explore. Bonaire is a small town with an accent aimed towards the Diving Tourism market. There were dive shops everywhere and tourist shops covering all manner of things. The water was clear and off the back of the boat was a shelf that surrounds the Island and makes for good snorkeling. The moorings were only $10 per day and they were full, we timed it right when we were approaching a French boat was just dropping hers and it was one close to the main end of town. I saw many boats come in and there were no vacant moorings, which made me wonder why they don’t put more in as there was plenty of room along the foreshore and surely the more boats they can get in the better for their Tourism Trade.

One of the local residents

We hired a Scooter for the day and circumnavigated the Island, checking out the Flamingo Reserve, the Windsurfers Paradise and the Salt Flats to which Bonaire was and still is famous for. They used to bring slaves in to harvest the Salt back in the early 1700-1800s before slavery was abolished. The Slaves used to call it the ‘White Hell’ and it must have been that back then with long hours, no shoes, no shelter from the sun and the salt getting into your cuts, grazes and no way of bathing. The Salt Flats still provide a good trade nowadays and there were ships waiting to get in and get loaded from the Conveyor Belt system.

                     Our 'Ride' for the day

      Slave huts that were built for them just prior to the Abolishment of slavery

               Mountains of Salt ready to go

                Ships being loaded by the Conveyor Belt

I booked in and went for a couple of dives there and while it was a nice dive, personally I thought it didn’t have the same scenery as some of the Pacific Islands have, so a little anti climatic considering it is suppose to be in the top three dive spots in the world.

We met up with the Aussie family from the boat  ‘Miss Behaving’ again after last seeing them in Cartagena in Spain and had dinner with them one night at the local Ribs restaurant, the ribs were sensational.

We also met a couple – Russell and Cathie Prior along with their daughter Hannah from NZ, who once again had bought their boat in Europe and were sailing her home. They were Farmers from the Manawatu and had a farm just up the road from where my Dad used to manage a farm along time ago. We had dinner one night on ‘Burger Nite’ at  the local Marina with them and they were great company. Its funny, but you meet a lot of people while away from all over the world but when you meet Kiwis abroad, it’s like meeting up with family.

                       Burger night with other Kiwis-note the matching Thailand Dry Bags

From Bonaire, we sailed over to Curacao where we went into the Spanish Harbour there. The Harbour is huge and there are boats everywhere but the entrance would be barely 8-10 meters wide with sand bars on one side and rocks on the other. Definitely not one to attempt at night. We spent the night at anchor here and left the next day to go up the outside of the Island to anchor at a bay better suited to make a pre dawn departure for Aruba.

When we arrived in Aruba, we had to tie up at a slip at the main Port there for Immigration processing where there was minimal protection from the wind and the swell. There was no one there to help take a line and it was not easy to do with just the two of us on board. The Dock is coarse concrete with some large tyres spaced about 6 metres apart, suitable for large Commercial ships not Yachts. What the hell are these people thinking, do they want overseas yachts here or not? When the officials turn up, they don’t even get out of their car, which I suppose is too much of an inconvenience for them

After getting into the Marina there ourselves, as it was a Sunday and no one was working. We discovered Monday was a holiday as well so there was no staff around for a couple of days to process us. We met up with John Coombridge from NZ off his Catamaran there and he kindly gave us one of his cards that enabled us to use the facilities in the Marina and the surrounding Hotel complex. 

We went out to the Complex’s Private Island where they have tame Flamingoes that you can go right up to and feed by hand if you wish along with Iguanas.

                       Incredibly tame Flamingoes 

                         If your going to have a holiday, its got to be for a worthy cause!

The facilities  here were excellent and we would love to of stayed longer but the weather was turning and if we didn’t get going on our way to the San Blas Islands off Panama we were going to get hammered off the coast of Venezuela and Columbia, a part of coastline that has a reputation for not only Pirates but rough seas and high winds as well.  Whilst we managed to get in a Mardi Gra parade and some nice dinners ashore in here, it was a 550 mile journey to San Blas so unfortunately it was time to go. This of course meant having to go back to the same Commercial Dock where on the day we were leaving the wind was up even more and we sustained a small amount of damage to the Gel Coat trying to get tied up to a non protected, non manned wharf with only two of us aboard. I asked the Immigration official why we couldn’t walk to their office from the Marina to check out but they have very single small minded policies here with this, and  this was the Immigration Dock, you have to use it. They are not worried about the danger or potential damage to your boat here.

                  Getting amongst the Mardi Gra parade

                     

So we set sail and shot out of Aruba towards the top of Venezueala with a favorable current and 25 knots of wind averaging 8.5 knots for the first 24 hrs with a top of 15 knots. The wind actually fell away for the next two days but we still managed to get into San Blas Islands in good time.

San Blas Islands are something out of a Magazine picture with numerous (365) little Islands with sand, Palm trees and the odd little Hut that the local people live in.

The local Kuna people came to the Islands after being driven out of the Panamanian area by the Spanish Conquistadors and settled here. They live much the same as they did back then and proudly protect the area with not allowing overseas investment or even someone from outside of their race to marry in to their circle. If one wishes to marry another race, they must leave the area.

Some of the anchorages you have to watch entering as the area is not charted very well and we had to navigate around the reefs visually by the colour of the water at times to make sure it was deep enough especially with our 2.3 meter draw.

               Coming into the entrance to the Panama canal

We sailed the further 60 odd miles down into the catchment area of the Panama Canal to where Shelter Bay Marina is. Here we did Immigration, as it was too much of a mission on the San Blas Islands. I met an American Skipper who had left Aruba/Curacao a couple of days after us and had to deal with large seas and 50 knot winds and had broken their boom in the process, which proved we were right to leave Aruba when we did.

While Shelter Bay Marina is pretty isolated, it has good Docks with free potable water, electricity, endless Wifi, a swimming pool and a nice bar/ restaurant. What more do you need? The boats coming out of the water here to re do the anti foul and I’m doing some other maintenance here as well to prepare us for the Pacific leg. Barry Martin, a friend from NZ joins us here as well and we are looking forward to the Panama Transit.

Went exploring this morning and walked around the ex US military base that was here before the US gave it all back to the Panamanian Government. The place must have been nice in its day, now the Jungles taking it back over and its all gone to wreck and ruin. I walked across the defunct airfield to some buildings that would have been handsome in their day but now they are sitting there with all the windows gone and some sort of half hearted military personnel who had taken over what was left of the buildings and some of the ex US military vessels, they didn’t like me wandering around there too much and even though it was all in Spanish, I got the message that I shouldn’t have been there.

               Must of been nice in its day

                      Once it housed Ammunitions, now its Bats

                     The Jungles claiming it all back.

Had to go to the dentist in Colon the other day as problems with the old teeth were giving me a bit of grief for 5 days and we were running out of pain killers, I think Shelly was threatening to throw me over board if I didn’t do something about it. They are still not 100% and don’t need them to play up going across the Pacific. Might have to reenact a scene from ‘Deadliest Catch’ and use some pliers out of the toolbox!

Shelly’s flat out in the Galley cooking meals that we will store in the Freezer for the long leg to the Marquesas Islands, poor thing, its like a sweat box down there and she keeps running off to the swimming pool to cool down!

Ok, will let you know how we go up on the hard! 

Antigua- Guadeloupe

While in at Nelsons Dockyard Marina, we had North Sails come and take the main sail and the sail bag away for repairs. The Leech cord on the Main had broken and there was also some chaffing damage on the Battern Holders from the Atlantic crossing to attend to. The sail bag was also starting to look a bit shabby so thought it was a good time to get that fixed up as well. I got them to modify the reefing Line exits as they were never properly in line with the points on the sail. I was a bit worried about the cost of these repairs, especially being on a small Island and the lack of options here in getting sails repaired, but I needn’t of. They were very professional and friendly and they came and helped take the sail and bag away, did the repairs and helped put it back on for $700, which we thought was pretty reasonable, considering they had gone over the whole sail and checked/repaired everything. We have done nearly 8000 Nautical miles by now, so like me it was starting to show a bit of age!

                   In at Nelsons Dock with the sad sail bag

We met a couple of Kiwis here as well. One guy who called himself ‘Stretch’ was a Volunteer Crewman on a tall ship named ‘Lord Nelson’ The ship travels around the world taking underprivileged/handicapped kids and people on its journeys.

I take my hat of to the whole set up and the dedication people like ‘Stretch’ put into this activity. The only trouble I had was keeping up with him in the Beer drinking, the guy drank like a fish!

The other guy we met whilst at anchor out on the entrance to the Harbour. We heard someone yell out ‘KiaOra!’ at the top of his voice and after inviting him over, we were introduced to Bob who was actually an ex pat Brit but had lived in NZ for a lot of his life. He sailed his 60 ft ketch ‘Vero’ on his own, which must have been no easy task. When in the wheelhouse you couldn’t see either the Stern or the Bow, God knows how he got it into a Marina. Whilst small in stature, he was larger than life and his exploits made what were doing pale in comparison.

We were at anchor one day and were both down below reading, sheltering from the odd rain squall that was coming through. ‘Little Falshator’ our tender was tethered to the stern. The rain stopped and I came up to have a swim. I noticed the tender had a different look to it, more streamline on top. On closer inspection, I realized it was upside down with the outboard under water! A wind gust had come along and lifted her out of the water and flipped her over.

We lost both oars as well, (never leave your oars sitting loose in the tender John)

found one floating, but the other was gone. After various attempts to breathe life back into the outboard, I gave up and we had to go back to the marina to get hold of the local Outboard mechanic. He took it away and had it back running in no time, even pulling the whole power head off and freeing up the gearshift that had always been a bit stiff since we bought it.  So over all we were happy with the local service guys at English Harbour and the work they did there.

                Veiw from the boat of the Old Port Buildings

       A sober reminder of the consequences when things go wrong

We spent a couple of days in at Jolly Harbour, which is a great harbour for shelter and must be a favourite to hide in around here in the Hurricane season, even with the care that has to be taken on the approaches to the harbor which are pretty shallow in parts. And the good thing about it, is they had a proper Supermarket-even a deli!

     Jolly Harbour, complete with Water edge Apartments with dock parking outside

We left Antigua and headed for Guadeloupe with the Gennaker  up, but with light winds(4-5 knts), it took all day to cover the 45 miles.

We went through the immigration process at Deshaies, which was a pleasant surprise. Unlike some of the over the top authorities we have dealt with in the past, you simply walk into a craft shop and enter your details into a Computer, print off the form and sign it. Job done.

It has been good to get back to a place with European Influence and the price of things on Guadeloupe are a lot cheaper than some of the other Islands of the Caribbean we have been to where things like Fuel, food and drinks had been  pretty expensive.

In the main Harbour in Guadeloupe, we were anchored in front of another Yacht and as you do frequently, ended up meeting the owners who just happened to be passing by in their tender. Barbara and Stuart Hart were from Maine in the States and after selling every thing up, had been out on their boat for quite a few years. Along with Ken and Lyn, who were from Canada, we caught a bus into the town of Basse Terre one day and spent the day wandering around there taking in the local atmosphere. We ended up having Barbara and Stuart on board two nights in a row and they were great company.

We are at present in at Les Saints, which is on a little island off the bottom end of the main Island of Guadeloupe. Les Saints is a beautiful spot and with clear water, plenty of snorkeling areas, (we are right now on a buoy with a sunken boat behind us about 4 meters away!) The weathers hot and we are spending a fair bit of time in the water here trying to keep the body temps in check. 

                 Les Saints and its quaint streets

      Our local Internet cafe, you have to purchase Beer here to get the Wifi, bugger!

                     Fishing boats on the shore, looking out to the Mooring Buoys

   We actually saw a tender that was smaller than ours! (Little Falsahtor is in front) note the one oar :)

            Banished to the smokers deck

We intend to spend a bit of time here before we depart for the ABC Islands off the coast of Venezuela around the 5^th February, on route to Panama. Looking forward to Bonaire especially, as its rated one of the top three Dive Spots in the world, hopefully get this old body into the wet suit again and experience some great dives there!

Caribbean Islands

Caribbean Islands

BVIs

After clearing through Immigration via a very auspicious and serious Immigration Official in at Spanish Town in Virgin Gorda, we settled into the laid back Island way of life.

There wasn’t a lot in Spanish Town with a small Grocery Shop, small and very expensive Chandlery and not much else besides a couple of Bars/Restaurants, but that was OK by us.

We caught a Taxi over to ‘The Baths’ where we were told you had to go and see as it was a highlight of the area. We both didn’t think it would be much at all, but when we got there it was Fantastic. It is a series of giant Granit Boulders that have been forced out of the earth at some stage down at the waterfront and there was a track you followed through them, under them and over them which had pools of crystal clear water in them. It lead you to a beautiful beach where we all had swims and then back through the Caves/ Boulders to the Restaurant at the top where you had a fresh water swim in the pool there to wash off the salt. It was a great day out and would fully recommend it.

We set sail and headed for Nanny Cay marina spending some time at ‘Deadmans Bay’ and the resort on the exclusive Peter island.

At Nanny Cay Marina, we dropped off our torn Gennaker and the Genoa that had begun to delaminate for repairs and headed back out over to Norman Island which is where Robert Louis Stevenson based the novel ‘Treasure Island’ on.

Norman Island has various bays we spent nights in including Little Harbour, Great Harbour and ‘The Bight’. We spent Xmas day at the Bight, got introduced to the game ‘Ginga’ (where its debatable , but I think I was the champion) and had several swims, including one with a local Turtle. It was a popular place going by the number other boats anchored there.

                                Christmas Breakie on the Boat, well done Shells!

Went back to Nanny Cay marina for one night, filled up with Diesel and picked up our sails. Nanny Cay marina is great and has a lot going for it with everything there and a great atmosphere at the Beach Bar/Pool.

It was then down to the eastern end of Tortala (Pussers Landing) where we dropped Alex off. He had been onboard since the canaries but was time to say good bye as he was heading up to Florida for Christmas.

We then went over to Joost Van Dyke, which is your epitome of the Caribbean Islands. It has little Islands like Sandy Spit, where the whole island takes 3 minutes to walk around and has clear water and white sand, a tiny amount of vegetation, one Palm tree  and that’s it! Beautiful!

We spent several days here and frequented the great spots including ‘Foxys Bar’ and The Soggy Dollar ‘ Bar in White Bay.  In White Bay lagoon we had around 250-300 mm under the Keel whilst at Anchor but felt very secure in there.

We left The BVIs via the ‘Bitter End’ at the top of Tortala and after clearing Customs headed out going past Richard Bransons’ Island where he is rebuilding his ‘holiday home’ after the fire. What a fantastic looking set up he’s got there.

It was hard on to get to St Maarten and we arrived at night and anchored in Simpson Bay there. After immigration,  we went through the Lift Up bridge and into the lagoon which didn’t have a lot of room for anchoring and was pretty shallow in parts.

We spent New Years eve going out for Dinner with friends David and Barbara from Boston USA, whom we meet in the Yacht Club there. After dinner it was down to the beach at Simpsons Bay to the various Beach Bars and to watch the Fireworks going off at Midnight.

We hired some scooters to explore the Island and one of the highlights was going to the Beach by the airport to watch the planes coming in low over the beach and landing just meters away.  Crazy place with people everywhere.

We met some other Kiwis there including the Henry Family from Mangatangi, who farm just down the road from where we lived in Ararimu. They were in the process of taking their Boat back to New Zealand as well, after buying it in the Med. Unfortunately they had come a cropper after running over a Cray Pot and smashing the Gearbox in their boat resulting in having to sit at Anchor for days waiting for Parts. They knew two lots of friends of ours from back in NZ and it  just goes to show how small our World is.

After St Maarten we headed over to St Barths where the real rich and famous hang out. The boats there made ‘Falshator’ look like a matchbox toy. I for one couldn’t see why the place is so popular but it is definitely the place to be seen, especially around New Years Eve.

We are at present in Antigua after another challenging sail to wind and into 25-30 knots, but it is another beautiful Island and we have explored a lot of it via a Four Wheel Dive buggy we hired for the day. We are in at the Nelson Dockyard marina which is a Historical park and has some great well kept buildings there from a by gone era and makes for an interesting contrast from your usual Marinas. 

                        Tori on the Island transport system!

                    Dinner at the Antigua Yacht Club