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!
