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!