Bye Bye Bonaire

A very Bonairian road sign

After using up almost all of our allowed 90-days within 180 days visa, we left Bonaire for a quick stop in Curacao. Chris figured that since her family ancestors were from Holland and that she’s blonde she should be able to stay as long as she wants. Bonaire was a really great stop – fantastic water and easy living for a cruiser. It was all I could do to stop Chris from putting down a down payment for a townhouse here.

     Cruise ship season has started and Bonaire does get a bit too many now. Here’s the ‘Explorer of the Seas’ demonstrating that safety always comes first.

  Our friend/crew Bill came down from San Fran to sail to Cartegena with us. Here he is looking for bats during our tour in Bonaire’s Washington-Slagbaai Park.

  One last good-bye to the Flamingos before we left.

It was an easy, slow sail over to Curacao. We left about 8:30am and were anchored in Spanish Wells about 5:00pm. Our friends from El Salvador, Rose and Jani on s/v Lovely Lady, have their boat in the yard here for some serious repair work. Detailed on their blog http://www.sailblogs.com/member/svlovelylady46/?xjMsgID=338429

They’ve rented a place near the Curacao Yacht Club. We anchored and headed over to their apartment for a great red snapper dinner. Today we head into Wilemsted to check in and check out of the country for a day’s stay. When the rain stops (the rainy season is now here in earnest), we’ll do a little sight- seeing. Then in the morning it is off for a 3 or 4 day sail to Cartegena, Colombia.

Paul

The Last Underwater Photos

We were snorkeling one of our favorite spots and spotted this green turtle in about 20 feet of water. She was under these corals and busily scratching her back. First on one side and then on the other. Its important for a girl to keep her shell clean.
On the way up from taking this picture I looked in the view screen of my camera and at first I thought I saw the horizon. Then I realized that the case was half full of water. Another ruined camera. I’d like to do a big DisLike for Ikelite brand cases. This is the second time I’ve had this expensive case fail and ruin a camera.

    This is what the insides of the Nikon camera look like after they have been fried by salt water.

A school of blue tangs painting the underwater sea blue.

A well disguised scorpion fish sitting on the rocks in shallow water- don’t step on me.

An octopus way back in its cave keeping an eye on the collection of shells by the opening of his lair.

Another underwater cruiser, a busy little trunkfish.

Goat spotting. A couple of goats cruising along the low cliff where we were snorkeling.

A spotted moray eel out and about with a couple of damsel fish friends nearby.

A little more UW color.

A small parrotfish slowing down for a picture with a couple of small, juvenile yellow wrasses hanging close.

This is the biggest rainbow parrotfish I’ve seen, probably a fully grown male, 3-4 feet. It was a little shy about picture taking and headed into the shallow water to make the studio shot tougher.

Paul

Seahorse Spotting

We finally spotted the elusive seahorse. This male has got a fat belly full of babies. Supposedly Mrs. Seahorse is near by, as they mate for life, but we couldn’t find her. You gotta wonder how they know that seahorses mate for life – check the seahorse divorce court records?
  We spotted some other interesting and odd stuff. The sponge on the right (the darker circle) is spewing millions of baby sponges into the water – the fuzzy stream in the center. This is apparently a rare site to see.

Speaking of rare sites to see – Chris hi-fiving (or maybe it is low-fiving).

A happy worm living on a coral head

If you look close, you can see a tan with white spots eel (center right between the rocks) trying to get away from a Chris attack.

This angel fish might look grumpy, but he’s actually having a good feed. On the left hand side of the pic is some left over brown baguette bread. You aren’t supposed to feed these guys, but what are you going to do with rock hard baguette?
Its not all play on the boat. I regularly start working on something and drop a tool overboard. This is a set of Allen keys that I’m grabbing in about 19 feet of water. That was a lot easier than the splicing tool I had to go get in 28 feet a few days before. But at least I can see them here.
I know selfies are the In thing. So I figured I’d get with it and show off my new prescription dive mask I picked up in Bonaire. US$135 for the mask, lenses and an exam to pick out the right lenses at the local eye doc at Buena Vista Optics in downtown Kralendijk.
   Not a selfie, so I guess it is just showing off. Our new Standup Paddle boards (SUP). Its not surfing, but its decent exercise- especially if you’ve got a head wind.
Paul

Octopus Spotting

Isn’t she beautiful? These guys and gals change color to match their background seemingly almost instantaneously. She’s white in this picture because of the white light from my underwater flash.
She was a little shaky this morning with the eye-makeup, but overall looking ready for the day.

Chris heading into the deep to check out an old anchor.

Paul

Bonaire Philosophy

From the temporary wall in front of a building site along the malecon (beach walk) in Kralendijk: Always be yourself, unless you can be a … Unicorn

Enough Bonaire land philosophy. Time for some gratuitous underwater shots and turtle watching. We dinghied up the island a ways to the Andrea I dive site. We like this area because it is good for snorkeling (as well as diving). This morning we caught sight of two turtles just trying to get some underwater rest.

Chris cruising with a meandering turtle.

“Don’t bug me, OK?”

Down periscope- after going to the surface for some fresh air.

 

This small spotted moray eel was sticking about 6 inches out of a hole on the reef floor, dancing back and forth like he was a piece of seaweed in the current.

I’m all eyes for you… a small porcupine/puffer fish.

Christmas tree worms on a bright yellow star coral…

We plan to leave Bonaire by early November, hoping to make the San Blas islands before Christmas time. Its nice to see that the folks on Bonaire are already decorating the reef for XMAS. At least it is non-commercial.

Georgia is sitting on a mooring on the protected West side of the island. The tradewinds blow from the East pretty much continuously all year. Now is the season when the trades finally slow down – under 15kts– and occasionally some other wind sneaks in.Yesterday morning at about 4am a rain squall came through and the winds blew out of the SW for 4 or 5 hours straight into the mooring field. This caused the boats in the mooring field to be incredibly rolly and blow toward the shore, which is very close. The small local fishing boat who are generally moored closer to the beach or on a dock near the shore, made a hasty exit and headed into the marina to get out of the surf. We stuck it out and by about 10am all was nice and it was time for a snorkel. The water temperature is in the high 80’s and the air is about 90*F.

We’re working on boat projects and just hanging out

Paul

Eel Spotting

Bonaire is truly a diver’s paradise. The entire island’s coastline is national park. There is no anchoring allowed – only moorings. There are probably 15 dive shops. We’ve snorkeled every day, except the days we did  a refresher course for scuba and a two-tank boat dive out to Klein Bonaire. This is the flat island 3/4 mile off the mainland that is surrounded by dive sites. This post is just a collection of gratuitous underwater porn shots.
  This is a spotted moray eel. He’s buddies with the green moray in the pic above. They live under ledges in about 6 feet of water just in front of the mooring our boat is on.

Jumping off the back of the boat for an afternoon snorkel.

Staghorn Coral with some fishies.

A little trrunk fish hiding under the coral ledges. These little guys hover and swim like helicopters.

Part of the aquarium.

Dress blues- a surgeon fish.

Chris communing with one of the big French Angel Fish that are common here.

Chris heading deeper

A comfy spot for the afternoon for this little porcupine (puffer) fish.

A big guy passing by at 40 foot depth

These 4 feet tall tube sponges were lavender in the filtered deep water. I tried to correct colors in Photoshop – didn’t come too close.
  The cement block that makes up the dive moorings. This thing probably weighs a thousand pounds. It took a lot to roll it on its side.
My dive buddy letting me know all was OK. Ears cleared, mask not fogged, plenty of air left in the tank and the underwater experience a feast for the eyes.

  A spiny, spiny shrimp hanging at about 50 feet.

We dove Carl’s Hill on Klein Bonaire. It is a steep cliff that goes to be about 100 feet. We ran along it at about 60-70 feet. This diver was in paradise and wants more.

 

If you look close at this pic you can see that this watch is good for 330 feet depth of water. If you look closer you can see the water under the crystal from diving at 60 feet. Argh, another watch down the drain.

Back to snorkeling…

 

This gal would not stay still long enough for me to get a pic in focus, but the glowing blue is still impressive.

Another Trunk Fish, just trunking around.

Its a little hard to see this guy in the pic – and in the water. A fairly large octopus, in about 15 feet of water, tentacles on the left and eyes upper, right, center. Well camouflaged.

A ‘cuda patrolling his acreage.

A bouquet of filter tube worms.

Lion fish hiding among the rocks- bad guys here in the Caribbean.

Back to the eel theme- a tiny sharp tailed eel.

Spotted moray eel coming out for a late afternoon snack.

Another moray- I’m not sure how they back into these little cave holes.

Another moray, showing off his teeth for the camera- really just breathing. Leave me alone!

A big French Angel fish ignoring a little Lion fish.

Colors found in nature- a beautiful anemone.

A peacock halibut well camouflaged in the sand.

Check his two eyes on the top side!

Nobody seems to know which way to go…

Paul