I had all intentions of going to church today, but after our day yesterday my body just would not let me get up at 630am. I was so tired, the boys were still asleep, the sun was just coming up and if I turned my head just to the left I would be blanketed in semi-darkness and back to sleep I went. There are days I can hardly move without some sort of joint pain, but today was different, it was just pure exhaustion. However, I am not complaining as I am super proud of what my little vessel did yesterday! Today, we had to return the rental car before 10:30 am. Wayne decided to stay on the boat and read while Matt and I fed the car and returned it to the airport. On the way out of town, we decided to stop at Kooyman Home Improvement store. WOW, we were so surprised at how nice and huge this store is! Think Home Depot meets Bed, Bath, and Beyond in Beverly Hills! Sparkly floors, well organized, fully stocked, and super friendly people. We did not have much time to explore this store, but we did manage to pick up a few items and determine we need to come again when we have more time.
Off to the airport, hmmm, how do we get there again? After a wrong turn or two, we found the road and made it just in time 10:28 am. And then we waited as they were pretty busy operation with only 2 people working. Since we were several miles from our dinghy, we asked them to give us a ride back to Karel’s Bar which they obliged. As we drove down the shoreline, we noticed Sugar Shack looking beautiful at her anchorage – YEAH!
But, within the 5 minutes it took Matt and I to get into our dinghy and head to her she was turned the wrong way and had drifted (floated) about 35-40′ away from her mooring spot. Oh $HIT! Wayne started the engines, we hopped aboard and quickly readied the boat for movement. When we are comfortably anchored, we have the dagger boards up, the boom off to the side to allow for maxim sunshine on our solar panels, and all the hatches open. As Matt jockeyed the boat back to the shallows, we were closing hatches, centering the boom and lowering dagger boards. It was challenging to steer the boat with a massive weight at the bow (not sure how much the sand screw weighed but it through off the balance of the boat).
I should back up. The moorings are provided by Harbour Village Marina and they require you to pick up two moorings lines (one for each side of your boat). You thread your line through the eye of one mooring float and tie it down on your port cleat and repeat the process for the starboard cleat. After we selected this mooring 5 days ago, we dove on it to check it out. There were three huge cement blocks, but our mooring lines were not on any of those blocks. Our mooring lines were both coming from a single sand screw next to these blocks. I promptly stated my unease to this situation but the boys assured me it was fine as several other moorings looked just like this one.
Fast forward to today, we drifting away from shore and thank God we were here to witness it and establish a new mooring. We returned the sand screw to shallow waters so they could reset it and grabbed a new mooring. Imagine if this were to have happened when we were hours away hiking in the Washington Slagbaai park? Our boat would be half way to Venezuela or aground on Klein Curacao by now! I know my mom is watching out for us as this was a true gift and great learning opportunity!
Current mooring, with one line tied to our port bow, one to the starboard bow, and for extra measure, the third tied to our bridle.
The sand screw that we pulled up. This is after we replaced her back on shallow waters.
The thing that is so odd is that we are only 47′ boat and weigh 11 tons (which is really light for our boat). They allow up to 60′ boats which was a hell of a lot more than we do. The winds were not particularly strong, they were stronger than they have been but gusting too much. I am confused as to why the sand screw did not hold us, but so blessed that Sugar Shack is alright.
After our morning adventure, we notified the coast guard and went to the marina office to let them know what had happened. Unfortunately they were not there, closed on Sunday’s. We sent them an email and did manage to tie the rogue mooring together so another boat will not try to use it, and then we tripled our new mooring.
The next day, we headed straight for the marina office and talked to the one guy who handles all of the moorings. Remember, these are the ONLY moorings on the island and you are not allowed to anchor so we have maintain a good relationship with this person. I introduced myself and mentioned the email. He had printed it and said he was planning on giving it to the park rangers to take a look. He did not offer an apology, he did not thank us for returning the sand screw to shallow waters or clipping the mooring balls together to prevent another boater from picking them up, and he was actually rather curt with us. What? Just walk away, you did the right thing and just walk away.
We decided to go snorkeling to “cool off” which can turn any situation around. As I mentioned earlier, the bow of our boat is in about 7 meters of water but the stern is in about 50 meters. Basically we are on a steep sea cliff that allows for great snorkeling right off the back of your boat. Of course, it freaks me out a bit as you cannot see anything in the deep blue depths of the water so I hover around the drop off point and admire the fish and corals that hang out there. We then decided to snorkel over at CoCo Beach where we spotted a giant puffer (my favorite) and I mean big, he was at least 3′ long with sparkly blue eyes! We also spotted two sea snakes being chased by fish which made me laugh out loud, which then caused my mask to fill with water (more laughter). We also spotted an eel hiding in the rocks – pretty cool snorkel spot!
Just hanging out at “Dushi” Coco Beach!
Matt dragged me in to the men’s room to show me this and I had to take a photo! They need hot men in the women’s room!
As was becoming a pattern, we headed into Karel’s for happy hour. Our bartender, who happens to be the manager, Don de Leon (love that name) told us about the Taste of Bonaire that was happening just a few yards away. This is a huge event where tourists and locals can experience the taste, culture and arts of Bonaire. Everyone can experience Bonaire’s food, local music, handcrafts and much more! It was a pretty large event with lots of friendly people walking around. As we left the bar, we met Dave and Mary from “Wandering Rose” a 38′ Admiral Catamaran. Super nice boaters heading to the San Blasts Islands (a place Matt and I hope to visit). We were all hungry so we walked the food tents and selected our favorites. I headed to a BBQ place for ribs and Matt headed for an Indonesian tent with the longest line (he waited over an hour for his first Indonesian food experience — and really liked it. I sent photos of the menu to my dad who provided hints as to what we should try.
Indonesian Menu. We ordered Nasi, Loempia and Risolles – yummy!
Matt takes a dive to clean off after a long day (this was actually from the other day)
