Tag Archives: catamaran

Aruba or Bust

Leave a reply

Even though Harvey and Irma both threatened to change our friend’s travel plans, Matt and I were determined to head toward Aruba.  After our massive provisioning run we were ready to head to Santa Cruz Bay which is the closest bay to Aruba.  This will shave 25 miles off our trip to Aruba.  Our thoughts were to sail to Santa Cruz Bay and then get up early the next day and sail to Aruba (which is about 50 miles).  We said “good-bye” to our Curacao friends, pulled up anchor and headed out.  It was a beautiful day providing a nice trade wind – perfect for a spinnaker sail.  Matt pulled out Betty, our smaller spinnaker sail and off we went.  We enjoyed an absolutely spectacular sail day – which we had not had since we arrived to Curacao almost 3 months ago!


We arrived at Santa Cruz Bay a little over 3 hours later and there were no other boats around nice.  This is where Captain Good Life has his shop and rents out canoes and kayaks to those who want to visit the Blue Room and Mushroom Forrest.  He also provides guided tours on his boat if you are interested.  It took us a few times to hook the anchor as the ground is very hard with patches of coral.  Once we hooked, we jumped in checked the holding, and snorkeled a bit.

As we were making dinner, I started texting with Sharon, our friend who was to meet us in a few days in Aruba.  Their original flight was out of Houston which was rerouted a week ago to Orlando due to Hurricane Harvey.  Then on Friday (4 days prior to their trip), the airline cancelled their flight.   They were able to reschedule their trip to Aruba for October.  So, we had a decision to make.  Do we stay in Curacao (where we have already spent 2 months), head to Aruba (where it tends to be pricey), or go back to Bonaire?  It did not take long to decide as we both wanted to go back to Bonaire.  The beautiful water, upcoming regatta, and idea of more dive adventures was too alluring for us.  So, instead of getting up early to head to Aruba, we got up early to head to Bonaire which is a beat into the wind and waves.


The alarm went off at 445am, anchor was up by 5am, and we were out of the bay by 515am.  Good start!  We were actually able to raise the sails to one reef with the thought we could shake it out if the winds behaved.  We managed to hold our course, with the sails for about the first 4 hours.  However, several rain storms had a different idea – they kept pushing us off course, further and further North.  When we were -7 VMG and wet from the rain, we decided to drop the sails and motor to course – directly into the wind and waves.  It was not our best day, but also not the worst.  We encountered several more storms that kept the boat wet, rocky and rolly.

Pretty purple sky as we left in the wee hours of the morning

Since we just provisioned, our fridge and freezer are full, and I mean FULL!  But Matt could not resist putting the fishing lines out.  He justified it by not putting out the teasers – (don’t worry that logic did not make sense to me either).  After about 8 hours (2 hours to go), of nothing, we noticed a huge flock of birds circling around movement in the water.  Fish!  We headed in that direction and low and behold, one line went “zing” and then nothing – no pulling or bending of the pole.  Hmmm, As Matt reeled it in, we realized we did have fish on, but it was a little fish.  Even though it was a Mahi, Matt’s favorite, we set her free to grow up big and strong.

Too tiny to keep so we let her go

We got one more bit on the hook, but it was not meant to be.  As we were pulling up to the mooring field, where we were hopeful to find a mooring, we were greeted with a fabulous welcome party.  Manuel, Nadja (and a new friend Sean) from Manado were in their dinghy to help us secure to a mooring, then Thea (from Kattimi) came over in her kayak, Cindy (from tranquility) came by in her SUP, and Susan (from Nomad) swam by while doing her laps.  Of course some of these peeps were just out enjoying a nice calm afternoon – but they ended up swinging by to welcome us back – good to be Sugar Shack!

We tried to clear in to customs and immigration, but they closed early (it was Saturday after all), so we stopped by Illy Coffee for a treat and wifi.  I have to admit that it was really tasty ice cream, but I am partial to Gio’s.  Afterward, we stopped by Karel’s for happy hour (and more wifi) and then headed back.  Before the sun set, we had been invited to a birthday party the next day, another day out on Ad Astra and drinks with friends.

It’s hard to call “Bonaire” a “Bust” especially since we are so happy to be able to return to this beautiful island.

Te Aworo Bonaire

Leave a reply

“Goodbye Bonaire”  Our friends, Shawn and Sharon are meeting us in Aruba, so we needed to leave our beloved island of Bonaire to head south west.  Unfortunately, there was no wind (less than 8 knots) so we ended up motoring the entire way from Bonaire toward Klein Curacao.

Sugar Shack leaving Bonaire

On the way over, we ran the little generator, water maker, and washer machine (did you know we have a washer/dryer on board – oh ya!).  Of course, I was just doing my delicates and things that needed to be lined dried so the laundry service could focus on towels, sheets, and other bulky items.  We also had to dry out our dive gear so we could stow it for a few weeks on board.

BC and workout clothes drying

BC and Tanks drying

Some say I have a bikini problem

We happened to leave at the same time as Always Sunday so it was not a surprise to hear them hail us on the VHF.  They talked us into heading to Klein Curacao for the night – they did not have to try very hard as we loved this little island stop and just needed a reason to stop short of Curacao.

When we arrived, we met Ricky and Robin (Always Sunday) for a snorkel where we saw lots of turtles, a few scorpion fish, an eel and lots of other little sea creatures.  They invited us to their boat for tuna and a card game.  They have a beautiful 40’ Lagoon 2013 that is immaculately kept. Robin prepared a lovely tuna dish and taught us a new card game that Matt dutifully won.  Despite the fact that they let me cheat my times,  I still came in last.

Matt & I with Robin and Ricky

Once we arrived in Curacao, we rented a car and ran a bazillion errands: dropped laundry, Budget Marine (pick up Life Seal that we ordered), Scuba and More (fix our regulators), Digicel (update our data plan), customs & immigration, Cost U Less, Best Buy, Vruegedenhill, Van Den Twill, Kooyman, Mangusa Grocery and Centrum Market.  We managed to get back in time for happy hour where we met our friends Steve (Kialoa III), James (Moonrise), Matias and Ulreke (Bella) for a final toddy before we head West.

James, Matt, me, Matias, Ulreke, Steve

The next day, we picked up our clean laundry, repaired regulators, and a swung by few more stores to find some elusive items (diet coke, diet ginger ale, mozzarella, and ribs).  We returned to the boat to unpack and stow all our goodies and headed to The Pier for the weekly captain’s dinner where they were serving dorado which was delicious.  We enjoyed hanging out with our friends and 25 other boater pals of Spanish Waters.

Sea Donkey Takes us to Vista Blue

Leave a reply

With over 87 dive sites on Bonaire it is really tough to hit each and every one of them during our short stay – so we are trying to focus on the places that other people feel are the best of the islands.  Our friend, Erik on Ad Astra, introduced us to Captain David Gunn from Sea Donkey Bespoke Diving Services.  David and his wife Tracey started this new business in Bonaire which takes divers on a three tank dive expeditions at their own pace all over Bonaire.  On David’s afternoon off, he offered to take us diving on the southern tip of Bonaire to his favorite dive site, Vista Blue.  We loaded all of our gear into Sweet N Low and met Ad Astra (Erik, Kyle, and Max) at the marina where we were to unload our gear from the dinghies and load them into David’s truck.  Luckily, there is a bag for everything and lots of men around.

After a short drive through town, we headed along the coast, past the salt flats and to a pretty but rocky shore line.  David backed his truck up to the boulder where we could assemble our gear and then we walked to the shoreline. This will be my first shore dive and I was not 100% sure I would like it as I have a really difficult time balancing, walking and handling my gear outside of the water.  Matt was nice enough to carry my weights as I lumbered to the shore line with my mask and fins in hand and my BC/tank on my back.  The shore was supposed to be sandy, but what I did not know was that it has lots of ridges, so one foot could be 1-1.5 meters lower than the other which made it really hard to walk into the waves. I was knocked down several times and made a great show of being uncomfortable and unable to walk.  After some pretty embarrassing face plants, I was able to get my mask and fins on and then Matt loaded me up with my weights.  I could not wait to be swimming and away from the crashing waves and uneven surface.  It was a quick descent and immediately we were hit with the most beautiful topography I have ever seen.  There were tons of sea grass, sea fans, and soft corals all dancing  under water. It was mesmerizing and I just wanted to stop and stare – but our group was moving ahead.


There was a pretty strong current, so we headed into it which proved to be a bit challenging and tiring  The lower we got the easier it was, but it was slow going for me at first.  Matt has the camera and has been sucking down air pretty fast so we would turn around at his half tank mark.  David and the Ad Astra crew are really experienced divers and consume very little air.  As a woman, I tend to consume very little air as well so that leaves Matt as the air hog – but then again he is doing all sorts of acrobats underwater to capture the cool video footage.

Being that David is an under water tour guide and this is his favorite spot he was able to point some amazing fish and corals.  As we were coming around a pretty large coral he casually points underneath it where a large green moray eel was spitting mad as the intrusion of his home.  We hovered, admired, and took video of this magnificent creature before moving on.

After about 30-35 minutes, Matt indicated that he was at half tank so I alerted David and the others and we turned back. What we did not take into account was the current and how fast it would return us back to our starting place.  We probably could have stayed out another 10-15 minutes as the current rushed us back in about half the time it took us to get there.

Getting out of the water was another $hit show for me.  Everyone else made it look easy and almost elegant, but I could not get my feet up and under me.  Matt had to literally take my hand and hold me up to get me out of the water.  I’d show you video but I’d hate for you to pee your pants from laughing so hard.

All I all one of my favorite dive spots- if we could only get here by boat!