Bon Bini Bonaire

On our first night and the following day after leaving Grenada the seas were rough, with a cross swell.  The regular Raftkin crew were all feeling a bit seasick, but the new crew (Nanna and Pa) were like troopers, barely needing to take seasickness medication.  One of the things you forget after being on the boat for so long is how noisy it is during a passage, especially if there are waves thumping into the hulls.  I don’t think Nanna and Pa slept much, if at all that first night at sea.

Towards the end of the second day the seas calmed and the wind picked up, so we had steady, fast sailing from then on.  We even managed to make sourdough.  After two nights at sea, we sighted land in the early morning of the 4^th February and slowly made our way around the southern tip of Bonaire, then up the east coast towards the capital - Kralendijk.  We did a lap of the mooring balls – you are not allowed to anchor in Bonaire as it is a Marine Park.  About forty mooring balls are provided, mostly along the west coast near Kralendijk.  We had been warned that Bonaire was ‘full’ so had pre-booked the marina in anticipation of not being able to get onto a mooring ball, but we hoped we would be lucky.  Unfortunately, there were none so we went into the marina.

Soughdough on passage

Our first job once secured on our berth was to walk into town and clear Customs.  It was a hot morning and the sun was strong as we walked along the main beach into town.  The turquoise waters lapped the shore invitingly, so we hurried along hoping to get a swim in later in the afternoon.  Clearing Customs and Immigration was a straight forward, on stop shop.  As there was cruise ship in town there was a small market running and there were shops and restaurants open (even though it was Sunday).  We had lunch at one of the restaurants, had a quick look around the shops vowing to return, then walked back to the marina.

Flip flop tree, Bonaire

Curiosity tree, Bonaire

Bonaire waterfront

Once back at the marina, Hayley, Dave, Pa and I got changed into swim gear and took the dinghy out to snorkel along the beach just outside the marina.  The water was so clear it was like being in a fish tank.  There were only scattered corals between the moorings and the beach, which was a maximum of about 10 m deep.  Swimming beyond the moorings was dramatic as the bottom dropped away steeply into a deep, blue abyss.  While we were swimming amongst the moored boats a tuna fish the size of Hayley swam casually past us, giving me a bit of a fright before I realised it was a fish.

Snorkelling off Kralendijk

Approaching RAFTKIN by dinghy in the marina

Monday morning was back to boat school again.  In the afternoon we took the dinghy out to Klein Bonaire (Little Bonaire), a small island just off the west coast.  The whole island is included in the Marine Park as it is the nesting grounds for 3000 sea turtles each year.  It is surrounded by reef, so an awesome snorkelling and diving area.  We beached the dinghy and started swimming over the shallow part of the reef.  It was late afternoon and all the tourists had gone back to the cruise ship, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves.  The water near shore was warm and only 1-2m deep depending on the size of the coral.  We slowly swam out away from the shore over the shallows, then bang – the bottom dropped away again and a whole new deeper reef opened up.  So much colour and loads of fish life. We even saw a turtle swimming around – this was being in a gigantic aquarium!

We had tried to book a hire car for Tuesday without success.  There is no public transport on Bonaire, so getting around the island requires a hire car unless you join a tour group.  We still had school in the morning so we got that done, taking advantage of the the little bit of wifi on offer in the marina.  Dave took off on the bike in search of windsurfers, plastic crates for the boat and other bits and pieces.  After lunch we went out to Klein Bonaire again, taking Nanna and Pa with us this time.  We were earlier, so we had to share it with a lot of people.  This meant the water clarity wasn’t quite the same as the previous day, but it was still amazing.  

Snorkelling off Klein Bonaire

Klein Bonaire

We got back to the marina at about 4:30pm just in time for Nanna, Hayley and I to change quickly and get out the front of the marina for the supermarket bus at 5pm.  A squall hit at exactly the same time as the bus was due, adding to the confusion.  There were too many people for one busload and we missed the first trip, so we waited undercover (a little damp from the rain) until the bus returned to pick us up.  I hate to admit this, but the supermarket was awesome!  It’s funny the little things you miss and one of them is shopping in a supermarket that is clean and bright, with good quality fruit and vegetables.  Van Den Tweel was all this and more.  Still can’t believe I am talking about a supermarket.

Wednesday we got the hire cars – two little buzz boxes to zip around the island in. We did a short school day and head out around 10am, travelling north along the west coast road.  The coastline was rugged and dry, with hardy vegetation that could withstand the salt and low rainfall in Bonaire.  The limestone cliffs dropped straight into the sea.  With very little sand on the beaches (they were mostly made up of broken coral), the water was super clear and brilliant turquoise in colour.  We drove north to Gotomeer, on the boundary of the National Park, to see pretty flamingos standing elegantly around the edges of the lake.

Wheels for the day!

1000 steps walk, Baka Di Tolo

Rugged coastline

Tiny hitchhiker (Saffron finch) checking out the mirror 

Pretty flamingo

The road turned east and inland at this point, taking us to the other Bonaire town (aside from Kralendijk) of Rincon.  Many of the properties were fenced with the Cadushy cactus, a very secure fencing system, but the Cadushy cactus has other uses in Rincon.  One of them is to make rum.  We visited the friendly Cadushy distillery, saw how they make their rum and sampled it. Yum!  Then we travelled further north to the Washington Slagbaai National Park.  Unfortunately, our trusty buzz mobiles were not 4WD, so we were unable to go much beyond the park entrance gates, but there was a great museum built out of what was once a Plantation before it was handed over to Bonaire as a National Park.

Cadushy fencing near Rincon

Time to taste some rum at the Cadushy Rum Distillery, Rincon

The distillery

Where we are and where we are going

Washington Slagbaai National Park

Plantation becomes National Park headquarters

We turned south, heading down the east coast road and around Lac Bay and Sorobon Beach – windsurfing heaven.  Looking out across the bay there were at least 30 windsurfers zipping back and forth across the bay.  It was like going back to the 90s – there were no kite surfers in sight. 

Saroban Beach heaven -is it 1992?

The east coast of the island is harsh and windblown.  There were lots of ship wrecks along this coast in days gone by.  Now the shore is littered with flotsam wash up from the sea, sadly mostly plastic. 

Treacherous windward coastline

Windward coast

At the southern end of the island we stopped to see more flamingos at the Pekelmeer Flamingo Sanctuary.  We crawled into the slave huts at Orange Pan and tried to imagine what it would have been like for the slaves brought here from far away Africa to work the salt pans.  At Pink beach we were amazed by the huge mounds of salt piled up ready to be shipped away.  The sun glare off the salt mounds was dazzling.

Pekelmeer Flamingo Sanctuary

Real wild flamingos!

Kearn on the east coast

We made it back to Kralendijk at around 4:30pm with the hope of getting to the shops we had seen on Sunday before they closed.  The big cruise ship had not long departed, so some of the shops had given themselves an early mark.  After a short peruse for some souvenirs we drove back to Van Den Tweel to do a final shop before we had to get the cars back.  What a day!  We decided to let someone else do the cooking and ended up at the Marina Bar for Hamburger Wednesday.

Slave huts at Orange and Red Pan

Salt Pans crystaliser

Hills of salt, Pink Beach

Thursday morning Dave and Pa took the cars back to the Airport while the girls did boat school.  We were all ready by 11am to shake of our lines and get out of the marina, bound for Curacao.

Vaarwel Bonaire