More New "Experiences"

Well, Cheryl left you with us leaving Santa Martha Bay with Rob on board and heading for Spaanse Waters. We had struggled with whether we should leave or not because the weather forecast was for lots of rain and some squalls. They were forecasting only minor increase in winds within the squalls so we weighed that against the need to get Rob to a more accessable place for the airport and our need to clear customs and immigration so that we could leave for Antigua, we decided to go for it. As they had promised we could see lots of squalls forming out to sea and it wasn't long before we hit the first one. We had decided not to put up the main sail for reasons of safety due to the weather. Squalls can hit fast and hard so we thought if we can get enough speed out of our foresail to get to Spaanse Water before dark that is what we would do. The sail was for the most part good although we motor sailed with the foresail so that we wouldn't have to use the main. Rob got a chance to "drive" the boat and although he admitted he is a motorboat kind of guy, he handled the boat well. When we weren't in squalls the skies were clear and blue and it was quite pleasant.

A Video of Rob at the Wheel

We got past Willemstad after being kept out farther than we wanted to be by a tanker that was in the way. Although we eventually established that it was stationary, it was difficult to tell that until we got quite close and the last thing you ever want to do is to cross the bow of a tanker or cargo ship. Their speed is deceptive and they don't have very good brakes!!!

By this time we were about 1 1/2 hours from the Spaanse Water entrance and were sure we would be there before sunset. Of course, then the sailing Gods got together for a talk and decided that they would have some fun. We were approaching the widest squall we had seen that day. Ordinally you can see both sides of a squall and from that judge it's depth. Squalls don't last long, but as I said they can be fast and furious. The ones we had hit had not been too bad so although we couldn't see the width of the one ahead of us due to it's size, we thought the winds would be about the same. Just in case, we headed up into the wind so that the wind would not be affecting our sails and we were being pushed by the motor. Now for the experience. Just before we got to the rain part of the squall, we were hit - from the side - by the heaviest blast of wind that Mystic Journey has experienced since we became owners.

Scary part - even with only the foresail up, that blast of wind drove us over on the starboard side so that the mast hit the water. It held us down for what I now believe was about 5 seconds. Not long but under those conditions a lifetime. I must say that not for a moment did I consider that Mystic Journey would not stand herself back up again and that is what happened. Of course then she tried to lay herself down the other way but only went down to about a 45 degree angle. Meanwhile the rain had hit to severly limit our visibility and we know we had to get the foresail down so that we could be strictly engine driven. The Gods weren't finished - at that point the engine alarm buzzer began to sound. I glanced at the engine instruments and thought I saw that the heat indicator was off the scale. Of course if the engine overheated, it would likely seize so I flipped the engine off. In the meantime we continued to take the foresail down as the winds and squall chops from the wind, plus the swells that had been there all allong were tossing us all over the place. Cheryl handled the stress beautifully.

I need to mention too that after the boat laid down, the first thing I thought of was Rob below decks. I looked down and could see him on the salon floor but he seemed to be hanging on so we did what had to be done to stabilize the boat. After the foresail was in or course we had not power from any source, wind or motor so I went down to check the belts on the engine to see if a fan belt had broken causing the overheat. At the same time I talked to Rob to make sure he was okay. Even though he said he as alright, I still worried that he was just trying to keep us from being distracted from handling the boat but I took him at his word and after I found the belts were intact, I went back up and re-started the engine. It didn't overheat and looking back I am not sure that it had before, but Cheryl offered a good possibility. When we were on our side, the seacock that brings in the seawater to cool the engine was out of the water. The alarm may have been to notify us of this.

Whatever the case, the motor functioned fine, the squall eventually passed, we re-established our course and continued towards Spaanse Water. When the rain passed, we saw that we had been driven back to a point off Willemstad and were now about 2 hours from the entrance. To finish this saga - we did hit one more squall before reaching safe haven although it was minor. We made it through the entrance chanel before sunset and then anchored in the dark but in an area where there were no other boats so it was fairly simple.

It was a real pleasure to settle in for the night in water that didn't rock us around even though the wind continued to stay quite strong all night. The next blog we will hopefully bring us up to date and by the time you read it we will be on the way to Antigua - hopefully!!!

Christmas in Curacao

When we last wrote we were in Santa Martha Baai awaiting the arrival of family to help us celebrate Christmas. Christmas is over and we are back in Spanish Waters waiting for a weather window to head north to Antigua. What happened in between you may ask. Some expectations were met, others weren't.

We headed up to Lucy's Place on the 19th to meet Daniella, the rental agent, and await the arrival of the Perry's at noon. Daniella informed us that there was a major electrical problem that was being worked on and that we wouldn't have access to the villa until the afternoon. Because the Perry's were expecting to meet us there we chose to stay at the villa and relax on the patio. Come 3PM the workers were still busy and it looked like we wouldn't get into the villa that day and the Perry's still hadn't arrived. Daniella arranged for us to stay at another villa for the night and took Griff to the resort in order to check e-mail to see if there was any news from the Perry's - there was. Their plane had been delayed in Trinidad and they were just arriving in Curacao. They finally arrived and we got settled in to the new villa for the night with the promise that Lucy's Place would be available the next day at noon.

We went back to Lucy's Place at noon to find that the workers were still there. The wiring was fixed, but there was no air conditioning, no TV, no dishwasher and we later discovered no hot water. There went the Perry's expectations of hot showers and air conditioning. They were really looking forward to those two things after their apartment in Grenada which had neither. The A/C and dishwasher were repaired later that evening and the TV replaced, but still no hot water and the A/C was making noise like it was working but there was no air blowing and therefore no cooling. We had to move in because the other villa had other renters now. We decided we could live with things the way they were as long as they were still being worked on. Daniella assured us she had been in contact with the owner and everything would be repaired. Oh yes - the WiFi quit working Friday night so we lost contact with family back home unless we went downto the resort, the dive shop or the boat.

On Sunday the A/C was replaced with separate units in each bedroom, however, the workers were in the house most of the day and quite often in the evening. They frequently arrived just as we were sitting down to dinner, which we ate every evening on the balconey overlooking Mystic Journey in the bay. There went another expectation of quiet family meals.

Rob arrived at 8:30PM Sunday. Our family group was now complete. Monday half of us went into Willemstadt to shop while the other half stayed at the resort and went snorkeling. On Tuesday this was reversed. We had to do it that way because we did not have a vehicle big enough to transport all of us at once. That was the last expectation not met for us - group outings to take in the sites of the island and going snorkeling.

By now you are probably thinking that the time we spent together was terrible. Actually, despite all the problems I listed above we did have a great time visiting with family and spending the Christmas season with them. We did go to the beach and snorkeling on Christmas day. We were able to call family on Christmas day and enjoyed watching the Sparks' family and Jason opening their presents. We accepted the challenge of cooking a Christmas turkey when all we had was a two burner stove, a toaster oven and the barbecue on the boat. We finally decided to cut up the turkey, boil it at the villa and then take it to the boat to brown it on the barbecue. Surprisingly it still tasted like Christmas turkey - only no stuffing.

The Perry's headed back to Grenada on the 26th. On the 27th we headed out of Santa Martha Baai with Rob aboard. We were headed back to Spanish Waters. That would be more convenient for us to access Customs and Immigration and for Rob to leave for the airport. We also wanted Rob to have the opportunity of sailing with us. TO BE CONTINUED.

Clarification, Query and Curacao

Clarification about the Donkey Sanctuary in Bonaire. The Sanctuary is run by a non-profit foundation and is staffed entirely by volunteers. If you want more information or to see pictures of the donkeys you can go to http://www.donkeycam.com/

Query – Does anyone know the “proper” procedure for getting rid of a Canadian flag that is too tattered and torn to be flown. We have a couple now that have been repaired, but the material is so rotted from the sun and rain that they are no longer reparable.

We have been back in Curacao since December 10th. We have spent the time anchored in Spanish Waters. Certainly different than the last time we were there. No Omar and only about a third of the number of boats. The “dog boat” is still there with its 6 or 7 dogs aboard that bark whenever anyone goes near but it is not really disturbing, although I wouldn’t want to have been closer.

We didn’t go into Willemstad this time other than to do the customs and immigration thing. I (Griff) wanted to get into town again to shop – still haven’t found the “gift” for Cheryl but we should have time after all the family gets here. One of the reasons we didn’t have time was the “normal” boat thing. We had come into Spaanse Waters and anchored and settled in for the night – all well and good. In the morning I put my tea on and lo and behold, the propane tank ran out. No biggie – switch tanks to our spare. Of course I couldn’t get the spare to make a good seal and so it leaked. Okay, we will go to do the clearance thing, we can be back at noon and on the way I can stop at Budget and get a new regulator and if necessary a new tank. We went over to catch the 9:00 bus at 8:45 because they don’t necessarily stick strictly to the time.

At 10:20 the bus came and off we went to Willemstad. We had “picked up” a young French man who was also going in to clear and had never been here before so he tagged along. Very nice guy who just bought a steel boat in Trinidad and singlehanded to Curacao. He was trying to get the bottom done on his boat and find crew to go to San Blas and we became friends with him.
Back to propane. Of course the bus being late made us late for doing clearances. We knew customs didn’t close for lunch but thought immigration did so we hustled our little buns through the processes and made it to immigration about 11:40, thankful that we would get the paperwork done in time to avoid the lunchtime closedown.

We actually found out that immigration does in fact NOT close for lunch so all seemed well. Out of immigration by 11:47 just in time to go next door to the Port Authority. They are the ones who keep track of where all the boats, both commercial and pleasure, are at any given time so are a necessary part of “things to do”. The kicker – they close from 11:45 to 1:30 so there we were, caught in the lunchtime closedown after all.

Long story short – although we were able to get to Budget before it closed, we ran into some problems because we had not brought all we needed to make the necessary purchases to get our propane problem fixed. We got back to the boat with a regulator but when I hooked it up the spare tank still leaked so our next possible solution was to fill up the tank I had just taken off, get a new tank later, get it filled and all’s well. NOT.

Next glitch was that there is only one place on the island where they refill propane tanks. A lot of the gas stations have a facility where you take in a tank and they give you a full one back but unfortunately they have a different kind of fitting than what most yachties use so that wouldn’t work for us. As far as the refill – it could be done but in normal times it takes 3-7 days to get it done and from all we heard, over the holidays we would be lucky to get it back before 2009. One of the other people in the anchorage offered us the use of one of his tanks until we could figure out what to do or until they or we left so we were able to fire up the propane and ensure that the new regulator was okay. To finish this epic saga, that evening and part of the next morning I worked on the full but leaky tank and was finally able to fix it. No leaks – HONEST!!!

The rest of the time in Spanish Waters was spent cleaning the boat as we had not done a thorough boatcleaning since Trinidad, and as well began getting things organized for visitors. We dinghied over to the yacht club fuel dock and filled gerry cans with diesel and water and then topped up the tanks on the boat from those. On Tuesday we were ready to set sail again for Santa Martha Baai (lagoon). This is where we (Rob and Griff and I) have rented a villa, Lucy’s Place, for the Christmas week and where the Perry’s are joining us.

The sail to Santa Martha was uneventful. We had winds from 2 to 18 knots and were able to set all three sails and only had to use the motor for short periods. We sailed through two short squalls, one off Willemstadt and one just before Santa Martha. We arrived at the lagoon just after 1400hrs and anchored at the base of the cliff where Lucy’s Place is situated. Only one other boat in the lagoon, REBEL, a boat we had anchored beside in Store Bay, Tobago. We have settled in and now await the arrival of family and Christmas.

Last Days in Bonaire

Our time in Bonaire is coming to a close. We will be leaving in a couple of days, weather permitting. I thought I would catch you up on what we have been doing with our time since we finished painting the coach roof. By the way it looks great.

We spent one afternoon with Tom and Bonnie from Toujours going snorkeling. They really wanted us to go diving with them, but I could not get diving gear as I am not certified. We discussed me getting certified, but decided that would not be feasible right now especially since I still find myself panicking sometimes when I am snorkeling. We headed north from our mooring to a diving site called The Cliff. We snorkeled and they dove. It did give us the opportunity to test out the “waterproof” camera I purchased when I was at home. We snorkeled for about an hour and only took 131 pictures. I’ve included a few in the blog and more can be seen in our Picassa web album (see link on the right).

We took one day and rented a truck. This was so we could tour the southern end of the island and pick up a few groceries that would be too heavy to carry (milk, juice etc.). The south end of the island is very different from the north end. It is mainly just one big evaporation pond for the water desalinization/salt production that the island is noted for. Bonaire has been exporting salt since the 1700’s and today that process is how they supply their water needs. We found the slave huts to be interesting. They were buildings that the slaves slept in and kept their personal belongings in. They were about 8’X8’ and had a shelf at the level where the roof joined the wall for their belongings. The walls were maybe 4 feet high. There was no mention of how many slaves slept in each of the huts. It couldn’t have been very comfortable.

It would have been interesting to be able to see how the salt was extracted. All we could see was the large piles of salt and the conveyor system to take it to the ships.

The other place we stopped that day was the Donkey Sanctuary. Donkeys are wild on Bonaire and the sanctuary has been set up as a protected area for them. The lady there said that the government is going to shoot the donkeys on the island next year. Right now the sanctuary has 350 donkeys and they hope to be able to expand to include 450 of the ‘wild’ donkeys by next year. The donkeys in the sanctuary are those that were in the area and those that have been found injured, mainly from collisions with vehicles and human mistreatment, or orphans. We met a couple from Quebec who come down 5 – 7 weeks a year and volunteer at the sanctuary. You can adopt a donkey for $175US per year and this provides food, medicine etc. for the donkey you choose. You get to name the donkey and receive pictures and updates twice a year. We had the opportunity to feed the mothers and babies palm leaves which are a delicacy for them. We then drove around the compound and fed donkeys along the way. As soon as we stopped the truck they would be over thrusting their noses in the window. Some of them would run alongside the truck when we started moving again.

We have enjoyed our time on Bonaire even if there isn't a lot to do on the island other than diving. The people are friendly and we have learned a little about the island customs. We head back to Curacao in the next couple of days. There we will be joined by the Perry's and Griff son Rob for Christmas. We are quite looking forward to that and will keep you posted.

A Pause for Scary Possibilities

Well, today we experienced an event that gave both Cheryl and I real "cause to think". I am not sure whether I had mentioned this before but when we were in Nanny Cay getting the boat ready to sail, another yacht came into the slip beside us that had just broken it's mast off at the 1st set of spreaders while sailing in a stiff wind around the eastern side of Tortola. At the time I was kind of bothered to see the damage done and also in considering the possibilities of people being hurt when this kind of thing happens. It happened suddenly and without warning to these people and I thought about it for quite some time. After sailing for a while we have come to accept that these things can happen and that with experience the dangers can be minimized.

Today the "God's of Sailing" sent us another reminder of the need for alertness and also a wakeup call that we can't control all things at all times. Cheryl and I were below decks about 9:00 AM just doing piddly things when all of a sudden we heard a very loud pop 0r snap. We both rushed up on deck to find the boat 2 moorings over with the rear deck engulfed in flames and a huge cloud of black smoke coming from it. Of course the first thought that came was "Is there anyone aboard" but we couldn't tell because of the smoke and flames. I got in the dinghy and started over to see if I could see anyone but by that time there were already a couple of dinghies that had been going by over by the boat and although one was able to get alongside, it didn't stay so I took that to mean there was no one aboard. The flames got too hot to get close to the boat and the yacht that was between us and them was being moved. There had been only the wife aboard that boat apparently the alternator had been removed so they couldn't start it but 2 dinghies placed themselves on either side, released the boat from it's mooring and took it up to the mooring on our other side which luckily had been freed up that morning.

That left nothing between us and the burning boat except water. We had no idea how big the fuel tanks were, how much propane they had aboard or whether they carried oxygen for diving so we decided we would also move Mystic Journey out of the possible danger area. We took it out away from the moorings and Cheryl kept us from drifting too far by using the engine to adjust when needed.

In the meantime, a tug from the town pier had come up. We had seen it before while at the pier and noticed that it had a water cannon mounted on the "crowsnest" - the highest part of the stack on the tug. Unfortunately it seems that this cannon didn't work because the only water they were able to supply was from a hose on deck with not a lot of pressure. The tug tried to get close enough to use that hose but for whatever reason (perhaps depth - the boat was on the edge of the shelf) they would only go in so far. Bottom line, they were not able to apply any water to the burning boat. The fire engine from town was on the road opposite to the moorings but they were spraying against the wind. Consequently they were also unable to help.

We noticed that the people had now returned to the boat that had been moved and there was a dinghy beside them with a woman who became quite hysterical. Of course our first thought was that there had been someone aboard the boat but it turns out that was not the case.

From piecing together the story then and later at a meeting of a lot of the yacht people who gathered to see what they could do to help we found out most of the story. The couple who owned the boat, a 40' Pearson, had been diving. The reason that the woman became hysterical, aside from just losing their boat, was that she thought their dog was still aboard. In fact, the dinghy that I mentioned earlier that had pulled alongside did so to rescue the dog so that came out okay. The couple had no insurance and everything they had except their dinghy and dive gear was burned including passports, money, credit cards etc etc. At the meeting the SSCA hosts for Bonaire (Seven Seas Cruising Association) said they could put the people up at a house they have on the island. Different folks contributed clothes and money and the couple were able to get in touch with the American Consulate in Curacao and make arrangements to get new passports in quick fashion although they have to fly to Curacao in the morning. The couple were still somewhat in a state of shock but the fact their dog had been saved seemed to be the most important thing to them at this time. The skipper indicated he had no idea what might have caused the fire except that earlier he had heard a snap when he started the boat and he thought it might had been electrical. If it was, according to the sounds we heard and the swiftness of the engulfment, it must have ignited some kind of gas or fuel.

To finish with the burning boat, eventually the flames burned down somewhat and the authorities were able to attach a rope to the boat and tow it out to deeper water (300'). The boat only had a 4' draft so most of it was above the water so when the boat had burned down to the waterline there was very little left. At that point, they scuttled her.

As I said earlier, this experience was quite the wake-up call and in addition very disturbing. Cheryl and I both felt - I guess scared might be a good word although it was more than that. I can only hope that rather than make us fearful on this journey we are on, it will make us more aware of what can happen and thankful it didn't have to happen to us for us to learn this lesson.

The Arrival of Sanikolas

Saturday, November 29th.
Today saw the arrival of Sanikolas. As per tradition in the Netherlands he arrived by steamboat (tugboat) from Spain (Klein Bonaire) to greet the children of Bonaire. He was accompanied by a troop of Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) and his ship was escorted by a fleet of little sailboats captained by children. There were booths set up in the park where the children could get their faces painted or participate in games of skill. Some of the children were dressed as Zwarte Piet and others wore red bishop’s mitres like Sanikolas.

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, Sanikolas is Papiamentu for Sinterklaas who is the Dutch Saint Nicholas. On Bonaire they celebrate Saint Nicholas Day which is December 6th. Sinterklaas has a long white beard and wears a red bishop’s dress and red mitre (bishop’s hat) and carries a gold coloured staff with a fancy curved top and sometimes rides a white horse. Except for the white horse this is what the Sanikolas on Bonaire looked like. Zwarte Piet is Sinterklaas’ helper.

On December 5, children leave their shoes at the front door with grass or carrots for Sinterklaas’ horse. Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet visit the children and leave presents. Zwarte Piet comes down the chimney and that is why his face is black. We found it interesting that even though the portrayers of Black Peter were already dark skinned, they all had “black face” make-up on.

Typical Sinterklaas candy is a chocolate letter of the child’s first name, a chocolate Sinterklaas wrapped in aluminum foil and chocolate coins.

In days past Zwarte Piet was known to leave salt or sticks for children who were ‘bad’, but that part of the tradition has been left in the past.

The kids here, like kids anywhere, were awed by Sanikolas’ arrival – waving at him even before the boat had reached the dock. It looked like there may have been some children that were chosen to walk down the dock with Sanikolas. It took him some time to walk from the dock to the park area, a distance of maybe 25 yards, as he stopped and talked with children along the way. There was music playing which we could only assume were Sanikolas songs since they were in Papiamentu.

One thing that amazed both of us was the tugboat. Before pulling into the dock it came into the area of the bay where we dock the dinghy and did a 360 degree turn, pivoting around the boat’s centre. This was done in a space that was just a little bit wider than the length of the boat.

Although we didn't stay past the arrival and greeting of Sanikolas, we could hear the celebrations continue for about 3 hours after we left. There was music and entertainment on the stage that is at the centre of the park by the town pier. We were both extremely grateful that we were able to watch and learn more new customs as we have so often during our voyage.

Changes and Flexibility

Well, for those of you who read Castingoff's blog, you already know a bit of what I am going to tell you but for those of you who don't, here is the latest skinny on our tentative plans for the next little while. First I guess I better rehash a little of what our plans had been. We are in Bonaire at the present moment and intended - and still intend - to go to Curacao. We had planned to meet with Rob (son Rob) at a place we had agreed to share for Christmas. Hopefully this will still happen. In the meantime, the Perrys and Artemo were to sail down to Curacao as soon as their boat was complete. After Christmas we (Artemo and Mystic Journey) were going to head for Cartegena, Columbia, then the San Blas Islands of Panama and then to Panama. In actual fact Cheryl and I had agreed that this particular journey was to be taken "one step at a time" in that if we got to Cartegena and decided not to go further west, so be it. This was to hold true for all the ports we landed in and in fact still holds true for this whole adventure we have embarked on. Julie et al were aware that we are not committed yet to going out the canal and that we are decision making as required when required.

So now - there are a couple things that are part of our new decision to stay in the Caribbean for a while longer. First, when the Perrys made the decisions regarding their plans that they did, both of us - the Perry's and the Thomas's - were aware that if we (Cheryl and I) held to our plan of continuing west we would lose our chance to sail together, something we had all been looking forward to. Julie, in examining their options, came up with the suggestion that we postpose our trip, meet up with them somehow, and spend time exploring the Leeward and Windward Islands next year. They had really not had a chance to do this when they brought Artemo from Antigua to Grenada due to time constraints and although Cheryl and I had taken some time when we came down, there is still lots we had missed. A second aspect of the decision was in part due to a bit of caution on our part. As I said, we have not committed to passing through the canal and heading for the South Pacific. Cheryl has said all along that she would be happier with a bit more "mariner experience" before heading out for a 3-4 week voyage that will put us in a place that, although beautiful and tropical and exotic, would be extremely hard to take a bus home from.

So this is now our plan for the new year. We will be in Curacao until at least the 26th of December. That is when Julie, Graham and the kids head back to Grenada to put the finishing touches on Artemo and set sail for northern climes to meet us. If Rob is able to make it to Curacao, he has said that he too will likely leave on the same day. After that we will head northeast towards the British Virgin Islands or the US Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico or St. Kitts or wherever the winds are most favourable to take us. I will put a proviso in there.

We are having email discussions with someone very special to us who is considering coming to meet us in Antigua and stay for 10-14 days. We are praying for that to happen. I won't tell you who it is because I don't want to pressure these special people. (Well, actually I do but won't!!) If they can make it to Antigua, it will likely be around the 3rd of January so if that is the case, we will leave Curacao in time to make a 5-6 day sail to Antigua and meet them. Otherwise, we will be leaving in time to meet the Perrys in the northern Leewards - likely Antigua but possibly St Maartens, sometime in January. If we are up that far anyway, we might as well do some boat parts acquistion in the cheapest place possible.

Now, what does this all mean to you?? It could mean - so what, but it could also provide an opportunity for all of you we spoke to about visiting us during our travels. We have relatively firm committments from some people to come down and visit, BUT there is still a lot of time and a lot of room on our boat. So for those of you to whom we extended an invitation to visit and who haven't thought of taking us up on it - last opportunity to do so in the Caribbean in 2009. The invitations are genuine. We would love to see you and have you share a small part of this adventure.

Home Again

Well I've been back home now for 2 days. I can't begin to express how glad I am to be back on the boat with Griff. The flight(s) back was exhausting. I left Calgary, in a snowstorm, Tuesday at midnight MST and arrived in Curacao Wednesday at 8PM AST. That included 3 hours in the Toronto airport and 3 hours in the Miami airport. I was happy, excited, relieved and much more to see Griff in the Flamingo Airport Thursday morning at 9:30. (I had stayed overnight in Curacao because of availability of connecting flights.) It did rain a bit as we were dinghying back to the boat.

Then it started to pour as we were emptying the suitcases. Griff said that the process of opening the suitcases was like Christmas. In a way it was since my kids had sent our Christmas presents back with me and they were unwrapped, a Nintendo DS and the Stargate SG1 DVD series. Debbie had also sent our gift but it was wrapped so we will wait for Christmas for that one. I had bought a Golf game for the DS so now we can play golf against each other with 2 DS machines.

I decided that since it was pouring I would put up the rain collecting bottles. As usual, shortly after I put them up the rain stopped. This was Thursday morning and now it is Saturday morning and it still hasn't rained since it stopped Thursday afternoon. Of course it threatened all day Friday so we were reluctant to start painting the boat but we were able to finish the cockpit sanding.

Griff didn't take any pictures of sanding or priming the boat, but of course I took some when I got back. For some reason I was expecting the coach roof primer to be grey so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was still white. Griff has a tarp over the windshield area to prevent the rain from going into the cockpit since the windshield needed to be removed for painting. In the cockpit the wheel is off, the table and cup holder are down and the instrument panel is completely taken apart. As I said, we spent some time yesterday finishing sanding the primer coat in preparation for painting.

In the afternoon we took some time and went snorkelling around the area of the boat for about 30 minutes. We saw some interesting fish. One flat fish that buried itself in the sand - if we hadn't seen it doing that we would not have been able to see it at all. Then there were two fish that were swimming together in an underwater ballet. A third fish tried to join in, but they would not allow that. We saw some fairly big parrot fish and some others that we don't know the names of. Of course there were the yellow and black striped fish and some angel fish as well as the pale white fish whose colour blends in with the sea bottom. We'll figure out how our new waterproof camera works and post some pictures.

Today we got the first coat of paint on the coach roof and so far it has only rained for about five minutes a couple of hours after we finished. Hopefully, that will have been long enough for the paint to have dried. The water beaded on it so we are keeping our fingers crossed. Now we are heading ashore to pick up a few supplies.

Hello From Bonaire

Well, Cheryl sent a blog at the beginning of her visit to Canada so I will send one as her visit winds down and let you know what has been going on here - work, work, work, and now rain, rain, rain.
End of Blog
Actually, it has been an experience being here by myself. Unfortunately, there has not been a lot of exciting things done but I learned stuff. First I learned that I haven't changed in regards to taking on more than I should. I am hoping the reasons behind this type of behaviour has changed though. In the past it was, I think, so that people would be impressed with my wonderfulness and talent and stuff - and then people would like me. Now, I think I do it because old habits die hard and I sometimes measure what I can do by what I used to be able to think I could do. Confused yet - well, a simpler explanation may be that I am getting older and slower - lets go with that one!!
What this is about is my decision to "fix" the coach roof portion on the boat. The coach roof, to save you looking it up in Wikepedia, is the portion of the boat that is above the deck and covers the fore and aft cabins as well as the salon. It starts in front even with the deck and then raises up to about 3 feet above the deck, becomes the sides of the cockpit and and then goes back to cover the aft cabin. The mast goes through the coach roof (and through the salon to the keel) and it also holds our windshield at the front of the cockpit. Although most of the cockpit isn't part of the coach roof because the cockpit mostly sits over the motor compartment, it is part of it at the front because it has part of the salon roof and has the companionway as part of it and at the back the seat back behind the steering seat becomes the aft cabin roof.
The reason for all this explanation is as follows: when we had our teak removed from the deck, in order to put awlgrip on the deck they had to tape the edge of the coach roof. When the tape came off, so did a lot of the paint. We had noticed this before when we had tried to use masking tape on the roof - when it came off, so did the paint. The boat had been re-painted at one time, apparently by inept amateurs (unlike yours truly - an ept amateur!) because it appears as if they either didn't put enough primer on (if any) or they used a very poor paint.
Okay, I'm getting there.
I thought while Cheryl was in Canada, it would be a good opportunity to re-do the coach roof and cockpit. Now comes the part about taking on too much. The process was to first thoroughly sand all of the working surfaces. This meant taking off the windshields (there are three pieces), removing our cockpit table, taking out all the instruments from the "dashboard" and removing as many lines as I could without dropping the rigging.
Next steps in sequence after initial sanding - wash everything down with soap and water and then clear NON-seawater. Apply one coat of primer. Sand all working surfaces lightly. Wash down with clear water. Apply 2nd coat of primer. Sand all working surfaces. Wash down with clear water. Apply first coat of Awlgrip paint - sand, wash, and apply second coat of Awlgrip.
Then reassemble instrument panel, windshield and cockpit table.
Was I thinking it through step by step while considering this - obviously not. Did I get it all done - NO! But in my own defence, I would have gotten it mostly done if, 5 days ago, it hadn't started raining. While this was not okay, it did give me a chance to repair the mess I made of the inside of the boat while working on the outside. Hey, who woulda thunk that the paint that came off would be carried downstairs on my feet and then stick with the power of gorilla glue to the floor. Who woulda known that brush and roller cleaner would eat away the finish on a big spot on the dinner table. Who woulda believed that the people who cut the new plexiglass pieces for the windshield (2 out of 3 of the ones that came off had cracks) would refuse to drill the necessary holes. Incidentally, for those of you who use drills for work while on water, news flash, the key that fits the chuck that allows you to change bits DOES NOT FLOAT. And as clear as the water is here in Bonaire (I was able to retrieve my socket handle!!) it is really difficult to see something that small when there is rock and sand on the bottom. Further, in case you are ever here - they don't sell chuck keys anywhere.
So where do I sit now? Well, I have repaired the table finish (oh and the porthole screen I forgot to mention that got shredded), most of the floor has the white specks removed and I have marked the holes in the new windshield and have figured out how I am going to change bits.
I have not gotten any Awlgrip applied as it needs at least five hours without rain and sixteen hours before you can apply the second coat. As a result I also don't have the instrument panel or the table back together and the windshield is not in BUT, my honey is coming back and she promised to help me without any complaints about taking on jobs that are too much and no "I told you so's". What a sweety!!
One last thing, for all you people in the throes of fall/winter. I can also tell that winter is here - there have been 9 cruise ships visit Bonaire in the last 11 days. Oh, the temperature here - around 30 during the day!!
Caio

Hello from Canada

Well I am half way through my trip back to Canada. Thought you might be interested in how I have found it. After 16 hours of travel, between airtime and layovers, I landed in Calgary in light snow. Fortunately Leila picked me up at the airport and the car was nice and warm. The weather has been warmish for this time of year and the wind has been blowing as normal. The only thing I am having a hard time to adjust to is the dry air. The humidity is much better for my breathing and skin.

Saturday was my mom's birthday party and it was great seeing all my siblings and their kids and grandkids. My aunt and her family also were there. The highlight of the evening for my mom was when my nephew Travis walked in. He has joined the army since we have been travelling and his arrival from Edmonon was a surprise.

This week I have been seeing the doctor, dentist and getting tests done. In between all that I have been trying to fit in visits with friends. Some have been short and sweet while I have been able to have meals with others.

I did stop in at our acreage and saw Katie dog. She is doing well and seemed happy to see me, although Leila said she gave me a dirty look when I got back into the car without her.

Saturday I head back to Calgary to spend some time with my kids and to see Griff's kids and grandkids. Then on Tuesday at midnight I head back to Griff.

The hardest part of the trip was being here without Griff and knowing he was probably pushing himself trying to get the coach work finished before I get back. We are very thankful for Google Talk which enabled us to talk each day as long as I could be somewhere I could access the internet.

Touring Bonaire

CORRECTION - CORRECTION - CORRECTION
Some research from a better source than our primary (after we drove so far on the tour we figured something was wrong) tells us that Bonaire is 112 square miles with a population of 14,006 as of December, 2006. Sorry for the poor info before


As promised, our "Tour of Bonaire" blog. Actually we didn't tour the whole island, just part of the north. We picked up the car at 8:30 and took the West coast road to begin our journey north. We hadn't really intended to do any more than sightsee on the way to the Washington Slagbaai National Park. Our intended agenda was to go to the park and do one of the walks and then go to the historical town of Rincon to explore. As it turned out we had not gone too far before I had to stop so we could take pictures. As mentioned before, there are 67 dive points around the island proper and most of those are accessable via road. Sure enough before long we began seeing small rocks by the side of the road painted yellow with names on them like Jeff Davis, 1000 steps, Ol Blue and so on. The road was quite narrow but there were always parking spots at these named points. The vegetation along this road was quite lush and green. likely because of all the rain they have been getting. Their rainy season is "moistest" in November.

Eventually we turned away from the coast road at a junction that had an old plantation house there. It had been neglected so we didn't stay long but turned up towards Gotomeer, a brackish lake that is also a pink flamingo sanctuary. The options at the turnoff are to go up to Gotomeer or go into the oil refinery and deep sea port where all of the oil used on the island comes in. Of course that isn't open to the public so our choices were limited.

We arrived at an observation point for the flamingo sanctuary but there was little to be seen as Gotomeer was quite distant so we hopped back in the car and drove down. There was an island with a path built up so that is could be accessed from the road and we thought we would be able to see the flamingoes better from there. As it turns out an old islander lives there and the only thing there was a herd of goats behind a fence made of branches and cacti. The land looked like it had been plowed and planted with grass but if it was, there seemed to be no way for the plow to get over there so that will remain one of the great mysteries of life. We were able to get fairly close to the flamingoes a little further down the road and when we were finally able to get them one of them to take it's head out of the water we were able to get a few good pictures.

Eventually we arrived in Rincon and stopped to pick up some drinks but we didn't stay long as we wanted to get to the park, which, about 30 minutes later, we did. There are a number of ways to see things in the park but because of the amount of rain, we decided not to drive into the park but to take one of the self-guided walkng tours. The vegetation at the north end of the island, at least in the park, is much more desert type of plants, notably cacti. We set off on the tour which the literature said would take 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. It was quite interesting and very well marked and laid out. We came first to a cactus observatory point where the signage described the common cacti seen on Bonaire. The path led from there to a well that had been dug by two people and it must have been one heck of a job to do it. It was about 15 ft in diameter and probably 40 feet deep. It had been a usable well until the late 60's but a severe drought left is arid and it has remained that way ever since. After following a small cliff line we came to a fence that had been constructed when the land was part of a plantation. The sign described how it had been built by 16 men using hard labour only. It is built of coral blocks and was used to keep the animals on the plantation.

Next stop was another well, slightly smaller and constructed to take advantage of the rain rather than getting the water from underground.

The path between all of these sites was over limestone that was extremely hard on our sandals and quite difficult to walk on but it also showed a great deal of industry as it was marked with rocks over all of the flat portions.

We then reached the ocean where we saw an incredibly impressive blowhole. You can see it on the video so suffice to say it is formed by the action of the waves which along this portion of the coast are very strong and very consistent.

We were then on the homeward leg and although there was supposed to be a flamingo observation post on the way, it was so far away from the lake that we could see nothing so we headed back to the entrance. Before we left we visited a small but quite well done museum where we found out some interesting factoids about some of the animals and birds of Bonaire, including lizards, iguanas, flamingoes and I can't remember what else. One that stood out for me was about the lizards - do you know that when lizards feel really threatened, they can dislodge/throw off their tales. The really weird part of this is they do this because the discarded tail LIES THERE AND WIGGLES so it distracts whatever is threatening the lizard and they can get away. Who woulda thunk it!! They can then grow the tail back but they can't discard the second tail. We can only hope they learned their lesson on where not to go the first time!!

Since the agenda up to that time had taken a lot more time than we thought it would, we had to head back and turn the car in so we couldn't visit Rincon. Oh well, other days, other visits.

The answer to the road sign question is slow down speed bump as some of you guessed. Speed bumps here, however, are huge. They extend completely across the road, are as high as the curbs and are probably one compact car in length. So you definitely have to slow down for them.

A Little Bit About Bonaire

**Bon Bini. Kon ta bei?** (see below)

Just thought we would give you some information about Bonaire. It has about 40,000 people on an island covering 10 sq miles (some of the Dutch people around Fort Macleod have bigger farms than that!!). There are 4 languages spoken here - Dutch, Spanish, English and Papiamento (a mix of mostly African and Spanish. The theory being it came from the pidgin used with the African slaves which was a mixture of Portuguese and African dialects). The island was under the governance of Curacao but has been working to become independently part of the Dutch governance. I think if was supposed to take place in July 2007 but now is scheduled for early 2009.

The main industry here used to be salt with fishing and tourism supplementing this. I would guess now that tourism has taken over quite a bit of the island money making. Bonaire is probably the dive capital of certainly the Caribbean and would probably give most other places a run for their money. Dive spots are all around the island as well as around Klein Bonaire, the small island that lies about 200 yards from the main island. There are 65 named dives on Bonaire and another 27 on Klein Bonaire. I believe that all of the spots on the main island can be reached by road, which is how most dive shops operate. It is said that although there may be more beautiful dives in other places in the world, Bonaire has the most consistenly good diving anywhere.

One aspect of Bonaire that stands out is the absolute focus on the environment. Anchoring is not allowed in order to keep the coral reefs as damage free as possible. They have started a recycle program and everywhere you look there are reminders that we are responsible for keeping our environment clean and safe. I noticed a sign the other day that said (I paraphrase) - congratulations to countries like USA and Canada that have battery disposal facilities - since we in Bonaire cannot afford these facilities yet, could you please ensure you take your batteries with you back to your countries for proper disposal and help keep Bonaire clean.This is also one of the cleanest islands we have been on as far as garbage on the roadsides and in the streets.

As in Curacao, the houses are brightly painted with all the colours of the rainbow. Unlike Curacao it extends into the countrysides and in the houses in the town. Overall a cheerful feeling place.

We have done some exploring and expect to do more. There is a park and village on the north end of the island that are both apparently worth seeing. the village, Rincon, contains buildings that were built by the original island inhabitants. The park has points of interest that I won't go into now as we will likely blog about it when we have been there.

The storm (Omar) that struck while we were in Curacao did quite a bit of damage along the waterfront. You can look on Youtube under Bonaire storm. It has some good pictures. Meanwhile people are being very industrious in repairing the damage so it will not be long before things are back to normal. The "noisy" bar that was wrecked is already back in business full bore and the marina has a couple of boats parked there even though the docks haven't been fixed yet.

This is a bit of a short blog but I promise when we get back from our tour you will see more. For those of you who have been asking for more videos, we will do some more but we kind of like to save that for the more exciting moments because it is usually difficult to get the videos to download with the wifi hook-ups we have. We will try!!

Quiz for the day - what does this street sign mean?

**Welcome. How are you?**

Bonaire at Last

So, Cheryl got us to Customs and Immigration in Curacao. They were very accommodating and we went through with no problem. Next morning, Tuesday, we were able to leave with only the minor problem of the anchor chain jamming in the chute that directs it below decks. The skies were fairly clear but there were lots of clouds on the horizon so we knew we might run into some weather.

Our first objective was to clear the south end of Curacao. We had considered sailing down to Klein Curacao the evening before so that we would start off further south and maybe get away with one beat from southwest to northeast. The wind had originally been forecast to be from the east and of course Bonaire is pretty well straight east of Curacao so we were looking for some way to get at least some wind into our sails. After checking the forecast last thing Tuesday we found it indicated that the wind might be from the ENE so we decided that leaving from Klein Curacao would likely put us directly into that.

It turned out that what seemed the longest part of the trip was down the west coast of Curacao. Of course in real time that was not the case but we thought we would never get around the end. We had thought since we were sailing southeast we would get some beam wind but it was not to be. By tacking and bearing off the wind somewhat we were finally able to clear the island at which point we set a course for the north end of Curacao (no ENE – straight east wind). Although we had pretty good wind, we of course found ourselves eventually being pushed further north than we wanted to go so it was tacking time. I won’t go into a lot of detail about the rest of the day except to say that we were again joined by a pod of dolphins, this time a much bigger pod. Since the weather and the seas were acting up we were not able to get any pictures and the video we took would likely make weaker stomachs somewhat nauseous so you won’t get to see what we saw which is unfortunate. There were 12-14 dolphins in this pod, including babies only about 2 1/2 ft long. This time they also did a lot of leaping right out of the water, perhaps because the wind chop was churning up lots of froth. Sorry but any time you want to join us, you are welcome to see your own dolphin pod!!!

To make a long story shorter, we finally arrived at Bonaire about 6:15 PM. Sunset was at 6:30 so we had 15 minutes to find a mooring and get hooked up. Although we knew there were 40 double moorings along the coast, we didn’t realize that they were not all in good repair. The good ones have two lines coming up from 6 ton blocks. Both lines are attached to floats which in turn have lines coming from the other side of the float that you lift with a boat hook and attach to the boat lines. The reality is that some of the moorings only have one float and line, others one float and two lines, others two lines with no floats and in our case two floats with no lines. If we had known how they were laid out, we would not have made the mistake we did.

In previous moorings we have tied up to, when there is a float with no line attached, you catch the metal loop on top of the float with your boat hook and the line then comes up out of the float. No problem. Well, when we saw two floats, both with loops on top, I assumed this is what we needed to do. NOT!! I put the boat hook into the loop and tried to pull it up and guess what happened – nothing – except that the boat was still drifting, I couldn’t unhook the boat hook, and I couldn’t stop the boat using just my arm strength on an 8 ft very slippery pole. Result – boat hook in the sea, boat not attached to the mooring and it is getting darker. Of course the boat is still moving and the underwater mooring lines are now under the boat. Next thing we knew, the mooring lines had caught on the prop and there was much clunking and banging under the boat. Cheryl was very quick to go to neutral (thank goodness) but now we had no way to power the boat and darkness was nigh! I grabbed my mask and jumped over the side and luckily was able to unwrap the mooring lines from the prop without having to take a knife to them, even though they were pretty thoroughly wrapped. While I was doing this Cheryl was putting the swim ladder over the side so I could get back on board.

Once we had power again, rather than look for moorings that had everything they were supposed to have (none in close proximity but we couldn’t really see that well by then), we decided to go to the double float that was closest, even though it also didn’t have a connect rope on its floats. I hopped in the water and Cheryl passed me down our lines, one on each side of the bow, and I connected them to the two floats so we could settle in for the night.

By the way, the water was wonderful – just what I needed after sailing all day!!!

Next day we moved over to another mooring. This one only had one mooring line but I dove down with another line and attached it to the 6 ton block so here we sit on two mooring lines, snug as an eel in its hole. The water along the coast is 10 to 30 ft deep until about 75 meters from shore when it drops off to 120 to 150 ft. Our boat is moored with the front over the shallow part and the stern over the deep part and it is so neat. The water is incredibly clear so we can really see the delineation where it starts to go deep. When I dove down to attach the line to the block, there were about 10 different species of fish ranging in size from 4 inches to about 4 ft feeding off the algae and plankton that is on the blocks. We can look over the side any time and clearly see fishes swimming around the boat. Randy, you could aim your fishing hook at them!!!

Wednesday we cleared into Customs and Immigration. They were very friendly people and I am sure we are going to enjoy our time here. The map of Bonaire shows all the dive spots around Bonaire and Klein (little) Bonaire and there are so many it looks like a necklace on the map. A favourite way of diving here is to load your gear and tanks on a truck and drive around the shore road. All the dive spots are signed on the road so you just get out, walk in, swim to the drop-off and Bob’s your uncle. More about all this later.

THE VIEW FROM MYSTIC JOURNEY

Sightseeing in Curacao

We have had the opportunity to do some sightseeing while here on Curacao. We spent a couple of days in Willemstad, the capital, and then rented a car for the day and drove to the west end of the island to check out the villa where we are going to spend Christmas with Rob and hopefully the Perry's.

A bit of history first. Curacao was 'discovered' by the Spaniards in 1499 and taken over by the Dutch in 1634. It was well established as a slave trading post in the 17th and 18th centuries. Fort Amsterdam was built in 1635 and Willemstad, a city walled on 3 sides, built up north of the fort. Curacao is a rich cultural mixture of Dutch, Spanish and West-African. The local language, Papiamentu, is one of the best developed Creole languages in the Caribbean. The architecture of the island also blends European style with Caribbean exuberance and climatic needs.

We did a walking tour of the city's historical buildings. The main part of Willemstad is called the Punda which is Papiamentu for the Point. The other side of St. Anna Bay is Otrobanda or 'other side'. The majority of the buildings were erected in the 17 and 1800's. The outside construction is stucco painted in vibrant colours with white trim and red tile roofs.

There are two markets in the Punda. The Central Market which was just stalls of merchandise whenever we were there. No produce or fish etc. The floating market, which from the street just looks like regular market stalls, consists of boats which come up from Venezuela on a daily basis with fresh fruit and veggies.

The Floating Market from the Waterside

The Floating Market from the Streetside

The day we rented the car we headed out to West Punt the western end of the island. Driving through the country side was reminiscent of Southern Ontario as far as vegetation goes until you saw the big 'clumps' of tall cacti. Definitely an arid landscape which is green right now because of the rainy season. We left the main road and headed for Santa Martha where the villa is situated.

Shortly after leaving the main road, at Jan Kok, I noticed a large area of shallow water and almost at the same time Griff noticed a sign that said Flamingo Observation Area. We stopped the car and walked back to the observation platform. Sure enough there were flamingos in the distance - very pink with long necks and legs and the curved beaks that made them good as crochet mallets in ‘Alice in Wonderland’. After taking a few pictures we continued on our way to Soto. We noticed a small sign at an intersection that said Santa Martha Bay and Sunset Waters Resort which was what we were looking for. Off we went down what was indicated on the map as a secondary road. The fellow at the car rental place had warned us that the road we would be on was very steep and twisty. Twisty it was, but no worse than some of the back roads in the mountains and definitely not as steep.

Finally we arrived at the resort. We asked at the resort’s office were we could find ‘Lucy’s Place’, the place we will be staying at. They told us where it was and off exploring we went. The beach area was closed due to damage from the storm (Omar) that we had experienced a couple of days previously. There was little sand on the beach and a lot of coral debris washed on shore and up over the road. We talked with a fellow in the dive shop and he said they hadn’t had a storm with such damage for over 20 years. Here’s hoping it’s at least another 20 years until the next one.

We could see ‘Lucy’s Place’ on the cliff overlooking the lagoon/bay and the place we could anchor the boat below. We stopped at the villa on our way back. It has an average sized yard and a patio overlooking the bay. The area was fenced and the gate locked so we could not look any closer.

Just before returning to Soto we passed the Landshuis St. Martha. This is an old plantation house and land that is now a ‘museum’. There are a lot of these sites throughout the island. They have all been restored to show what life was like when they were built 300 years ago. Unlike plantations in the other parts of the Caribbean these were not primarily for sugar cane, but were basically mixed farming and stations for the slave trade. Now the one at St. Martha is a sheltered workshop for the mentally handicapped. They work the farm and build and restore wooden furniture and baskets.

From there we headed back to Spanish Waters passing a small wind farm along the eastern coast of the island.

The day before we left the island, when we went to Customs and Immigration to check out, we did a little more exploring of Willemstad. We went to the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue and the Kura Hulanda Area. The synagogue has the record of the Jewish community on the island. The congregation has been here since 1675 and the synagogue, built in 1730, is the oldest in the western hemisphere. The Kura Hulanda Area is located in the Otrobanda. A kura originally was a residential area with a house in the middle surrounded by outbuildings and a wall. The Kura Hulanda is now a museum, hotel and little shops and cafes. The museum is dedicated to the history of the slave trade and African art and culture. Because of time restraints we could not spend as much time here as we would have liked. We plan on returning in December and maybe then we can do a more complete blog on the history of slavery on the island.