Bon Bini to Bonaire

Hi everyone! Just dropping a line to let you know we’ve arrived safe and sound to our new destination: Bonaire!

We ended up having the winds in our favour for our short sail (about 44 nautical miles). Usually, the wind is coming from dead east, so “sailing” from Curaçao to Bonaire into the wind is pretty much not an option. The solution is to use the good old handy motor to help push your boat against not only the winds, but the current and the waves as well, aka motorsailing. Today, the winds were blowing

from more of a southeast direction, which allowed us to use our main and head sails (and, yes, our motor as well) to make a direct line from the bottom of Curaçao to the 'middle' of Bonaire. We were sailing close-hauled, and the boat just LOVES this point of sail! She slices through the waves like a hot knife through butter. We were averaging between 6.5 and 7.5 knots, and it took us a pleasant 5 ½ hours to make the trip. This was really exciting for us, because in our original sail plan we thought we wouldn’t even make it before sunset. Go Panta Rhei!

Now that we’ve arrived in Bonaire, we are so excited to check out the dive sites available. Almost every site you can reach by dinghy; they are really accessible. We are staying in Harbour Village Marina for our first two weeks here – such a treat, definitely spoiling ourselves – and then we are hoping to get onto a mooring ball in the mooring field. The advantages are that on the mooring ball it’s a bit more breezy than in the marina, and it’s financially more sustainable for us to remain in Bonaire longer than if we have to pay marina fees. But don’t get me wrong, marinas are amazing, too! It’s like putting your boat in a fancy hotel. Stop reading soon if this becomes TMI (too much information), but this evening I had the first proper shower (read: not squatting in a bathing suit under a faucet, or jumping off the transom and showering in salt water) in 6 weeks! BLISS! I wanted to stay in the shower forever, but I reasoned that I must eventually leave.

That’s about it for now! We’ll be sure to update soon with pics and information about our Bonaire adventures (hopefully lots of underwater GoPro footage too). In the meantime, here’s a little Curaçao highlight reel, since we had to leave so darn quickly!

Hugs!

Toni