22/2014 Settling into Bonaire

Hi from Clare,                        Sunday 3rd August 2014

OUR NEW HOME
We have now been in Bonaire for two and a half weeks and we are settling in nicely. We go diving most days and yesterday we had two dives. There are more than 100 dive sites and we are enjoying the tropical fish and colorful coral. The water temperature is around 28 degrees and the visibility is good. We run the risk of being thoroughly spoilt, but I'm sure we will cope.

Ready to go

Aquabatics?

Lion Fish

Banded Butterfly Fish

It has only rained once since we arrived and after the humidity and regular rain in Grenada it is lovely to have an uninterrupted night's sleep under an open hatch. The daily temperature is in the low thirties and the nights are warm.
This week on the mooring balls just off the main town of Kralendijk the cruising community has dropped to twelve yachts. However there are many tourists staying in holiday apartments, hotels and resorts. In Kralendijk there are also many good restaurants, bars, coffee shops and ice cream parlors. Last night we enjoyed a delicious dinner and ice cream ashore with five Dutch friends. We could only speak English but they spoke mostly English and Dutch when they forgot. They were very apologetic which of course is unnecessary. Martin and Ellen are suggesting we learn two Dutch words a day - I can just see it now, 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing' we could get ourselves into terrible trouble.

Happy hour at the Karels bar

Last week we had difficulty posting the photos on the Blog. We couldn't get two photos to sit side by side. We tried making the photos smaller but that didn't work either. You wouldn't believe how frustrating it is; let's hope we have better success this week.But if not, I apologize in advance.

EXPERIENCE BONAIRE
In 1636 the Dutch arrived in Bonaire. They imported slaves from Africa and settled them in the town of Rincon. The slaves worked on the plantations around Rincon and on salt pans on the opposite side of the island. It took ten hours to walk to the salt pans from Rincon and so the slaves built huts near the salt pans. They would occupy these huts during the week and then walked back home to Rincon for the weekend. In 1850 these huts were replaced by little stone houses as pictured. Slavery was abolished in 1863.

Salt mine

Blood pressure pills?

Slave huts

SO WHAT'S NEXT
Andrew is negotiating to have the rigging on Eye Candy checked and or replaced before venturing into the Pacific. If we receive a favorable response we will sail 30 miles to the next island of Curacao to have the work done. We will then return to Bonaire for more diving.

Love Candy xx

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com