Sunday 10 August 2014

23/2014 Fun in the Water

Hi from Clare,                           Saturday 9th August 2014

We have enjoyed another busy week in sunny Bonaire. I have photographed the map of the island so you can see the number of dive sites along the west coast. We are on a mooring ball between the small island of Klein Bonaire and the main town of Kralendijk marked orange on the map. Sometimes we dive from the dinghy and sometimes we take Eye Candy to a dive site. However yesterday whilst still on our regular mooring we dived just off the back of the yacht. It doesn't seem to matter which we do, all the dive sites are wonderful. We found numerous fish and extensive coral directly under the boat. It is like swimming in a garden and the fish are having a lovely time darting in and out of the coral.
Bonaire Dive Sites
Martin & Ellen Picking up the dive mooring on Eye Candy
The garden behind our boat


WE COME UP FOR AIR SOMETIMES
We go to happy hour and hamburgers ever Wednesday night at the village marina. The cruising community books a large table so we can sit together. It's a great way to keep in touch. However it pays to get there early as the volume increases along with the crowd and by the end of the night we are all nearly shouting to be heard.
Cruisers at Happy hour
Village Marina Bar



Last night we joined Canadian friends Maria and Maurice at the lovely bayside restaurant "It Rains Fishes" for a very tasty fish dinner. We had a front row table to watch the sunset across the bay. Maria was celebrating the completion of her Open Water Certificate for diving. She was very excited and plans to hit the dive shops today to purchase all the necessary gear to enjoy diving here and beyond in the Pacific.
Maria and Clare at It Rains Fishes

Andrew and Maurice at It Rains Fishes

EXPERIENCE BONAIRE
Jibe City is a very relaxed and laid back windsurf center at Sorobon Beach in Lac Bay on the east coast of Bonaire. The warm waist deep water is ideal for windsurfing and perfect for beginners. At the same time it provides ideal conditions for perfecting jibes and freestyle maneuvers. We had lunch with Martin and Ellen in the Hang Out Beach Bar and watched the young perform. In June this year the Freestyle World Championship were held here - what a sight that would have been.
Windsurfers in action
The Hangout Beach Bar with Martin and Ellen
A collection of thongs at the front gate
Jibe City

SO WHAT'S NEXT
We have arranged to sail to Curacao on 24th August to have the rigging replaced which is required by our insurance company after ten years. Our ten years is up in July 2015 and by then we plan to be in the middle of the Pacific, so now's the time. We expect this will take a few days and then we will return to Bonaire for more fun in the water.

Love Candy xx

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