We then headed back to Grenada - great excitement, out daughter Clare and Jamie were coming to spend a couple of weeks with us.
We retraced our steps with them back up to Bequia, stopping at Carriacou and Sandy Island where we have d possibly the best snorkelling to date - the area is a National Marine Park and there is a small shallow coral reef which is literally teeming with fish.
Sandy Island, above the water - there's nothing there apart from a few palm trees and piles of coral. We used a Park mooring buoy and spent a very peaceful night there.
Carriacou - the rocks are called The Sisters, we did a couple of dives there - the Dive Centre owner joked that he'd give us a refund if we didn't see 200 types of fish, he must have won the bet in the first 10 minutes!
Underwater, Carriacou with Clare and Jamie.
We then headed on to Union Island, not a place we'd enjoyed previously but a place we needed to check into in order to clear customs. It had not improved! We had arranged to meet up with Steve and Lynne from Aztec Dream - Lynne's brother Phil was also visiting and we had planned to celebrate his 50th in Tobago Cays but the forecast was not suitable. Instead we headed on to Bequia - not a great distance, but certainly one of the most unpleasant beats into a 30kt headwind we've experienced for a long time!
Bequia was as lovely as ever, and we had great birthday evening with Phil, Steve and Lynne at the Plantation Restaurant in Admiralty Bay. Bequia was also where we had learnt to SCUBA at the begining of the year, so we felt the need to revisit old haunts with Clare and Jamie.
Our next destination was Tobago Cays - by now we were worrying that we had 'oversold' the charms of the Cays, but fortunately it lived up to expectation.
Clare and one of the many Tobago Cays turtles
Feeding bread to Trunkfish
Don't be fooled by their cuteness - they bite! as Jamie found out ... no medical assistance required, it was rather more of a surprise than an injury.
Tobago Cays - a lovely Caribbean paradise.
Having failed to get here for Phil's birthday, we decided to have the traditional lobster BBQ anyway.
Lobster BBQ with Aztec Dream and the birthday boy.
Back to the boats by water taxi - certainly not the sort of journey we'd like to undertake in the portabote in pitch dark!
Two weeks with Clare and Jamie passed in a flash, and it was time for us to head back to Grenada, this time to Port Louis Marina where we were leaving Nautilus for two weeks to fly back to the UK for a very brief visit. It actually rained less in the UK than it had been in the Caribbean and once we'd found some appropriate UK winter clothing the temperature change was not an issue.
It was lovely to catch up with family and friends in the UK, but again the two weeks passed incredibly quickly and it was time to head back to the airport, back to the boat and straight to Bonaire where our other daughter Leonie and Greg were due to join us. They live in New Zealand and we'd not seen Leonie for two years so we were really looking forward to spending time with them and geting to know Greg.
When we arranged to meet Leonie and Greg in Bonaire we actually knew very little about the island - but we now know Bonaire really is just a rock surrounded by SCUBA sites. The coastline is surrounded by a Marine Park, anchoring is prohibited in order to preserve the coral, there are plenty of buoys available for a $10 fee per night and the fee includes the use of any of the 100 dive site moorings around the island.
The Marine Park guide map of Bonaire - showing the dive sites along the western coast.
Our mooring - right on the edge of the reef, a stunning locatio, and right next to a bar that just happened to have Mojito's.
Celebrating their arrival with a welcome Mojito
Even the almost daily appearance of Cruise Ships didn't spoil the view.
We hired a car for a couple of days to look round the island
One of the relatively few beaches at a site called '1000 Steps' - there are only about 30, but it feels like 1000 on your way back up with your SCUBA kit on your back!
Gotomeer - a saltwater lagoon on the edge of the Washington Slagbaai National Park
One of the many flamingos in the saltwater lagoon.
Inside the National Park on the North coast of Bonaire - the Seru Grandi, a rock terrace apparently about 1 million years old caused by the rise and fall of sea level. A very barren area.
The Seru Grandi, looking North - just as desolate!
Boka Kokolishi, one of the very few sandy bays on the North coast - just don't swim too far out!
North Coast - you would not want to be anywhere near this area in a yacht.
Heading on through the park to the North West coat the landscape became greener, and there were spectacular cacti trees.
It looked like something out of the wild west.
Our drive to the South of the island took us to the vast Solar Salt Works - a huge area of shallow salt water pans and absolutely huge piles of crisp white salt ready for loading onto ships when the price is right.
The Solar Salt Works
One of the salt pans - the pink colour is algae in the water, which is apparently also the reason for all the froth being blown across the water.
Flamingoes hunting for shrimp in the salt pans.
The White Slave Huts
The salt works were originally manned by slaves - these huts used to house about 10 slaves, they stayed here during the working season, and then walked the 13 or so miles back to the town of Rincon where they lived with their families.
The Orange Slave Huts - the colour denotes the quality of the salt produced at that particular location, and white, orange, red and blue obelisks (the colours of the Dutch flag) were constructed to guide ships to the particular salt they had contracted to buy.
Like much of Bonaire's coast, this area is very exposed and extremely unforgiving. The collection of salt must have been a risky business back in the early days. It's certainly easier now - there is a huge pier extending out to sea for the modern salt cargo ship!
The southern tip of Bonaire is very low lying, you almost hear the waves breaking before you see the land so the Willamstoren Lighthouse certainly must have saved a few sailors in its time!
Naturally having come to the Diving Mecca of the Caribbean, we spent a lot of time underwater. The coral reefs are fantastic.
Leonie and Greg join us under water.
Some of the corals you can see.
A blue spot Cornetfish surrounded by Blue Tang.
It's like an underwater garden.
A Peacock Flounder and a Puffer fish.
Right under the yacht, an octopus out for a stroll!
We now have to go to Curacao to drop Leonie and Greg off for their flights, but we plan to return very soon, not only to do some more diving, but to see some more of the magnificent Iguanas that can be seen on much of the island.
Who needs to visit the Galápagos Islands when they've been to Bonaire!
