Back to Bonaire, with a quick visit to Klein Curacao

After a very 'un British' Christmas Dinner with Leonie and Greg, we sadly waved them off at Curacao Airport and organised ourselves for the trip back to Bonaire.  Scott and Aja who live on Bonaire flew over to join us for the sail back, with break in Klein Curacao to see what the diving was like there.   Ian worked with Scott 35 years ago in Jordan, and we had not seen each other for at least 25 years - it's been great to catch up! It was never going to be a nice sail ... as expected, we had 20kts of wind and at least 1kt of current against us - to have any hope of diving and getting back to Bonaire the same day we had no option but to motor sail.

Although the diving at Klein Curacao was perhaps not worth the effort, the island itself was very dramatic.

 

Approaching Klein Curacao with Scott and Aja

 

 Mooring at Klein Curacao, the buildings on the right are old fishermen's huts, now converted to a beach resort for day trips from Curacao.

 

Klein Curacao - a very low lying reef island, surrounded by beautiful clear water - but much of the coral had been damaged, and fish were not particularly abundant.  Not our best diving destination!

Although low lying, the lee shore was beautifully sheltered and calm - as we went round onto the windward side we reaslised just how sheltered we had been.

 

The Lighthouse - essential aid to night navigation for those with out the modern GPS Chartplotters 

 

This side of the island was littered with wrecks - the lighthouse was clearly not enough!

 

Our final view of the Klein Curacao Lighthouse, with Curacao visible in the distance 

We have now done 20 dives on Bonaire - Scott and Aja came with us on Nautilus a couple of times to dive on Klein Bonaire, and they took us to many of their favourite shore dives on Bonaire.  Diving here really is just so easy - all the sites are well marked, on land you just park, put your kit on and walk into the sea.  A short swim later you are over the reef.  Diving off the yacht is even less effort - take the boat to a mooring buoy and jump off the back.

 

A Burfish swimming under the yacht.

 

They are very inquisitive - he's coming in for a look at us.

 

Ian has made a new friend.

 

Yellowtail Snapper

 

Queen Parrotfish

 

The Reef

 

 

The weird and wonderful shapes of coral and sponges

In common with the other Caribbean islands we have visited, Bonaire has been invaded by the Pacific Lionfish which has no natural predators in these waters, breeds prolifically and hunts voraciously on the reef cleaning fish.  Left unchecked, experts believe that these undeniably beautiful fish will seriously damage or kill the coral.  Despite it being a Marine Reserve with no spear fishing, locals are encouraged to work at eradicating the Lion Fish, Scott and Aja are registered as official Lion Fish Hunters - we watched them at work.

 

Aja is holding her ELF (Eliminator of Lion Fish) and about to make a kill.

 

Scott has one on his ELF, and is about to put it in his 'Zookeeper', a plastic tube with a one way valve at the entrance.  Lion Fish have toxic spines and even after they are dead can still deliver a painful sting so must be safely transported.  

 

Aja filleting the catch on the back of  Nautilus - they are excellent to eat and are sold to local restaurants.

When we first arrived here from Grenada at the beginning of December we were caught in a particularly wet and windy squall in the middle of the night - in the midst of reeling sails and generally managing the yacht in the squall, our chart plotter and instruments started flashing up error messages and the electronic auto pilot failed.  We rarely use it, as we have the mechanical Hydrovane self steering, but these things can't be ignored.  When we got to Bonaire we were assisted by Rick from Duplicat in identifying the problem and a spare part was ordered which duly arrived.  When we went to fit the new part, it became apparent that the fault did not lie where we thought, instead it was an allegedly waterproof electrical connection box that we had had professionally fitted in the UK.  It was full of water and sludge - it looked as if it had been wet for some time!

 

We now have a new, much more waterproof box - fitted by Ian - and things are all working again at the moment.  Long may it last.

Our time in Bonaire has now really come to an end and we plan to head to Curacao for a (hopefully quick and uneventful) rig check tomorrow, and then on to Santa Marta where we have signed up to do a 5 day hike to the Lost City of Teyuna - sleeping in hammocks for 4 nights.  We are hoping that our friends Steve and Lynne on Aztec Dream who have been beset by mechanical and technical issues will get their boat sorted and get back to some proper sailing so we can meet up again in Santa Marta and head on to Panama together.