As Long As The Signal Lasts......

By Bob

Heading west to Columbia on the way to Panama meant a stop at the middle island in the ABC group of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. As usual something necessary had stopped working on the boat. Actually 2 things were on the fritz.  The watermaker doesn't desalinate quite enough, and our depth and speed instruments have gone incognito. So we came here hoping for solutions from a couple of trained technicians who turned out to be the same guy, and who in the end couldn't help us with either problem, but that's another story...

Klein Curaçao

Our travels have recently taken us to Bonaire and Curaçao, and interestingly both have smaller islands nearby, named after them, Klein Bonaire and Klein Curaçao, klein means small in Dutch. Both of the smaller islands have no permanent residents (Klein Bonaire doesn't even have any buildings on it) and both are ringed by beautiful clear water and colorful reefs. Klein Bonaire is only a half mile off of Bonaire at its closest point making it very accessible for quick trips over for diving and snorkeling. Klein Curaçao is further away from Curacao so the trip there is not as easy, it is about a three hour sail, or 1 1/2 - 2 hour trip for the tour boats from Curaçao.

Bonaire, take two

You can't go home again.
No matter how much you love a place, if you return to it, it will be different. Last year we spent almost four months in Bonaire and had a wonderful time. The friends we made there, the diving, snorkeling and swimming, the land trips, the cultural events. All wonderful.

Returning this year was different, not better or worse, just different.

Octopus love

Rattle, rattle rattle!
Rattle, rattle rattle!

I hear the underwater noisemaker being shaken.

Passage to Bonaire

Dolphins!
Bob calls down to me. I am down in the front berth trying to get some sleep. It is amazing how quickly I appeared on deck! Bob is up in the bow of the boat watching the dolphins. As I come up the companionway I see two dolphins jumping completely out of the water behind the boat. In my mind I think that they are jumping for joy because they have found a boat to play with!

Camp Grenada

There is a reason the cruising community calls it "Camp Grenada", there are so many activities to do and people to meet.

We're Ba-a-a-ck

Back in Grenada.
Back to Rhapsody.
Spending some hot and sticky time in the boatyard.

Heading Home

What a trip.
2 months, 14 states and the District of Columbia, 6000 miles
Lots of friends and family. Lots of exploring.

Grand Teton vs Yellowstone

Traveling west.
Beauty everywhere.

We visited both Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

What's your uniform?

Entering South Dakota we were greeted by a large poster advertising Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The dates were inclusive of the time we were to be in South Dakota.  Bob said he didn't realize it was going on now. I had no idea what it was, although I soon learned! The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is an annual event attracting motorcycle riders from around the world. This year the numbers were tallied at 500,000 riders. It seems we saw a good portion of those riders in our travels through South Dakota and Wyoming.

A Close Encounter with Devil's Tower

How many of us of a certain age can see this image 

and not hum those specific 5 notes ba - da - ba - da - baa (click to hear them)?

Spectacular South Dakota

South Dakota has so much to offer to tourists. We experienced a lot, but in the end it was all about the animals.

Pleasant Iowa

What did you do today?
Iowa.
It was a nice day.
 With lots of corn.

Rhapsody on the Brown

Rhapsody, our home on the water, is no longer in the water. It is always odd to see her out of her element. Increasingly we are finding that we too feel slightly out of our element when we return to land. We have grown so accustomed to the gentle roll of the ocean that we find ourselves missing it when Rhapsody is on the hard.

Turtles!

Seeing animals up close and personal in the wild is something that I never tire of. We had the chance to see leatherback turtles laying eggs and I feel very lucky.

Cutty's Tour again

Some things in life are so enriching that you can repeat the experience and still have more to gain. Taking a tour of Grenada with Cutty (Cuthbert MacMeo) is one of those experiences. We took a tour last year with him and learned an incredible amount about the flora and fauna and history of Grenada. There was so much information it took two blog posts to write about it. ( Check them out here and here ).

Mt. Pelee

We are hearing the reports of Kilauea erupting in Hawaii as we are getting ready to hike up Mt. Pelée in Martinique.  Pelée is famous for its 1902 eruption which left only two survivors in its direct path, one of whom was a prisoner in a well insulated jail cell, approximately 30,000 people died in the eruption.

Luxury Yacht? (Part deux)

A quick recap of part one, No propane, Have to go to Dominica,  Anchor, It's a holiday, No sleep, Head to Roseau, Big winds, Mooring Ball. The extended version is here in case you missed it.

Continuing with the story...

Luxury yacht? (Part one)

I received an email today inviting me on a Luxury Yacht for Mother's Day with complimentary mimosas and snacks. This arrived in my inbox on a particularly non luxurious day, let me tell you the details!

Free to explore

For the time being we have finished our waiting, repairs and upgrades and we are on our own to explore. It is very liberating and we are enjoying the freedom. Diving and hiking in Guadeloupe, both on the main island and in Iles des Saintes, the group of islands at the most southern point of Guadeloupe.

Expectations vs Reality

Yes, I know that a cruisers plans are written in sand during low tide. I understand the need to be flexible, but I still have expectations and I still do make plans and oh, so often lately, those plans have to change. 

Exciting times, when your engine quits at sea

Excitement on a cruising boat is rarely a good thing. Having the engine quit on us was pretty exciting, and not in a good way.

BVI revisited

Where were you during the hurricanes?

Life on the slant

home

hōm/

noun

1. 1.

   the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.

Home is a place that is familiar, where you know the rules, you know the layout, you know how things work. You have expections.   Rhapsody is our home.  The sense of home is strong. The majority of the time she is at anchor or on a mooring.  She is a boat, so she moves. She rocks back and forth,  sometimes a gentle rock and other times not so gentle. While she is at anchor she rocks, but always returns to the center. We understand these rules, we feel them, we move to them, as others move to the rhythms of their homes.

Diving the Salt Pier

The diving in Bonaire is spectacular. The water clarity is great, the coral, for the most part, is doing well, and although there is a lack of larger fish and top level predators (sharks, large groupers, large barracuda) there is no shortage of things to see and critters to observe.  That being said, many of the dive sites have a great deal of similarity to each other. There are a few dive sites that truly stand out as being different, the Salt Pier is one of them.

Caving in Bonaire

"Is everyone comfortable entering here" Hans asked, showing us a very small hole in the ground and getting out his climbing rope. Hans is the founder of Outdoor Bonaire and was our guide for the morning.

Carnival Parade

After watching the children's parade last week I have learned how to watch a parade in Bonaire.

Children's Parade

Carnival n. A period of public revelry at a regular time each year.

Revelry n. lively and noisy festivities, especially when these involve drinking a large amount of alcohol. 

Most Caribbean islands have Carnival at some time during the year. This is Carnival time in Bonaire. Yesterday the main festivities got a kickoff with the Children's Parade.

An Underwater Rainbow

The diversity of life and colors in Bonaire is wonderful. I have collected some pictures showing the rainbow of colors. 

Red

Fishballs in Bonaire

We get to see many things while out on our daily swim/snorkle. One of the more dramatic incidences was seeing these fish under our friend's catamaran, Uno Mas. The smaller fish were schooling in a ball and then being attacked by first by Yellow fin Snappers, then Bar Jacks and then the  big fish, the Tarpon arrived.

Octopus!

Any day that I spot an octopus is a good day. I get great joy from watching them move and change not only the color of their skin, but also the texture. Often when we are diving or snorkeling, especially in the day, and we spot an octopus we just barely see a glimpse of them in their hideouts.

Bonaire by Totem

I am going  to totally cheat here. Behan Gifford on Totem wrote such a nice post on Bonaire that I am just going to link to it, primarily because she expresses so well our experience in Bonaire.

The Sapphire of Bonaire

As a child I always dreamed of having a swimming pool nearby. At the age of 5 I wanted to take swimming lessons, but I was too young according to our local pool. My mother convinced them to let me take lessons and I have been infatuated with water ever since.

Bonaire bombards the New Year

Celebrating the New Year in Bonaire starts early. After Christmas day there is Second Christmas (December 26th),  and then the ramping up to New Year's begins. It began with a few firecrackers here and there, and the occasional firework display. Each day there were more and more. Some were benign, some were disturbing. The day before New Year's Eve we watched as several young men were hurling small bombs into the water and causing an explosion of water as they went off. It reminded me of dynamite fishing and I knew that the fish in the area were suffering.