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Idyll Island

Hard to believe that our last update was from Bonaire before Christmas! We hope that friends and family back in the Great White North survived their winter and are now seeing things warm up a bit as we head into spring. We are still having a great time out here in “de islands”. We’re back in the BVIs now, where we started almost a year ago. Here are some highlights of the past couple of months….

We had a wonderful time with Tristan in Bonaire over Christmas and New Years. He especially enjoyed the fact that they celebrate the season there with a week of firecrackers and fireworks! The display on New Year’s eve was impressive, with what seemed like all the businesses and every second household setting off a fireworks display. We sat on our boat off the waterfront for hours and enjoyed the show!

Christmas Eve dinghy carolers. They wouldn't go until they got some!

Christmas morning on Idyll Island - then we all jumped in for a swim!

Cooking up the Christmas feast - roast chicken with stuffing and all the trimmings (turkey was too big for our oven). All washed down with champagne.

And what would Christmas be without.... firecrackers! At least in Bonaire.

And what would Christmas be without.... cider! Specially imported for Cathy by Jim and Jeannie.

Tristan really enjoyed the kite boarding lesson we gave him for Christmas. According to the instructor, who has been teaching for 10 years, Tristan is the first person he has taught who was able to get up on the board with the kite and "sail" on both tacks, in a single 3 hour lesson. At one point though we could barely see our "baby" (now over 6'5"), 2 miles offshore all by himself as he tried to get up in the big waves! Tristan also did 7 scuba dives with us, including the seeing the the elusive frogfish and night diving with four foot long tarpon which brushed up against us while using our lights to hunt their prey. His flight back to Victoria started badly with a 24 hour delay in Miami due to delayed/canceled flights. He turned it around for himself though by making his case sufficiently well to American Airlines that they put him up in a 5 star hotel and then flew him all the way back to Seattle first class the next day! He is now back at Camosun College and lifeguarding at the Commonwealth Pool (he was hired just before he came down to visit us), and trying to find time (and snow!) to do some snowboarding. He's a busy boy and we are very proud of how he is making his way.

Ground (beach) school

Ready to launch....

.... and there he goes!

Tristan and friend. Iguana soup was on the menu.

New Years Eve day - out for a sail and scuba dive.

New Year's Eve visit to our friend Richard's Restaurant.

The beach bar at Lac, Bonaire, windsurfing mecca. We just came for the excellent sandwiches and beer!

So long to Bonaire and its flamingos.

We had a great sail from Bonaire to Puerto Rico. 402 nautical miles (about 700 km) in 60 hours. First 2 days were close hauled into 15-20 knot winds with 8-10' seas. Bumpy, noisy and wet, though the boat felt solid and was very well behaved. We still did 7-8 knots, though we slowed down at night with a double reefed main and genoa. For the last 12 hours we were able to sail a bit more off the wind (50-60 apparent) and the seas were down to 4-5', so we blasted along at 9-10+ knots. And we caught 3 small tuna on the way - the largest was about 12 lbs. Great sashimi! There were a couple of larger whales spouting at several points during the trip. The 4 hour night watches seemed to work out quite well for us and we arrived healthy and happy.

Land fall was in Ponce (after Ponce de Leon - a lovely old city), about 1/2 way along the south coast of Puerto Rico. Highlight was Sunday evening on the malecon (boardwalk), with music playing, young and old couples dancing to the salsa beat, kids scooting around on their scooters, families with babies in strollers, tasty little food stands (love the octopus empandillas!), all in the warm tropical night. A very Latin scene. Then we sailed eastward to Salinas - a very laid back little seaside town in a big mangrove lined bay. Some nice houses and a few restaurants carved out of the mangroves along the waters edge. Everyone there was very friendly and helpful. Highlights here though were the massive manatees moving slowly up and down, feeding in the green mangrove water. One surfaced right beside the dinghy and we could have touched it, but of course one doesn’t touch the wildlife, and it also had rather scratchy barnacles growing on its back!

Anchorage at Salinas, Puerto Rico.

While in Puerto Rico we met Peter, Kirsten and their 6 year old son, Alden, on the yacht “Charlotte” out of Seattle, and Geoff and Ruth on their Prout 37 catamaran, “Geru” from Ottawa. We spent several pleasant days and sundowners over the next few weeks with these new cruising friends before they headed “down island” to keep to their schedules. Our car tour of the west end of PR to the spectacular surfing beaches and the fearsome Mona Passage (strikes fear in the heart of the most seasoned sailors) proved to be tame indeed – absolutely mirror calm in fact.

We spent a couple of days on the island of Vieques, one of the Spanish Virgins Islands, where unexpectedly we met up with our friends Dick and Jane on Cheetah II, whom we hadn’t seen since Grenada last September. We had a good walking tour with them of the historic little town of Isabella Segunda, the fort and lighthouse, before we headed toward the BVIs to get our bottoms painted (the boat's). The folks at Voyage Charters in Sopers Hole seemed happy to see us. Robin Downing and his crew were very helpful getting us started a year ago and once again provided us with good service at a fair price.

Out she comes!

On our way to Sopers we contacted our friends Bruce and Laura on “Amaryllis”, whom we also hadn’t seen since Grenada. Turned out they were in Sopers themselves and immediately on hearing that our boat was going to be out of the water for bottom work, they invited us to stay aboard their boat. Good friends! We had a great time catching up with them enjoying Laura’s great cooking and an island tour. Along with Bruce and Laura, we (well, Cathy) got into the evening walking routine and 3x weekly early morning yoga sessions on a spectacular beach terrace. And once our boat was back in the water, new friends Ric and Ann on Sand Castle, lent us their mooring for a week while they were out on charter (a few bottles of thank you wine being much cheaper than the $25 per night cost of a mooring - much appreciated!).

On February 17^th, the long awaited day came when our cousins Neil and Christine from Victoria arrived. We met them at the airport at Trellis Bay and dinghied them out to Idyll Island. The following 2 weeks were great fun, though some of the memories are a bit hazy! Throwing caution to the wind we rendezvoused with Russell and Jane on Ta-B, a Kiwi and a Brit, respectively. Our cousin Christine, also being a Kiwi and a bit of a mad one at that (perhaps a redundant adjective), some crazy times of snorkeling, hiking, dining, partying and dancing ensued! After a few days, we decided we should show Neil and Christine a bit more of the BVIs than the Bight on Norman Island, so said “so long” to Jane and Russell and headed for Little Jost Van Dyke, where we spent a couple of peaceful nights. Days were filled by snorkeling and beach walks and just chillin’. We then made our way to one of our favourite spots in the BVIs, Eustatia Island in the North Sound of Virgin Gorda. We had it all to ourselves the first night, and for most of the next day until our peace was shattered once again by Russell and Jane who came tootling around in their dinghy from where they were anchored around the corner. Not so much dancing this time as they had to leave for St. Martin at 4:00 am the following morning. We’ll miss them and hope that we cross paths at least once more before they head across the pond to the Mediterranean.

Russell, Jane, Christine, Neil and Cathy. Just a casual evening with a couple of bottles of wine....

And a couple of more bottles of wine..... Girls just wanna have fun!

And evidently, so do the boys! Who says guys can't poledance?

Time to kick back and relax/recover.

.

Handy having a cousin who's a doctor. Wait a minute - isn't he the guy who was poledancing, and aren't those needle nose pliers from Canadian Tire?!

We had some great snorkeling with Neil and Christine in North Sound where we anchored in splendid isolation with nothing but a reef between us and Africa. The only disappointment was not being able to snag a couple of the many lobsters we found while snorkeling. Derek’s technique definitely needs refinement – persistence is not enough!

So after a visit exploring the famous Baths of Virgin Gorda, it was time to make our way back to Trellis Bay to put Neil and Christine on their flight home looking much more tanned and hopefully a bit more relaxed than when they arrived. Now we are looking forward to Cathy’s brother, Jon’s, visit, followed by Rupert and his family for the month of April.

Where is Bonaire, anyway?

Jane and Russell of Ta-B, on their way to Curacao. See ya later!

Alex, hero of hurricane Omar, on a calmer day.

Richard at his restaurant. Dock is gone thanks to Omar, and he's still smiling!

Apres dinner with Frank and Tanja.

The crews of Idyll Island and Anemos. Good friends!

Bonaire doesn't call its airport "Flamingo International" for nothing!

Its a moray.

Off to another great dive site!

At the salt ponds.

Cruisin' in the clear blue...

One Fin Cathy!

Making friends at Washington Slagbaai National Park.

Jim, in typical underwater pose.

At the slave huts. A bit small.....

It was another great dive!

Jim and Jeannie relaxin' after a hard day's diving.

Derek and John restringing the trampolines. Not all play, even for our guests!

Not all work either....

Superman!

And another great dive!

Spanish Waters anchorage, Curacao

Cathy and Tristan relaxing at a Willemstad terrace cafe.

Floating bridge in the background

Sailing back to Bonaire

Finger pickin', good....

B&C of the ABCs

Bonaire

Here we are back in Bonaire for Christmas – with our son, Tristan! It’s been a while since out last update – like 3 months. This cruising life is a busy one - visiting with new and old friends, diving, exploring new places, figuring out where to buy even basic food and supplies, boat maintenance and even a bit of sailing.

When we left you last, we had just had a lovely downwind spinnaker sail to Bonaire from the Venezuelan offshore islands of Las Aves. Here are some of our stand-out memories of Bonaire:

• Our first 6 days diving and six nights partying with good friends, Russell and Jane of Ta-B, who stayed in Bonaire long enough for us to catch up, after having met in St. Maarten in May. Jane introduced us to
• Snorkeling along the sea wall in front of our moorings and seeing a truly amazing diversity of creatures, moray eels, soap fish, tarpon, bonefish (huge ones cruising along where you’re not allowed to cast a fly!), stonefish, eagle rays, sting rays, permit, little damsel fish aggressively guarding their algae gardens, sergeant majors guarding their purple egg masses, tiny little blennies hiding in holes in brain coral, colourful little crabs, peacock flounder, goat fish, hog fish, many types of parrot fish, even fish fish.
• Waking up at 1:00 am as the wind starts to blow at 35 knots from the west, turning our protected mooring into an exposed lee shore, with our stern hanging 50 metres from the beach where the surf is crashing in. Sitting for 3 hours at the wheel with engines running in case the mooring lines break and we have to get outta there.
• Cathy taking the “kick-off” to the Bonaire Regatta a bit too literally and breaking her foot when she went off an unseen curb – before having even a single a rum punch! Only discovering her foot was broken after 4 days of pain and then the old school Dutch doctor who put her into a huge rough plaster cast. “Don’t get it wet, and we’ll have a look in 6 weeks to see how it’s healed”. Right.
• Taking Idyll Island into the marina to shelter from the approaching hurricane Omar and as the lovely woman from the neighbouring boat who took our lines saw Cathy’s foot in a cast, she told us her name was Tanja and her husband Frank was an orthopedic surgeon! Turns out Tanja is a physiotherapist. We became great friends with them and their two boys, Vincent and Joshua, who make up the crew of “Anemos”. Frank provided a modern, professional second opinion on the treatment for Cathy’s foot and the cast was off after only a week (not without some difficult moments with the old Dutch doctor back at the hospital!). Between Frank and Tanja, they had Cathy walking, snorkeling and diving (with one fin!) within a couple of weeks. Derek and Frank got out diving half a dozen times and we had some good snorkels with the whole crew and many fun evenings with lots of laughter.
• Alex, the dock manager at Harbour Village Marina, working from dawn to well after dark to get every boat into their protected moorage the day before Omar hit. Always cheerful, always professional.
• Meeting Richard of Richard’s Restaurant here on Bonaire, who when we showed up to return the key to his truck which he had lent to Russel and Jane, said, “Keep it – use the truck whenever you want.”! And that was just the beginning, he went waaay beyond that with his hospitality. We’ll never forget the night of hurricane Omar when he showed up on the dock at the marina, absolutely soaked in the driving rain to tell us that we couldn’t come down to his place by dinghy to get the truck the next day (so Cathy could go to the hospital to get her cast off!), because Omar had completely destroyed his dock and he would be at the marina to pick us up in the morning! And, he had a bag of fresh baquettes for us. Cathy named him Prince Richard.
• Meeting up with the crew of Tyee III; John, Lucie, Theo and Simi, from Revelstoke. Derek was able to help get Lucie back to SCUBA diving after a gap of several years, while John took his PADI course, then they all dove together several times in Bonaire’s warm (30 degrees C), crystal clear, fish and coral filled waters.
• Meeting Mark, Jeannet and Greg, skipper, chief steward, and engineer) from the super yacht Eladrea, who provided unlimited water while our watermaker was not working (again!), and invited us along to a great dock party.
• Meeting Kylie and Mike of the gorgeous little restored wooden yacht “Meggie”; a young couple out for adventure going small, simple and now!
• And a whole bunch of other new friends we met while in Boniare who collectively made our stay so interesting and fun, including the crews of “Monkey Feet”(with 3 great boys), “Revid”, “Eleanor”, “Scott Free” and “Worldwide Traveller”.
• Wifi from Anna, who provides a free signal just because she likes cruisers.
• Seeing the recovery both above and below water after the deveastation of Omar. Thankfully the reefs look to be in much better shape than we initially feared.
• The visit from Jim and Jeannie, who were with us for a couple of diving and fun filled weeks. Jim finding a little reef octopus, minutes after arrival, in an area we had snorkeled dozens of times. But then he is an expert on octopus, having just had his book on the Great Pacific Octopus, accepted for publication! Jim getting eaten alive by the viscous little no-see-ums that seem to proliferate with all the rain after Omar. Driving though the cactus forests and lunar landscape of the Washington Slagbaai National Park – taking lots of pictures.
• The visit from our friend John, who was also with us for another couple of diving and fun filled weeks. Unfortunately, it was not the classic, ssunny trade winds weather and we had several days of rain, though it was still 30+ degrees! It had been more than 10 years since John had done any SCUBA diving and he jumped back into it with much enthusiasm. We were surprised and happy that our “A” type friend was able to slow down and relax underwater where he got into looking at all the small stuff and the fascintating fish behaviours.
• Great dinners that both John and Jim and Jeannie treated us to.
• A great sail from Bonarie to Curacao with John. Downwind, though without a spinnaker, ‘cause the snuffer wasn’t snuffing. On the way, hooked into a marlin (a good 5’ long) that exploded under my lure 40’ behind the boat! Then he took off and almost spooled me before jumping for a 3^rd time and breaking the line.

Curacao

Big enclosed lagoon, Spanish Water, provides a protected anchorage. Instead of Bonaire’s clear blue water under our hull, the water is a murky green. But the phosphoresence at night is spectacular! The upside is lots of facilities for cruisers and …. shopping - real supermarkets! As well as a public bus system, there are shuttle buses to several supermarkets/shopping centers. It’s a way more developed island than Bonaire, with a population of 150,000 plus, versus Bonaire’s 14,000. The main town of Willemstad has very Dutch looking architecture painted in bright Caribbean colours along the entrance to the main harbour with a 100 metre swing bridge floating on classic barge boats, contrasting with the soaring span of the modern Julianna Bridge in the background. But it’s really all about the people and once again we found great people in Curacao. Especially our friends aboard “Anemos”, “Monkey Feet” and “Ta-B” who were waiting for us in the anchorage when we pulled in. “Anemos” and “Monkey Feet” delayed their passage to the San Blas to spend a last night with us – we shared a few drinks and lots of laughs! And the next night, “Ta-B” showed up for a last supper before heading north to Puerto Rico. Having said fond farewells to “Anemos”,“Monkey Feet” and “Ta-B”, we reconnected with Val and Lloyd on “Puddle Jumper” from Toronto and enjoyed several shared shopping trips and the odd drink or two. Have to say that David and Barry of Watercraft Watermakers were excellent guys who provided us with very professional advice as we tried to sort out our non-functioning system. They are also good fun at the bi-weekly happy hours at the local sailing club! And finally, there we were at the Curacao airport meeting our 19 year old son Tristan, who has been doing his first year at Camosun College in Victoria. He is joining us for a well deserved and much anticipated Christmas visit. He has been coping wonderfully with many challenges; creating his own summer job, finding accomodation, shopping, cooking, getting back into school after a year off, qualifying as a lifeguard and getting hired at the Commonwealth pool. And by the sound of it, having some good times with his good friends and family! We are very proud of him.