Sept 6, 2017
We arrived at Bonaire just at sunrise which made it difficult to see and read the water. Everything looked black with the sun directly in our eyes. With some help of other boaters moored in the mooring field, we were able to finally pick up the proper red and white mooring ball. The other two we tried were not the marina’s but private. There were not a lot of options, but we found one on the inside row close to shore with an “Occupied” plaque on it. A boater next to it said that the marina was closed for the Sept 6 holiday (Bonaire Day), no boat had been on the ball the day before, so go ahead and pick the ball up and see if you need to move the following day. Sounded like a plan to us since there were no other open mooring balls without the “Occupied” sign.
Angie went below to rest. She was shaking from the effort/stress of picking up 3 different mooring balls. Mark took the dinghy to shore to do the check-in process at Customs and Immigration. They typically only want the Captain to go to shore to clear in the boat and the crew. They didn’t come out to the boat. At the C&I dock, the guard said Mark had to come back later. The office was not open yet, and both of us needed to be present. Mark came back and fell asleep. We both finally woke around noon and dinked back to the C&I dock. After processing, Mark had to take the spearguns back for them to hold until we depart. Of course, the “Bonaire” flag that Angie had made in the Bahamas was the wrong one, and she had to hand crank out another one. It was difficult to get the proper dimensions with diagonal bits that needed to be sewn, but we figure it would meet the 20 ft rule. (It looks decent from 20 ft away, so it will do.)
There was a local town party going on for Bonaire Day, so we ended up going to check out some local food and walk around town to see how much it had changed since we were last here in 2009. The “local” food we picked up was Peruvian ceviche (spicy, but wonderful), sweet potato pumpkin donuts, a purple corn fermented drink, a Suriname chicken Roti dish and a bbq chicken quarter. A lot of the “local” foods seem to be the same frozen dutch apps we found in Aruba, so we wanted to try something different. We are liking the South American influence!
The sun was intense and it was HOT! Angie ended up taking 3 showers that day to cool off, but the sunset over Klein Bonaire was beautiful!
