November 2019 Home to Trinidad

I'm sitting in the foyer of Cruise Inn Marina and Hotel writing this,there is a wedding about to take place and the guests are arriving with presents. Those already checked in are sitting waiting in the cool and the photographer has just arrived to see the location.

We arrived back on the 3rd of November, as usual the heat felt getting off the plane was warm and comforting. Our driver was there ready to take us to Customs in Chaguaramas for a quick stop then on to Power Boats and a bed for the night.
Next day up early and find a ladder to board the old lady, hoist our hold baggage aboard and get unpacked.
First job was to reset the air con, which had been running at 18C to a civilised 25C, then to renew the insulation on the fridge which has been thoroughly dried out by the dry air. That done we realise that it it not freezing so set about finding a repair man. Our regular guy Junior isn't working on Yachts any more so we see a new guy called Keet who is very professional and has a sniffer . He decides that there must be a minute leak which he will check out next year. He assures us that we now have sufficient gas in the system to last us this season.  Now I just need a shopping trip to restock.
Malcolm has an awful cough caught from the passenger next to him on the plane (not me!)
Next are the batteries which have been charging with the Mastervolt charger and that doesn't seem to have been well treated by a power surge, consequently the engine batteries are dead and need to be replaced. Another new face is John who has taken over Dockyard Electrics business and he comes straight round and sorts out all the problems. He takes said charger to be checked and later tells us it needs new circuit boards. It should be back later this week.
We are due to relaunch on the 15th and are ready so book the slot. Not a happy day as our time to be lifted up to have the underside of the keel anti-fouled passes by without anything happening. Just like last year we are boxed in so tightly that the travel lift cannot extracate us from the other boats around us .

 Eventually a smaller boat trolley comes along but needs help from a JCB to give it enough power to pull us out. A quick coat of anti fouling and then to the water to be launched.
Malcolm checks for leaks and that the engine works, then we call ahead to Crews Inn to say sorry we are so late but we are on our way.
The dock crew are on the jetty to catch our lines while I manage to hook the ropes around the mooring piles at the front to hold us central in the birth. Finally sundowners in the cockpit with the water lapping around us we are happy bunnies.
While Malcolm cooks dinner I nip round to check us in and get wifi codes etc Meleen is over the moon to see me 'home' again.
Today we have moved the bicycles to the rack ashore and made a start fitting the mainsail back on hopefully if the wind is from the right direction it will be finished by tomorrow ( fingers crossed)
Maybe I'll add some snaps next time....now to the pool....

22th February 2019

   I’ll begin with the idyllic month of January in Kralendijk, Bonaire. After digging out all the dive gear we began in earnest. Being so close to the Yellow Submarine dive centre was a bonus. We could take the empty tanks in to be filled and gear to be rinsed straight after the dive. We managed 25 dives to sites, some we have visited previously and other which were new. I clocked up 1700 hours underwater!

We also took part in a litter pick along the board walk. Well, the dive was for 45 minutes and was in 3-7m of water and required scuba gear. The briefing advised us not to remove litter encrusted with growth in case there were small creatures living on them. This said it was quite easy (once you get your eye in) to see fine fishing line and various ephemera lost overboard. We talked to other couples who like us were helping out. Jeanette and Michael are from just outside Quebec and spend 6 months instructing here in Bonaire while the Canadian winter does it’s worst. We also accompanied them to the Ribs evening, and they even swam out to Piano to bring us a jar of Mango Chutney.

Here are a few snaps of curious aquatic life, remember please that the water if stuffed full of amazingly coloured fish all claiming our attention.

Calappa flammea

Flame Box Crab

Bothus lunatus 

Peacock Flounder

Chromis multilineata

General view mostly Brown Chromis.

Gymnothorax funebris

Hermodice carunculata

Pomacanthus paru

Scarus coelestinus

This Midnight Blue Parrotfish one needs a dental hygienist!

Synodus foetens

Sand Diver

Bodianus rufus

Spanish Hogfish

Sphyraena barracuda

Stegastes partitus

Bicolour Damselfish - this one wanted my attention and nibbled my bare leg, maybe I was looking at something else. On average it takes far longer to take a snap while underwater!

This huge Urchin shell was too delicate to bring up so I let nature take it's course. 

     A pleasant interlude of Mexican train dominoes at the divers diner and sundowners with Charles and Barbara ( M/Y Tusen Tak 2. I even saw my first GREEN FLASH!!! Needless to say I didn’t get a snap – even though it lasted a couple of seconds!

All too soon we had to think about a not so Northerly wind to sail up island. We decided to do a last dive out at Angel City and took Piano for the outing. Which is when we found that the intermittent engine noise was still with us. Malcolm had already decided that the cutlass bearing was the culprit. Great news that he could actually dive down and look at the problem. He removed the rope cutter which quite frankly was a waste of money and has never done any rope cutting. This so that he could see the bearing better and take snaps.

There should be rubber where the arrow is pointing!

   After checking that we could have the work done in Curaçao we topped up with water and diesel and set sail.

All downwind in 20-30 knots so all we needed was the staysail. Even then we had to slow down as Mark was having lunch when we phoned for a tow. The worse part was waiting outside the pedestrian bridge which needed to open to let Mark and his boat out to meet us. As usual the seas were quite big and choppy for this entrance. As soon as we were inside all was calm again, in no time we were tied up and had wifi and electricity. This is when we found that the generator would start but then stop as soon as your finger was off the start button. Jack confirmed our thoughts that it might be the exhaust sensor, but was too busy to have a look at that point.

We were hauled out early the next day and the new cutlass bearing was fitted with no hitches (unheard of) Manuel was pleased to have the propeller information to check that it was rebuilt correctly. Back in the water the following day. It rained for the first time in 8 weeks or so. This gave me the opportunity to sluice down the decks and cockpit (again).

     Malcolm checked the engine and it’s cooling system and then started looking at the exhaust sensor which he found and dismantled then put back together again. Bingo it works! Now the only thing is a leaky hose which may be long enough to shorten rather than to replace. That completed it was decided to return to Bonaire and await the weather window in comfort. Of course this meant checking out and to do that we needed more petrol for the outboard. George next door had a van so took me to the petrol station where I purchased 10 litres.

That done we made haste to Customs and Immigration to clear out. The lady at the desk smiled when we told her we were leaving at 0500!

We treated ourselves to a meal at the Rhodeo Restaurant that evening. Malcolm had Stroganoff and I had a medium fillet with home fries. The mushroom sauce and home fries were barely warm and the steak was 75% blue, I asked for foil to take it home.

Malcolm was up at 0400 the next morning I followed nearer 0530 after Tea to set me up.

By 0600 we had slipped our berth and made our way to the pedestrian bridge to wait with the few other fishing boats going out for the day. By 0630 we motoring along the coast of Curaçao. By 0830 we had 3 reefs in the main and were doing 5 knots. Around 10.30 we had early elevenses and were sailing with ¾ Yankee, full Staysail and 3 reefs in the main. There was rather a lot of tacking but it was all fast sailing. We arrived back in Kralendijk at 1800 in time for sundowners! (the remains of my steak made a very nice Stroganoff for Dinner that night and boy did we sleep well!

It’s the morning after and I have been to check in and had lunch, it rained for a brief while and most of the salt has been washed off so no cleaning required there.

The Childrens' Carnival parade is on Sunday (24^th February) so IF we are here the snaps will be in the next blog but by then we should be much further North to pick up our guests in mid March.

Until then here is ANOTHER sunset snap…