Bonaire!!

November 6, 2020

With all the change of regulations and the opening and closure of different countries, it is now possible to visit Bonaire specially from Curacao. After almost a year with COVID around the world we have been very lucky not to catch it and never had the need to be tested. However, to come to Bonaire one of the requirements was a negative PCR test. I guess it is going to be like that from now on. Everywhere, they will ask us for the test, until there is a vaccine. Recently the news on that front are very hopeful.

Curaçao is now well organised and they have certified a couple of labs to do the PCR test for people traveling. People with symptoms are required to go directly to the hospital. It is reassuring that the test is just a formality. I’m sure you all have heard about how uncomfortable the test is. Well, now I can confirm that it is. It is not painful but it is a very unpleasant sensation that ends up making you cry. They take a sample from the nose and the throat. The good thing was the results were ready on the same day.

With the test done, we just had to send all our paperwork to the marina, department of health and get ready to go.

Boat prepared, really not much extra to do on that as we went sailing recently. Some shopping and a few goodbyes. In Curacao, we spent some time with “sailors families”. Temanu’a, Zoma, and L’alchimiste are sailing vessels travelling as family each one has 2 or 3 kids ages from 8 to 14. They are all homeschooling and water sports experts. Windsurfing, sailing, swimming, diving, kitesurfing and more. Sure the experience they are getting on these travels will be quite useful in their future.

When we got Happy Days, we were really excited about getting all our nephews onboard just for a taste of all that. However, I think COVID has killed those plans. So far only Killian has managed to come when we were in Martinique, but all the others can’t come. France is increasing again the confinement restrictions and Australia is closed to go in or out until an unforeseeable future (July 2021 ?)

Coming back to our Bonaire crossing. We did two half days of sailing. One from Curaçao to Klein Curaçao and another from there to Bonaire.

Photo

Curaçao to Klein Curaçao was not a very good sail for me. Remember? I’m a fair weather sailor. This was one of those days that I don’t like much. When we left from Spanish Waters at 7am the sky was dark but Cedric had checked the forecast and decided it was the right time to leave. The water was very choppy going in all directions and we got a squall as soon as we were out of the channel. We had full sails and wind pick up to 20knots and couple spikes to 30knots. So Cedric took the helm as the autopilot cannot handle those conditions. Happy Days was leaning pretty hard on one side and everything inside shuffle in a new place.

After the squall that lasted 30 min we kept sailing only with two reefs and the gib. The sea was still very messy which made me very uncomfortable. Not to the point get sea sick but very close. I’m better and better at handling the symptoms and before I go completely sick there are a few things I can control to stay OK.

5 hour later, and a couple of squalls later, we arrived in Klein Curacao, the sea was a lot better and with the protection of the island the swell and wind was a lot smoother. So we managed to get a nice swim, dinner under the stars and a peaceful night’s sleep. We were the only boat on the island. Everyone else that was there when we arrived, left before the night.

The next day we did Klein Curacao- Bonaire. I was so glad we splitted like that. On the second day we had perfect weather conditions wind. Still going upwind but on one tack only with 10 to 12 knots, no rain, a bit of sun. Amazing sail…. can we sail all the Pacific like that? I asked the captain. Unfortunately, the answer was no, we can’t sail the Pacific for more than 20 days just like that with perfect conditions.

After a couple of tacks in front of Bonaire, we arrived on the mooring field. Paula & Jim from SV Freddys were so kind and showed us to a free mooring. In Bonaire, it is prohibited to anchor and there are only 42 moorings arranged in 3 lines. The first line is very closed to land and therefore not very deep. We draw 2.3m and in the first line when you attached the boat and it turns to land there are probably only 2.5m of depth. The weather looked fine and we scanned the surroundings of the mooring and decided to stay there. If the wind is from the east, everything is fine because the boat would be pushed to the sea, but in case of a reversal, it could be catastrophic as the quill would touch the bottom and get us in trouble. We decided to stay and monitor the weather, normally when there is a reversal coming you would have enough time to see it coming and take action. In this case, action would be leave the mooring and come back when the wind is the good direction a couple of hours later.

Once attached and in place, we went to customs and immigration to register our entry. Typically, and I’m talking before COIVD times the entry/exit process on ports could be a bit confusing in some places but now with COVID is even harder. Apparently, we were supposed to make a reservation with the marina, so they could authorised us with the harbour master and he would communicate to immigration and customs that we were clear to enter. But we didn’t make a reservation at the marina, after all we had a mooring. So when we arrived to customs an immigration it took a couple of hours to clear the situation. At some point the official told us: “you have two options, go into the marina for 14 days quarantine or go back to Curacao”. I couldn’t believe it, after all the papers, test, emails and all? Finally, he agreed we sent our PCR results to the Health Department by email and wait. Honestly, up until now, it is not really cleared what happened. The official that gave us all the instructions to send the email and all walked out of the office to chat with some people and in the mean time another official continued the process, typing, stamped our passports and came and say, you are free to go!!!

We wanted to ask more questions, but I just talk Cedric, he said we are cleared, we have the passports stamped and the boat papers…. just go!!!

So we are ready to discover Bonaire. I visited Bonaire in 2003 and my memories are that the underwater is a lot better than land!!! Let’s go and see if it is still like that!!!