Ocean Lady's Travels: Slowing ourselves down to get to Bonaire!

Hi Everyone,

We said our goodbyes to Grenada on Wednesday 11^th January around 4pm local time (8pm GMT), we intended to keep 150 miles clear of the Venezuelan coastline, so we anticipated a 3 to 4 day trip.

Winds were good leaving Grenada with 20 knots firmly behind us meaning Ocean Lady was flying through the sea with twin headsails towards our next destination. Margaret settled back into life at sea well, and the men were happy to be back sailing. After almost a month on land, getting back into the night watch routine was tough! Laura developed new strategies to keep her awake at night…exercises! After 45 minutes she got bored and resorted to watching ‘Only fools and horses’.

Fantastic sail the whole way!!! With Ocean Lady comfortably reaching 6-8 knots we were set to arrive a day earlier than anticipated, Stu and Alan were in their element! That was until they realised that at this speed we would arrive in Bonaire at night, not so good when entering a bay famous for its coral reefs! Our only option dare I say it was to slow ourselves down so that we would arrive in daylight! (picture Stu and Alan putting reefs into the sails through gritted teeth! slowing the boat down from a comfortable 8 knots to 5).

We arrived in Bonaire at 6:30am to the sun shining and a flock of pelicans welcoming us to their island! The island is lovely, civilised, the people are friendly and very welcoming. US$10 for a buoy and no immigration/ entrance charge.

The island is famous for its diving, whilst none of us are going diving we have been snorkelling and it has the potential to be great, we will be exploring some more sights later today. We hired a jeep for the day yesterday and had a nice day out driving around the island seeing all the hot spots. National park to the north, very volcanic in appearance and lots of cactuses, goats and wild parrots! Through Rincon the oldest village, slave huts, lots of dead coral washed up, flamingos, windsurfers in Lac Bay, salt pits and finally back to a super market – our favourite pastime!!