Bonaire and Jamaica Man

Bonaire is described as “Divers Paradise” and it lives up to its name. Bonaire is a marine park there seems to be abundance of fish it is like they want to get there picture taken or just want to come up and say hi. We spent most of our days under water but occasionally we did come up for air and went to this windsurfing beach for the day and sat and read a book and watched the beginners windsurfers make some amazing landings.

After one of our dives our rental truck got broken into and our wallets, cell phone and Cheryl’s shorts were stolen. The robbers had smashed the passenger window. The rental car agency had warned us to keep our windows open but we did not listen. We were not the only one broken into that day, there was a least 3 others. Busy robbers. The good news on the last day before we left Cheryl went into the police station and someone had found our stuff minus the money, Karen’s cell phone and most important Cheryl’s shorts. Cheryl’s short are the ones with the zipper legs, she still has the legs but no shorts to attach too. It has been suggested that Cheryl should wear the legs with suspenders. We will let you know how that fashion statement takes off down here. It would be cool, but she may get sunburn.

Our friend Dan from Canada who sailed down from Cuba to Aruba with us in 2003 came down to sail up from Bonaire to Jamaica. After a quick tour of Bonaire with Dan we did our final food shopping and food prep. And a last trip to Casa Blanca, a restaurant offering an Argentinean beef grill, which provides many days of very tasty left overs.

We left at 8:30 am for a 4 ½ day sail up to Jamaica. Our neighbour (Wendy from Canada) on the mooring ball beside us came over before we left to say “see you down island somewhere” and gave us sushi and California spring rolls for our lunch that day. It was an amazing treat. The fist night was a little bouncy to sleep so none of us slept but by the second night we all got into the groove of the boat and the watches. We where visited by dolphins and a very occasional ship pasted us but mostly it was just us and the beautiful sea. It rained twice for about 20 minutes and the winds slowly died down along with the seas which gave us the opportunity to fly our new sail which is a large downwind sail. At one point we saw 10.2 knot on the GPS. Our boat top speed is 8 knots. We where flying.

On the last morning we slowly started to see the Blue Mountains of Jamaica peek up in the horizon. After leaving Bonaire a very dry island where only cactus grow, to see the beautiful lush island of Jamaica is quite a contrast. As we pulled up to slip at Earl Flynn marina in Port Antonia we were greeted with “Welcome to Jamaica Man”. The people here are very friendly and helpful. After washing down the boat and getting through all the doctor, custom and immigration paper work we went exploring the town of Port Antonia. Before long we had arranged a site seeing tour to go down the Rio Grande river on a banana raft.

After a full night sleep without any boat movement we went off to the Rio Grande with our guide Captain Rebbo and our taxi driver David. The trip was amazing, we learned that the raft where originally and are still used to ship bananas down the river but it was Earl Flynn who started the trend of taking people down the river. For him it was an opportunity to take his lady friends down the river for a romantic boat ride. After watching Captain Rebbo’s technique of pole and steering us down the river, Karen asked if she could give it a try. Well we all got a try on poling our way down the river, even through some very small rapids.

So now we are just planning which bay we are going to visit next in Jamaica and of course go and explore the Blue Mountains and buy some of their famous coffee.