Hi! As most of you are aware, we’re currently moored in Bonaire, the lovely Dutch Caribbean island that makes up the B in the ABC islands. Our passage from Carriacou was one of relative ease – we did some fishing, some steering, and some delicious cooking. And lots of sleep. I’m glad my first passage went smoothly (both in terms of waves and overall.)
Since we’ve been in Bonaire, we’ve been lucky enough to participate in several of the activities that distinguish Bonaire as a unique and exciting places. Among these are scuba diving and windsurfing. The entire coast of the island is filled with dive sites, but you could go even 30 feet behind our boat and see some super cool reefs and drop-offs, not to mention the countless fish (including cowfish!)
I like diving a great deal, and our hours spent reading and training for our certification have definitely paid off. It’s nice to be on a purely leisure dive, as opposed to our training dives where we practiced scuba skills in addition to looking at the pretty fish. We saw all sorts of fish and coral that I am not at all qualified to talk about other than the fact that I thought it was very pretty. One of my favorite types of fish is the cowfish. Some of them have two lil horns above their eyes so they look like swimming beef. They’re pretty adorable.
We’ve also had the pleasure of snorkeling all over the island, which has been fantastic. You don’t even need to dive to enjoy the water here. Through snorkeling, we’ve seen hundreds of remarkably colorful parrotfish. They range in size, but the one characteristic they all share is their scales all sparkle brilliantly with colors that remind one of a parrot. They do not have feathers like a parrot. The naming is merely for the colors.
We’ve also been windsurfing since being in Bonaire which is a great first place to windsurf considering how many international champions call Bonaire their home. The island has a shallow, sheltered bay that is ideal for beginners and experts alike. I (of course) fell off the windsurfer after being on the board for about two seconds. To some, that might be a discouraging start, but I laughed it off and hopped back on. Over the two hours I went from knowing barely anything about sailing to knowing a little more than barely anything about sailing. It wasn’t very windy, but I believe our conditions were ideal for learning to windsurf.
Happy Halloween everybody! I hope you have a spooky day!