Leaving Bonaire

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It's time to move on again. We will be leaving tomorrow, Thursday, 2/7/07. We have certainly enjoyed our stay here in Bonaire. We have loved the people, the diving has been spectacular and the land touring has been great. We had to say good bye to our good friends Ken and Roberta, Second Wind. (check out their website http://www.kdhhost.com/). They are heading for Cartegna in April and then on to Panama and San Blas. We wish you guys the best and look forward to meeting up with you again someday.

We were originally going to head to Cartegna and then to Panama and the San Blas this season, but we have changed our minds. We are going back to the States (the east coast) and find jobs (eeeek).

We will head to Puerto Rico from Bonaire, it will be a 4 day trip, our longest yet. We will not have internet access for that time and do not know when we will have it next. Our SSB is up and running so we will be able to send and receive email through our sailmail. After Puerto Rico we will probably sail over to the Dominican Republic to get a good jump off point for the Turks and Caicos, then head over to the Bahamas. We will probably make landfall in Florida, where we will rent a car and drive up the east coast, trying to figure out where we will base ourselves. If any of you know anything about the east coast states (coastal areas) of Georgia, South Carolina or North Carolina we would love to hear from you!!

Here are some Bonaire moments:

Our friend Denise, South of Reality, heading for the Customs office to turn in her weapons (spearguns) (photo courtesy of Second Wind).

We met and said goodbye to a lot of new friends in Bonaire. Sandcastle, South of Reality, Not So Interim, Que Barbara, Pelican's Flight and Second Wind are pictured here (photo courtesy of Second Wind).

This fisherman is out everyday, and his friend the Pelican is always right there with him (photo courtesy of Second Wind).

We will try to do daily updates to the blog, telling you our position as we cross to Puerto Rico. We won't be able to post pictures, just text. As we patiently watch and wait for the weather window, Mike and Kim on Ka'imi

Northern Bonaire

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The northern half of Bonaire is a desert landscape with sculpted cliffs, jagged rocks, caves and arches. We rented a jeep with Ken and Roberta, Second Wind, to see the Washington Slagbaai National Park which is located on the northern end of Bonaire. Go the this link http://www.washingtonparkbonaire.org/ to read find out more about the park and it's history.

Inside the park you can see large Iguanas and lots of bird life. We saw this bird species several times, an Osprey. We have one that frequents the condos in front of our boat also. He perches high on the condo roof overlooking the sea.

The Yellow Shouldered Parrot is an endangered species and a rare sight. We saw this one on the way to the park. You can always find Flamingos in the park.

There are several Beaches and Dive sites in the Park. This is Playa Funchi. We didn't bring our gear so we didn't dive here, there probably wouldn't of been enough time to dive and see the park. They are very strict about closing on time - you have to be on your way out by 4:00 PM to close at 5:00 PM.


With the abolishment of slavery in 1863, the Spanish brought donkeys to the island to cart water, salt and other goods. Donkeys were used instead of horses because they are stubborn and always follow the same route without a guide. These guys run free in the park and three of them came up to our jeep to feed on some potato chips. They were very friendly.

This house is in the park. You have to cross a dirt road that goes right through the water to get to it. Here is an Iguana road sign to warn you that there may be iguanas in the roadway. In Bonaire they use cactus for fence.

They plant full grown cactus which start to root and make the fence. They have special tools to help with the planting.

Bye for now, Mike and Kim on Ka'imi

Exploring Bonaire

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Bonaire is approximately 112 square miles, 24 miles long and between 3 and 7 miles wide. It is 50 miles from the Venezuelan coast with 13,000 inhabitants. The highest point is Mount Brandaris (241m, 790 ft), which is in the north of the island. We explored the South and Southwest areas of Bonaire on Scooters along with Ken and Roberta, Second Wind and Byron and Denise, South of Reality. The southern part of the island is dominated by the saltpans, wetlands and mangroves.
Bonaire is part of the Netherlands Antilles with its sister islands, Curacao and Aruba, to the west. Other Antillean islands include Saint Maarten, Saba and Statia. Bonaire's two main industries are salt and tourism, especially diving and eco-tourism. The salt mountains supply the solar salt industries in the world and were the main reason for the early introduction of slaves. Slavery was a part of the culture from the 17th - 19th century, and abolished in 1863. On the Southern coast are the restored slave houses. These were used to house the slaves working on the saltpans. The doors of these houses are at crawling height and barely big enough to stand up in. They used to house up to four men, but they hardly seem big enough for one!! During the week the slaves worked on the pans and then were allowed to walk home for the weekend, a seven hour hike to the settlement of Rincon. The salt pans also house the Flamingos. The Flamingos get their pink color by eating the shrimps on the saltpans. These shots were taken in flat marshlands on the southwest side of Bonaire. Flamingos live all over the island, we even met a lady that had 4 of them in her yard that she had raised since birth.


Windsurfing is a big attraction in Bonaire, most windsurfing takes place on the large lagoon on the southwestern windward side of the island, Lac Bay. The bay has a barrier reef which is calm and shallow which makes it ideal for windsurfing. Lac is also home to three globally endangered species: the Green Turtle, the Queen Conch and the mangrove trees. Bonaire National Marine Park enforces their legal protections.

We got lost at one point, but this sign cleared it all up. We saw several lighthouses on the island, the one to the right was at the southern end and the one on the left was on the southwest side. The great fun was the lighthouse was open so we were able to climb to the top for an incredible view.

The roads were all dirt out there, but our 100 cc scooters handeled it very well.

Adios for now, we will have an update of our explorations to the northern part of the island next. Hope you are enjoying the updates and leave us some comments, we enjoying hearing from you!!!!

Til next time, Kim and Mike on Ka'imi..................................

Bonaire Night Diving

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Here are some pictures from night dives in Bonaire. This dive was the reef that lies just behind our boats on the mooring balls.

These pictures are Trumpet fish that are trying to hide in the coral. They stay upside down and swing with the current.

Here is a picture of a squid. Kim had her light on it and it was just swimming straight into the light.

Tarpon are huge fish that are very curious and will approach you at night. The one we saw at night is to the left. We also saw some in the daytime, to the right, in one spot we saw a school of about 7. They also sometimes just lay in the water motionless.

Eels just swim about at night, or stick their head out of the coral to catch their prey.

Here is a little reef crab, Mike spotted.

In this picture, look to the top - center/right and you can see two fire worms.

Cheers, Mike and Kim on Ka'imi

Holidays in Bonaire

In 1945 Columbus lost his exclusive rights to explore the new world, after a falling out with Queen Isabella. The new world and the Caribbean, became open territory and Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci were first to explore the region. Alonso de Ojeda previously lieutenant to Columbus, was the first to discover Bonaire in 1499. We arrived in Bonaire on December 6, 2006, in time to enjoy Christmas and New Years with friends on the Island. We picked a mooring at the very end, the picture is a pan of what we see on the island from our boat.

We spent Christmas Eve on our friends boat South of Reality. We had a potluck dinner, gift exchange and at dusk we motored their catamaran up and down the anchorage singing Christmas Carols, we had a great evening. For Christmas we all went to the Flamingo Resort for a buffet dinner. The pictures: in the green elf hats are Ken and Roberta our friends from Second Wind (Tony from World Citizen in the background) and in the red Santa hats our hosts Byron and Denise from South of Reality.

We also had a sail on World Citizen with some friends. The pictures are: Linda and Hutch, Sandcastle, Byron and Denise, South of Reality, Bert, Not So Interim, Grace, Andrea Lee, Sharon, Pelican's Flight, Mike, Ka'imi, Ken, Second Wind, (Denise again) Kim, Ka'imi, Jim, Pelican's Flight, Roberta, Second Wind.

For New Years, they had an incredible fireworks show. We went aboard Sandcastle, to bring in the New Year. There were fireworks from one end of the island to the other. This is the last year that it will be legal for people to buy and set off fireworks, so they sold all of them cheap and everyone had them.



Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday season. Bye for now, Mike and Kim