Bonaire
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5'N 680 14'W
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Bonaire |
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December 2007 May/June 2006 Jan 2006 Sep 2005 |
December 2007 – Trip Report [Trevor] I just read
December 2006 and it started off with "We’ve just got back from the best
sailing ever in the bay...." December is a stormy month and we had been watching the daily forecast and the new webcam at http://www.breathebonaire.com/index.php?CURRENT_CAM=bonairecam4 and saw nothing but gentle breezes and rain showers. But the moment we stepped off the plane it started to blow! On the beach we were welcomed with open arms since we had obviously brought the wind with us LOL. No more of that infamous windsurfer's line.... "you should have been here last week/yesterday/this morning".... It blew. When it wasn't blowing normally (16 - 18 knots) it blew stupid and rained (20 - 30 knots). In such a safe place as Lac Bay, any number of lunatics could be seen making their way upwind as the black clouds heralding another squall approached the reef. Then for 15 minutes of outrageous gusts we would sail the bay blinded by the rain and the speed and praying that no one else was so stupid as to be sailing in that weather. Jim and I both sailed one squall together with me thinking ...."If he doesn't fall in then I will be OK" and he thinking ..."If Trevor doesn't fall in the I will be OK".... The blind leading the blind eh? So what else? Nothing. Simply nothing. We sailed every day. Morning and afternoon. We got some new kit. A bit by accident really. Kit Update For those of you that know us, we have rather a lot of kit. We need rather a lot. There are four of us ranging from 45 kg to 50 kg to 62 kg to 87 kg which means four light wind boards and four strong wind boards. Then sails to match - so we have quite a collection. But we always want to go faster or higher or turn better so we are always updating. This year was no exception. Nic is the freestyler in our family. 12 years old and without fear nor understanding of broken bones. Actually Sam had broken his arm 5 weeks before we were due to leave for Bonaire but more of that in a moment. 12 years old maybe but 14 in body and soul and kilos. His Starboard Evo 62 is a bit small now coupled with the rather large crack he put in the nose gecko-ing it back in August, it was time for a new one. The Pros on the beach are well known. Kiri, Tonky, Tati, Chico, Cisa etc. F2 Chillis are the weapon of choice with Tati and Cisa and Starboard still holds good for Kiri and Tonky and it just so happened that Cisa was selling on his 2007 Chilli 99 and it was too good a deal to miss. Autographed by EVERYONE, Nic fell in love with some fibreglass. So one more board to the pile. Add a 3.7m Gaastra Manic care of Jupe and he was all set for another year or two.
Now I have been sailing my old green Lightwaves 284 Custom for a long time. It is nicknamed the "Smoothrider" and has taken some verbal abuse as it is old old school. And until now has been irreplaceable. And I have been looking. I nearly decided on a Starboard S Type last year but they dropped the model from 2007 and so it became harder to decide. At 138 litres, the Smoothrider had also become a bit easy to sail and Mr Lazy was not anxious to learn new tricks. Along comes Starboard 2008 and they have revived the iSonics. If you don't know the iSonics then slap your wrists. They are the ones that are in front. The ones that are the fastest. And they are the ones to watch for 2008 http://www.star-board.com/2008/pages/products/v_isonic.php
So we bought two!!! The 96 for me and the 76 for Sam. Actually the 76 was used by Kiri a couple of times and was too small for him so he has requested another from Starboard (his Sponsor) and Sam fits it perfectly....Check out the Picture Gallery for sailing shots... Here is one to whet your appetite.... I managed 29 knots with the 7.0m Naish Redline and it wasn't that windy! Note the 2008 Redline. And join the queue to drool. It is simply beautiful..... On a Powerex 100% Carbon Mast and an X9 Carbon Boom it is unflappable. Civilised overpowered blasting. That is what I have been waiting 28 years (of windsurfing) for.
Villa Bits Cushions, curtains, roman blinds Garden Bits Landscaping Update from August We’ve just got back from the best sailing ever in the bay. We had 21 consecutive days of great windsurfing ranging from force 4 to force 6. The tides over the December period were super - not one low enough to touch the sandbars with the skeg.
Long Distance runs were the order of the day this trip with blasts all the way from the south side of the bay to the mangroves in the north. At just over 2km on one tack, it certainly made the legs ache.... The swell in the deep blue areas was quite excessive at high tide with the break at the coral on the bay's east side clearing the barrier easily and carrying on into the bay. And with the high tide came a vicious chop that made Spooning (Carole’s board) impossible, so she switched to the HiFly Move 95 which was much more suited to the chop than the out and out razor sharp rails of the Spoon. The boys got their Christmas presents on arrival - a Starboard S Type 72 litre for Sam and the Evo 62 for Nic. Both are now sailing with the pros, and Tonky Frans and Kiri, World #3 and #4, sailed with them to add to their excitement. Nic is into freestyle and Sam into speed so they did not compete too viciously with each other, which made for less fighting over all !! Temperatures were 29C by day and 27 by night, but by the waters edge in late afternoon it was getting cool enough to put on a dry shirt if you had just come off the water. Mozzies were non existent. Whereas the previous year had had excessive rain in November resulting in an explosion in the insect population, a relatively drier November meant one or two only. We didn’t have to spray the rooms, burn coils or use insect repellant, which was wonderful. This trip we didn’t get quite as much done to the villa as we had planned, because the wind just kept blowing. We did, however, move the large sofa from downstairs upstairs to create a cosy TV corner. We also bought a region free DVD player, so that visitors can bring along their own films and slowly we will build up a DVD library.
In place of the old sofa downstairs we now have a more modern, but comfortable ‘L’ shaped seating arrangement. All in all it feels much less cluttered.
The broken sun loungers on the porch outside have finally been ditched and a couple of proper chairs and a small table make sitting outside more pleasurable. Our next big project is to create a car port to the north of the property, and to landscape the whole garden with plants that will attract wildlife such as butterflies, parrots, iguanas, hummingbirds etc. The first stage has already taken place: to the south drastically cutting the sea grape, so that it can be shaped into a nice hedge, and taking out most of the sea grape to the north. We will be moving the garage to the other side of the property to make it less conspicuous. The old concrete base to the garage will be made into a nice shady BBQ/seating area.
May/June 2006 – Trip Report We have just got back from a classic windsurfing holiday so read on.... Carole’s Bit Trevor kept breaking his equipment – four masts in two days. He eventually stopped when he bought a lovely carbon Powerex Z-Free , which seemed to survive. http://www.powerexmasts.com/masts/index.html Sam (13) and Nic (10) had a blast and are really enjoying the speed and exhilaration of the sport. They have made some friends on the beach who have been teaching them some tricks and jumps. Some non-windsurfing friends joined us this trip and they thoroughly enjoyed their stay on Bonaire. Jazmine (13) and dad Graham decided to have a go at windsurfing and both did really well – from never having stood on a board; by the end of the holiday they were both able to uphaul, go along without falling in, tack and beach start. We’ve been checking the wind since our return and it still looks good. I think this year could match or even out do the statistics for 2002
The temperature was a few degrees warmer than our December trip, around 30/32 degrees, but with the doors open a nice little breeze blew through the villa keeping us cool. No mosquitoes, no storm flies. Bliss. May and June is obviously a good time for flamingos – every morning at around 6:30am a huge flock would pass by followed by the odd straggler or two. Every morning I would be there with my camera trying to get that ultimate shot of a flock of flamingos!! It was difficult to capture that beautiful coral pink as the sun rises over the bay and they become a silhouette. However, I did drive to the fisherman’s boats to see if I could catch the colour by having the sun behind me, and the previous mornings they had flown over that way. Of course, this particular morning they changed their route and flew right over our house, so they were just little specks!! It became a challenge, and I managed to get a couple of nice shots but I haven’t succeeded in getting the ultimate one just yet !
We carried out lots of new bed linen and some lovely curtains with us, so the bedrooms look a lot fresher. We also painted the walls and put up some colourful turtles, geckos and frogs (Check out the Floor Plan for the latest pix). RENOVATION NEWS RENOVATION NEWS RENOVATION NEWS.......... The floor upstairs was looking a little sad and quite “suspect” around the door to the sun deck, so we decided that it had to go. Frank at BSC (who has done a fantastic job of painting and weather proofing the house, rebuilding the front wall and replacing the sundeck) convinced us that we should replace it with a real wooden floor. So we have and it looks beautiful – the colours and quality are fantastic.
Whilst the floor was being ripped up, Trevor was able to get at the hall and living room lights, which had long stopped working. They are now all functioning, and it is nice and bright ! Our next task will be landscaping the garden, so watch this space ………..
Trevor’s Bit Sailing Report Simply put, this trip was the best so far for out and out blasting. The wind had been howling F5/F6 for several weeks leading up to our trip and the major worry was turning up on the beach and getting the classic “You should have been here last week” !!! So we turned up all excited. Budget had the keys for the pick-up waiting with a note to sort the paperwork out later (nice one Dirk-Jan) and so it was straight to the villa and unpack and wait for dawn (ahh the pleasures of night flights LOL) A quick breakfast next door at Kontiki got us to the beach by 09:00am and “Daddy” then rigged a 3.0 m for Sam; a 3.0 m for Nic; a 5.5 m for Carole; a 5.8 m for Daddy; another 5.8 m after the first mast broke; and yet another 5.8 m when that one lasted all of 4 minutes. AND A 6.3 m when that mast broke and trashed the luff tube on the 5.8 !!! So indeed a shake down of old worn out masts on Day 1 and it was only blowing F4- F5 max !!! That last 6.3m mast turned out to have a crack in it around the boom area so it was lucky that it didn’t fail on Day 1 or it really would have been a record. I ended up with that 75% carbon Powerex that Carole mentioned above and “touch carbon” it survived the rest of the holiday. Most days we sailed with 5.1/5.5/6.3 (I persuaded Carole to stay smaller than me to at least give me a chance of overtaking her but the strategy did not always work !!!) One silly day we managed 4.1/5.1 and the last week after Carole and the boys returned home I was on 5.5/5.1 most of the time with one 6.3 day and the last morning after I had packed up everything except the 5.5 I should have been on a 4.1 !!! I got blown away splendidly. 17th January 2006 We had heard mixed reports of the weather around December / January time and so this was an opportunity to check it out first hand. Firstly it is wetter at this time of year. Not that it is a problem when the air temperature is 28 Deg C. It's just that Bonaire does not drain very well - all that coral - with the result that there is a lot of surface water about just now. The island is green and there are ponds, lakes and just puddles in places we have never seen before at other times of the year. With water comes the inevitable mosquito. If you are thinking of going to Bonaire at this time of year then be prepared. They are a hungry persistent bunch of munchers !!! We found that burning the coil things and putting on the BUGOFF cream/spray or whatever made it acceptable but a good spray of the rooms at night certainly helped !!! Wind. Well it blew most of the time. Out of 21 days we had two spells of no wind of note. A two day and a three day block. This allowed us to rest our aches and pains and to actually go snorkeling. We finally got to inspect Donkey Beach which is actually at the end of the runway at the airport but hides some amazing coral and the indigenous life just 2 metres off shore. If you go snorkeling then don't forget to leave EVERYTHING of value back at your hotel/apartment/villa as some of the locals see a hire car as open sport for a rummage. It still amazes me how some people are surprised when they get back from a dive or whatever and find their passport, mobile phone and credit cards, that they left on the back seat, missing..... You wouldn't even think of doing that back home so why should Bonaire be any different. So back to the wind. Out of the days left (16) maybe 5 or 6 were marginal Force 4 days when Carole got going with ease and us heavier (read "fatter") males were left with just the odd blast at times !!! (Note to myself - must loose weight or tie a bucket to the back of Carole's board next time) As for the rest of the time it blew "old boots". In other words Force 4 - 5 with occasional Force 6 to 7 squalls in front of the odd rain shower !!! We sailed all; sheltering under the sail for the odd occasion when the rain was hurting the eyeballs LOL. The beauty of Lac Bay is that it doesn't matter what the wind does - if you get in to trouble you just stand up ! Or if you get in to deep sh*t then sit on your board and drift to our villa !!! Christmas on the beach was busy. Boy was it busy. The whole island seemed to turn up on the beach for a few days ! Father Christmas turned up on his Harley Davidson and the whole mood was superb. We plan on going back next year so it must have been good !!! Villa Update Kitchen News 30th September 2005 Check out these pictures
(courtesy of BSC Painting Bonaire) Walls & Drainage
Boundary Wall
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20th September 2005
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