Winter Interlude - Diving Bonaire

 What does a donkey sanctuary,

 thousands of flamingos,

and rocks painted yellow, have in common ? Bonaire !!!

What happens when sailors are faced with long Canadian winters ?
They go south and dive of course.
The choice this time was a dutch owned island named Bonaire. Part of the commonly referred to as the ABC islands together with Aruba and Curacao. It is famous for its donkey sanctuary, flamingos and its diving.

 The most popular vacation and attraction for divers heading to Bonaire is their "drive and dive"packages. There are 86 different dive sites. Many of these sites are assessible from shore. Thus you take a vehicle, look for yellow painted rocks that mark entry points to dive sites around the island and go for a dive. It is simple and fun.

You can dive on your own schedule. You can dive alot or a little. The choice is yours. Anyone who has experienced "unpleasant" co-divers on dive boats can really appreciate this style of vacation.

Continuing West towards our Home Port

From Rochester we continued 34 nm west to Oak Orchard YC. We had never been to Oak Orchard before but it was highly recommended by others so we gave it a try. We had neglected it in the past for 2 reasons. One we were afraid that depth at the entrance would not be enough for our 7 ft draft. Two we knew there was a fixed bridge we would have to go under and we had conflicting information on its height. We needed 53 ft. The sailboat accompanying us ensured us that is would be no problem. Since he needed 54 ft we let him go first :)
The club was a self-serve and quite charming. Between the docks in the river and the shore there is a space that is essentially a turtle preservation.

 As you can see from the picture, the club building is up a hill. The river area behind the docks is very narrow. It did fit our 36 ft boat, however I would suspect that the 45ft one we now own would not be able to visit this tranquil place :(

 This is TopGun we are following behind. We figured it he made the bridge we were safe too :)



A short 20 minute walk from the club is a place called Brown's Berry patch. They have incredible homemade pies, fudge, ice cream and gifts. Outside they also have an area with many activites and a petting zoo for both big and small kids. Highly recommended !

As they say "all good things must come to an end", for us that meant it was time to head back to our home port of Hamilton Bay. It was another 82nm. We left early  in the morning and had a great sail complete with a rainbow to welcome us home.