Seven years ago, while taking our first sailing sabbatical, Ricky, Danielle and I spent two amazing months diving and having fun with new Aussie friends in Bonaire, one of the three ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) located north of Venezuela. We were also brand new divers, and were lucky to be buddy-boating with Master Instructor Jamie Dryden. Those two months hold so many happy memories for us, so, of course, Ricky and I were pretty excited to return.
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Quite a treat to literally bump into Jamie while we were docked at
Nanny Cay Marina, Tortolla, and he was chartering a boat on vacation. Small world! |
Bonaire is a Dutch island that thrives on tourism, namely scuba divers arriving by plane and sailboat to enjoy 86 marked dive sites around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire, home to over 57 species of coral and over 350 species of fish. We dove right off the back of our boat in 20 feet of crystal clear water where the wall drops sharply to about 100 feet, covered with colorful corals and sponges and home to an amazing assortment of fish and sea creatures. It is diver's paradise.
We also made a lot of new friends while in Bonaire because Eric, Kate, Kyle and Matt on Ad Astra invited 25 people on seven boats to come aboard their Lagoon 45' Catamaran for a day trip to Klein Bonaire. It was definitely the highlight of our stay in Bonaire as we met boaters from Norway and Germany, and enjoyed the interaction with the kids.
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| Eric Bethke (PADI Rescue Diver) standing far left on Ad Astra addressing the group |
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| Ricky enjoyed being Grill Master |
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| Studying Fish Books |
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What do you cook when new friends, Emory and Kim on Zimmer,
from New Orleans visit your boat? Red beans and rice, of course!
Note the Tony Chachere's on our table. |
Kim made jambalaya for us when we had dinner with them! So good!
We enjoyed hearing about the Zimmer's plans to travel in the World ARC Rally, a round-the-world adventure taking place over 15 months and covering 26,000 nautical miles, with 39
other boats leaving from St. Lucia in January.
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| We celebrated Labor Day with fellow boaters at a pot-luck in the park. |
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Awesome girlfriends!
Holly (Shangri-La) and Christine (Sugar Shack) |
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| We got Advanced Certified! Dive Instructor, Steven. |
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| Shy Balloonfish |
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| Squat Anemone Shrimp live in Giant Anemone |
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| Hawksbill Turtle didn't seem to care that I took 20 photos as she ate. See Ricky in the background? |
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| Baby Trunkfish - just a tiny round ball. So cute!!! |
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| Snorkeling with Tarpon in very shallow water |
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| Sand Diver |
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| Beautiful Chainlink Eel |
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