Category Archives: Activities

Things we have done during our travels.

Welcome to Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherland Antilles

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After midnight, we were hit with several squalls that agitated the seas, so the ride became even more lumpy and no fun. There still was virtually no moon, so we enjoyed the luminescent stars in between the storms. It was still rough at dawn. It was a bit hazy out, so even though we were close to Bonaire, we couldn’t actually see land until 0745.

We approached from the southeast side of the island. Kralendijk, the main city on the island and the only place boats are allowed to moor (anchoring is prohibited in Bonaire waters except under special circumstances), is on the west coast, in the center of the island. We rounded the bottom of the island at 0945 and headed north on the west coast. The minute we were on the west side, in the lee of the island, the seas instantly flattened out. We were so happy.

The ride along the coast was pleasant. We saw a nice rainbow. We saw several schools of flying fish leaping along the water in unison. One school in particular was absolutely enormous. We watched a few people kite surfing.

The southern side of the island is flat and low and the northern end is hilly. The town seems to be right where the hills meet the flat land, in the center of a nice bay. From what we could see, it looked like neither the north or southern ends of the island had any buildings on them whatsoever. So, as we headed up the coast, at first it was empty land, then eventually there were a few buildings that looked like residences along the water, then some buildings that looked more like hotels, then the town center. There are no big high rises at all. There was a cruise ship in port. Just a few miles west of town, in the bay, is the low, flat island of Klein Bonaire, which is apparently vacant land. Near Klein Bonaire we could see what looked like a smaller cruise ship waiting to pull in. However, we had eavesdropped on a conversation between this ship and the port captain on the radio and knew it was not a cruise ship at all, but Continue reading →

Passage from Dominica to Bonaire – Days 1 – 3

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Day 1

We spent the morning getting ready to go and pulled out around 11:45. We decided to run with dual stabilization, so we left the paravanes out when we took off. We like the idea of the smoothest ride possible.

Initially, we were in the lee of Dominica and seas were calm and pleasant. Even after leaving the lee, the ride was nice. At 1730, the seas started to pick up some, but only enough to move us from the “nice” to the “fairly good” category. It was a dark night with no moon.

Pretty much the entire ride the wind was 8 14 apparent on the aft (directly behind us), which means the usual problems with the hot air from the engine room getting blown into the downstairs cabins. It is definitely stuffy and stinky down there. Since it is calm, we have the hatches and portholes open, which helps a lot.

Day 2

Conditions were status quo until the early afternoon, when the wind picked up to 11 20 apparent. The seas followed suit and Continue reading →

Snorkeling the Fan Garden and the Market

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Yesterday Barb and Chuck took us snorkeling at one of their favorite spots, “The Fan Garden”. It is located at the southern end of the bay, near the shore. Fortunately for us, they picked us up in their fast dinghy. It would have taken us forever to get there in Kosmopolitan.

We hopped in the water with our snazzy new camera that is waterproof to 30 feet and it immediately went dead. It had filled with water. Sigh. This camera is touted as being totally indestructible and we were sure it would survive us. We must have some kind of bad camera killing karma from a past life haunting us. We swam from south to north, and each took turns pulling the dinghy along with us as we swam.

We are so sad about losing the camera right then, because the site was lovely and Continue reading →

Cabrits National Park and Portsmouth

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The other day, Barb and Chuck had invited us to go visit Cabrits National Park, on the Cabrits peninsula right near where we are anchored. We had mentioned on the day that we arrived that the north end of the bay had a few isolated buildings and a nice dock. We later found out those are part of Fort Shirley, a restored old British fort on the Cabrits peninsula. We had enthusiastically Continue reading →

Sperm Whale Watching Part 2

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Continued from yesterday… Sperm whales dive the longest and deepest of all the whale species, going down between 1.3 km deep and staying down about an hour. The longest recorded dive is 2 hours and 40 minutes. They will come back up for about 20 minutes to re-oxygenate their blood, then dive back down to continue hunting. There is no light that deep, so have an amazing sonar system to find food. They primarily eat squid, and have the most powerful sonar system of any animal. Males can reach up to 60 feet and 125,000 lbs. (18m and 60 m tones). Females are ½ the length and 1/3 of the weight of males. Babies are about 13 feet and 2200 lbs (4m and 1 m tonne) at birth. Sperm whales live between 50 and 70 years and can be found just about everywhere in the world with waters deeper than 3,000 feet (1,000m).

Female sperm whales travel in groups, along with their calves, and live in tropical or sub-tropical waters all year. A female sperm whale starts breeding at about 12 and continues to breed into her 40’s. She has an 18 month gestation period. When her calf is around two years old, she will breed again, so each female has about one baby every 4 years or so, delivering about 10 calves in her lifetime. The babies can’t stay underwater for very long, so one female at a time will stay on the surface with the baby as the others hunt for food. When the whales sleep on the surface, they make a ring with their heads in the center and their tail fins out. They put baby in middle, and thus are able to shoo off any potential predators with their fins.

The male whales migrate away when they are between 6 and 9 years old. They are not exactly sure where the males go, but it is almost certainly to colder waters up north, and possibly even the Arctic Circle. After being gone for 15 years, the males come back to tropical waters to mate. They meet up with a female for a season, then move on again. Part of his research is on the whale cultural groups. Whales have distinctive cultural groups with learned behavior patterns and dialects, just like humans. And, like humans, they communicate primarily via sounds. The whales instinctively know not to mate with someone who speaks their own dialect. It is nature’s way of preventing inbreeding.

And why are they called sperm whales? The whales have Continue reading →