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MURPHY.S LAW- SURPRISES IN BONAIRE!

6/23/2017

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His name is BERT and it was supposed to be a tropical storm and pass over BONAIRE!!!! Murphy,s law!....Who could imagine that in the island which supposed to be hurricane free in the middle of JUNE tropical storm could come?

We sailed south to hide from the storms....but  it appears its safer there up than here.. Well at least for these days...because in reality, this what happened few days ago is really very rare. 

After 4 tiring days of sailing south from BVI we arrived to Bonaire. .It was fast, but windy, squally and very wet trip. WInds from the beam with the seas crashing directly to the side of the boat and inside the cockpit....But the worst was not that. Because of the waves  we had to close all the hatches inside,  so during the day it was authentic sauna down in....  Tropics are tropicks, and what can we do:)
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​Poor Epo and Zika! They  suffered that heat and waves too and were very brave going to toilet with such a movement! Luckily some flying fishes were coming to visit us at nights, so at least our cats could have fresh fish for dinner each night. 

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​Anyway all went well and our Grain with the 4 reefed sails on sailed faster than ever and brought us safely to Bonaire where before mentioned surpise of BERT  was waiting us...
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We knew it was forming already before leaving BVI.. .But ,sincerely, thought and hoped it will pass much more north than ABC islands . So decided to sail south and hope for the best. But once arriwed here and checked weather forecast again saw that famous BERT didnt want turn north!!!! It was  passing directly over Trininad and Tobago bringing 50 knots of winds with torrential rain and continuing west towards Venezuela.

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​Here in Bonaire weather forecast was announcing tropical storm risk. So of course every body started preparing for the worst. So do we.  In  Bonaire is not allowded to anchor, so all the boats must stay on mooring buoys (10 usd per day) or go to  marina. Quite a few boats day before strong winds arrived chose to leave to the harbour. But we decided to stay. Checked better  mooring buoys and huge concrete blocks suporting the ropes down below and thought  its safer to stay  here than being in the  marina. All what we did was we dived to attach extra lines directly to the blocks(we were attach with 6 ropes finally!), tied everything on the deck, had lights, extra lines, and rain jackets prepared and waited for the worst  watching movies and reading books... But luckily. strong winds didnt touch  Bonaire at night all we got was maximum 40 knots of gust and some rain....Nothing scary or to be worried about. But it was nice experience and yes...nice reminding that hurricane season is already here. No jokes!
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​...so now for at least  a few weeks we are  staying here in BONAIRE enjoying amazing clear waters and snorkeling and diving almost everyday. We were lucky to find our friends from sy FAIR PLAY we met in Tobago here.  They have diving equipment and compresor on boat, so what can be better! Egoi is making dives every two days!!!! In a one of the best diving places in all Caribbean!... 


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LEAVING THE AMAZING BVI,S!

6/12/2017

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Good by BVI!.....time to sail south and continue our Caribbean journey...

Time is flying so fast and 2 and a half monthes spend in British Virgin Islands are gone...Even though it  was  not enough.  We enjoyed  this sailing paradise so much  that in  some islands and bays if we could, we would spend minimum 2 weeks more.!..

But season of storms and hurricanes is already here and we do not feel prepared enough to spend it sailing here in the North ..Grain de Sable is a home for us and our cats- too important to put her on any risk.. Thats why we leave. To Bonaire and later CUracao. These islands are out of official hurricane belt where the possibilities of great storms are significaly smaller  than in any norhern caribbean . Also these islands are  dry, so for our Grain it will help a lot. After the last summer season spent in fresh water river in Suriname, lets say, this time we prefer to be in a drier place
( but thats doesnt mean we didnt enjoy Suriname- we loved it!)

This is also the reason why we are not sailing to Trinidad or Grenada, where most cruisers sail to hide from the hurricanes. They are very wet places as well..... And our Grain need to be hauled out and get dry..

We have 440 nm around to go , weather forecast looks good ( east , soutseast winds 10-20 kn)...adn if all Ok in 4 days we are in Bonaire. Enjoying another great island, beaituful waters, snorkeling and waiting for a visit of our friends-Mikel, Cristina and Amelie!

...It was a real pleasure to sail here in BVI,....and honestly, we feel quite sad leavig them,,,

But boats are made to sail, and we - to travel:)

So ..write you soon from BONAIRE!
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AN AWESOME BVI -UNDER THE WATER AND ABOVE!!

6/7/2017

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Time is flying!...
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Between discovering up and down the water worlds in BVI our days just flew away....We are in beginning of June ! Still, in BVi, but sad to say not for a long anymore...

Hurricane season has already started...and our amazing time in this incredible archipelago is finishing.  But what a time!!!....
We have sailed all over around, anchored in stunning anchorages and broke the record of times we dropped the anchor per day...If we would count all the times we changed the places and anchored here  it would probably be more times than in entire trip around the world with RagaineII:)..
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till now It would definitely be the islands number one for cruising on our list!... Yes, of course, there are pluses and minuses here, like in any other place in Caribbean....but generilising all-  this is the place!..... Maybe the local culture and people are less curious and communicative than in countries like Dominica , 
Grenada and Tobago, but the nature, landscape, bay, caves, rocks, white beaches, incredibly transparent water and AMAZING under water world is wining all that!

Lots of boats and especially unbelievable number of charter catamarans make most of the places crowdy, but the  great thing is that in afternoon most of the anchorages stays empty because charters boats leaves to some few famous places with beach bars and restaurants...And  then we can have this  privilege to enjoy peace and shining starts above alone .....
Sincerely....we love BVI,,,,,

Who knows , maybe next season we are back here again, because cruising 2 months a half it was still not enough..
Our Grain served us good and sailed us safely all around  here...During the time on BVI She had more people on   board than ever ( 18+ 2 coming tomorrow!!!) and made that all of them could enjoy their hollydays :)....And of course let us earn some money for being able to bring her to Curacao, do all necessary repairs...and by tickets to Europe to visit our families and friends.  
Our cats the same, got to be familiar with place, start sailing sleeping on main sail and discover that apart from mosquitoes and flies there are many birds flying around whom they can be ready to attack (unfortunately birds supposed to be more clever than they think and ever got too close to the cats).

And we the same,  got in love to the magic life below and spend more time snorkeling that walking around:)... Nowhere did we see so many Turtles, Sting Rays and Eagel rays as here! ... Morning swim before the breakfast it became our morning greeting to all water creatures swimming around the boat...

Our favorite spots here became Peter Island and Deadmans Bay, Virgin Gorda and the Baths, Guana islands and Monkey point and of course Trelly bay, place next to Airport which converted to our base where we picked up our guests and leave them. We discovered a perfect place to anchor and all the time were coming there used it. Close to the shore and most important with a free WiFi which we were able to use from one bar. This bay used to be incredible full, but to our surprise our spot was always free waiting us to use it:)...

Now that the high season is over bays are less crowded and the only boats we meet are charter ones-  mostly catamarans. Our Grain sometime looks like the last existing cruiser and monohul, shining blue and making big contrast to all white boats floating around.  Like a black sheep in a white sheeps crowd. We are starting to miss cruisers families and couples anchoring around . But this will be back next season:).. For sure. Even though,  we are still so  lucky  to get known a few but very nice sailors whom we hope we will meet again soon.
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PETER ISLAND CHILL OUT PLACE
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GRAIN DE SABLE CRUISING TIME!
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EPO-"ALL UNDER CONTROL":)
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ZIKA- "I FOUND A BETTER PLACE":)
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REMIS AND EGOI ...FACES SHOWS NEED SOME COLD BEER TO CHILL OUT!:)
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HAPPY OUR TIME...TIME TO BE ON SHORE
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HMM...ONE PAIN KILLER IS OK, BUT TWO WOULD BE BETTER:)
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HAPPY HOUR- HAPPY SMILES:)
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ARE WE LATE?
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FOR SOME PEOPLE PARTY IS OVER....
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SUNSET ON LONG BEACH
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TREASURE HUNTING
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MAN RETURNES HOME AFTER HUNT....
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WHITE BEACH , JOST VAN DYKE
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IN A WILD
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DOWN THE BOULDERS AT BATHS
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A SHOT!
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COMPOSITION
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A PERFECT TRIO ....
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CHEERS FROM BVI!
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    THE STORY

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