November 01-6, 2003 -- The Bonaire Rush

November 1-6, 2003 -- The Bonaire Rush We left Curacao bright and early on November 1. We had a fast, comfortable trip back to Bonaire. The wind had just enough of a northerly component to it for us to motor sail with our staysail and main. We arrived in Bonaire in time to have a late lunch at the Lost Penguin with Precocious Gale. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. On November 2, We had a wind reversal! Wind reversals occur in Bonaire for several different reasons. The biggest reason is that during the summer months, the trade winds drop down to nothing, and thunderstorms along the Venezuelan coast build up and cause the wind to blow out of the west. Of course, when tropical systems go by, they will also cause wind reversals in Bonaire. This wind reversal was because of no wind and thunderstorms. We left the mooring at 5:30 AM and motored around for 3 hours until things calmed down. The reversal itself was over by this time, but the resulting sloppy seas were causing us to roll back and forth, so we figured that we would be more comfortable motoring slowly. Ken, Joanne and their guests on Rusty Bucket were getting ready to head for breakfast when we came back to the mooring field. They graciously helped us back on the mooring, and then went to breakfast. I had already decided that I wasn't cooking, so we showered and then headed in to the Lost Penguin for breakfast where we met up with Rusty Bucket and their guests and had breakfast together. Once we got back to the boat, we did a few odds and ends. On November 3 we worked on provisioning the boat for heading through the Aves and Roques. We didn't need to purchase much in the way of food, but we did need to make sure that we would have enough cigarettes for 2 months. We weren't sure what kind of provisions we could get in Grand Roque and we weren't taking any chances. We took a break from provisioning to change the exhaust elbow on the Northern Lights generator on November 4. That was a fun experience since one of us (me) had to work with arms completely extended trying to get the exhaust hose on to the elbow while the other one (Mike) had to work crouched down, hunched over to get the hose clamps tightened up and then work the elbow assembly on to the stud mounts without loosing the gasket! Finally at the end of the day on November 5, our meat order came in. We had been warned that this would probably happen, so that morning we went out to the Warehouse Store to purchase the fresh stuff we wanted, as well as a few last minute odds and ends. We returned to the boat to put everything away and get it ready to move. Gail and Ashley dropped by to say good bye and to give us half a cheese cake, and then Karen dropped by to give us some of her famous pumpkin soup. On November 6, we left Bonaire at 5:00 am AST to head to Sotavento in the Aves. When we got close enough, we called Carol and Ashley on Blind Date to find out where they were. We met up with them at Long Island, which is kind of a misnomer since the island is only about 150 feet long and 40 feet wide! The holding wasn't great there, so it took us 2 attempts to get anchored securely. But, once that was done, Carol, Ashley and I headed out to do a little bit of snorkeling while Mike stayed on the boat to nap.