On February 1, we were starting to recover from disaster central, and we even felt we were getting close to even with where we had been on January 1! After working on the boat all day, we were sitting in the aft cockpit having a drink. Joanne came out on her foredeck. We called over to her and invited her over for a quick drink. So, she came over and had a drink with us. She is friends with a boat that had gone to Margarita, and had had a bad experience there which she had wanted to tell us about and this proved to be a good opportunity to do just that. We got to talking about, not only what happened in Margarita, but how Ken was doing (he was back in the States), and pretty much everything under the sun. Mike and I were starting to get hungry, so we invited her to have dinner with us. I had made the sauce and meatballs that morning, and everything had been simmering since the morning. It was the first time I tried to make meatballs, so we warned her that spaghetti and meatballs might turn into peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She was game, and we had a great dinner. Late in the evening, she returned to her boat.
On February 4, Joanne invited us and Patti and Mike from Galadriel over for dinner. Mike and Mike sat in the main saloon talking while Patti, Joanne and I were in the galley, talking about the various renovations that Ken and Joanne had made to their boat while they were in Puerto La Cruz a month earlier. With dinner in the oven, Joanne, Patti and I joined Mike and Mike in the main saloon for an appetizer of a spicy sharp cheese with almost a Bruschetta topping that was perfect on crackers. We had a great evening and stayed up, once again, way to late.
On February 7, we invited Gail from Precocious Gale and Joanne from Rusty Bucket to join us for dinner at the pizza place. Since Gail's daughter Ashley was going to have dinner on Tween, another boat with children, we had an adult's night out. With Ray in Venezuela and Ken in the States, we were down a few people. Then, the big topic of discussion revolved around the concept of the adults night out. Joanne and Gail were trying to figure out which of us (Mike or me) should be left behind so it would be a true adult's night out. It was a great evening out having pizza, and then we returned to Nightwinds for a nightcap. It was the earliest we had gotten to bed in a week or so. Everyone left around 11:30 pm!
On February 8, Joanne and I went diving. It was the first time the two of us dove together. It was a great experience. That evening, we invited Gail, Ashley and Benny from Tween over for dinner. After dinner was over, Gail, Mike and I sat outside talking while Benny and Ashley watched a movie. Joanne was returning home after an evening out, and heard voices on our boat, and saw the lights still on. She came over to say hi, and we invited her aboard for a drink or two. Once again, we stayed up way to late! We must have been up talking until 3:00 am!
On February 10, Lula, one of the waitresses at the Lost Penguin invited a bunch of us over to her house for some tipico Bonairian food. Sea Swallow, Natural Selection, It's Good, and us. Florine, another person who works at the Lost Penguin, as well as Ton and Renotta came as well. It was a fun evening. On our way back to the boat, we invited Sea Swallow and It's Good to join us for a night cap. After everyone went home, we headed out to the City Cafe, we weren't ready to go to bed yet! We ran into a friend we haven't seen since August. Infact, we thought he had left the island. He is in the process of opening his own restaurant. We spent the rest of the night (literally) catching up with him.
On Monday, February 16, Cape Katherine arrived with Tim and Ray aboard.
On February 17, we went to dinner with Tim from Cape Katherine and Ray, Gail and Ashley from Precocious Gale. Afterwards, we went back to Nightwinds for drinks.
On February 18, we had a list of things that we wanted to accomplish. We headed out in the dinghy in the morning to start working on our list. We stopped by Rusty Bucket, and they invited us aboard. Ken had returned from the States, so we spent some time catching up with him. Before we knew it, it was lunch time and Joanne invited us to stay for lunch. So, Joanne and I went to the galley and prepared personal pizzas while Mike and Ken continued talking in the main saloon. After that, our day was pretty much over, so we went back to the boat and took a nap since we were going to the movies with Precocious Gale and Cape Katherine.
On February 19, The boat is ready to go, we are ready to go and we are still waiting/hoping to get our UPS, package with our replacement hard drive. We know that Customs is off of strike, and packages are moving. It's just a matter of time for the backlog to clear up we assume and hope. Otherwise it's call Dell again and have them re-send it. Unless you have received packages outside of the US or Europe it is hard to imagine what getting a package in can be like. While a lot of the time it works as expected, there are the other times that you just have to wonder how anything ever gets to where it's going. With packages being sent all over the world because people working at the shippers just don't know that islands in the Caribbean are not in Europe, Africa or Australia. Sometimes something that should arrive in 1 to 2 weeks will be 4 to 6 weeks getting here. Needless to say, it didn't arrive!
On February 20, we had dinner on Precocious Gale. It was a fun evening, and an opportunity to try some new recipes. I made a middle eastern eggplant salad that was good, but a little to sweet for my taste, and pumpkin soup that was fantastic. Gail tried a new recipe that turned out very well.
On Saturday February 21, we met Susan and Lisa for lunch. It was a fun afternoon.
On February 22, the carnival parade was going on. Renotta closed the Lost Penguin and had a private party. So, at around noon, I headed downtown to watch the parade along with the other invited guests. It was a fun afternoon watching the floats, costumes and listening to the music.
On February 23, we called Dell to have them reship the hard drive to Curacao. After a lot of hassle, we finally got them to reship and then we checked out of Bonaire.
On February 24, we moved the boat from Bonaire to Curacao. It was a fairly pleasant trip, though there wasn't enough wind to sail. On our way, we passed Karen on Oscarina who was headed back to Bonaire. We were anchored by noon, so we had a fast trip.
On February 25, we checked in to Curacao and made our customary stop at McDonalds for lunch. That evening, Marine Technical Trading dropped off our batteries.
On February 26 and 27 we replaced our 12 volt battery bank. It is so nice to have a working battery bank again!
We spent the next two days doing light work since we were a little sore from dealing with our batteries.