We left Martinique under perfect conditions. The new spinnaker pole was absolutely worth the waiting. Thanks to the pole we were able to sail in a direct line towards our waypoint without jibing in a zigzag line as we had to do on our Atlantic crossing. The 450nm mile crossing took us less three days to arrive in beautiful Bonaire. The colour and crystal clearness of the water there is just amazing.
We stopped in Bonaire to await a weather window for the Columbian cost. The Columbian cost is notorious for its fierce winds and a sailor often is faced with more the 30kts of wind. Many of our cruising friends encountered strong winds here and some of our crew said that there is never less than 30kts here. The waiting turned out to be a success on many aspects.
Bonaire was really a fantastic place to stop. We went to a nice restaurant on Sunday night and met a family from Germany on a boat called HUMMEL. Jaël and Gesine, their girl, got along well together right from the start and we decided to go snorkelling together the next day. So we checked out Klein Bonaire by snorkelling. It was the best underwater world we had seen so far in the Caribbean! All sorts of beautiful corals and a lot of coloured fishes.
Even at the mooring buoy the water was so clear that André could dive after the scissors that Amina had thrown into the water while I was cutting her hair. At 12 meters down it was a bit of a free dive. The scissors needed a polish afterwards and Jaël took the chance to “correct” Amina’s haircut early in the morning, while we were still sleeping…
Finally we stayed 5 nights in Bonaire. By then the wind around the cape of Cartagena had calmed down. We had perfect conditions! Sailing from Bonaire to Panama with no more than 20tks of wind, very enjoyable, unusual conditions. The weather routing worked out perfect. We decided to go to Panama first and do the San Blas Islands only if we would have to wait longer for the channel passage. Thanks to the excellent planning with the stop over in Bonaire and our fantastic new crew members Mauro and Audrey the crossing of the Caribbean sea turned out to be the most relaxed passage so far.
The skipper was happy about the fast passage and I enjoyed the comfort that Jaël and Amina had two additional crew members to play with.
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