Harbour Village Marina
Kralendijk,
Bonaire
12.09.849N
68.17.088W

The guys cleared us into customs and immigration this morning. Apparently customs was easy but when they went to immigration, they ran into problems. Grenada had not stamped our passports the last time we were there and immigration was having a problem with that. The guys went back to customs (in the tourquise building) and got a copy of the exit document, so that immigration (in the pink building) would allow us in. It was also the first time that we had to turn in our flare guns. (We heard that you now have to turn them in Trinidad as well.)

Nicky was close enough to town to get an internet connection, so she elected to stay on board when they returned, while Dale, Gerry and I took off to check out the marina to the north of town that had fuel, propane, laundry service, showers, a pool, water and 127 volt electricity. Humm . . . That might be a problem. We’d better check out our other option at the marina at the southern end of town. Off we went across the deep blue water to the opposite end.

The southern marina didn’t seem to have an office and no one knew much about the docks. We stopped by the dive shop we found there and asked about NAUI affiliations on the island. Seems they’re all PADI. I still haven’t found my wallet that I put away for safekeeping which has my NAUI dive card in it and thought I could perhaps get a replacement copy of the dive card. Sure you can, it only takes a week to ten days.

We went back to the boat and proceeded to tear the back stateroom apart looking for the wallet. It’s got to be here somewhere. Dale said that he saw it after we took off and thought that it was in a good spot; he didn’t realize that I hadn’t been able to find it. Unfortunately, it is still in safekeeping and probably will be until we get back to unload everything.

Eventually we elected to move to the north marina, where we filled up with fuel before taking a berth along the T-dock at the end of the slips and be very careful with the 127 volt outlets. Orpailleur is about 3 feet off our stern. The rest of the day was spent scrubbing the filthy, dirty, salty, grimy boat we call the Palace. Gerry & Nicky did the same on their boat.

By 6:30 pm we were exhausted and hungry. For some crazy reason, neither one of us ate anything of substance all day long. There was a little restaurant in the marina called Vespucci that our slip neighbor suggested trying. It had excellent food. I had a shrimp and avocado salad and Dale had a lobster bisque.

We assumed that we would sleep well tonight but when we returned to the Palace, the air conditioner was already overheating. Guess we won’t be using it while we’re here. Hopefully, no damage has been done.

Photo 1: The Carribean is alive with color. This house seemed to have its fair share.

Photo 2: One of the oblisks that ships of old would be directed to by hoisting a flag with the same color.