January 27, 2001
Harbour Village Marina
Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles

Greetings from Bonaire!   

We arrived here this morning, tired from the passage from Isla las Roques, but rushing into marina life here, since we just found out that many of the marina facilities, e.g. ship’s chandlery (that includes internet), laundry, etc. close by 3:00 PM this afternoon and are not open on Sunday. Supermarkets will be open, however, so we will provision here tomorrow, then it is off for a 3 ½ day sail to Cartagena, Colombia where we hope to post another message before our voyage through the remote San Blas Islands.

We have had a fantastic adventure so far with our friends, Phyllis and Richard.  They joined us in St. Lucia and sailed with us down the Grenadines to Grenada and on to Islas las Roques, a Venezuelan National Park.  The islands in this park are nature’s wonderland, with lots of wildlife--especially seabirds-and great snorkeling with numerous kinds of fishes and coral.  These islands are pristine, untouched, a virtual Paradise! 

The town of Puerto El Grande was charming, with posadas (guesthouses) decorated in bright colors and Venezuelan pangas (fishing vessels) painted bright as well.  Eco tourists are flown from the Venezuelan coast less than 90 miles away.   They then stay in the posadas, eat all their meals there, and are taken diving or snorkeling in Cats moored there for the season.  There were very few cruisers. We shared most anchorages with less than 5 yachts.   We truly have been voyaging through “the seas less traveled” and loving it. Pacific Bliss has been performing well.

We have great adventure stories and photos, which I will hopefully have time to complete during our sail to Cartagena and e-mail from there.