Visited friends and ABC Islands

It has been awhile since my last blog and my life has been threaten by some of you if I don't come across with a blog update. So here it is.

The internet connection is slow, as usual, so the number of photos attached may be limited.

Life has had very high moments and very low moments since the last blog. On the high side I have two sailing buddies, Bill and Bob, from back home that flew down to Grenada to sail with me for a couple of weeks. We island hoped north to St Lucia island enjoying the sights and food along the way. On one island we enjoyed Lobster pizza. That's correct, lobster pizza. Eat your heart out. On another island we enjoyed a huge lobster dinner for $25 each and yet on another island a great fish dinner and on and on. We of course did our fair share of drinking. All in all we had a great time.

When people visit or crew for me I have a policy that everyone shares in the cooking and cleaning. Learning of this, Bill said he was not a very good cook compared to Bob and I. Bill did fine, making several breakfasts and one great dinner. Bob and I did have our doubts however. Bill making breakfast one morning surprised us with his cooking talent. In the galley there was a plastic bottle of dish soup and a plastic bottle of corn oil. The color of the liquids were similar. I found out as I was the first to taste his cooking that he had used the soap as oil by mistake. Now one would think that squeezing the soup out of the bottle would have been a clew since the cooking oil is poured from the bottle. I was blowing bubbles all day. The three of us got a lot of laughs over this.

A great anchorage

El tres amigos

An island atop of sea shells. A great place to drink

Wonderful sunset with Dolce Vita awaiting our return

Another great anchorage

Bill and Bob. I called them the BB twins

What can I say

Bill and Bob flew back home from St Lucia. I was sad to see them leave. Now it was time for me to plan a three day voyage to the ABC islands. Bonaire being the first island I landed on but first I have to regress to something I forgot to share. This is on the low side. Three days before Christmas I went to the emergency room at a private hospital in Grenada. I had a very serious infection in my left lower leg. I was hoping that they would shoot me in the butt with something and send me home to rest for a few day. The doctor said, Son you are going to enjoy your stay here in our hospital for 1 - 3 days. They put an IV on me and shot me with meds 4 times a day. I went back to the boat after they released me and took medicine for the next 15 days. The infection is gone but what remains is a swollen leg that is slowly returning to its normal size. I was satisfied that this was behind me and I can get back to a normal routine if there is such a thing. What's next? Kidney stone...Damn this was discovered in Bonaire and now I had to look forward to pain that makes child birth seem like a picnic. Lucky for me I passes the stone with NO pain at all. Other than a few problems with my boat, that are now hopefully fixed, life is good.

The ABC islands.. Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba belong to the Dutch. I am now on Curacao and will be sailing over night tomorrow to Aruba were I will remain until there is a 5 day window of fair winds and seas to sail to Panama. Panama is 800 miles from Aruba.

Photos of this years Carnival parade in Bonaire. Much smaller than last years carnival in Grenada.

This is from a youth sailing club that was on shore from my anchorage in Bonaire

These are two very wonderful people I met in Bonaire. Both Eddy and Katie were worried about my kidney stone and suggested that the two boats sail together to Curacao where Katie could jump on my boat if the stone passed while underway. This was not necessary as the stone passed before we left. They both live in Germany. Eddy is German and Katie is Irish. Can you imagine the arguments that they can get into? This photo is taken at an all exclusive resort. All other resorts as this one require those that are renting a room to where a bracelet. This place doesn't have that policy so even as we tried to give them money, they said it was included in our room. So what do normal sailors do when presented with this opportunity,,,, we drink and eat for free. We spent many afternoon here.

I decided to sell Dolce Vita and buy this boat. Photo taken from shore in Curacao.

I am going to take photos of the water front in town but won't be able to get them in this blog since I am preparing to sail off to Aruba today. I promise to get them in my next blog before sailing off to Panama.

So in the mean time, as always, be safe out there.

Denny on Dolce Vita