Bill, Mary & kids

Meredith, Mary, Bill, & Brendan in Curacao

January 17 - January 30, 2003

Bill and Mary and their 2 delightful children Meredith and Brendan decided to escape the depths of the Northwest winter to come visit us in Paradise.  Since Mary home-schools the children, they didn't have to wait for school vacations.  Like us, they decided that the trip was a "field trip" for the kids, and qualified as school.

The plane from Puerto Rico to Bonaire was delayed so they didn't arrive until after midnight.  Jon picked them up at the airport, walked them across the street, piled everything in Tomcat (our dinghy), and drove them the couple miles across the bay to Ocelot.  Brendan reckoned that this midnight dinghy ride was just the coolest thing!

Tuesday and Wednesday we rented a car and toured the island.  Sue's back was still giving her fits, so she stayed on Ocelot Tuesday, and the rest of us had firm instructions to photograph all birds seen, which included many pink flamingos.  Much of the interior of Bonaire is pretty dry and scrubby, but our excellent (if slow) lunch was at a delightfully cool oasis in Rincon.  We checked out some caves, the windmills that power much of the salt-works, and the lighthouse at the bottom of the island.  That evening 3 boats got together on the catamaran 5^th Season for a night of music making and feasting.  A typically delightful cruising evening.  Wednesday afternoon saw us back out on Klein Bonaire snorkeling and exploring.

Thursday we sailed to Curacao - our only sail, but it was a goodie.  We started by putting up full sail on a broad reach and zipping past the rich folks houses in the brisk wind and flat water.  Then we set course for Curacao, doused the jib, and put up the spinnaker.  Bill was having a delightful time, grinning from ear to ear as we thundered along.  One humorous note is that Bill's sailboat is steered with a tiller, which is pushed in the opposite direction from where you want to go.  This proved interesting when Bill was on the helm.