Sailing Vessel Beruta Ship's Log
Martinique - Bonaire
Friday, February 9, 2024
Initially, I had booked a mooring buoy for 5 days but my rental car broke down, and I had trouble getting either a proper refund or a replacement car. The rental company Euro Soleil Car, which was just next to the right of Eurocars in Le Marin refused to compensate me for the lost day or even half that day when the car failed. The small Peugeot car was a complete junk, with over 200k mileage and everything broken inside and outside, which should not have been rented out at all. They charged me 45 euros per day for it! Basically, I rented it for 3 days and used it only for one. So I was so disappointed that I decided to leave the island.
Moreover, the area if not the entire island, is overpopulated with thousands of boats in the bay, and the demand for food and services drives the prices up and the quality of service down. The businesses are simply spoiled by this demand. Both Auchan and Carrefour supermarkets are very expensive, and have limited selections of products.
In short, I was much more pleased with New Caledonia and Reunion than Martinique. The only joy I had was hiking and visiting the Balata Botanic Gardens. I climbed the Mountain Pele volcano, which according to Wikipedia, killed all the people (except 3 lucky persons) of St. Pierre town (around 30K) in 1902 eruption. Despite the fact that the crater is very green, and no signs of activity is visible, the volcano is considered active. Its last eruption was in 1929-1932.
I cleared out at 1PM but it took me few hours to get ready for departure. I had to stow the dinghy on the deck, washed out the outboard, cleaned the hull from some weeds that had grown during Atlantic crossing.
At 5:15PM I motored out of the bay. Around 6PM I hoisted the main and motorsailed for another hour or so to exit the wind shadow of the island. Then the wind became 9-13 kts at the stern, and I was running with the full main. Later at night I took one reef because the wind was gusting to 16 kts, and autopilot was not steering well. Perhaps, I should have switched to wind pilot instead. I did it anyway to avoid accidental gybing.
The distance to Bonaire is 475 nm. In other words, it is 4 days of sailing.
The first 3-4 hours I sailed along the coast, and had good Digicel signal. The SIM card with 5 GB data for one week cost me 39 euros. I just wanted to use it, and watched some YouTube videos, including the analysis of the Magnus Carlsen defeat by a 17-year old rising star in a rapid chess - another Boby Fisher.
Saturday, February 10, 2024
In the morning the wind calmed down a bit to around 10 kts, and I released the first reef and gybed as I was sailing 278° T instead of 254° T. XTD was over 6 nm.
Afternoon I had to gybe again.
It took as usual about 2 hours to connect to Starlink. Surprisingly, the connection was stable this time. On my way to Martinique it was telling me that the signal was obstructed and was dropping the connection every few seconds, although it did work fine after I tied to the mooring buoy. Perhaps, it had something to do with the solar flares causing a disruption to the Earth magnetosphere. It would have been nice though if Starlink had mentioned it on their website or in the app instead of inventing non-existing obstructions. Of course, one could argue that the geomagnetic storm was the obstruction.
Prior to leaving Martinique, I had inquired about a berth in one of the marinas. I got a reply that it was full of local boats and an advice to contact other marinas, which I followed. A mooring buoy costs $35 per day, which is more expensive than a berth in a marina. I also paid the new Bonaire tourist tax of $75 online.
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Around midnight I took the first reef on the main. The wind was gusting to 18 kts. It calmed down again later at night to 10-12 kts but recovered by the morning to 14-16.
At 6:00AM (UTC-4) I was about 300 nm to Bonaire.
A couple of hours after the sunrise there was a typical tropical shower with little wind and almost no wind after it for 15-20 minutes. Then the wind returned to normal.
There were a few more showers during the day. Only once I took the second reef out of precaution when the wind gusted to 20 kts. Most of the time the wind became light.
Monday, February 12, 2024
In the morning the wind shitfed to the east or even south-east and increased to 14-18 kts. I hoisted a jib, and broad reached at 6-7 kts!
In the evening the wind increased to 20 kts apparent and shifted back. I took the second reef on the main and lowered the jib. The speed dropped to 5-6 kts.
I received a reply from Harbour Village Marina asking me to fill a form and submit my passport, boat registration, insurance and credit card details including a security code authorizing them to debit it for $400 as a non-refundable deposit for a reservation. I was reluctant to email such information and asked if I could do it tomorrow afternoon when I arrive. The minimum charge for a berth is for a 40-foot boat, which is the maximum size of a berth. Basically, they charge for the berth size (same as in New Zealand, for example), not the boat one as used to be common in the Caribbean Sea. At $0.75 per foot per day on a weekly basis it is $30 per day, which still cheaper than $35 for a mooring buoy. Water is $0.10 per gallon and electricity $0.65 per kWh. The prices are excluding 6% GST.
At night, I met two boats. One was cargo that crossed my course just 0.5 nm ahead of me. The other one was probably fishing and sailed in the opposite direction 3 miles on my portside.
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Bonaire was hidden in the haze. I did not see at all until the distance became less than 3 nm.
I entered Harbour Village Marina before 1 PM. I came to the fuel dock. The marina was closed for the lunch until 1:30 PM. Nevertheless, Raul came before this time, probably seeing me waiting for him.
He greeted me and started to do the formalities. They only had a couple of berths available. The price for the berth for my size was actually the same as the price for a mooring buoy - $35 per day on a weekly basis. Once we finished the paper work, I moved to my berth and cycled to the customs. They actually relocated temporarily to the Tax Office building. I found them using the Google Map. Because I used SeaClear system, it only took a couple of minutes to do customs. Unfortunately, I had to cycle to the airport to do the immigration. It took a few minutes more once I arrived to the airport security desk.
I returned to the marina at 5 PM. Now I need to rent a car, which seems to be a big problem as the most of cars are sold out.
All pictures from Bonaire, the old ones from a previous visit and the new ones are on Google Photos.