It has been a while since we’ve been in Bonaire. After Aruba built the big hotels 20 years ago we started going to Bonaire. In 2007 or 08 we took my mom. Then Vanessa stayed for several years.
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A good 2nd day
but I forgot gloves and have blisters now |
In 2010 we stayed for a full month with the kids doing scuba and remote schooling. Then in 2012 we did a family ABK clinic and came back with the kids one more time in 2013. Jen and I had a stay at Sorobon in 2018 and Resort Bonaire in 2019. That was 5 years ago!
So it feels great to be back.
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| Casual breakfast |
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| Familiar roadsigns |
The drive to Jibe city is always a fun one: goats eating while standing on their back legs, the salt piles off in the distance, the skidmarks from the slalom burn outs and a wide variety of vehicles from golf carts to fancy range rovers and F350s. Always interesting to see what’s happening and now there are people with a foil board in the back of their pick up trucks.
My first windsurfing runs out to the mangroves were fun. I saw a couple turtles diving which is always neat to see. I was remembering how the last two times we were in Bonaire there was sargassum and we needed weed fins. The water is really nice now and no sign of the oil spill from a couple weeks ago.
My morning session was on the Skate 108 with a NP 5.8 and that was OK after I moved up from the 5.0. But I wasn’t an huge fan of that Combat wave sail. I did get my upwind 360 in the straps completed.
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| I got going better after switching to the 5.8m sail |
After delicious crab and salmon salad sandwich I headed out on a Fantic Blast 117 and a Duotone E-Pace 6.6. Those free ride combos really accelerate nice and linearly as soon as here in a bit of wind. Give it a pump or two and you’re getting going smoothly. Quite a different feeling from the Skate where you have to pump a number of times to pop it up out of the water and get yourself going.
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| Lunch at the hangout bat |
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| Dutch coffee |
The more free ride oriented gear felt maybe a bit easier to get up wind on in that afternoon session. Although I can’t say that I’m making great upwind ground - and checking the GPS trails, I got upwind more in the morning! So generally just big W back and forth all day mowing the lawn having a good time putting some solid kilometres in.
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| Back and forth on the freeride gear |
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| Slightly better top speeds |
I did blow out a blister on my hand and have one on my finger on just day two, so I got some superglue for that in the afternoon on our big supermarket run. Dinner in the room and off to bed. Good times in Bonaire!
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