DAY 6---BONAIRE

TO VIEW PREVIOUS POSTINGS USE THE "BLOG ARCHIVE" UNDER OUR PHOTO ON THE RIGHT.  THEN CLICK ON THE DAY OR DAYS YOU MISSED.  ALSO CLICKING ON THE PHOTOS WILL ENLARGE THEM.  I RECOMMEND THAT. 

Background/Historical Info

       Bonaire is a small island (111 sq miles) about 50 miles off the northern coast of Venezuela with a population of just over 20,000.  We will be docking at Kralendijk which is its capital.  I forgot to mention that the ABC Islands are south of hurricane alley so miss the being hit by hurricanes.  It is sunny and warm here year round and has great reefs circling the island for snorkeling and diving with a total of 86 named dive sites in Bonaire’s Marine Park.  Tourism is Bonaire’s main economy driver.  185,000 cruise passengers visit here year.

        Bonaire means “low country”.  In one area along the coast sea water comes into salt pans (inlets that are closed to the sea by a dead coral dyke).  The water is evaporated leaving behind salt.  Cargill operates solar salt production which produces 400,000 tons of industrial grade salt per year.  Cargill operates its own pier where ships are loaded with the salt.

        A Venezuelan oil company has a fuel storage and transportation terminal on Bonaire.  Its pier can accommodate very large ships.

        Currency here is the US dollar.

                          Triangle showing our location today.  82 degrees with 80% humidity.

LAST EVENING

                                           Jade just arrived from her vacation yesterday.

     This is the mussels in a wine sauce.  I had two orders and Rebecca one.  They were delicious.  

                                                         Bowl is full of my empty shells.

                                     Kadek had this R Collection cabernet ready for me.

        This the special order veal osso buco we had ordered.  It is not what we wanted.  We wanted it in a red wine sauce.  This is a tomato sauce so sent it back.  It was my error as I should have said we wanted it in a red wine sauce.

Chili, maitre'd in Compass Rose, suggested this short rib on rice would be very good and he was right.

                                                                       Key lime  pie

     I was at the theater when the doors opened at 9:00.  I got our front row seats for Linda's show.

TODAY

        We were already docked when we crawled out of bed at 6:55.  View of town from balconies is on other side of the ship today.  Our view is of water.  I was scheduled to go on a tour at 8:15 but they use the small buses here and I do not like them.  Everybody crammed on and air conditioning is questionable.  Tossed my tour ticket in the trash.

        Rebecca always orders room service breakfast but I went up to La Veranda.  I had the special (on right) with some smoked salmon, potatoes, bacon, and sausage.

            Went up to deck 12 to take some photos.  Not too far of a walk from ship to town.

                                                     Some birds were buzzing our ship.

                                                              These are the tour buses.

        This shows a net where they were catching some fish and selling them in bags.  Close up photos of this will follow.

        I could see a rain shower approaching as I took the above photos.  I went back to the suite and on the way I told folks in the elevator they may need an umbrella.  It did rain later but not for long.

        There are 3 elevators forward and 2 in the aft parts of the ship.  The center one forward has been inop for a couple days.  They are working on it this morning.

        At 9am I went down to see Jacques, the cruise consultant.  I had my credit card in hand and made deposits on a couple more cruises that he had put options on for me a few days ago.

1)  A cruise for Jeff and I (male bonding).  May 17, 2028 a 7 night cruise from San Francisco to Vancouver.  This will be on Splendor and will be in my favorite suite.

2)  Rebecca and I will be doing a couple cruises back-to-back.  November 29, 2028 Miami to Galveston then staying on for a Galveston to Galveston for a total of 23 nights.  It is on Mariner and we'll have same suite we are currently in.  Love this location.

        There are many advantages to booking cruises when on board.  One is greatly reduced deposits .

        I then did a walk in town.  Really not much to see and it was very hot and humid.  Not much wind today to cool you off.

                                      Pretty little bird.  Probably crapping on the clothes.

                                                               A bar and restaurant.                                

                                                               Water was crystal clear.

     Here's that net again that I took a photo of from the ship.  There is a diver inside the net area.

                                      The boat has hundreds of fish all flopping around.

                     Local folks lined up to buy a bag of the fish.  The fish were not real big.

        One guy had a bucket for the fish.  They were flopping around and some would even hop out of the bucket.

    The is Ketut from Bali.  He brought us out iced tea at noon for lunch in Compass Rose today.

                                            I started with a beef empanada with a chili sauce.

        I had this Caesar salad as my entree.  You can see my anchovies on the side.  It also had 5 pieces of grilled shrimp.

        As we were retuning to our suite after leaving Compass Rose we ran into Lui, the General Manager.  He was NOT very happy as one of the tour operators forgot our ship was arriving today and did not show up.  So 4 tours had to be canceled.  He had a discussion with the owner of that tour company.  So now there are many very unhappy passengers.  I think the tour I was to go on was one of the canceled ones.

         It is now 1:30 and we have just cast off from Bonaire.  We have just under 400nm to sail now before reaching our next destination at St Georges on the island of Grenada.  We are scheduled to be docked there by 1:30 tomorrow afternoon (24 hours from now).  Captain Abhi said on his departure PA that we will be experiencing 30+knot winds from the east.

        At 6:00 this evening there is a Seven Seas Society (Regent's loyalty program) cocktail reception in the theater.  Only SSS members are invited.  For some reason we did not get an invitation.  Somebody messed up!  I did speak with Jacaques about the invitation, and as I figured, apparently housekeeping did not deliver it.  It's no big deal.

        We knew it was SSS tonight as this is always the menu on that night.  One of our favorites!  We love the Mykonos salad (Greek salad), and especially, the miso-glazed sea bass.

        The show tonight is featuring the production cast doing a variety show that they have put together.

Should be good.

        Our plan for the evening is to head down to the Mariner Lounge at 5:30 for a Grey Goose martini and a chardonnay.  Then head to the theater for the SSS party at 6:00.