Bonaire Trip Report

From: Chris Kogelnik (kogelnik@gomer.esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis)
Date: Tue Jan 16 1996 - 20:27:29 PST

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Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 20:27:29 -0800
From: kogelnik@gomer.esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis (Chris Kogelnik)
Message-Id: <199601170427.UAA21990@gomer.esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis>
To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
Subject: Bonaire Trip Report

Since it's never too late, Happy New Year!

I spent a fabulous two weeks, from Dec 19 to Jan 1, in Bonaire, part of the
Netherlands Antilles, just north of Venezuela. Life is there is very
relaxed, and uncrowded. I encounter more traffic pulling out of my
driveway going to work in the morning, than the entire time on Bonaire.
Traffic there is defined as avoiding a few wild goats and donkeys on the way
to a successful daily shred pilgrimage.

We stayed in Kralendijk (krall-en-dike) at the Sunset Beach Hotel in a bungalow
on the water. This was the leeward side of the island, Lac Bay, which is
the best windsurfing spot on the island, is on the other side, about a 15
minute drive in a glorified golf cart van, which would be my nomination for
the ultimate dirtbag shred-mobile if it came with a cool paint job.

The first thing any windsurfer would notice is the wind: it never stopped
blowing, night or day. Winds were strongest in the morning and late afternoon,
and the trades never dropped below 12 knots. This made the 80+ temperature very
pleasant. Deciding when to sail was simple, just go. I sailed 9 of 12 days,
typically in 15-18 knots, with a few 20+ days due to clearing winds. Twice
I sailed in the rain, which was a great experience, and the wind was
stronger as well.

Lac Bay is about 2 square miles of totally clear water with a reef on the
outside, nothing radical. The reef creates ideal slalom conditions,
with some chop when it's cranking. On the north side of the bay there
is a channel through the reef and I did get some nice 4 foot wave rides in.
The rest of the reef is unsailable, and it's best to stay away as random
coral heads loom just underneath the surface. To find the channel, sail to
the large white piles near the mangroves, which are the conch killing
fields (there is a restaurant specializing in conch at the point, and they
just dump the shells onto ever growing 20ft high piles).

The area just off of Jibe City and Roger's (of Aruba) is where most people
hang out to learn. It's waist deep for about a quarter mile and only again
on the other side. Most people did not venture very far, so for the
first week I really had the place to myself, except for some locals who
worked at the rental places. Jibe City had a wide selection of boards
to choose from, much more than in their ads. Roger's just opened and had
brand new Mistral boards and Naish sails. I never did find Windsurfers
Castle. The guys at Rogers were great. I brought my stuff, which wasn't
a problem, except when trying to leave. The plane was changed from a jet
to a puddle jumper to fly to Curacao, and the airline said my bags were
too big. I got screwed and had to ship the stuff home, but in a way
it worked out better since going through the customs maze in Miami with all
that stuff would have been a real pain.

The water was so incredibly clear, so clear that most people's bathtub water
would be put to shame. Not to mention that the water temperature was in the
upper 70's. Given my phobia of large underwater inhibitants that refuse to
recognize that I am at the top of the food chain, I was spooked a number of
times while on a blazing reach only to see a large dark object match my
speed *below* me. Turns out it was only the shadow of the board and sail on
the bottom, up to 20 ft down!

Some days I sailed as much as 6 hours. We're not talking nuking conditions,
but enough to keep it interesting, the hands and legs sore and the
wonderful sound of epoxy skipping over water ringing in my ears. With that
much time on the water, my hands really took a beating. Gloves helped, but
they also wore the skin down in other areas. Bring a windskin to avoid
sunburn.

I finally became a competent jiber, with success being measured by how
aggresive the turn was, I even nailed a duck jibe. My only excuse for missing
a jibe was being distracted by the visitors of the nudie resort as they tried
to haul themselves up onto a floating dock right in line with the "look through
the sail" part of completing a jibe.

The windsurfing was great, but the diving was even better. Snorkling
was easy to find as well. It was a most excellent vacation. Next time you
don't know where to go, check out Bonaire.

Chris

Next message: Robert Novak: "Costa Rica: Lake Arenal report"
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