Once bitten twice shy

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From Las Aves, we faced a great day sail across to Bonaire. The winds were in our favour and we hauled out the asymmetrical (the colourful bit up front for the benefit of my book club friends and other land folk) and romped across the Caribbean sea with great flair.

Its quite a job to get the asymmetrical up  but Chris and Alan took on the challenge with gusto and we raced along at close to 11 knots every now and then. 

The colourful thingy up front.

Bonaire is a diver’s paradise and the authorities are fanatical about preserving the environment for the tourists who sustain the island economy. No anchoring is permitted so we took up one of the especially provided moorings close to the town centre.

 The snorkeling just below the boat looked really inviting and in fact 25 years ago when we were here on Legend 1, I was surprised (to put it mildly…I nearly walked on water to get out of its way) by a massive whale shark while snorkeling alongside the boat in this same spot.

We were to be denied the pleasure of diving Bonaire however….we arrived at Customs and Immigration on Monday morning and were told that as South African citizens, we need visas for Bonaire . We have 5 year Schengen visas which have been  thus far been valid for all the European islands in the Carribean…but Bonaire is a law unto itself it seems.

We were handled rudely and  peremptorily by a huge lady…also packing a large pistol…seems the uglier these officials are..the bigger the gun ..who told us that we had to leave the country in the next hour!!

She was totally unmoved by any of our explanations as to how it is impossible to get visas for Bonaire in any of the destinations we had visited thus far and we  were totally under the impression that Schengen visas would be valid, etc. …beg, plead, get annoyed, give up….

“Schengen visas are for Europe, “she stated firmly..”this is not Europe..you need a visa for Bonaire”

“Where do we get the visa for Bonaire?” we enquired politely…eyes on the gun….

“In the Netherlands, in Europe “..she replied..totally unaware of the irony.

She capitulated somewhat when the pleading phase included a reference to the fact that we had been at sea for 10 days and had no food, fuel or water on board and we may have to invoke maritime law to allow us to stay long enough to re provision.

Who knows what Maritime law really says but she paused momentarily in her diatribe and gave us another 3 hours before she would send the marine police to remove us.

This ghastly woman reminded me of the fact that when we were in Bonaire all those years ago,  (when in fact there had been no problems with immigration in spite of the fact that South Africans were persona non grata on virtually all the other Carribean islands) I was bitten by a dog…a nasty little cur that tore a hole in my calf…perhaps that should have been a message to us to stay clear of this island…lots of  unfriendly natives!

Alan working out the quickest route out of Bonaire