Life continues to be peaceful and relaxing, with this month seeing Stephen and Debbie increase their confidence with their diving. Bonaire boasts 103 dive sites that can be visited by dinghy or from the beach. Diving involves putting together lots of bits of kit, it's heavy, the tanks require filling before every dive, masks need to be cleaned and tightened, otherwise you spend your dive constantly clearing your mask, and continuous checking with weird hand signals under water.

There is a lot to remember but after a few dives this becomes second nature with the bonus of having a good buddy with you throughout. We dive independently from organised groups as we prefer the freedom of doing our own thing. Stephen is the boss under water but we work together well as a team. Sometimes equalisation as you descend is a painful problem but taking the descent slowly, while constantly equalising, has increased our enjoyment of each dive. Debbie is not the strongest swimmer on the planet but underwater it is quite a different matter. The world underneath the waves is mind blowing; the colours that can never be matched on a paint palette together with the shapes of the various coral and the huge variety of fish, it’s a delight for each dive. We normally limit our descent to 25 metres and we try to stay within those parameters although occasionally Debbie descends a little deeper as she has seen something or needs to play around with her weights or is just loving it. 

Highlights of our dives are sighting;

sea snakes, although some Bonarians say they don't exist and that we saw a Sand Eel

a huge Spotted Moray Eel gulping water to aid respiration  

two enormous Green Moray eels one which swam past us and along the coral wall and another that Debbie nearly swam into and at the last minute saw it's huge head sticking out of it's rocky hole. The body of this creature was curled around coral outcrops and appeared to go on forever

majestic Lionfish which are venomous, fast producing fish that are aggressive feeders, consuming everything and anything. They can wipe out most of a reef habitat and destroy the fragile balance of the coral reef ecosystem. They are not indigenous to the Caribbean and indicate the fragility of nature when faced with introduced species. Spear guns require a special licence so there is occasionally an organised lion fish hunt so then it starts to appear on the local restaurant menus. They are amazing to eat.....moist and succulent although they need to be prepared carefully by someone who knows what they're doing, removing the poisonous spines 

cute Burrfish

crocodilian looking Cornetfish

huge Tuna and Wahoo which sweep past. In this part of the world the fish come to you, swimming straight for your mask and looking as if to say "what are you doing here?" 

Trigger and Parrot fish which are some of the largest we've seen and their colouration is magnificent

a Lobster big enough to feed four

the occasional small turtle 

We are still hunting for the elusive sea horses and frog fish. 

Debbie has always loved skiing but the diving as a pleasurable exercise has certainly taken over. One of the nicest times has been when we've dived with our friends, Leo and Paul and more recently with Ed and Elizabeth. The beauty of diving from the back of the boat has made this pastime very safe and enjoyable, with beers shared afterwards and exclaims of "did you see that?" or "what was that," often referring to our books for identification or complete confusion. An indication of the improvement of our diving is demonstrated by our tank full of air now lasting 60 minutes against 40 minutes when we first started diving here. Our dive computers pretty consistently tell us no flying so folks we're not off anywhere soon!

On top of the waves we continue to be amazed by the Pelicans. Huge ungainly birds who plummet from great heights and make enormous splashes when fishing. It is surprising they catch anything. These comical birds have a great relationship with the local fishermen, often cadging a ride back to the shore on their boats, hand fed leftovers from gutting the fish and announcing to the whole bird community that fish has been caught and is about to be landed! Feisty terns who are expert fishermen steaming away from enormous Frigate birds who are always after an easy meal. The tern normally wins and makes a huge amount of noise for such a small creature. Flamingoes, daintily stepping in the shallows with their knobbly knees, turning their bulbous beaks upside down to comb the seabed for scrummy snacks to keep their plumage pink.

Alas the diving had to go on hold for a week due to the fact that our generator was playing up again despite a service, various replacements, cleaning, readjustments, advice from the bar and Stephen's bedtime reading of the generator manual! Eventually it died and we were forced to come into the small marina to refuel and moor alongside Babe to discover the problem. Once again the housing was removed and adorned the rest of the boat. Stephen got down and dirty plus very sweaty with yet another replacement and hey presto it started up first time and continues to do so for the present. Stephen got away for the first time without taking chunks out of his ex accountant hands but Debbie still has grime under her nails as chief polisher of the generator housing. Eddie Scougall from the OWR would be proud of us. Maybe we have eliminated everything now and it will behave but once we get to Curaçao the Westerbeke agents will be contacted and we'll get the experts to give it a once over.

We have boat hopped enjoying meals, drinks and fun with Babe and Bubbles, putting the world to rights, taking the mickey out of one another, helping with various jobs but generally having a brilliant time. Leo, Karin, Trish and Paul are with their families as we speak and Crazy Daisy are about to join us.

Leo and Paul hired a pickup on the island and were very generous with either taking us out, going to the supermarket or allowing us to use it. With the shopping, bags of wine and boxes of beer in the back we looked like a bunch of Hillbillies. The novelty in the truck is the key ring which is a bottle opener.......what does that say about drink/driving?

We completed our tour of Bonaire by travelling to the north of the island to visit the Washington Slagbaii National Park, the oldest settlement on the island. It is a nature sanctuary for the safe habitat of endemic and endangered species such as the parrots, flamingoes, parakeets, iguanas, other birds and reptiles. The beaches within it's confines are important nesting grounds for all four species of sea turtles. We witnessed the immense force of the sea by visiting a blow hole close to the sandy road that meanders through the park. Cacti instead of trees adorn a moonscape view. Every now and again you expect to see Cowboys and Indians charging around the corner. It could make a spectacular movie set. We ate local food outside the second largest town on the island, Rincon, freshly cooked with local ingredients.

Bonaire boasts the only cactus distillery making vodka so Paul, Ed, Stephen and Debbie went off to taste the local hooch. The sampling included various rums, whisky and vodka. With the exception of the Whisky it was all pretty good and we did come away with two rum variations and a black pepper vodka.

That same afternoon, Debbie's phone started ringing.....most unusual. This was a portent for either very good or bad news. This was amazing news as Jon was phoning to say he had been offered a fully funded PhD at Bangor University to study environmental fragility due to climate change, natural and man made disasters. Jon, you will correct us on this one, please leave a message! That's Jon sorted out for the next three and a half years.

We have developed a liking for the famous Passionfruit Mojitos made by the lovely Charlotte at Zazu's bar. The huge passionfruits come from Venezuela and due to the troubles there sometimes the bar runs out. Stephen has made them on board, making homemade sugar syrup and liberally pouring the Havana Club to give it some oomph. The boys tried out the Jameson's Mojitos which are sublime and this is from a man who doesn't like Whiskey! Watch out Clive, Ju, Wendy and Peter as we're trying them out on you in January.  On a sad note, Thornton, Debbie's fluffy friend died earlier this month. Poor Peri is missing him despite, as Ju would say, terrorising him whilst he was alive. Thornton will be missed but we have lovely memories and great photographs of him to cherish. 

Towards the end of June it was our good friend Jane's 50th birthday (whippersnapper) and we sent greetings for her birthday as only the Amelies know how. She was reborn on her day which caused hysterics back here.

Culinary wise this island has a lot to offer from the best restaurants to simple cafe food with exceptional service, for the Caribbean!. There are many restaurants to choose from and we already have some favourites.

We have introduced our Dutch friends to traditional British cooking, Roast beef with all the trimmings and cottage pie but unfortunately they missed out on the fish and chips on Babe, freshly caught Dorado, delicious. Likewise we have dined on Dutch fare aboard Bubbles.

We continue to make friends with all too often swift goodbyes as people move on, to our German friends, Kai and Andrea, we hope to see you on some ocean sometime. 

The saddest thing in July is that Stephen managed to drown our underwater camera and is now searching a Canon S100 replacement. We did have a spare but this died in Anguilla and despite taking it back to the UK we are unable to get it fixed. So no more underwater photographs for the moment.

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