Askari Sailing: Destination Bonaire

This whole season floating around mostly in places we have been before has really all been about Bonaire - Bon Bonaire one of of the places we dreamed of going back to when we built Askari. When we left Cuba last year and went back to the USA it was all because it's really hard to sail from the West end of Cuba to Bonaire - so we took a big tack north then east and now we can sail downwind to Bonaire.....

The blog has been a bit neglected I'm afraid to say but going to sea again and actually feeling like we are on an adventure and not shore dwellers always inspires me.

Askari looks like she ready for a hug or an ocean passage!?!

Andrew and I learned to dive in Bonaire in 2006, and even though we have since dived all over the world from the Galapagos, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia the Philippines and of course Indo, we have always dreamed of going back to where it all started. As we have our own compressor and dive gear on Askari and previously have been lucky enough to dive from amazing private yachts and resorts we have never bothered to take any more classes - yes we are the PADI open water divers with over 1000 dives.... we may well rectify that with some more courses but definitely a lot more diving.

Our Dive Cards

So today we loaded our liferaft back on Askari in Clarks Court Grenada, after a service and comprehensive inspection by Sea Safety Service, this included getting to see it inflated and reviewing all the contents. Donal and his team were very professional. Then we set about readying our girl for an ocean passage to Bonaire. We have loved our time in Grenada however it's definitely time for us to leave the Eastern Caribbean and start heading West again.

Donal shows us all the features of our life raft

Never want to see this again

We realised we actually have not sailed downwind in the trades since we crossed the Atlantic in 2016 so decided we should run everything in harbour and go for a practise. We run a halyard to the end of our spinnaker pole and lead the genoa sheet through the end of the pole. We then ran for and aft guys, this means we can leave the pole in place and furl the sail and it is a really safe stable set up when running downwind. We then place a gybe preventer on our main sail and if we keep the tension perfect we can furl and un furl our main sail when running down wind. It takes a while to get it all set up and check for chafe points and clear runs but we know this is going to be so easy to manage when we get out in the ocean with just the two of us. We also run safety jack stays on the deck and securely wrap up the dinghy in her cover with cross straps and padding.

This all done we decided we would take a gentle sail along the south coast of Grenada to check we were happy. It was then that Andrew gave the engine a look over and realised we had a weeks worth of washing up water in the bilge under the engine. Yay, greasy soapy water lapping under the floor. Andrew quickly realised it was the sink pump out that was leaking and set about pulling it apart while I grabbed another pump and a lot of fairy liquid. Yes the diaphragm in the pump was split but we had a spare and Andrew had it rebuilt in an hour about the same time as it took me to clean up the mess - I get all the glamorous jobs! (No pictures of that yuck).

We finally got our little sail in and all was perfect but we decided we would have a rest before leaving early hours of tomorrow morning. It's a bit hard to judge how long this passage will take - between two and three days. We are expecting good conditions and I will post an update from Sailmail on the way if I can.

See ya Grenada - Askari smells of nutmeg and we have many happy memories - more pics to come later.....