During the last few days we fell into a nice routine: I worked on my translations in the morning, while Christian did maintenance jobs on Pitufa. In the afternoon we packed our dive gear into the dinghi and explored the dive sites in the vicinity. With the wind blowing between 20 and 25 knots (gusting up to 30) we didn’t dare taking our small dinghi with its 3.5 hp outboard too far out 
Today we’ll clear out, do another dive and then get Pitufa into “passage mode” (with everything stowed away safely + declattered). Tomorrow we’ll hop over 35 nm to the next island of the ABC: Curacao.
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2012
04
Jun
Last day on Bonaire
2012
31
May
Diving again!
I wasn’t really in the mood for writing any posts last week, because I damaged my ears on our second dive, got a “don’t stick your head under the water for 1 week” from the doctor and had to watch from the surface while everybody else had a good time in Bonaire’s underwater wonderland… Yesterday I tried going down for the first time again and everything went right–I’m so relieved… We dived right underneath the boat and discovered that we have a new pet–there’s a giant moray leel living right between our mooring blocks 
Our cruiser friends left this morning for Curacao but we’ll stay a few days longer and do some more diving.
2012
28
May
Bonaire photos!
The promised pics are online now:
Bonaire
We stayed two weeks on a mooring next to Kralendijk's sea front. Along the coast are superb dive and snorkel sites that can easily be reached by dinghy and some are just around the moorings. The Washington-Slagbaai national park in the north-west of Bonaire is a must see. May 2012.
(30 photos)
2012
26
May
Land of the cactus
We hired a car (or rather something in-between an SUV and a truck) yesterday and visited the Washington-Slagbaai National Park in the Northwest of Bonaire. We didn’t expect too much at first since the island is rather dry and barren. Then we were surprised how stunning, bizarre, almost overwhelming the landscape of this island can be. Pics will come soon so you can see for yourself. We encountered colourful lizards, iguanas, as-pink-as-it-gets flamingos, parrots, pelicans, wild donkeys and goats, …
2012
19
May
Crystal-clear water
Crystal-clear water, healthy corals, and plenty of reef fish make Bonaire a diver’s paradise. We went diving yesterday and again today; had quite splashy dinghy rides to get there and back
2012
17
May
Bonaire ahead
It’s always magic when an island appears on the horizon after a few days on the blue disc. It seems we’ll make landfall before sunset.
2012
16
May
160 nm to Bonaire
We’re sailing along with 6 knots on now rather calm seas, staying about 25 nm north of the Venezuelan Antilles. Initially we wanted to spend a while exploring these islands, but unfortunately we’ve heard plenty of piracy reports + rumours around them recently and decided not to take any risks. As only 160 nm of 400 nm remain, we hope to reach Bonaire tomorrow before nightfall (if the wind picks up a bit…).
2012
15
May
Sailing westwards again
We left Grenada yesterday in the evening for Bonaire. First few miles not much wind, but then it freshened up and we are making about 6 knots. It’s a quite rolly passage with the seas from abeam/astern.
2012
10
May
Our boatyard experience
After a year in the water Pitufa was in desperate need of a new antifouling, the Hempel Alusafe we had put on in Croatia just wasn’t up to the critters that populate Caribbean waters (even though we had scraped off barnacles and algae weekly). Additionally we wanted to check why our steering was getting stiffer and stiffer. On the Atlantic crossing it had started squeaking so alarmingly that we didn’t dare going much further without checking it. We compared boatyard prices in Grenada, the ABC islands and Columbia and decided on hauling out at Grenada Marine in St. David’s Harbour in the Southeast corner of Grenada. They don’t only offer a reasonable price, but also allow yachties to work in the yard themselves. Picking Grenada marine turned out to be a wise decision, because when we had Pitufa on the hard we discovered more and more jobs that had to be done and they have a huge staff of workmen who dealt expertly with all our problems.
We hauled out Pitufa on April 17, 2012, and immediately started working on our two main projects: rudder and antifouling. In order to take off the rudder Christian first had to unmount the skeg–not so easy with bolts hidden in a thick layer of filler.
After digging out the bolts with the angle grinder, taking off the skegg was quite simple, but the rudder shaft was so stuck in the bearings that heavy measures were required. After half a day of hammering, wiggling and shoving it finally came off and revealed what had been the problem: an elaborate, double, self-aligning roller bearing. The head of the mechanics department quickly came up with a simpler and sturdier solution: delrin bushings. However, removing the old bearings required an extra amount of brutality…
One of the mechanics noticed that the rubber sleeve bearing of the propeller shaft had too much play, so we decided to replace it as well.
While Christian was busy with the rudder I was sanding Pitufa’s hull with an orbital sander, removing residues of barnacles and loose antifouling. It’s hard to find an effective antifouling for an aluminium boat and in the end we decided on Seahawk Biotin Plus and hope that it’ll last a few years. At the end we put on 7 gallons (= 26.5 litres) of antifouling paint! As antifouling is quite poisonous I upgraded my outfit constantly.
We made some smaller repairs and paint jobs.
One of the terminals of our upper shrouds had a crack so we decided to have them both replaced. We used the opportunity of having experts in all fields of boat repair around to have the rigger check our standing rigging. The new shrouds arrived the next day (Friday), we thought we had everything settled and were eager to get into the water right after the weekend. But when climbing down from the mast the rigger brought devastating news: he had discovered a vertical crack in the mast, about 30 cm long and almost at the top. Sailing like this was out of question. We had to postpone the launching date and have the mast pulled instead on Monday. Spending the weekend like this was quite nerve wrecking: Would they be able to repair the crack?
On Monday the crane arrived first thing in the morning. We were worried, but the rigging team had it down in a jiffy and for a change we got good news: the aluminium around the crack looked sound and the welder would be able to repair it.
Having the mast down was also a good opportunity for us to sand off the loose paint (we had meant to do that for ages) and to mount the mast steps that we had carried around in the forecabin since setting off in Croatia. We decided against painting it anew, because that would have meant undoing all fittings (most of them corroded solid) and painting an aluminium mast is more of an asthaetic thing anyway. So we’ll leave it bare, it’ll grow greyish and stained after a while, but that’s o.k. for us. It still took us almost a week of hard work in the blazing sun (over 30 degrees, humidity usually around 97 %) to finish the mast. Additionally we had the forestay and the inner forestay changed, because we were not sure how old the rig was and wanted to have them replaced before venturing out into the Pacific anyway, so this seemed a good chance.
After three weeks instead of the expected ten days Pitufa was ready to get back into the water, now in a blue and smurfier outfit, her crew exhausted but happy and ready to sail again towards the horizon!
2012
08
May
Splash!
We’ve made it—Pitufa is in the water again!
2012
04
May
Still working
We’re still in Grenada Marine working on Pitufa–the ten days we expected have turned into 3 weeks, but on Tuesday we’ll (hopefully) get back into the water. The mast has been repaired, we’ve finished sanding it this afternoon and now we’ve got the weekend to mount the hydrovane, put on a last layer of antifouling and finish a dozen other little jobs. We’re really ready for a holiday now
2012
01
May
Pitufa without a mast
The mast was pulled without further problems this morning, but our poor boat now looks like a wreck… The welder thinks repairing the crack won’t be a big problem, but unfortunately the welding machine broke this morning and we’ll have to wait until Wednesday to have it done. We’ll use the opportunity to sand the mast (we’ve been talking about doing this for ages) and then put mast steps on. So tomorrow we’ll spend the whole day working on orbital sander, angle grinder and multi-tool.
2012
28
Apr
Bad news
Yesterday we thought we were almost ready to launch Pitufa again and eager to get away from the boatyard and the mosquitoes. The last job was to change the upper shrouds, but when the rigger fixed them on the mast he discovered a crack at the very top of the mast. A catastrophe. On Monday we’ll have to pull the mast and then hope to weld it or fix it otherwise… Let’s just hope it can be repaired.
2012
21
Apr
So much work to do…
The days fly by with all the work we’ve got to do on Pitufa while she’s on the dry. We’ve taken off the skeg, then the rudder and discovered that we need new bearings (as expected). Additionally the mechanic found that the bearings of the propeller shaft had too much play, so we replaced them as well. I’ve been sanding the hull for the past three days, because we have to remove all lose particles before adding a new layer of antifouling. I look like an alien with my respirator, goggles and all covered in black… Each evening we’re completely exhausted, only to be attacked by dozens of mosquitoes. Even though we have mosquito-nets on all hatches they manage to get in, it seems the little buggers somehow enter during daytime.
2012
18
Apr
On the hard
This morning at 9 we had an appointment at the boatyard to haul out Pitufa. We were quite nervous, because we had to take her into the berth stern first (so that the forestay wouldn’t be in the way of the crane). Unfortunately our smurfette doesn’t like going backwards–she usually goes unpredictably either sharp left or right… Not so this morning: she turned like a lady in front of the berth and went stern first without a hint of a complaint!
We spent the rest of the day scraping off barnacles and trying to remove the skeg to get hold of the rudder. After grinding away lots of filler we got hold of four giant bolts and after some more hammering and wiggling we had the skeg off.
Leeloo remained inside the boat during the whole haul-out procedure (craning, high pressure washing, moving to a space in the workyard) and was quite frightened. In the evening curiosity took over and now’s she’s happy with all the new smells and sights. I’m sure she thinks we took out the boat only for Leelootainment
Unfortunately we had to abandon our other pet (the remora suckerfish), but we hope that he won’t be homeless for a long time. Maybe he’ll pick a shark next, now that he’s discovered that boats aren’t reliable companions.