Our experiences and activites during our last 5 weeks in Bonaire were to a large extent an extension of those discussed in the previous post. We attended the Monday evening fish ID classes given by Kim White. We exercised on weekday mornings at the Bonaire Health and Fitness Club, and then usually went for a local walk in the Kralendijk area. We took the pickup to several more remote locations for extended hikes on established hiking trails, including one to the north near Rincon and another to new-to-us areas in the east. And although Bill and I passed, Colleen and Barb enjoyed visiting the donkey sanctuary. And of course we continued to dive, although Barb and Bill much less so. I did most of my dives as a solo diver at night, enjoying the challenges of learning new techniques and new creatures. (I will hold back my underwater photos for another post.)<\/p>\n
We continued to fuss and fix the pickup, including replacing two broken rear windows after suffering a bit of random vandalism. (Actually, it turned out to be cheaper to just replace the whole rear doors with ones obtained from a local salvage shop.)<\/p>\n
When the 7-yr old 25 hp Yamaha outboard developed problems — it would not stay in reverse — we investigated and found worn gears and worn linkage. Unfortunately, we could not find a replacement motor with electric start. Barb was especially concerned. In the end, we decided to purchase a new 30 hp Yamaha motor, manual start notwithstanding. All of the exercise at the gym is paying off: Barb can indeed start the beast. Fortunately, the Yamaha dealer was willing to serve as a broker for the old motor and we got a good price when it sold “as is” almost immediately.<\/p>\n
We did a fair amount of socializing with a local resident of Dutch descent: Paulien Wijnvoord. She is keeping our pickup on her property while we are gone.<\/p>\n\n\t\t