SilverMoonSailing

Adventures Continue on Brilliant Bonaire

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I started the 3rd week on Bonaire taking a Free Diving Course with our friends Cindy & Robert from Juno. This is something I've wanted to learn for years. My goals is to be able to stay underwater for longer while free diving to see the undersea creatures better and take better underwater photos. During the last 2 weeks at Bonaire, I continued to practice the techniques I had learned at the free diving course.

Blair and I went on a tour of a couple of caves on Bonaire. Bonaire is actually along a tectonic plate that pushed the sea floor so close to the surface, that coral was able to establish, and over millions of years the coral grew to create an island. Our guild Dirk was very informative, and it was fun to swim in a fresh water cave.

We also went to a presentation on Manta Rays that was very informative, and although they are rarely seen on Bonaire, the presenter shared with us, how to be a citizen scientist.

The Bonaire Turtle Conservancy allows the public to come along for their turtle monitoring. This was a great experience, because I joined the conservancy volunteers and 6 grad students who were doing different research studies. It wasn't a tour, they were actually collecting important data. One PHD student was collecting DNA from the hatch eggs as well as eggs that didn't produce turtles. The team leader found a nest that some of the hatchlings had made it out, but he kept digging and there were several baby turtles that were trapped under a couple of large pieces of coral. They would have died in the nest if he hadn't dug them out. I had the special privilege of seeing 10 of these babies make it to sea.

I started to play Mexican Dominos with Juno & Full Circle III. It's a great way to spend an Sunday afternoon. Apparently cruisers get together on Sunday afternoons at 13:00 all over the world for this game. Every country as slighly different rules.

The last couple of weeks continued with daily snorkling, and basic boat chores. The temperatures started to get hot. October is generally the hotest month in the Caribbean. It's the middle of hurricane season. It got so hot even Blair got in to cool off.

As our month on Bonaire wound down I thought we'd had a full month of experiences, but apparently the best was saved for last. On the last weeked we were hanging out on our boat. We called to help Nikki on Momentum with some watermaker issues they were having. She said she really couldn't talk because they were hanging out watch dolphins. I looked off the back of the boat, and not 300 yards from our boat I could see their dinghy and the dolphins. I grabed my mask/snorkle and gopro and we headed out. There were probably about 30 dolphins playing around. I stuck my gopro in the water, but it was hard to see if I was getting any good video. After about 20 minutes almost everyone left, so I decided to see if I could get some better shots. I slipped into the water and Blair let our dinghy drift away. I could see the dolphins playing and having a great time. Then a wonderful suprise... 1st one dolphin came up to me, then a 2nd and finally a 3rd. They came up to me and circled me, as I was just floating on the surface to check me out. I could hear their clicks as they ecolocated . All told there were 7 dolphins and I spend 5 minutes in the water with them. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Here is the short version of the video I was able to take.

I thought the day couldn't get anymore magical, but mother nature had another suprise. Before we left our boat to go into town for a food festival the island was having. Mother Nature put on this light show. This was a great way to end our fabulous time on Bonaire. Truely a magical island.

Beautiful Bonaire for my Birthday!

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We sailed from Trinidad for 3 and 1/2 days arriving in Bonaire on September 2nd. We were able to test our new Papillo set up. Basically that is wing on wing with 2 headsails. There just wasn't much wind in the beginning, so we motored, and the last 24 hours the wind really picked up, and we had to slow the boat down.

We arrived in Bonaire to Crystal Clear waters, you could see 50' down to the sand just below our boat. This desert island couldn't have been more different from Trinidad. After a couple of days of rest I was ready to Celebrate my 61st Birthday!

Blair and I rented a car for a few days to explore the island. We started the day by heading south to see Flamingos and go to a Donkey sanctuary.

It was wonderful to see that someone was taking care of these Donkeys that had been brought to the island and then left to fend for themselves. There are still many Donkey's on the island, but they are brought here, when they are sick or injured or old. I was definetly in my happy place being around these adorable creatures. The day continued with meeting some cruising friends to go landsailing. They have a small track, and it was fun to see how fast you could go, without tipping over. Naturally Blair pushed it to the limit and went so fast that he ended up on his side and broke the mast.

The next couple of days we took advantage of having a car, and went to explore the Washington-Slagbaai National Park. With our friends Cindy & Robert from Juno. It was fun to see all the birds. I was finally able to see wild Parrots and Wild Flamingos We hiked and snorkled at a couple of spots on the north/west side.

The next week continued with Bonaire adventures. I went snorkling everyday once at mid-day and then again at Snorklethirty...Approx 4::30. I saw my first Sea Horse and Octopus not 50 yards from our boat! Turtles were also around. Sadly I decided not to bring my gopro because I thought I'd seen everything, at the snorkle spot right be our boat, so I didn't bring my GoPro and didn't get photos of Burr Webfish and a Sargassum Frog Fish. I learned my lesson NEVER go into the water without your camera.

On Weekday afternoons,, I enjoyed seeing the local kids sailing on their Opti's getting pretty close to us, and a few near misses while we were on our mooring ball.

5 days after a full moon, you can see the Octocods ( Bio-luminence). So a few of us Cruisers took our boats to Klein Bonaire to see. Most of the cruisers had dive gear, so they went down just after sunset. Blair and I and a couple of gals from another boat waited until 45 minutes after sunset. We were able to see the Octocods rising up from the soft coral in pearls of light. It was a good experience, which was impossible to catch with my gopro camera, but something fun to do regardless.

One day I went with Cruisers from Juno & Mira to Salt Pier, they all went diving, but due to problems I am having equalizing, I stayed on the surface to snorkle. It was very magical snorkling between the piers just at dusk and looking down 50' feet below at my friends diving.

Boat Projects at Peaks Boat Yard in Trinidad

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We hauled out in Trinidad with a short list of BIG projects:

Bottom Job:
Raise the keel.
Change the Hatch Door
Take off all the stainless steel screws off the sterns.
Build slates for the stern of the boat.
Shorten the Hydrovane
Tighten the bathroom sink faucet
Get our new sails delivered from the UK, so we can test them from Trinidad to Bonaire (400NM)

BOTTOM JOB: Scrape, Power Wash, Basecoat, Ablative Antifoul Applied 2 coats. BEFORE

AFTER.....

RAISE THE KEEL :In March we noticed that the keel would no longer fully raise into the bottom of the boat. We couldn't figure out why, but figured it was something like fishing line stuck, somewhere where we couldn't see it. In this photo you can see that Mark from Dynamite is discussing with Blair what could be keeping the keel from raising all the way.

Luckily after they power washed the bottom, the keel came up fully. We couldn't figure out why, but we were able to see there was a round disc stuck in the box where the keel hindges up. Blair and I where able to use a wire the same stiffness as a coat hanger, and speak to each other on our cells phones. Me inside the boat directing where he should put the wire, and Blair under the boat pushing the wire around until we were able to pull the disc out. It turns out that when Alubat drilled the hole for the hinge in the box, they just left the disc there. It had gotten stuck under the keel stopping it from coming up fulling into the boat. It was a simple fix, that took us 15 minutes, once we figured out what was wrong. Just goes to show that sloppy workmenship can cause a lot of frustration, but a simple issue.

CHANGE THE HATCH DOORS: The original doors that came with the boat, were slick and very simple, and easy to use from the OUTSIDE of the boat. Unfortunately, when you are inside the boat, you needed to sit on the stairs, and reach up over your head to open them. It was challenging and in an emergency I didn't feel that I could be able to get out quickly. BEFORE

So we ordered new hatch doors, than now come standard with all the OVNI's. We knew this would not be a simple swap, as they needed to be custom fit, so we waited until we had time. We received the doors back in May when we were in Martinique, but Blair had so many projects in Grenada that it just didn't go to the top of the list. BOY am I glad we waited until we were at a really good boat yard. It took a 4 hours just to get the old door out.

Then It took Blair 8 days, too many modifications to count, and both a metal and wood working shop to help make the modifications, so that the doors would actually fit. It took several hours just to make sure the doors would close once we reattached them to the frame. But Finally they look great!

TAKE THE STAINLESS STEEL SCREW OFF THE BACK OF THE BOAT: Stainless will corrode Aluminum, and we're not sure why Alubat who's been building boats for decades would have but these stainless steel in.

We were finally able to get someone to take them out, but they didn't want to deal with fixing the aluminum and painting it. I guess it's a project for another time.

DESIGN AND BUILD NEW SLATES FOR THE STERN: The fabric that Alubat had used in the stern wasn't strong enough, plus it was attached with stainless steel bolts. We wanted to change all this, and put in wood slates to keep items on board during crossings. Blair used some of the Delron that was used to old the Old Hatch door inplace and had it modified by the wood shop so we could bolt it to the stern with ALUMINUM rivets, and then we had slats made. I think it looks GREAT!

After 2 weeks Silver Moon was ready to go in the water. Sadly, we still had to wait a few days for the new sails from the UK to show up. They were actually on the island stuck in customs and it took 9 days to get them out of customs.

We FINALLY have our sails. From the time we asked for them to be shipped from the UK to the time we actually got them was 16 days, and if we hadn't kept calling both the boat yard and DHL it probably would have been 21 to 25 days. Here is our code zero, I will share more photos once we're sailing with our new set up. NOW all we have to do is rig the sails so we can test them on the way to Bonaire.

Trips around Trinidad

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We took a couple of days offs to explore the island. We spent one Sunday at the ASA Wright Nature Center. It has my dream veranda.

In the high season. November - April there are tons of birders who come from all over the world to see the Hummingbirds and other birds at this . The veranda is packed with people shoulder to shoulder looking at birds. We booked the day, and had the whole place to ourselves!.We saw plenty of hummingbirds, and the staff was quiet gracious. I was able to spend plenty of time watching the hummingbirds without a ton of people around. They are truely mesmerizing. We had a lovely day.

The following weekend we went to the east shore to see Sea Turtle hatchings come out of their nest. I had done this in Bundaberg Australia with Makaela when she was 6, I wanted to share this experience with Blair. Unfortunately there was torrential rains that day. The roads were flooded and what should have taken us 2 hours to get to that side of the island took 3 hours.

Once we got to the Hotel, 3 stars... They ran out of water for showers, the room's AC was not very good, the food was ordinary, so we left to the turtle santurary. It wasn't very far, but driving at night on a gravel road, that had tons of pot holes took us nearly an hour, and was defintely sketchy. When we got there it was pooring rain with lightening, and we were the only guests. The guides didn't want to hunt for nests in the heavy rain. We saw a few hatchlings that they keep to show people, and we were able to take them out to the sand and watch them struggle to make it to sea. It was not my best planned adventure. Not all adventures are rainbows and sunshine. One day off we enjoyed a spectacular lightening and thunderstorm.

Finding Nature in the Boat Yard

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes it good to find Animals and Nature in unexpected places. Here are the boat yard there was an iguana that hung out behind the boat. I heard him a few times in the trees and also saw him around the yard.

There are 2 Southern Lapwings that hung out around the yard. I love their feathers, they haven only been in Trinidad since the 1960's.

I saw this heron along the docks at the boat yard one evening. It looks like he's wearing a tuxedo. I think it's a Night Heron Stretched Neck, but they are typcially found in North Africa. All the Herons that are registered in Trinidad don't look like this guy, they typically have a salt and pepper patterns on their feathers. If you know what type of Heron please let me know.

Sadly this DragonFly didn't make it in one of the thunderstorms, but I enjoyed having this little piece of nature on the boat for awhile.

Taking a break in Tobago

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We accomplished a lot at Port Louis Marina in Grenada, and I was ready for a break. We sailed to Charlotteville Tobago. It's in a south easterly direction, so we motored the whole time, but it was definately worth it. Charlotteville is a lovely small fishing village surrounded by a huge bay. There are only a few mooring balls, so there aren't a ton of cruisers, but it's lovely to just snorkle off the back on the boat.

Even though we were there for a week, we didn't do much, we just took it slow. I went on a couple of walks, cruised around town trying to get cash from the ATM. Apparently the ATM is very tempermental, and even though other cruisers finally got cash, we were never lucky with the ATM slot machine. My friend Barbara on SV ROAM sold me some Trinidad / Tobago $'s before we left Grenada, so we were able to check in, as customs only takes cash.

We also enjoyed cruising around in the dinghy each evening to check out the beaches and listen the birds either from our dinghy or from Silver Moon.

I have started to get more interested in sighting birds and learning which birds I see on the Merlin Bird App. It's not a perfect, but I start with that, and then switch to AI if Merlin doesn't have the bird. Here is a Trinidad MotMot.

A Caribbean Marlin who decided to hang out each evening on our boat, and treat us to his song.

Sadly I killed my gopro. I thought it was fully closed, but just a small amount of salt water got in, killed the battery and the entire camera. Lesson learned. Even with an underwater camera, you should probably have a underwater housing as an extra level of protection. So for now, no more underwater photography until I am able to get a new gopro.

I still am able to enjoy taking photos of birds and flowers. Here is a fallen flower off the Clusia Tree. It's lovely and looks like a carved wood flower to me.

I could have easily spent 3 weeks here, but we were off to Trinidad for more boat work.

Boat Upgrades in Grenada

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We were here for 8 weeks, and it always seems all the projects get completed in the last week that we're in a location.

Diesel Hot Water Heater Installed. Blair installed this, so that we won't have to use solar power to heat the water, and could basically have hot showers and hot water for dishes anytime. He installed it in the back of the boat, so I don't even notice it's there. This was a 10 day project. Sorry No Photos for this, as it's located in the port stern by the steerling system.

Since we went back to the US for a few weeks, naturally we brought back over 300 lbs of gear, and that included MORE solar panels. We now have another 300 watts permentanly installed on the deck and the top of the Dog House.

Marine AC unit installed: We ordered this from Alibaba and it costs less than $1500 delivered. With all the additional parts and adding the Freon the whole project cost less than $2000. This may not look very sexy, but I love it! We installed it at the settee by the shower, and BOY does it work GREAT!

We had purchased a new whisker pole in Martinique, so that we could sail wing on wing. But where to put it? I decided that the boom was the perfect place. We now have a MUCH bigger boom, because the old one had broke on the way from Las Palmas to Cabo Verde. In Martinique we had custom aluminum brackets made and Blair finally had time to get to this project while we were at the dock.

Blair did all this while having an injured Toe. While Blair was helping the Start Haus finish many of the projects to get ready to move to our permant store, someone accidently dropped a heavy metal bar on his foot, so he limped around and was in pain most of the time.

The biggest project aside from the new Marine AC unit was getting all new Canvas put on the boat. The Bimini that came from Alubat although very useful, held puddles of water everytime it rained. (Which is everyday in the tropics). Also the shade we had made in Morocco, while helpful wasn't perfect. So my main goal was to have all new Canvas work done. We've been on the boat for a year, and had a much better idea of everything we wanted for upgrades: Here is what we did.

New Canvas: 1. New Bimini with zip in side shades for the Cockpit: 2. Shade Sides and Back that attached better and give better protection from the sun in the cockpit. 3. Shade Fabric covering all the windows to keep the boat cooler. 4. Hatch Covers to protect the hatches. 5. Covers from both helm wheels, 6. Cover for the Chartplotter, 7. Cover for the dinghy engine.6. Tent Shade for the bow when we are either at anchor or at a Marina to keep the bow cooler. Here she is all dressed up at Anchor:

After 8 weeks and having the canvas put on just a few days before we were to leave, we were ready to go. Off to Tobago for a week, before starting new projects in Trinidad.

Good bye to Port Louis Marina. Our New Sails were finished, but we'll have to them shipped to Trinidad.

8 Weeks in Grenada: What did we do? FUN Stuff

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Cruising Community in Grenada is very active with all sorts of activities. My favorite was the weekly ladies coffee. It was great to connect with other lady cruisers and they had a whatsapp group chat to share information. I made some new friends and we will continue to follow each other adventures.

Lots of tips and shared information to help make our cruising life more fun and easier. The first week I got a rental car for the month for only $600. This made it much easier to go to other events, like a sunday morning walking group, and mexican dominos. Mexican Dominos is quite popular with many of the cruisers. Not just in Grenada, but in other areas too. I also went on a few activities with some of the ladies including a trip to Laura's Garden . We had a lovely gal from the UK who told us all about the many edible plants that grow on Grenada. I've included a photo of the Nutmet. You actually use the nut that is located underneath the red covering shown here. Who knew!

There is a Sunday Walking Group, which my new friend Mary and I joined, We met at 7:30 because there is less traffic on the roads, We walked up a steep hill, to a little shack, and then was asked if we wanted a beer at 8:00 AM! Apparently this walking group is actually a drinking group, that also walks, basically a Sunday morning pub crawl. Mary and I decided that was a little too early for us. But we had a nice walk and got to see a part of the island that we hadn't seen before.

I signed us up for a local regatta. They provided the J24's and we provided the crew. It was a fundraiser for the local sailors to get them to the PANAmerican Games in Sailing. So it was a good time all around. We invited Tim from Tipsy Tuna and had a great time. We didn't win, but it was fun to compete again. I hope that we can join more regattas, as both Blair and I love the challenge and the competition.

I learned how to play Mexican Dominos, which is a popular Cruiser activity on Sunday afternoons. We also went on a Rum Distillary Tour. On the way, to the Rum Distillary, I FINALLY got to see Monkey's. I had gone to the correct spot, but kept looking on the wrong side of the rode. Finally with friends from the Port Louis Marina, they showed me where to see the Monkeys.

The Distillary was interesting but the rum.. Well let's just say it tasted like paint thinner it's was way too rough for me.

It was nice to take a break from boat projects and actually explore the places we go to. All in all, it was nice to make new friends and do a little exploring of Grenada.

Government Bureaucracy, Grenada Customs, and US Passports NOT SMOOTH

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

After a lovely couple of weeks it was time to head back to the boat with our 300 lbs of boat gear, Since I had gone through customs in Martinique back in January without a hitch and several hundred pounds of gear, we thought we could breeze through customs. We were the first ones off the plane and the 1st ones to collect our bags. Maybe it was the 6 huge bags or the extra large box of additional solar panels, but we definately did NOT BREEZE through customs. This time we didn't have time to create a list, so the customs official had us unback every bag, and since everything was wrapped in bubble wrap it took over and hour and a half to show here everything. By the time we were done, there were probably over 200 people waiting to go through customs. I'm sure they were NOT happy to be standing around.

Out of the 6 bags and 1 box of solar panels, we left he airport with only 3 bags. Luckily, I had mentioned that we were working with Allana with Phenomenal Agent Services. After all that, we were only charged $125 in taxes from the Customs. The total cost for getting everything out of customs through Allana was $360 USD. She defiantely made it easy and was able to get our large list OK'd by the customs officials, as we had a huge order from Amazon and we weren't able to give them the type of invoices they are used to seeing. Lesson learned: Keep all your invoices and have them ready to give to the customs offical. I am not sure if it would have been quicker or not, but I would recommend having an agent before you leave the country, so when you come back you have someone who knows the path to getting things through customs. If you are bringing items to Grenada I would definately recommend Allana with Phenominal. Her WhatsApp # +1 473 420 7688.

Next order of business was to get new passports. Although our Passports are good until 2031 we are already running out of pages. We were told to make an appointment with the US Embassy in Grenada, I was told, the only way to make an appointment was through their website. The website didn't work, so I had to email back and forth to get an appointment, eventually I was able to get an appointment overe a month after I had started this process. They didn't tell us what we needed to bring or any forms that we needed to fill out, so I figured they would have that when we arrived. We arrived at the US Embassy, and then were told we didn't have any of the forms or photos, so they couldn't help us, and that we were supposed to make another appointment on their website. Which was IMPOSSIBLE, as the site is broken! Blair finally called the emergency number to get us another appointment as the people working at the embassy we definately NOT helpful. The Embassy is now closed and it's principle contact for US citizens, has left. I am not sure what US citizen are supposed to do now that the embassy is essentially disfunctional. If you have to get a larger passport, I don't recommend doing it in Grenada. I hear that the US Embassy in Trinidad is pretty good. ( I didn't even know that getting another passport with more pages was possible, until our friends on Lover of the Light told us, that you get get passports with a larger number of pages. ) Ahh... The challanges of living and traveling to so many countries. In the end we were able to get new passports with a larger number of pages. So it ended well.

Taking a Break from the Boat: Went Home to California

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It was great to get off the boat for a few weeks. We had already planned to be back in California to for doctors appointments, and to see family and friends. The timing worked perfectly as we were able to see the completed new building for the Start Haus. This was a huge project and it was great to see it finished.

Best of all was seeing Makaela who had just completed her commercial pilots license. We celebrated with a big burger in Yuba City. I forgot how big the portions in the US are. Makaela spent the next month at the Glider Port in Williams to training and prepare for her upcoming job at the Williams Glider Port where she will work after she finishes her next semester as school.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect, so it was hard to get excited about going back to the hot humid climate of Grenada.