#bonnaire

[take2intotheshower]

No Man Left Behind.

(The Musketeers Season 1, Episode 3 - Commodities)

[detournementsmineurs]

Sandrine Bonnaire dans "Sans Toit Ni Loi" d'Agnès Varda (1985), novembre 2023.

[animanightmate]

We need to talk about this bad boy

Émile Bonnaire. Adventurer, mercantile traveller, ladies’ man. Likes a drink, likes a laugh, loves to tell tall tales. Flamboyant, fun, and impressively fleshed out by the tiny, dapper, gravel-voiced charms of James Callis. Even his name derives from the French for “a good time” (or, depending where you look: “good bloodline”).

We first meet him accompanied by jaunty music on his way from the docks to a tavern, tipping his hat to interested women with a smirking flash of big, dark, pretty eyes, before roaring his intentions to pay for everyone’s drinks as he bursts through the door.

A bit of a rogue, Bonnaire. A bit of a weasel too, but a funny one. And he has an excellently aggressive wife.

Bonnaire is the kind of person who gets other people into trouble but always slips free himself. Pay attention - that’s going to be important later.

Once he’s successfully wriggled his way back into the clutches of the Musketeers, he treats Porthos (and us) to the glories of his exotic wanderings, revealing himself to be something of a liar, or just prone to exaggeration and fawning.

So far, so funny.

Except that the people he’s pissed-off have a habit of finding him, and again it’s those around him who pay the price. Our lads drag a potentially mortally wounded Porthos on to Athos’s old house and, despite comedy punching, it’s clear that things have taken a turn for the serious. The music is cluing us in, you see.

And it turns out that being beholden, duty, debts owed, and notions of family and belonging are massive themes here. As well as definitions of humanity, of who gets to be chattel. Of who gets to own the enacted tragedy.

Porthos rails and growls, and Bonnaire defends himself, claiming that the barbaric (“disgusting” - thanks, Athos) acts he’s perpetrating in the name of profit are “strictly business”. Not prejudice. Porthos spells it out for us, time and again: people are not belongings, everyone is free, no man has a right to own and dispose of another living soul. Except Bonnaire is. Except Athos has. Except the King and Richelieu do, and will. Arguably, these men who kill for duty, as Maria Bonnaire threatens for love (and is killed for revenge) are part of that same culture of disposable humanity.

The episode shows us this, asks us to consider a multi-faceted view of people and their motives and actions. People can be noble and be murderers. People can be friendly and polite, and ruthless killers. People can be charming and fun and human traffickers.

We have a problem in this fandom. A pretty big one, and frankly an old one too. Dumas, for example, seemed to be showing us an unredeemably monstrous Milady while simultaneously demonstrating that, in the society where she found herself, she had little choice - drown, or by killed for a witch, essentially. Tragic, noble, beautiful Athos drowns his sorrows under a nom de guerre, and charges at well-armed enemies in a bid to escape from a crime that d’Artagnan labels correctly as murder right from the get-go in the books. And in the show, Athos condemns Milady over and over for the sins that he himself commits, of killing at the command of the powers-that-be, forever drawn to and repulsed by a woman who shows him all-too-clearly what they both are, and have chosen to be. And yet certain facets of fandom cannot see Milady as anything but evil, and Athos as thoroughly blameless. So many adaptations (or perceptions of them) see Richelieu as nothing but a big old panto baddie and d’Artagnan as a beloved puppy who never did anything wrong. Hi. We have some things we need to address. Dumas gave us a raft of characters who are frankly horrible, selfish, violent people, every one of them flawed in some way, every one of them with issues they need to face, sins to atone for. We do the source material an injustice if we reduce them to simply Good Guys and Bad Guys.

And here, in response to an adaptation deliberately rendered for a modern audience, with dozens of layers in every interlocking scene and arc, people persist in seeing Bonnaire as a funny wee guy who was merely a bit greedy. But he’s funny and flash, so no real harm done, huh? Oh, he’s misguided, not evil! 

The late, great Terry Pratchett broke down millennia of debate by saying that evil starts by treating people as things. Oh, it may head elsewhere, become more granular and a matter of opinion, but actually it’s pretty simple: don’t treat people as commodities.

The people who watch that episode and come away uncritical Bonnaire stans stagger me. This one isn’t even subtle - not only does he leave his beloved wife to die; not only does he lie and cheat and slide away from accountability at every turn, but Porthos roars (and later mutters) an absolute and no-holds-barred, emotional and intellectual take-down of the ethical nadir, the moral pit that is perpetrating slavery. He outlines in pitiless detail what it really means to the individuals (“Men, women, and children!”). He show how the long-term effects of that abuse, even once freed, shorten a person’s life, have resounding repercussions through generations. And he must feel so alone - the others holding him back from hurting Bonnaire, Athos telling him “Yes, it’s horrible, but it’s legal, and we have our duty to take this man to the Cardinal,” before ducking out of said duty himself to go on an drinking binge epic even by his standards. The others are more sympathetic, but still follow the course set for them by their superiors.

I want to tell the Bonnaire fans: yeah, he’s supposed to be fun and funny. You’re supposed to pick up that people can be interesting and quirky and ABSOLUTELY, THOUGHTLESSLY EVIL. That evil isn’t just the simple, unattractive thuggery of Labarge et al, it’s men doing ruthless things for the good of their country or for profit or for love or for power. It’s people feeling desperate and it’s people feeling dutiful. It’s not any one thing (except, at root, commoditising people), and just because they sold the role, doesn’t mean that the actor didn’t understand that either.

This is the message that I want them to understand: evil can look pretty. Evil can be charming. Evil can seem absolutely harmless. Evil can make you laugh, feel flattered, feel affection, feel pity. Yes, there are moral grey areas in the world, but human trafficking is not, cannot, and will never be anything other than irredeemable savagery. Slavery is cruel and vile and inhumane. And just because something has never been condemned in law, does not mean it is justifiable if it diminishes lives.

And just because you find someone attractive does not mean they’re the good guy. Come on, now.

[journeysofpatrickandarchana]

A day in the life "at sea"

Original Blog posted: Friday, 10 May 2013 by Patrick

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever" Jacques Yves Cousteau

Many of you (friends and family) have expressed your dismay at our adventure by saying we are crazy and other adjectives that describe our reckless pursuit of adventure because many of you are unaware of what life at sea is like. You have said what do you do once the sails are set, isn’t it boring just watching the miles go by. What follows will give you some insight as to what goes on at sea so you might be enticed to join us on one of our many intended journeys or to just make yourself available for one of our many planned lazy days around Sydney harbour or environs sipping some alcoholic beverage over some freshly caught fish etc possibly cooked a la Archie in some exotic spices to make you think you are in heaven and don’t want to go home.

Ok. I have picked a typical day of our voyage so far which was day 3 of our passage from Bonaire to Shelter Bay Marina in Colon (eastern or Atlantic side of Panama Canal) just inside the northern end of the breakwater that alerts you that you are now under the control of The Panama Canal Authority.

So the day starts at midnight (still on Bonaire time for convenience as Panama is 1 hour behind Bonaire time). I have just come off my 4 hour shift from 8 to 12 pm and handing over to Georges for a 2 hour stint at the wheel. The vessel is on auto pilot and handling the 5 metre seas and gale force seas easily with 2 reefs in the headsail and the preventer on to help the headsail stay open and not cross over the other side when travelling with the wind almost being directly behind. We try to sail at 150-160 degrees to the wind i.e. almost behind us as is a faster route (more apparent wind) than directly behind us (sailing at 180 degrees to the wind i.e. wind behind, even though we may not be going right on the course we want to achieve i.e. a little zig zag course required. Anyway as the vessel sails itself I explain to Georges about the prevailing wind and sea conditions during my shift, the course set on the plotter and whether any other vessels in the area (visually sighted or assisted with AIS and or radar at times when visibility is not as good or when squalls are nearby) and any other information he would need to be made aware of what he could expect on his shift. This includes looking at the house battery bank management and perhaps water tanks levels so if he needs to put the main engines on for any reason he might decide to put the water maker on to make some water.

So I headed off to bed for 8 hours (unless I am needed to make a decision or to assist on deck) whilst the others took over for 2 hour stints with the backup watch keeper on standby close by and ready for action at short notice if needed. This rotation with other crew continued through the night.

At 6am Nick had just finished his 2 hour shift and was getting ready to do his morning of celestial navigation using his sextant and nautical tables interspersed with reading a paperback. One of the reasons Nick wanted this time slot for watch keeping was that after his shift he could go straight into his navigation and then have breakfast and then continue with it after breakfast.

At dawn each day (around 6am) that there is clear skies Nick does his star sightings using his sextant (a complex and expensive piece of equipment with lots of mirrors and shades). He takes a sighting of up to 7 stars with the horizon that he can only do when both are visible for about 10 minutes each day that both can be seen i.e. no cloud and the right amount of light etc. This gives him a position line for each and allows him to get a cocked hat fix (the most accurate fix or position you can get). Then at between 9 and 10am he takes a sun shot that gives him another position line. At noon he takes a noon site that gives him his latitude. Then knowing the course and distance run between the morning site and the noon site he can get a running fix that gives him his midday position. Later in the day if both the sun and moon are visible he can get a 2 point fix to get his position. With all of this Nick tells me he can get a position within 2 nautical miles of what the GPS says which itself uses a number of satellites to triangulate your position automatically without all the sextant, tables and good visibility that are required for celestial navigation.

Colin also gets into the celestial navigation and also has his own sextant which he bought at the flea markets in St Maarten. He also compares his celestial sightings and positions then both check them with the GPS shown on the main plotter at the helm to see how accurate they were.

Archana was up for action at 7am organising the breakfast and setting the table as the seas had died off a bit. She made blueberry pancakes which everyone enjoyed with maple syrup to compliment the rest of their breakfast of cereal, peaches, fresh fruit, tea/coffee, fruit juice and bread.

Once breakfast had finished the crew got into their daily routine. Some putting their fishing lines out, others working on their iPad's, listening to music or reading electronic books on their iPad’s or just reading normal paperbacks. I did my normal daily check around the yacht to look for anything not normal i.e. rubbing sheets and halyards, things that might have broken during the night and ended up on deck and of course to throw all the flying fish off the yacht that the yacht caught the previous night (often up to 7 flying fish have landed onto the yacht at night, some even almost hitting me at the helm some 3 metres or so from the sea level). Yes it is a hazardous life at sea!

I spent much of the morning hand steering to save on the house batteries as the auto pilot does use quite a bit of power even on the least sensitive setting and we have had some problems with the batteries as not looked after well by the previous owners of the vessel and now not holding the charge that goes into the batteries from the engine alternator, the two wind generators and five solar panels).

The morning goes quickly as crew come to visit me at the helm for a chat, to read a book or to catch up on where we are, how many miles to go to our next waypoint, how fast we are going etc. I review my course and sailing angle whilst I look around mesmerised by the flying fishes antics and the huge distance they fly (sometimes over 300 metres). Later on in the morning I spot a pod of about 40 dolphins coming to the bow to great us. I alert the rest of the gang and they come running with their cameras and go-pros to take some pictures and movies of the action. It was a good encounter and everyone was happy with the experience and the photos they took. Later on we saw a Portuguese man of war jelly fish only a few metres from the beam as we flew by at 7.5 knots. At other times we had seen whales, manta rays and many turtles during our travels as well as birds prowling the seas and then darting downwards to occasionally capture a fish on their return from below.

Lunch time has come and Archana has been down in the galley cooking up a storm. She has cooked three different pizzas to match the culinary tastes of the crew on board. I am still at the helm so Archana passes food to me through the small hatch near my feet like a caged animal at the zoo. This is the best way as it is safer and less chance the food will fly off the plate once the wind hits it. I am lucky I have got seconds and now with a drink to keep my fluid levels up as at sea you get dehydrated much more quickly than of land. This is really important to do at sea as it also reduces the effects of sea sickness.

Once I have finished my lunch at the helm I hand over to the next watch keeper in the normal way whilst I review our course, way points on the planning computer below. We have two laptops with charts on them attached to GPS’s so the position of the vessel is automatically placed in the middle of the screen; we also have two plotters with charts linked to GPS signals (at the helm and chart table) as well as a handheld GPS and paper charts, and of course Nick & Colin’s astro positions. So for navigation purposes we are covered. I then get a few hours of rest in our cabin before coming up for dinner and do my 8-12pm shift at the helm.

In the afternoon Archana & Nick decide to have one of their many games of scrabble on the rear deck while other review their pictures and movies on their computer. Phil has taken a break from watching his home movies to bake a loaf of bread in the pressure cooker. It comes out perfectly as usual.

Just after lunch Colin’s $800 fishing reel starts clicking madly alerting all that a fish is on the line, now the challenge is to land it aboard before it wrestles free or breaks the line or bends the hook that has happened a few times to Georges and Colin over the last few weeks. After 10 minutes of reeling in almost 400 metres of line he had landed an almost metre long tiger mackerel, a fish similar to our Spanish mackerel that is caught back in Australian waters. When bringing it on board it has to be killed quickly for two reasons. The first being that you don’t want it escaping; secondly you don’t want it kicking around and doing damage to the boat or crew. Some fish like the barracuda’s have very sharp teeth and Colin has already caught two of them on the trip. So to kill it we have a small baseball bat that I secured at the Polypat yachties flee market when we were there that I picked up for $1. This bat is then used to hit the fish on the head a few times until it stops moving. There is another way that we use is spraying the fishes gills with some cheap vodka we acquired in St Maarten. This kills the fish quickly and humanely. If done to some humans I know they would be in ecstasy just like the ladies in some ancient king’s harem fanning the emperor. After these formalities are attended to then it is important to bleed some fish by cutting its throat so the blood doesn’t go through all the flesh spoiling the meat. Then we need to scale the fish if required as some fish have a smooth skin and have no scales. Then the fish is gutted as any offal remaining inside the fish for any length of time will give the flesh a bitter and unpleasant taste. Then depending on how long the fish is and the type of fish we make a decision about cutting it up (fillets, cutlets or leave whole). Then we make a decision of how to cook and then eat it. In this case we decide to cut it into cutlets and do on the grill and have with lemon and a few spices. So many decisions the stress just kills you! I know you all said this passage making is hazardous.

This makes Colin’s 6th fish. Georges still has none. But wait, I hear someone call Georges you have a fish on your line (no guesses who with that familiar Geeeeeeorges sound). After some apprehensive moments Georges lands his first fish of the trip a very nice yellow fin tuna that we end up having over three meals. Firstly some sashimi some minutes after being caught, then for lunch the following day a lemon and spices cooked Tahitian tuna salad (also known as Ceviche in South America) and for the next evening we had a tuna curry a la French style also courtesy of Georges. So 7 entrées and 14 main courses for the one fish. A good day for the yacht!

Yellow Fin Tuna caught by Georges

We have talked at length of how many fish Colin & Georges have caught but what about anyone else. I have to say the winner of the number of fish caught competition was always going to be the yacht. Hestia has already caught over 20 flying fish and will catch well over 100 fish by the time we get back to Sydney. I have only put my line out a couple of times and the first time had much of my lure bitten off. The errant fish just missing biting my ever awaiting sharp hook. I am claiming half of Georges fish anyway as he used my bike inner tube bungie to catch his fish. This rig is used so that when a fish takes the lure it is not ripped out of his mouth and hence you lose the fish.

When I come up to start my 4 hour watch keeping at 8pm (usually I come up quite a bit before) I review the log on my navigation program, Maxsea, that tells me our hourly position, course, nautical miles covered in the last hour so I get a bit of an indication of our progress and if we have deviated too far off our intended course that might involve a tack or auto helm adjustment to get the yacht back on course. I also look at the grib file which is a weather file that I download from the internet that gives me the predicted weather for the next 16 days in 6 hour increments from the weather bureau before I leave port and on the passages via my satellite phone (wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure etc for the area of the ocean I want the information for). This then allows me to be aware of weather conditions in advance and be prepared for bad conditions or predicted sudden changes. This is in addition to any live or predicted weather information I get over VHF (if I am within the 18nm range), via HF (High Frequency) radio or via email via my satellite phone.

Once I have this information I head up to chat with the current watch keeper about what has happened during his shift before taking over as watch keeper myself. What I usually try to do is to take the bimini down at night as it impairs my view of the sails and the beautiful sky at night. Having done this especially on a clear night like tonight it is amazing. As we are so far away from city lights, smog etc you get such an mesmerising view when looking up to the heavens. You seem to be able to see every star and they are so bright and clear to see. You picture the shapes and try to see the major star clusters. You try to see satellites, planes and keep a watch out for shooting stars. I saw many of these during the night. So you do dream a bit as you keep a watchful eye on the instruments, other vessel movements and weather changes. This is a lovely time being at the helm as the scorching day heat has gone but I am still only in a tee shirt and shorts and one hundred miles off the coast of Columbia. It seems surreal that I am actually here, not an artificial light around, only the rush of water through the two hulls with the occasional splash as the wave behind us catches up with one of the rear hulls and alerts us there is a big wave there by splashing the boat and very occasionally the crew. The coolish breeze is lovely and one of the reasons I pick this time of the day to being up on the bridge to do my share of the watch keeping.

Now we are in Colon at the Shelter Bay Marina (not in a sheltered bay near a marina as one of you miss heard us) awaiting for our date next Tuesday to transit the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to Pacific side (and then nearing sight of home some, well getting nearer anyway, at least in the same sea).

So this is a typical day on the yacht. As you can see there is a bit of everything in the life of a cruising yachtie i.e. relaxing, sleeping, steering, navigation, cooking, eating, having a chat, the marine life experiences, fishing and star gazing etc. Life on board the ship has it all. Enquiries for stay over’s mitt wine & Archie’s special needs meals …. Please speak to Archie.

Now only 7,521nm (about 14,500 kilometres as the crow flies so really quite a bit more) till we are home. Lots of the above to come and we haven’t even mentioned all the exotic places we have seen and yet to see along the way. Stay tuned for our blogs of what really happened in our reckless pursuit of adventure (and fun).

[sabertoothwalrus]

does science experiments on you (homoerotically)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

It's just guys night talk! Don't worry about it!

(Read Tiger Tiger and shake this man awake so he can finish that thought!)

[muppidupp]

ARNO YOU CANT JUST DO THAT

[enigma-the-mysterious]

17th century anaesthesia

[merrigel]

Ludovica and Sausage I mean Luck (gif version:)

[windsurftravel]

[cabinette]

Oh boy oh boy! Whos excited for the person I'm about to become for the next few weeks!

[spending-life-pretending]

I’m not joking when I say I think this was the hottest thing I’ve read in my life

[journeysofpatrickandarchana]

The toughest yet!

"Difficulties are things that show a person what they are." Epictetus



Original blog posted: 19th April 2013

We left Grenada on Easter Saturday at the crack of dawn. The anticipated travel time to Bonaire was 3 days to cover the 430nm at an average of 6kts.

For breakfast we had a fresh papaya with lime juice, the usual cereals, bread and jam.

As we left, the yacht appeared to be moving differently and I started feeling a bout of sea-sickness, the worst experienced so far. Two dinners for underway had already been prepared, a bologna sauce by Georges for Sunday night and a chilli con crane by Patrick for the following night. Despite the sea sickness I was hell bent on preparing an Indian Pea (mutter) Pulao for dinner that night. The combination of the motion sickness and the heat in the galley finally resulted in the worst thing that can happen in these situations.....I ended up on the leeward side emptying my breakfast overboard. Patrick, kind husband that he is, ran frantically from the bridge (after hearing a blood curdling cry of Paaaartrickkkkkk) and came by my side to assist with some water and bucket and reprimanding me at the same time for very elagantly leaning with head through the safety wires outside the yacht rather than using a bucket. Patrick had heard of people losing balance and ending up overboard carrying out this behaviour.

A breeze of fresh air cooled down my face and I felt a bit better. As I focused on the horizon, Phil and Sibylle who were at the bow sounded excited and when I looked down, I saw the most amazing sea-creature ever, a sea turtle that was at least 5 feet long was swimming close by our port side in the opposite direction and only managing to get out of the way of the yacht at the very last moment. All the excitement and elation took away my thoughts of the motion sickness for the time being.

We also counted our blessings that the turtle was on the side and not directly under the boat as he could have done some serious damage to the boat and himself.

Georges helped me with keeping an eye on the pulao that was now cooking by itself n a pressure cooker. Phil and Sibylle prepared the lunch platter while I continued fighting the motion sickness in the interim.

It was recommended that at this stage that I start taking the tablets and give up on the acupressure bands, ginger and other natural remedies. I noticed Phil and Sibylle were also fighting motion sickness in their own way but I was not yet ready to take the pill (sea sickness pill that is).

In the late afternoon I made another attempt at cooking and made a coconut curry (kokam kadhi) to go with the pulao for the dinner. But I felt drained at the end of it.

Many years ago in 1997 I had sailed in a tall ships race from Okinawa to Osaka. My memories of that trip are varied and distinct. The worst one about being permanently sea-sick, wrenching my guts out while being harnessed and tethered to the leeward side of the boat. Going down to the bunks with round portholes with the view of the water level half covering the porthole it felt like being tumbled in a washing machine. This feeling would make me extremely ill and hence for the later half of the trip I only slept (more like lying half-dead) in the saloon area of that boat with people eating around me and talking about me. However this was far better than being tumbled in the dry washing machine downstairs.

As result of this memory I wanted to sleep on the back deck in the open with some fresh air covered with a beach towel and another rolled up towel under my neck to support the head. When Patrick finished his shift at mid-night he checked on me and tried to convince me to sleep inside or in the cabin.

By inside he meant the saloon, but this would be occupied by Colin, who was happy to sleep out side the cabin even though he could have shared with either Georges or Nick when underway. (In port Colin either slept outside under the hard bimini, on the trampoline, in the pod, in the saloon or even in 2 single cabins in the fore peak. Lots of options here!

So I slept on the lounge outside and Patrick went to our cabin downstairs. Despite the 3 meter tall waves and the speed of the wind my tired body was rocked to sleep by the movement of the boat. Peace at last........

Like a nightmare I was woken up by the feeling of drowning with salt water rushing down my ears and my nose. This wasn't really happening, no it was a dream, no I was awake and it was real. I was gasping for air, the towel covering me was soaking wet and so was the one under me. My clothes and my hair were wet and finally after what seemed like forever I was able to breathe. What would have probably been a few seconds had summed up my life for me with the thought that if we were drowning I should have been next to my Patrick. (The violin has started playing)!!!!!

It took a while for me to gather my thoughts and senses and realise that a stray wave of unusual height had hit the aft of the boat and the water splashed up to water log me. The wave had been tall enough to soak Georges who was on the bridge (3m above the sea level) on night watch while Patrick rested.

Once I realised that I was alive and the boat was okay I collected myself and walked down to our cabin. I have never slept on the aft lounge since. I know if something terrible was to happen (god forbid) I would rather die next to my man. (Is there a violin playing again?!!!!!!)

When I went down to the cabin and curled up next to my Patrick in my soaking wet attire and sop story, Patrick just laughed, called me a drama queen and asked me to go to sleep. He also told me off for coming to bed in wet clothes. Too old for wet dreams!!!!

The next day when I narrated the story to the crew at breakfast, Patrick laughed once again and mimicked playing a violin. Wicked man.

Day 2 of this passage and motion- sickness continued. Another session of projectile vomiting and yet again overboard on the leeward side. Old habits die hard. What was the crew briefing about at the start of the trip? No leaning over the side feeding the fish.

This was the turning point when I decided that I would start taking Dramamine - the tablet to cure motion sickness. So when Phil offered me one I gladly accpeted. Hallelujah! Why had I resisted this so far? 4 hours later I was fighting fit.

The winds kept getting stronger (to over 40 knots) and waves higher (to 5 metres), the motion sickness returned as the effects of the tablet started wearing off. I took another one before going to bed and had a good night's sleep in our cabin on a bed that was still wet from the previous night.

The tablets were miraculous! I had started taking 2 per day at breakfast and dinner. (Pill popper!!!!)

On day 3 Georges recommended a stop for a late lunch stop at some small islands that belonged to Venezuela, known as the "Islas Los Roques" (islands of the rocks) - we decide to stop at Cayo de Agua. This was deemed as a good suggestion by most of us except Patrick (as this would mean that we travelled into shallow waters where the wave height increased and the wind just got stronger). We all looked forward to a relaxed meal in a beautiful serene bay with magnificent views. We even caught a fish as we got closer. From a distance the islands looked enticing but as we got closer the birds started making lot more noise and led us into thinking that they wanted us to leave their home and go away. The wind got stronger. I was sitting upstairs with Patrick on the bridge under the effect of Dramamine (my friend), enjoying the colour of the beautiful water that looked like someone had dropped a bucket of indigo in it. There were thousands of white caps indicating the ocean getting rough eras we got closer.

The decision to stop here had been made in the middle of the night. Gorges had recommended this place but of course covered himself by saying that it was a recommendation only and the final decision would be Patrick's as skipper. The guide books had warned against approaching these islands both for the safety of the area naturally and politically. Patrick had given into pressure not just for Georges but also for me. It would be another 18 hours to Bonaire and even a short break would have been good for my spirits.

Within a nautical mile of reaching the shores of the island, the apparent wind hit 34 knots and the speed of the boat being 6-7 knots we were in a 40 knot area. Patrick was handling the boat manually and finding it hard to steer and just as we were about to make a decision to turnaround we heard a loud clunk. It was in the middle of the day and fortunately all the crew were on the deck in the anticipation of land. The wind generator on the starboard had just given in to the wind and almost fallen off the boat. Fortunately 3 pairs of strong hands - Colin, Phil & Georges held it to prevent it falling into the water. One of the supports for the wind generator had come adrift from it's support and pulled the 4 screws out from t the deck that took all the wind generators support away apart from the base. As a result with the strong winds also pulling against the main support of the wind generator, the generator and its pole headed towards the sea. This reflected some poor workmanship in Saint Maarten by our highly paid team who forgot to properly ensure that the wind generator supporting arm bolt went right through the support to its mounting.

Losing a brand new generator would not only have been expensive but also impacted on how much power we generated each day. The solar panels were good for the sunny days but the two wind generators did their job on windy days and at night.

After securing the generator temporarily Patrick wanted to head off to Bonaire without stopping here but was convinced by Colin and Georges to halt at the neighbouring island to strengthen the fix and to have a quick check of the engine bilges to see why the bilge alarm had been going off at odd occasions during the night.

We anchored near the shore to see a very scary looking island full of rocks and birds, no sand, no trees, clear water but no fish The break was anything but peaceful. After a quick bite the boys got to work looking at the two problems on hand. We had planned to have a quick refreshing dip there but the current was so strong that no one dipped in the water.

Within a couple of hours after doing the absolute minimum, we left this god forsaken place with a promise of never to return.

The moment we were outside the bay in deeper water things looked better and the navigation program indicated an early arrival in Bonaire that night making it a 2.5 day trip to do 430nm which was a good effort as we had only sailed with an average of one reef in the headsail for the whole trip. This soared our spirits once again. As per the original plan we should have reached here at day break the next day morning but despite an effort to slow down we were here at 2am. Patrick was at the helm and Nick still up to assist with mooring. But it seemed that we had run out of mooring buoys. We moved from one anchorage to another and finally ended up using what seemed like someone's private buoy in a water in just over two meters deep. It was a chance we had to take at that hour. I barely slept until the daybreak and was pleased to see the sunrise and a small town waking up on the port side just a splash or two away. We had woken up safe in Bonaire.

After breakfast when everyone was up we found another pair of mooring buoys in the proper anchorage just 400 metres away.

We were amongst a number of big and expensive yachts just 50 metres from The Yellow Submarine one of the local scuba shops which had it's own wharf that we used many times during our stay in this barren and dry island that is the home of the pink flamingo and the majority of the south of the island is devoted in the production of salt. They probably export cactus's as they are just everywhere. Even the fences are made of hundreds of catcus cut off's.

All of us had been looking forward to Bonaire in the ABC islands and it was going to be a few days of R&R and fun!

[sabertoothwalrus]

the silly goofies

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

HOT, SINGLE, UNSTUDIED SPONGES. 3000 NAUTICAL MILES AWAY. Come sail the distance and read Tiger Tiger!

[muppidupp]

I want it to happen