Hot Aussie girl = writers block

Ok so I have been sitting here for a bit trying to get some linear thought together so I could post an update about the last few weeks here in Curacao but it is just not happening. I have been enjoying myself way too much here. The past few weeks have been filled with lots of scuba diving, exploring this great island and making lots of great new friends. I will write about all of it soon but I just don't think it's gonna happen tonight. At the moment I am on a catamaran with a tall, hot, bad ass Australian girl who is cutting up a killer salad for us. Hopefully you understand my lack of desire for typing.

A few SCUBA pics from Bonaire, thanks to my friends in the class

Driving tour of Curacao and Sea Aquarium pics

Curacao and Carnival pics

Venezuela to Bonaire pics

Update from Curacao

Sorry for the lag in my updates. I’m currently in Curacao and although Bonaire and here have been some of my favorite islands so far, one of the few downsides has been how tough or expensive it is to get internet access. In Bonaire it was 50 Gilders for a 15 hour prepaid card and you spend the majority of the time fighting the damn thing to stay connected. Oh and one U.S. dollar equals 1.78 in Gilders, another conversion I have to constantly work out in my head. Well as usual a lot has happened so I will launch into it. In my last post I talked about getting my scuba cert. Well that ended up being a terrific experience and although I wish I would have done it years ago, I’m glad I waited until now. I took the class through a shop on Bonaire called Wanna Dive and I couldn’t have been happier. From the first day our entire class and our instructors hit it off and we had a blast. It was such a chill environment, class room was a picnic table on the beach with a palapa and then a short walk to the pool for skills. We did a total of 4 open water dives and they were all great. I was very happy to have the freediving background I do because I was completely comfortable the whole time and was able to enjoy every aspect of the dives. The funny thing is that the only real problem I was having was NOT holding my breath. I’m so used to breath hold free dives that I found myself looking around and then starting to the surface for air before I remembered that I had a regulator and could breathe. I met some wonderful people from all over the world in our class and we even were able to go out during the evenings and enjoy some good old Polar beers together. So by the end of the week I was enjoying myself so much that I knew that I had to figure out some way to keep diving. After talking with some of the instructors I found out about their divemaster internship program. Our head instructor Marleen (a smoking hot Dutch chick) introduced me to the owner of the operation and after a short conversation with him I was in. This was last Thursday. Basically for the next 3 months I will be working in the dive shop for free but earning all my certifications and diving everyday. After I complete that, I should be at the level of divemaster and then I will have to take the instructor course. So I’m hoping to have that done by summer and then explore more options from there. The only dilemma that left me with at that point was that we were planning on leaving that night (Thurs) for Curacao and I needed to talk to Brian about things. He had originally planned to keep the boat in Curacao but had not been able to reserve a slip in the marina he wanted. I had decided that if he still wanted it in Curacao that I was going to find a cheap room on Bonaire and stay there but after talking with him, he was cool with keeping the boat in Bonaire at the marina right next to the beach I will be working at. I was so stoked I couldn’t believe it. So as of now, Brian flies out on March 9th and I will leave that same day to sail back to Bonaire to put the boat in the marina. Should be sweet being in the marina because I will actually be plugged into power and also not have to worry about conserving water as much. I also will be able to kayak to the beach every morning to work and dive because it is so close.

We had a better weather window to head to Curacao on Friday night so I spent the rest of Thursday afternoon sorting out getting a reservation for the marina and making sure I was all set to return in March. The following day we finished up all the last minute stuff and I got us underway just before midnight. We had a great night of cruising and arrived in Curacao the following morning as we planned. In fact we made a little bit too good of time and when Brian’s watch started at 6 AM he had to zig zag back and forth a bit to wait for the light so we could come into the narrow entrance to Spanish Water where we are anchored now. After arriving here we had to set about our next project of getting the retard of a crew member that Brian found in Grenada off the boat. I was in the States during the holidays and all of January and while I was gone Brian found some dude on one of the internet crew lists looking for a boat to help on. He happened to be in Grenada at the time and said he knew how to sail, had mechanical background and also spoke Spanish. Well in a nutshell, he didn’t have any of that, he was a fucking mutant and like my ex-girlfriend, would lie when the truth would help him. I honestly don’t know how some people make it in this world sometimes. He is the one who gave his backpack away the second we got jumped in Venezuela. Well his dumb ass was carrying his drivers license and debit card (and camera) in his pack. I carry a pack usually but I never have anything important in it. All my money, cards, etc are kept in a pocket with Velcro and a zipper in the shorts I am wearing. Camera is in my pocket as well. I usually have water, sunscreen, chapstick, etc in my pack. Anyway, this moron lost this stuff and it all went downhill from there. While we were in Bonaire, Brian lent the guy 100 bucks to get by until he could get his new debit card sent down. Well the dumbshit blew through that in about 2 days using it to dick around on the internet and buy drinks for any girl who would talk to him. A few days later his Mommy sent him another 100 to get him by, again, he bought credit for a local cell phone, a phone charger, internet access, you know, all that important stuff. The whole time he is telling us about ten different stories about how the money is on it’s way, oh but somehow he is the only person on the fucking planet that moneygram/western union won’t work for and my favorite was when I told him just to wire transfer money to my account and I would pull it out of the ATM for him, a few days went by and I asked him if he had done it yet and he gave me a song and dance about how his bank (US Bank, a huge fucking chain) won’t let him wire transfer money because he doesn’t have a business account. Yeah. See what we were dealing with. So I had taken enough of being lied to and basically just ignored the prick. He pulled a lot of other shit but it isn’t worth writing about. Ultimately, we got to Curacao and I thought he was gonna cry when Brian told him last Sunday that he needed to pack his shit because he was off the boat Monday morning. We went into town and of course the money he said would be there, wasn’t. So we waited in some plaza while he called his Mommy again to bail him out. He told her all about the mean men that were kicking him off the boat for no reason and how it was our fault he got robbed. Priceless. I really wish I would have gotten a picture of the face he made when I finally snapped and told him that we were leaving and to meet us the following day in the same plaza and that we were keeping his passport until he had Brian’s money and a copy of an airline ticket off the island. Because he came in on this boat and I am listed as the Captain it falls on me to prove that he is leaving the island. When I check out of customs/immigration they ask for your clearance in. On that form it shows that you came into the country with a total of 3, me and two crew. Well to prove you didn’t just leave people on the island, when people leave the boat you have to take a copy of their flight itinerary down to the office and the agent has to sign them off your crew list. After hearing his whiny talk with his poor Mom, it was clear that he had no money at all (which I figured) and that she would have to send him the sum to pay back Brian as well as buy his plane ticket. So anyway, we left that dumb ass sitting in the plaza with all his shit, no money and no passport. The following day we met him as planned and he was sitting at the same bench talking to some teenage girl from South America with his Spanish translator book in front of him. We got everything sorted out and he met us at immigration after paying Brian back and I got him signed off my crew list. One small sidenote I thought was funny, he was big talk about how he didn’t care about leaving the boat and he would be flying to Bogota to backpack through Colombia and live on 8 dollars a day. Well when I took his passport and copy of his flight to immigration, I found it interesting that his flight was for the following morning back to Los Angeles. Guess Mommy finally got wise and told him she wasn’t financing his trip anymore and that his bitch ass was going home. Good riddance. Word of warning to any young girls in the Petaluma area, if some dipshit is telling you stories about what a great sailor he is and all about his travels down here, you might want to ask if he even has money to buy you a beer.

After getting rid of that dead weight, we caught one of the brutally unreliable and beat to hell buses from Willemstad back to Caracas Bay. We had met the owner of a local marina and he offered to give us a ride into town for the last night of Carnival and the big parade. Brian and I accepted and rode into town in the back of a stepside Chevy truck. There were 6 of us total and we had a great time watching the parade. I have some pics and video I will try and post soon, when I get a decent enough connection. We finished up a few errands yesterday and today I am headed out to go scuba diving on some wreck nearby. One of the other cruisers is gonna pick me up soon and we are supposed to ride scooters over to the dive shop. This weekend we are planning on having a few people to the boat for dinner. I’m also headed over (this afternoon or tomorrow) to see the local aquarium they have. I read an ad saying they have huge sharks but I’m skeptical. They do have a dolphin encounter thing that I am going to do where you swim with and learn about how they train the dolphins. This is a good island. A bit big for my taste. It’s tough to get around without a car and the buses just suck. I don’t mind riding them but they run weird schedules and are usually late. We are here for about 11 more days. So that catches me up. I’ll do my best to do shorter updates more often but as I said, getting internet is a bit sketchy here. Once I’m back in Bonaire I will be able to update regularly as I will be in the marina with wireless connection (and hot water!!! Hooray!!)

Wanna dive???

So tomorrow I am finally going to start the class to get my SCUBA certification. I have been SCUBA before with buddies who had extra equipment but I just never have gotten around to taking the course. I have to admit I am really looking forward to doing this class on this island. The diving here is unreal. I haven’t even really had to go very far because it’s pretty much good all over. I decided earlier last week to sign up for this course because I think it’s ridiculous that I have lived in the Caribbean for a year and still don’t have the cert. Those of you that know me know that I am a freediver at heart but I really am drawn to doing deep dives as well as wreck diving. I have been to 100 feet (over 30 meters) on a breath hold freedive but obviously I wasn’t down very long. On the average, I usually only freedive to around 50 or 60 feet, look around for 30-45 seconds and then head back to the surface. Since spearfishing is strictly forbidden in most of the islands I have been to it has kept me from really diving as much as I would like to. I’m hoping that I can start logging a lot of dives after I finish the class. I do have to say that on Rum Boogie, Brian bought a system that is known as a Hookah or sometimes is called SNUBA. It’s basically a small engine with a compressor that has two 60 foot air hoses with regulators at the end. Basically it’s SCUBA without all the other gear. Strap on fins and a mask, jump in the water, put the regulator in your mouth and you can swim down to between 35-50 feet and breathe normally. I’m embarrassed to admit that in the year I have been on the boat I have never used it. In fact, it had never been used until yesterday. Brian had talked about it but never got it out and I just never bothered because I figured it was gonna be more trouble than it was worth, hell I can freedive deeper than that and I don’t have to set all the stuff up. Man was I wrong. That thing is F-ing cool. Brian put it together yesterday morning and I got in the water with him to help him test it out. It was great. I even ended up treating myself to a few new pieces of dive gear to make it more enjoyable. When I got back with the new stuff (new fins and mask) I went out solo with the unit and was down around 50 feet for probably 20-30 minutes. Just cruising through the reefs checking out everything without any cumbersome gear on was cool. It always amazes me all the diversity in sea life you see at different depths. At about 35 feet I found a decent sized octopus and spent some time following him as he changed colors attempting to camoflauge himself until I caught him and got ink shot all over me. Good stuff. I found a moray eel that had been killed by something that took a big bite out of it but I also found plenty of live eels as well. Rays, parrot fish, turtles, it’s all out here. I truly can’t wait to get started on the class tomorrow, pretty cool to have the choice to get certified in Bonaire huh? If you want to see some great dive pics from this island check out this link http://picasaweb.google.com/fwremers/BonaireJanuary2009

Thanks to Fred for the comment and sharing these pics from his recent trip to Bonaire, looks like you had a great trip man.

Hello again...

Well I'm back. As life has a way of doing, the last few months have flown by. A lot has happened but that if for another time. As for me, I'm on the island of Bonaire now. I ended up going back to California in December and returned to Grenada and the boat at the end of January. As usual there some projects to finish prior to us leaving but since the internet service I'm using right now is sketchy, I will save all the fun details for another blog. For the time being, here's the down and dirty of what I have been up to. We set sail from Grenada on the 3rd of February bound for the offshore islands of Venezuela. We sailed to Los Testigos first, about 88 miles from Grenada and we spent the night on the anchor near Playa Real beach basically in the same spot Boogie was when Jaymie and I stayed there back in July. After some debate we decided on heading to Porlamar on Isla de Margarita. The same place I bought diesel back in July for 6 cents a gallon. We arrived there the next morning and got fuel then headed in to check with one of the yacht agents about the checking in procedures. After finding out how extensive and ridiculous the customs and immigration circus is we decided to just go to the grocery store and then set sail the following morning. Well I typically do fine on my own finding chaos around every corner but when you put Brian and I together, there is always something insane in store. We were told by Marina Juan to take a cab to the store but we decided to walk. Well I don't know if it was my 6 weeks back in the states or what but I wasn't being very heads up as we just kept on walking down a street we shouldn't have been on. As we were approaching the bend in the road that led back to a main street I was grabbed by a guy who was speaking to me in rapid Spanish. I turned and as I was looking at him and trying to decipher what he was yelling about I saw that he was holding a knife. Just a basic small dinner steak type knife. I was still lost as to what was going on when he swiped at the chest strap from my backpack. It finally clicked what he was trying to do. Brian picked up another guy in Grenada as crew while I was gone and he had been walking behind us and was attacked first. They forced his backpack off and one of the guys ran off with it. By the time I realized fully what was going on the guy tried to cut the chest strap again and I grabbed his wrist and shoved him back. I was trying to figure out what to do but I didn't want to take my eyes off the knife and honestly I was kind of just frozen in a stand off with him. I yelled over to Brian because he seemed to be about as stunned and confused as I was and when he heard me he snapped out of it and found a big piece of wood on the ground to swing like a club. He yelled at the guy and after a few moments the dude ran off with the rest of them. None of us are sure how many guys there were, we think 3 or 4 total. Whatever the case, we ran out on to the main street and jumped in a cab. Turned out Sam only had a camera, his drivers license and a debit card in his pack so he was able to cancel that online right away. All in all, we got off pretty lucky. If one of us had been hurt we would have been fucked because we were basically in the country illegally and while we were down in Venezuela we heard that Chavez was on the radio actually encouraging attacks on Americans. Needless to say, we set sail that following morning for Los Roques.





We arrived in Los Roques last Sunday and were planning on spending most of the week sailing around this beautiful area but Monday morning we ran into problems with the Coast Guard guys there so we just ended up bailing completely and heading on to Bonaire. This island is incredible. We have been really enjoying it here and have been hanging out with some of the crew from a yacht that is berthed here. The yacht is called Octopus and belongs to Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. It's 414 feet long, has 2 helicopters, 2 submarines, 7 tenders and all kinds of jet skis and other toys. It has a cinema, gym, basketball court, etc. It holds 224,000 gallons of fuel, about a million and a half dollars to fill up. It operates on a 20 million dollar a year budget. The thing is awesome, check it out on google or wikipedia. The crew members are real cool and are from all over, it's been a blast hanging with them. I'm going to try and post some pics soon but the internet connection is pretty dodgy here so I may have to wait until Curacao. We are staying here until next Thursday night. We will set sail for Curacao that night to make it over by Friday morning. Carnaval starts that following Monday which just happens to be my birthday so I'm sure we will have a good time.