Tuesday 26 April
Up at sunrise, a very pretty departure with Kralendijk bathed in morning sun. In no time we had the sails up, using Sporty the Code sail and winds in the low twenties, averaging 10 knots of boat speed, it was perfect.
The Dutch naval boat seeing us off at sunrise
Klein Bonaire with the mountains of Bonaire in the distance, clouds catching the sunrise colours
Managed to pick up a message from poor Stella, their flight was delayed by 5 hours. Chaos continues in the European airports and the Dutch kids were ending their holidays, so it was very busy. Poor things said Schipol was manic and they missed their connection to London, they had to spend the night in Amsterdam.
We passed Curaçao and Aruba in the distance, bypassing them as we had a good weather window and have no real desire to visit either island, they sound pretty touristy. We had a few big tankers pass us, presumably off to The Panama Canal, but not a single other sailing vessel.
All very relaxing!
We had a few dark squalls that make the wind go flukey, but Rowan cleverly managed to negotiate our way through them no problem. For the evening we took Sporty down, got the jib out with a reef and put two reefs in the main sail, which was very comfy for the night passage. We were planning to reach the rough seas at the Cape in the dark, so we were being cautious.
Dark squalls ahead
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