The first post of each season:

Friday, December 2, 2011

Sunrise, Day 25 (Bonaire)

Bonaire is only a short distance from Aruba (and Curacao is right in between the two), so we were able to sail late from Aruba (at 7pm) and arrive in Bonaire at 7am. In fact, the only reason we left Aruba as early as we did is so the ship's casino and stores could be opened, and drinks sold.
It was a slow, easy sail to Bonaire, at least for most of the night. Sometime between 4am and 5am, G was awakened by the ship making an abrupt turn and leaning quite a bit. He got up and dressed and went up on deck to see if he could see something that the ship had had to avoid, but he saw nothing. Of course, I slept through all of this. When he told me this morning what had happened, I wasn't sure I believed him. There would be no reason for the ship to turn abruptly...any necessary change in direction would have been programmed in gradually. I thought that he was once again teasing me when he said he nearly rolled out of bed...until we walked past a shop on Deck 6 and saw displays tipped over and jewelry on the floor. We later learned that the big Christmas tree in the Piazza had also toppled. We're seven decks higher; no wonder G felt it.
Anyway, we were both up by 6am and out on deck to see our arrival into Bonaire. The sunrise was very cloudy, but still beautiful, and the effect of it on clouds to the west was particularly interesting.