We arrived early in Bonaire, at 7am, and, no, I wasn't up to watch us sail in. Unlike last cruise on the Noordam, when I was trapped out on an open deck in a squall on our approach to Bonaire, today I was tucked in my bed in my very quiet cabin. However, my cabin mate is not one to sleep in, and so he was off the ship checking out the water taxi deal to Klein Bonaire. You might recall that last cruise, he was firm against me taking the water taxi over and snorkeling by myself, but I've had another week to work on him, and he finally relented. I was in the dining room for breakfast (served by Sutti) at 8am and G joined me shortly afterwards, with the information that the water taxi, Good Return, leaves on the hour from Kralendjik and on the half hour from Klein Bonaire. Sutti was up for the challenge and by 9am I had eaten breakfast, changed into snorkel wear, grabbed a towel and my gear, left the ship and was boarding the water taxi. G waved goodbye and I was on my way.
I felt all grown up. :-|
Snorkeling at Klein Bonaire is drift snorkeling, and three times over the course of two hours I walked down the beach until it played out, entered the water, swam through the coral at an opening to the deep side, and drift snorkeled back to where I started. I was planning to take the 12:30pm water taxi back, but when I finished a pass just as the 11:30am water taxi was arriving, I quickly gathered up my towel and boarded it. The wind was picking up and the water was getting rougher. Once back on Bonaire, I quickly re-boarded the Emerald Princess and showered and washed out everything: snorkel gear, swimsuit, swim skirt and rash guard. Our cabin looked trashed, with everything hanging up or sitting out to dry.
Anxious to leave it, I left G a note, grabbed a two-way radio, and headed to the dining room for lunch (although it was a port day, the dining room was open today because we were sailing early, at 2pm). Again I was seated in Sutti's section (which meant that we were 3 for 3 today), and G ended up joining me before I had finished.
We finished in time to go out on the Promenade Deck 7 for what is one of the prettiest sailaways we do. By the time Kralendjik was fading into the distance, we went back into the ship to catch the end of the Emerald Princess orchestra playing Dixieland jazz in the Piazza. I caught up with Cruise Critic friend Lynda to watch the 3pm showing of Mamma Mia on MUTS. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard...yes, it was a nice way to spend nearly two hours.
Meanwhile, G was at this cruises's veterans get together and we met up again for the 5:15pm Captains Circle party. Then it was a hurry-up to the dining room for one course plus dessert, so we could make it to tonight's entertainment: our favorite, the Beatle Maniacs for the 7:15pm show. We have not see them since mid-November, so we particularly enjoyed the show tonight. In fact, I would have liked to stay for the 8:30pm show too, but my busy day caught up with me, and so I ended it with my usual popcorn, fuzzy water, cabin and typing this blog post.
Tomorrow: a late (noon) arrival in Grenada. It's currently raining outside, but if it clears by tomorrow, we may head to a beach on Grenada for the first time in two years.
Photo 1: stollen at breakfast (after I had already broken off a piece) ;-)
Photos 2 to 6: snorkeling at Klein Bonaire