Windsurfing in Bonaire again – week (and a bit) ending 24 June 2011

The PWA event ended on Thursday with  the closing ceremony during which Kiri Thode was carried to the stage, sitting on a chair strapped to a windsurfer, to receive his trophy.  Sarah Quita won the Women’s event.  We said goodbye to Caesar & Fra who are heading to Aruba for the PWA event there along with all the other pros.   We also said goodbye to Mayra and Steven Max who had stayed on for the closing ceremony.  We had a great day windsurfing and there was plenty of wind.  Elli coped really well in 25 knots and amazed a lot of people on the beach who came up and congratulated her.  Alex did really well despite not feeling too well but faded a fair bit in the evening.   He couldn’t sleep because of a sore throat.

We went to the beach again on Friday and Alex and Elli tied their boards together so Alex could tow her.  She almost overtook him when she built up speed and started to plane!  She loved it.  She said it was like flying.  Amazing achievement!  We caught up with Agnieszka and the boys, Ivo and Melanie (who were in Bonaire just for the day) and Monique.  Ivo and Melanie bought the Flare 88 from us and had brought a board bag so they could take it back to Curacao with them.  So, the board is going back to where we bought it from at the beginning of our holiday!  We had light wind when we got to the beach, followed by a sudden storm and then the wind came in nice and strong for our last winsurf before packing up the gear.  Alex caught up with Jurgen, Joandrik, Nathan and Chepi and Elli played with Koletta.

Alex and Akim went for a brief windsurf on Saturday and we spent the rest of the day packing.  We saw Daniella briefly and met up with Agnieszka, Marcel and Sebastian briefly after dinner at Captain Don’s (we had tried to meet them earlier for an icecream but it didn’t end up happening due to phones not working).  Cheppi won the under 13s Prokids competition which was on over two days on Saturday and Sunday.  Unfortunately, it didn’t end up being as big an event as last year.  It was not the official World Championship this year, not held during the school holidays and clashed a bit with another competition in Aruba for the older kids.  Still, the ones that were there enjoyed it!  We saw Cheppi, his mum and grandmother again on Sunday and then headed to the airport on our way to Curacao.  Monique was at the airport on her way to Aruba. When we arrived at Curacao, we saw her boards were there instead of in Aruba with her so we made sure they put them on the next plane to Aruba for her.

We stayed at Melanie and Ivo’s apartment in Curacao and were there for two full days during which we caught up with Inge, Roeland, Tessa, Lennart and Inge’s mother who was visiting from Holland.  We were treated to a beautiful lunch of various Dutch pancakes on the first day and went to Mambo beach with them on the second day.  We visited the Hato caves near the airport.  Elli had her hair braided again but this time at the hairdresser’s and it took two and half hours!

We left Curacao on Wednesday morning for our return journey home.  In Miami, we had to recheck the luggage because there was an issue regarding the time we had between flights (American Airlines had changed some of the arrival and departure times and this meant that we had less time between some of our flights than we had when we originally booked).  As a result we ended up having to pay $300 for our windsurfing equipment.  When we got to New York, bad weather prevented us from landing and we had to circle for some time.  We had to rush to catch the next flight to Los Angeles and as a result the luggage didn’t make it despite having to sit on the runway for almost 2 hours before take-off.  As a result there was also no time in Los Angeles between flights.  We were lucky to be on Qantas planes from New York and Los Angeles and so the wait on the runway was quite pleasant.  Since the luggage was not with us, we caught a taxi to Mum’s to see Auntie Margaret and pick up our car to drive home to Canberra.  The luggage was delivered all in one piece a couple of days later.  At home, we found everything was as we left it.  We saw Ingrid and Jo, had showers and went to bed very early as we were all exhausted.  We arrived to a beautiful sunny day and weekend although it is definitely a shock that it is sooo cold!  Still, we had a wonderful holiday and are ready to get back into work and school.

Windsurfing in Bonaire again – week ending 15 June 2011

A great final week for us here in Bonaire!  We have had heaps of wind this week!  Alex has windsurfed a lot (see hands photo below – perhaps too much!!) and I have had some nice long sessions too.  Unfortunately, I managed to bruise my tailbone on the bottom of the sea (never thought it was possible, but it is so shallow here that it can be done)!  Elli has had some great experience in high wind (up to 25 knots) and even managed to get her feet in the straps (but the foot-straps are too far apart for her so she decided it was best to use just the front one).  She is getting to be a very competent windsurfer.  We have invented a new game this week – Alex and her are playing pirates on their windsurfers (Elli is a pirate princess) and they have been sailing around to find treasure and then chase other pirates who have stolen their treasure as well as chasing me around to take me prisoner – it has made Elli forget that she is practicing windsurfing and following Alex has helped her to steer more upwind and she is able to follow him wherever he goes.  Even Akim is getting some good windsurfing in now!  Finally!

The Bonaire PWA (Professional Windsurfing Association) Freestyle competition started on Sunday with the men’s and women’s first double elimination during the day and an Opening Ceremony including a parade in the afternoon, bands, BBQ etc.  The Pros arrived a few days before and it has been fantastic watching them practice for the event.  We think the practice was the best part because they were all on the water at the same time and you didn’t know where to look.  It was one move after an other and in amazing combinations and variations!  Kiri Thode from Bonaire seems to be in a league of his own and has looked like the winner consistently from practice and throughout the event, winning almost every elimination.  There are a few biting at his heels who are also performing well!  Monday and Tuesday had plenty of wind and there were heats all day but Wednesday was too light for much.  There was night sailing in the evening and that was spectacular.  The beach was packed with spectators.   Maxime (a 15 year old girl we met last year), Amado and Caesar received wild card entries so they were competing too.  We met up with Igor from Russia who we first met at Prassonisi in Rhodes when Alex went to the Young Guns Camp in 2009.  We also saw Victor, Rafael and Steven-Max who had gone to the competition Alex entered in Curacao.

Steven-Max’s little sister, Alima is here too of course and Elli (and sometimes Alex) have been playing with her.  Elli, Alima and Koletta have become a bit of a group and have been spending each day swimming and playing.  I even took the three of them windsurfing together on Monday.  Alex has been windsurfing with Chepi, Jurgen and Nathan (who was in his age division at last year’s event).  He has been attempting so many new moves and getting close to pulling them off too!  Ivo, Melanie, Maui, Noa and Tiago arrived on Saturday and stayed until Tuesday.  Maui ended up cutting his ankle on his fin and needed a few stitches so he couldn’t windsurf after that.  Melanie wasn’t really up to it either because she had only just stopped using her crutches after having a fall while they were away in New York a few weeks ago.  They had a good time anyway.  We met some friends of Barnie’s (a friend from Canberra) who he used to work with at Club Vass in Lefkada – Andy Chambers, Laure Treboux and Max.  Andy has been doing some of the live streaming broadcasts of the event as well as competing.  Laure Treboux is coming a close second in the women’s event after Sarah Quita and lives in Perth.  Caesar has not had much luck in this competition (in one instance, after winning his heat against Rafael, he was disqualified for using the wrong type of board after Rafael protested – the board he was using, was actually a disadvantage to him and he had really won the heat despite it and not because of it).  Alima’s parents rescued a baby flamingo on Sunday (they are still white when they are young) and took it to the vet.  It had become separated from it’s mother and didn’t know how to feed itself or where to go.  Ro has been coming to watch the event – he went to the doctor on friday and they told him his foot wound had to be kept moist and completely away from the sand and water, so he has been ordered off work for at least a couple of weeks.  We saw Agnieszka, Marcel and Sebastian on Friday – they have been busy starting up a new part of their business (importing food) and invited us to breakfast and snorkelling.  It’s a pity the wind has finally arrived and so we have taken a rain-check.  Hopefully we will get to see them before we go!  It is looking less likely now though (Wednesday night) because Alex has suddenly come down with a temperature.  Alima and her dad Roelof are going home to Aruba tomorrow and Elli and Alima had to say goodbye – they were so sad…  Steven Max and his mum Mayra will be staying one more day until the end of the event.  We have had the chance to get to know them much better this week and have had a great time together.  We ran into a 75 year old windsurfer this week from Argentina (we met her last time we were here) – she has been windsurfing for 35 years and still going strong – it’s good to see you can do this sport for ever!

Windsurfing in Bonaire again – week ending 8 June 2011

Only 10 days left to go!  It wasn’t that long after all…

Back to very light wind conditions this week.  Alex and Elli sailed from Thursday to Sunday but we only had from 0.9 – 3 knots on Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday picked up slightly and the kids sailed for a short time.  Akim and Alex finally windsurfed to Klein Bonaire which is about 2 kms away from the side of the island we are staying on (opposite to Lac Bay where we normally windsurf).  Alex got there before Akim and waited for him to catch up before they both came into shore.  They had to weave their way through the coral to find somewhere to bring their boards in.  They had a brief snorkel but left it for another day since they didn’t have masks and flippers and only goggles with them.  Akim beat Alex back.  Alex windsurfed with Chepi a lot this week and practiced a huge amount of freestyle moves.  Chepi was giving him help with the Gecko.  Alex was ecstatic on Saturday when he fully completed his first one and by Wednesday he was even doing them one-handed!

The Koppa Julia didn’t proceed on Sunday due to very light wind again but Alex practiced light-wind freestyle for hours (his whole hands including finger tips were white from overuse – they will probably end up totally covered in callouses).

The film crew that is making a documentary “Children of the Wind” about the windsurfers of Bonaire arrived on the weekend – they have some final shooting to do before finishing the movie.  Ro and Chepi are both in it.  We met them on Wednesday and they asked if Alex could give them an interview.  They said he had great eyes!  They wanted him to talk about Bonaire and Chepi and how they have influenced him.

Activity finally got underway to prepare for the PWA (Professional Windsurfers Association) Freestyle competition which is starting on 12 June.  The potholes in the road leading to the beach have been filled with sand and we can see people on the point moving around.  They have also put down a lot of sand for beach volley ball.  We are hoping that the wind will appear in time for this event – all the world’s top freestylers are coming and it will be an amazing event to watch – if there’s enough wind to hold heats…

We heard from Carbon Art on Saturday – they have put another photo of Alex on their website along with details of his results from Curacao.

Alex completed his big school project on Space this week – it’s good to have it finished finally.  The children have done quite a lot of school work and had lots of swimming in the pool.  Akim and the kids have been making friends with the lizards.  They have been feeding them every morning – one spent the night under the kids’ bed.  We found him in the morning and Elli and I had heaps of trouble getting him out in the morning (he was terrified and kept going the wrong way).

We went to the market in town and found potatoes after not being able to buy them for over a week and the man there gave Elli and Alex a really yummy guava sweet.  Chepi’s grandmother gave the boys haircuts on Tuesday and Elli had her fringe trimmed.  She mentioned that she wants to have us over for a BBQ before we go.  Chepi came home from school while we were there and he showed us all his trophies.

We finally tried the Pastechi House for lunch and it was nice but we thought that the man who had come to the house selling them out of his car had even nicer ones.  Monique has come back from Holland where she says she learnt a lot but the wind was really strong and the water freezing.  Chepi came over for a swim on Wednesday evening.  Alex and he get on really well together but Elli was feeling left out.

Not her usual cheerful self:

Windsurfing in Bonaire again – week ending 1 June 2011

The wind has been pretty good this week.  Not really enough for Akim but everyone else has been enjoying themselves.  Akim had a couple of short sessions.  Elli has been improving all the time and Alex has been practicing all sorts of freestyle moves (the grubby, duck gybe, willy skipper and flaka).  On Sunday he was freestyling with Chepi, Amado, Kiri, Taty and Tonky.  The children here have a few days off school so Alex sailed with Chepi on Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday.  Ro gave me some excellent tips for improving my gybe which I spent a lot of time practicing and I even felt some progress…

We went to dinner on Saturday night at Jerome and Agnieszka’s house.  What a beautiful location.  They have a very lush front garden that leads into a huge living area and that looks out over the swimming pool to the sea (with just a couple of palm trees silhouetted on the horizon to remind you that you are in the Caribbean).  The children swam in the pool a couple of times and went down to the beach and collected hundreds of crabs.  We had a very nice dinner with some very nice wine followed by banana and coconut fritters and mango, pineapple, blueberries and ice cream.  Jerome spent a year studying in Australia and has definitely seen more of the country than we have.  We saw Agnieszka and the boys again at the beach on Wednesday.

Windsurfing in Bonaire again – week ending 25 May 2011

We had enough wind for Elli (plenty) and Alex (barely) on more than half of the days of this week.  We went snorkelling on Thursday near the airport at Donkey Beach.  The children really enjoyed it.  We saw a huge barracuda with very big teeth which we were a bit nervous about but it stayed away from us.  We saw parrot fish, huge coral, some small blue fish with neon blue spots and an eel.  The planes landing at the airport came in over the water and flew unbelievably close to us while we were in the water.  It was an amazing sight!

Alex lost one of his teeth on Friday (It must be years since he lost the last lot of baby teeth).  Akim took Elli out for a windsurf on Friday and I took her on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (when she tried the bigger 1.5 metre sail for the first time).  She is getting really good.  Her gybing is very competent and she has no problem getting back on the board on her own if she falls off (which is rare).  She is having nice long runs and is managing to sail much more across the wind than down wind.  There has been real progress this week and she is really enjoying herself.  She even tried some tacks on Wednesday – mainly because she was rounding up into the wind with the bigger sail.  Alex has been practicing the gecko and a lot more and on Tuesday was having no trouble planing.  Caesar saw him on the water on Sunday and came out to give him some instruction.  Akim had a short sail on Saturday but couldn’t plane.

Apart from that, there’s not a lot going on.  We had a nice surprise when Alex and the girls rang us on Skype.  The internet connection was terrible but at least we got to see them momentarily and got some messages from them afterwards.  Alex was really upset he didn’t get to talk to them but we’ll try again soon.

We were thinking about the possibility of sending our boards to Greece instead of taking them home (depending on cost) but our enquiries have shown that the only sea freight that happens from Bonaire is to Holland.  It takes about 3 months to fill a container so even if we wanted to, the crate probably wouldn’t leave here until August.  After that, we would need to get the agent in Holland to arrange to freight it to Greece.  It all sounds too complicated and therefore would probably be prohibitively expensive.  So, it won’t be happening…

Windsurfing in Bonaire again – week ending 18 May 2011

Another week with little wind… The mozzies were bad but the wimpiries were even worse!

Alex recovered from his sore throat and fever and then Elli got it.  She seemed to have it a little longer than Alex but is over it now too.  Alex’s leg sores are just about healed.  Akim has done a great job repairing Alex’s board – you can hardly tell it was ever scratched!

We didn’t do too much this week apart from a BBQ at Monique’s house on Saturday night.  We met a Dutch/Polish family with two children (Jerome, Agnieszka, Marcel and Sebastian).  Chepi, Daniella and Mia came a bit later.  We had a really nice time and were the last to leave.  Monique is really easy to talk to and we get on really well with her.  She has a puppy called Maui and a cat called Tiger.  We had a very nice meal (chicken, prawns, hamburgers etc).  The only problem was that I ended up with hundreds of bites again.  Once you get bitten the bite is itchy for days.  I went to the chemist and got yet another ointment promising to relieve the itch.  It works a bit better than Caladryl.  I’m thinking maybe I should buy an antihistamine…

Sunday was the day of the Koppa Julia.  Unfortunately, we only had between 0 and 3 knots of wind all day.  Alex and I took part in the Stand-up Paddleboard races.  I had a long paddle and so beat Alex and Monique who had very short ones and sinky boards.  Then I won again, beating Daniella (she did really well as it was her first time on a paddle-board) and Monique (who scored a kid’s board and short paddle again).  It’s great exercise.  Lunch was provided and we had cake in the afternoon.  They postponed the windsurfing until the 5th of June.  I got the opportunity to speak to Elvis’ wife (Julia’s mother) who is a diver and underwater photographer and American.  We mainly talked about teaching kids to windsurf since Julia hasn’t taken it up.  I am always interested in the psychology behind the children’s attitudes.  It seems that many children of windsurfer parents who have centres or are professional don’t seem to want to windsurf in case they don’t meet expectations.  The other problem is that their parents are always teaching someone else and they get a bit jealous.  Jean-Karl (Ro’s son) was there and he started to speak English for the first time.  Ro didn’t know he knew that much.  It’s amazing what having another kid around can do for your language skills.  Elli, Jean-Karl and Mia played with the paddle-boards and a blow-up dolphin.  Elli had a windsurf and she did really well even managing some duck gybes!  We drove Chepi and Joandrick home and then went out for Tapas – a meal that really suits the way Alex likes to eat (small sample size dishes).  We watched the sunset which was beautiful!

Windsurfing in Bonaire again – week ending 11 May 2011

This is a photo of Elli with her first tooth.

We went to the Chinese shop to see if Elli could find something she wanted to buy with the money the tooth fairy brought.  Alex bought a skateboard and Elli bought a skipping rope and a doll with clothes.  We also bought a 3 in 1 chess, checkers and backgammon game. And we bought mozzie zappers!!  They look like tennis racquets and are battery operated.  They make a satisfying zapping sound when they strike mosquitos.  It’s so good to finally feel they don’t hold all the cards and we now have some defense against them.  These little gadgets would make watering the garden at home at dusk pretty fun too!

We woke up to heavy tropical rain on friday and it even came into the house leaking through the doors.  Elli lost another baby tooth this week (6 May).  Now she has a big gap in her mouth but she can still whistle just as loud!  I gave her a purse to keep the money in which she got from the tooth fairy but we don’t know where it is.

Monique made arrangements with Alex and Akim to sail to Kleine Bonaire one day when it’s windy.  We got to know her a little better.  She is Dutch but has been living here for 5 years.   She has some studios attached to her house which she rents out.  This year is going to be a big one for her as she is trying to train and qualify for the Olympics.  She will even be travelling to Western Australia.

Kenneth’s daughter Koletta was at the beach on Saturday but she couldn’t really remember Elli.  It’s not surprising since she is so young (1 month older than Elli).  They played in the sand together anyway.  We ran into Koletta and her mother a couple of days later and invited them to come and have birthday cake with us at the beach on Wednesday after school.

We have finally caught up with Chepi.  He was at the beach on Saturday too.  He says he has a lot of school work now and so he usually doesn’t windsurf during the week.  He had a new sail and said he is now sponsored by Jibe City (the other windsurfing hire place).  He can use any of their boards and sails in exchange for doing some work around the place.  We also saw Jurgen again on Saturday who had a new mountainboard he bought from Caesar.  Chepi and Alex both played with it with him.  Caesar has bought a motorbike and Chepi thought it was wonderful but Caesar showed us that he already has grazes on his stomach from falling off.   We saw Caesar’s daughter Chance and his girlfriend briefly on Saturday too.

We have been doing a lot of school work this week.  Journal entries, reading, internet (Reading Eggs and Mathletics), spelling and maths.  Alex and Akim went for a sail on Sunday and Alex was really upset because he ran into some coral and damaged his Carbon Art board.  Akim says it is repairable.  Alex cried…

Our fresh milk ran out.  Memories of last year came flooding back.  When the fresh milk appeared again I bought extra and froze it.  Some people say that it’s not quite the same when it is defrosted but I think it should be fine (I remember I used to freeze excess breast milk for Alex when he was a baby).

Alex has a small wound on his leg from scratching a mozzie bite.  We got in early and are using spray bandage on it.  It was infected and getting deeper but looks like it’s improving already.  I tried antibiotic ointment but it didn’t help.  I think the water is so warm and shallow that it is probably easy for bacteria to flourish in.  Caesar said that if you go swimming at other beaches, wounds heal well but that at Lac Bay, they usually get worse.

Elli went windsurfing again but we chose the wrong board for her – she really needs a centre fin with that little sail.  Without it, she couldn’t make the board go upwind or even across the wind.  She headed straight down wind to the beach.  It wasn’t much fun for her because she couldn’t steer and go where she wanted.

Alex has been practicing the Gecko a fair bit this week too.  And he is getting close!

We  were thinking of taking Elli for a horse ride for her birthday.  They have a really good place here.  They go on a 1 hour ride to the beach where you swim with the horse and then ride back.  Well, it was a good idea until we found out it costs $140 each.  Even Elli said it was too expensive even though she really would have loved it.  She suggested the Butterfly farm instead.

We visited Chepi’s house and said hello to his mother and grandmother and invited them to Elli’s birthday celebration.

Elvis was in the paper this week – he was knighted by the Queen on her birthday.  He told us that his daughter’s birthday is on friday and he holds an annual windsurfing competition (the Koppa Julia) on her birthday.  This year it will be on Sunday.

Elli’s birthday was fun.  Elli was so excited she woke up a few times during the night asking whether it was morning yet.  She opened her present and played with it for ages.  Alex was feeling unwell.  He had a sore throat and was really tired (he said it was all Elli’s fault for waking him up all night asking him to check his watch).  It didn’t get better after a good night’s sleep though…  We went to pick up the cake we ordered as well as some balloons.  Her cake was heart-shaped with pink and purple icing and roses.  All the purple balloons left colour all over our hands and most of them deteriorated while we were blowing them up.  The rest popped by themselves one by one before the party.  The blue ones were fine though.

We took the cake to the beach and had a little party there with Constantino, Ro, Caesar, Kenneth, Koletta, Monique, Chepi, Daniella (his grandmother) and Mia his little cousin.

We swam and Alex and Akim windsurfed.  They had noticed that Keith (one of our team mates from the ACT Gustbusters) had posted 3 Personal Bests on the GPS team challenge and were keen to support him in his great effort (it must’ve been freezing).  The wind wasn’t really strong enough but at least they tried.  We drove Chepi home and then went home for showers before taking Elli out for a birthday dinner.  We tried the restaurant Inge recommended “It rains fishes” and it was excellent.  We found a Gelateria and bought ice cream before going home.

Monique invited us to a BBQ on Saturday night along with Chepi, Constantino and another family.  They are planning on windsurfing from outside Chepi’s house on Saturday morning before that.

Windsurfing in Bonaire again – 4 May 2011

We went to Lac Bay and windsurfed.  I spoke to Elvis.  We went to the laundromat which is next to the Stadium and did some laundry and then went to a new supermarket which had a butcher with nice meat and a good selection of vegetables.  We bought bananas from the market (which is just one stall) and a beach towel, new thongs and sandals for Alex and some fishing lines.  We also went to see the real estate agents who said that they would look into the internet issue.  They said they had not had problems before so that sounded positive.  It might be something that is fixable.

The children went fishing right in front of the house and did some of their school work (journals).  They are doing a great job.  For some reason, the internet has improved a lot, even inside the house.  I hope it lasts!

Today (one week before her 6th birthday) Elli lost her first baby tooth (bottom left)!  We can’t wait to see what currency the tooth fairy will be using…  Elli went windsurfing today and she stayed out for over an hour.  I walked her towards the reef upwind for ages and she sailed down wind towards the beach.  She gybed a number of times and was steering the board well.   Alex had a good sail too and he attempted a nautical mile which Akim and he both thought would be a PB (Personal Best) but unfortunately the GPS unit had not been charged up so it would not have been recorded.

We sorted out the house today and everything has now been unpacked and put away.  I am guessing that things will fall into a routine now and the blog will get too repetitious to keep on a daily basis.  We will pretty much be windsurfing everyday, doing school work, swimming, shopping and cooking and battling mosquitos.  I think I will just post a weekly blog and just put in important occurrences and if something different happens.

Windsurfing in Bonaire again – 2 May 2011

Bought some more supplies yesterday morning since the supermarkets were open till midday.  We then went to Sorobon Beach for windsurfing.  We saw Monique, Constantino, Jurgen, Roger, the Dutch guy who runs the snack bar (who is Victor’s uncle that we met on Curacao) and Ro, his wife Iris and his son Jean-Carl.  Alex, Akim and I windsurfed and it was great!  The water was a bit shallow in some parts and Alex wanted me to go with him to the deeper water.  He had me follow him and found a path for me to get through without scraping my fin (which is much longer than his).  He has got to the stage now where he is looking after me, instead of the other way around!  We got the key for the container to store our boards in.  Went home at 7 pm because the wind picked up late, jumped in the pool and made dinner.  Waited for President Obama’s press release announcing Osama Bin Laden had been killed and I posted Saturday’s blog which took ages since I have to go outside and stand under this antenna, while the mozzies buzz around me…

Today had some wind and we went to the beach after lunch.  The internet issue is a real pain.  Today is a public holiday too so we can’t do anything about it until tomorrow.  Alex and Akim went windsurfing and Elli and I swam.  Alex practised the ‘Gecko’ and he has just about got it.  He is unbelievably good at picking up new skills!  I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets it in the next couple of days.  He takes note of everything he is told – Akim advised him not to practice it only on one side so he has been trying it both ways.  There are a lot of people who can do things on one tack and can’t get it on the other.  We love to watch him approaching the things he wants to learn – he is so persistent!

We took the iPad to show Ro Alex’s movie from last year which had him in it and he had not seen before.  He has a sore on his foot which started small in January and never healed because his foot is in water all day.  It ulcerated of course like Alex’s ankles last year.  The doctor told him to keep it out of the water and so he hasn’t been able to teach for a couple of months and the wound has just closed up.  It was swollen and looked infected to me.  He says it’s throbbing and he wants to go back to the doctor.  It’s a real problem for him because his job requires him to be in the water.  I don’t think he’ll be able to give me that gybe lesson I was planning on…

We saw Caesar this morning and spoke to him a little but he was preparing for a 3 day kid’s clinic.  Chepi has not been around yet but we ran into Nathan who was in Alex’s division last year.  I got a locker at the Windsurf Place so we can keep our camera and other things in when we are there which will be much more convenient than carrying a backpack around all day!  We swam in the pool when we got back to the house and the children did some school work.  Both are reading even better than they were when I last heard them – I don’t know how that works, but anyway, it’s going well.  They also did some work on their journals but we really need the internet for Alex’s project because I didn’t bring books for it – I thought the NASA site, Tidbinbilla etc would have everything we would need…

Windsurfing in Bonaire again – 30 April 2011

We woke up at 6 am and left the house by 6.50 am to go to the airport to check-in for our 10.15 am flight to Bonaire.  There were no trolleys available so we had to pay a porter to get our bags to the check-in counter while Akim and I dragged the boards.  Insel Air gave us free transportation for the windsurfing equipment because Alex had competed in the Slalom event and they are sponsors.  We got back to the house by 8 am and said good-bye to Inge, Tessa and Lennard.  They sang “Happy Birthday” in Dutch to Elli and gave her a present.  We are going to miss them!  They didn’t know us and yet they offered us their home, food, hospitality and great company!  Roeland followed us in his car to drop off the hire car and then drove us to the airport.  We got there just after 9 so we had a little time and Roeland took us to the hanger where his plane is partked and showed us the plane.  Alex and Elli both sat in the pilot’s seat and loved it.

We took off on our 12 minute flight to Bonaire.  All went well and the boards got very nice treatment from the airport staff.  It felt great to be back in Bonaire again!  The taxi driver came and picked up Akim and Alex to take them to the car hire company and also gave them the remote control for the gate of the place where we are staying and the front door key.  Elli and I stayed with the luggage until they came back and Elli did my hair (quite a few people walking past remarked on what a great job she was doing)!

We loaded up the luggage and went to our new “home”.  It is excellent except for really slow (to non-existent) internet and mozzies at night.  It even has a pool.  We can’t do much about the internet because there is no-one working to ask.  Tomorrow is Sunday and Monday is also a public holiday for Labour Day.  We have an antenna right outside the house but the only way to get a connection is to walk right up to it.  That means standing outside with the mozzies to do the blog because I always write it when the kids have gone to bed at night.  Even doing that means that each photo takes about 5 minutes to load up.  If we can’t fix up the internet, we’ll also be a bit stuck with some of the children’s school work that we were planning to do eg Mathletics, Reading Eggs and Alex’s project on the solar system.

We went out to look for an open shop since we didn’t have anything in the house and we found a Chinese shop.  It didn’t have everything we needed but we managed to stock up on a few things like drinks and basic food.  We had run into Amado and his Dad at the airport when we arrived (he was picking up his boards which were sent with Insel Air’s flight from Curacao).  He told us that there was a big celebration today at Rincon (the oldest village on Bonaire).  We had a swim in the pool and then headed up to Rincon to take a look.  It was huge!  There were so many people, food stalls, bands, dancing and floats!

We had pizza on the way home and enjoyed our first Bonairian sunset over the water.  Tomorrow there should be some wind!

Windsurfing in Curacao & Bonaire – 29 April 2011

Today was our last day in Curacao for a while.  Tomorrow we are going to Bonaire!  We didn’t end up doing too much.  Just went out to buy some gifts for our hosts.  We also went to the car hire company to pay and make arrangements to return the car tomorrow morning – it is the Queen’s birthday (Beatrix of the Netherlands) and almost everything will be closed for the public holiday.  Everyone will also be dressed in orange.  We had some Dutch pancakes covered in icing sugar for breakfast thanks to Inge and liked them so much we had them for dessert after lunch too – yummy!  We repacked the luggage and did some washing and then spent some time with Inge and the kids before heading into town together for a Mexican meal at the Fort.

The kids ran around and played and we finished with ice cream before getting petrol and attempting to get them to bed early.  Roeland came home from work (he has been away patrolling at St Martens for a few days with the Coast Guard).  He works for a Canadian company.

Windsurfing in Curacao & Bonaire – 28 April 2011

We went to the “Botika” (chemist) on Tuesday to get a couple of things (there are a lot of pharmacies here and they even have Australian products).  They also sell drinks and ice cream!  Nancy (Jean Paul’s mother from Alex’s division), rang to see if we wanted to go windsurfing with them and Petra, Oscar and Aaron at St Joris Bay.  We met them there after lunch and I went windsurfing too.  The water was beautiful but the wind was marginal.  Fine for Alex but a little on and off for me and Akim.  Petra asked if we had found anywhere to stay and told me that she had washed sheets for us in case we needed to stay at her house.  It was very nice of her to offer.

On Wednesday, we moved out of the apartment.  Packing up took a while and we left at midday getting to Inge and Roeland’s house just before Inge got home at 1 pm.  Elli checked on her lizard egg (she insisted on wearing the same dress as the other night so that her baby lizard would recognise her if he hatched).  It was still there and she buried it in the sandpit but then, when she couldn’t find it again, she decided it had just hatched.  Tessa was at a friend’s house and Alex and Elli played with Lennard while we moved the bunk beds into Tessa’s room.  Three of us could sleep there and one in Lennard’s room.  As it turned out though we all ended up sleeping in Tessa’s room.

We went to the Toy shop to see if we could find any toys to take to Bonaire but we only found a couple of little things.  Pity – Bonaire doesn’t have much in the way of toy shops and we’ll be there for a while…  It would have been a good opportunity to take some with us because we couldn’t bring anything with us from Australia since most of our weight allowance got chewed up by the windsurfing gear.  Since we are going to Bonaire with Insel Air and they sponsored the Curacao Challenge, they are transporting the competitor’s gear for free – freeing up some of our weight allowance for toys!

We also checked out Goisco which is a huge shop that stocks everything from food to furniture, electronics and toys.  We found out later that Goisco is owned by Nancy’s husband.  After checking out a few more shops we went home and the kids had a great time playing together.  We talked with Inge for hours – she is a very interesting person and has travelled a lot.  She made us another delicious meal and we had a very nice time with her before getting a good night’s sleep.

We went to Blue Bay today with Inge, Tessa and Lennard and met some friends of Inge’s from Holland there on holidays with their daughter.  The water was beautiful and we stayed till after lunch.  We then took a drive to the North of the island and visited the National Park visiting the blow holes and a little cave.

We drove around to another resort and had something to eat while the children went swimming in the pool.  We got home after 7.  Inge and her friends had just finished a tasty Indonesian meal and she had made enough for us too.  We ate and put the kids to bed but Elli took ages to fall asleep.  She has two wobbly teeth which look like they will be out in a few days time.  We rang our parents and then I decided I better do some blogging before I forgot everything.  In theory, I am not supposed to be writing a daily blog but the problem is, leaving it for a few days doesn’t work too well either because I forget what happened on each particular day anyway.  Alex’s movie is appearing on all sorts of sites including Beach Telegraph and windsurfing.gr and Akim uploaded it onto Mpora with the original music choice where it has now had over 500 hits.

Windsurfing in Curacao & Bonaire – 25 April 2011

We had a good night sleep and woke up late this morning.  It was windy!  Finally!  How ironic!

We had breakfast and had to do some washing and tidying up.  Then we did some searches on the internet to try to find accommodation for the last 3 nights of our stay here.  Everything seems quite expensive.  I tried to make some calls but my phone didn’t have network coverage.  I took down some phone numbers from websites and sent some emails asking about price and availability and we went straight to the Spanish Waters for some windsurfing – in wind!!  Akim and Alex windsurfed and thoroughly enjoyed it.

On the way down to the water, I tried to make some calls but couldn’t get network coverage anywhere.  We got to Windsurfing Curacao at the Spanish Waters and I found that they had network coverage there.  I turned off my phone, pulled out the battery, jiggled the SIM card, put it all back and turned it on.  The network was then available and I tried my calls again.  This time they rang but were not answered.  I don’t think many people were taking calls because of the public holiday.  I found one missed call and rang the person back.  She was replying to my email and offered us an apartment for 47 Euros per night, plus 50 Euros cleaning fee, 10 Euros per night for water and then taxes and an unknown amount for electricity.  It really added up!  We tried another place we saw on the way back from the beach but no one was around to ask.  We thought it would have to be a job for tomorrow.

We went home and changed to go to Roeland and Inge’s house for dinner.  I wanted to find somewhere to buy something to take with us but everything was closed.  We finally found a shop and we bought some wine to take.  Their house is on top of a hill and has beautiful views of the island.  They have an 8 year old daughter (turning 9 in June) called Tessa and a 5 year old son called Lennard.  The children got on really well and played happily for hours.  Tessa is into playing spies which was one of Alex and Elli’s favourite games before we left home and she had a bag full of the same things they used at home (binoculars, walkie talkies, magnifying glasses etc).  Both of them like being medieval knights and had sword fights and played with a castle.  They played in the sandpit and Elli found a lizard egg.  They call those lizards “blau blau” because the male is blue.  Roeland says they eat meat and isn’t all that fond of them because they eat each other as well as all the road kill but at least they keep the place clean.

We had a very nice dinner and got on very well with them and they asked us to stay with them when we leave our current accommodation (very generous of them).  They are fairly close to the airport and they also offered to drive us after we drop off the hire car.  Roeland is going to St Martens for a few days and will be back late on Friday night.  Thanks to them, we won’t have to worry about looking for somewhere to stay.

Windsurfing in Curacao & Bonaire – 24 April 2011

Alex became the 2011 IFCA under 13′s Vice World Champion today!

The forecast was just what we were hoping for when we checked it this morning.  19 – 21 knots.  We remembered it was Easter Sunday and rushed out the door, looking forward to a full day of racing, taking our last block of Cadbury’s Milk Chocolate with us as it was the closest thing to Easter eggs we had.  Since tomorrow is a public holiday we went to the supermarket first to get essentials.  On the way in, a man told Akim he would look after our car while we were inside.  When we came out, he asked to be paid.  It seemed like one of those, “if you don’t pay me to mind your car, next time you come to the supermarket, I will show you why your car needs protection” type interactions so we didn’t pay him.

We set off for St Joris Bay and arrived to find pouring rain.  It cleared in about 10 minutes and we went to see what was going on.  The forecast was totally wrong.  The wind never came and it was not possible to hold any further racing today.  We were on stand-by all day.  Under the IFCA rules, the World Championship results were decided based on yesterday’s racing and Alex was in 2nd place.  He was very disappointed because he was sure that he would have taken the title today in the stronger wind.  But, it was better for him than for many others (who hadn’t achieved a podium finish yesterday) who were also looking forward to improving their result, given a chance today.  Alex felt like we had come for nothing but his mood changed completely once he got his trophy at the closing ceremony.  We were very proud of him.  He did a fantastic job under the circumstances.  And, for the youngest competitor with the smallest sail, it was nearly impossible for him to rank where he did.  Alex has a way of overcoming impossible odds.  He is a true champion (and of course if there had been an under 11s division where he rightfully belongs, he would have been the 2011 under 11s World Champion).

During the day, Alex and Ben took a small speed boat that Hans had brought and went to a beach on the other side of the bay.  Alex even got to drive and thoroughly enjoyed the adventure.  He entered the Stand-Up Paddleboard event too.  Elli played and swam and became very good friends with Ben.  Alex played with Jurgen a lot today too.  Alex had a short windsurf in very light wind.  We talked to everyone and exchanged email addresses.  Ingemar from Curacao Windsurfing gave us some sugar cane and the kids loved it.  Elli found 5 gilders and bought herself a bottle of Aloe Vera drink.

We waited optimistically for a change in the wind until the end of the event was announced, had dinner and attended the Closing Ceremony.  Alex was given a very nice trophy and got the loudest cheers.  We really enjoyed the party afterwards and Alex said that he changed his mind and was very happy and satisfied with how things went after all.  Ingemar gave Alex a t-shirt from Windsurfing Curacao.  Elli wore the dress Mum & Dad gave her for her birthday and she danced and twirled around in it.  She looked so cute – someone even came up to ask where we bought the dress!  We went home and rang our parents to let them know how things had gone and the children fell asleep quickly.  They can sleep in tomorrow…

Windsurfing in Curacao & Bonaire – 23 April 2011

The weather forecast, which had been promising yesterday, showed very low wind today.  We were thinking we may have to resign ourselves to the fact that there may not be any racing for this event…

Akim changed the music to his movie and it is now on YouTube.  The link is:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVHr1x7MEi0

We were going to take our time getting to St Joris Bay but couldn’t help worrying that it would be awful to miss the racing if, by some miracle, there happened to be wind at the Bay.  So, we skipped going to get milk and bread and went to see if the skipper’s meeting was on.  The racing was postponed as expected.  They held a rookies event in non-planning conditions this morning and we sat around waiting for some announcement.  Finally, they said that there would be a race and all the competitors assembled at the starting line but it was cancelled within a few minutes and everyone had to come back in.  Alex had a go on the Stand Up Paddleboards again today.  Elli wanted to get her face painted and I tried to talk her out of it (I could just imagine it melting all over her face in the heat and getting into her eyes).  Luckily Alima went first and had her leg painted so Elli wanted to do the same and we didn’t have a problem.

Elli had another go on the bungee trampoline (I think she would have been happy to go on it all day).  Alex and Elli played with Ben (Hans’ son and a competitor in the event).  He’s a really nice boy and helped Elli get back to shore after she swam out a little too far.  Then the rain started and everyone was ready to pack up.  Hans and his wife invited us to come to their house to eat with them and they were about to invite Laurence and Georgia (the New Zealanders) too.

At 4. 15 they announced there was going to be racing after all and everyone rushed out onto the water and made their way upwind to the starting line.  They managed to get through most of the heats by 7 pm when it got too dark but the under 13s missed out on their second heat.  Akim went out on the water to help Alex with the start and they were out for the whole 2 and a half hours.  Alex came second in his heat!  He did a fantastic job and felt that he might’ve done better if it wasn’t so gusty.

All the competitors (except for the winners) were complaining about the conditions and many thought that the race should not have gone ahead.  It was marginal but then again I think they would have been more disappointed if they didn’t get a chance to sail at all.  Elli and I were very impressed with Constantino Saragoza’s performance.  The end of his heat was so exciting.  He was in 2nd place and a long way back with the guy in first place almost at the finish line.  He picked up speed and accelerated steadily until he passed the leading guy with a few metres to go to the finish line.  The leader saw him come up behind him a little too late, pumped furiously but had left it too late.  Laurence from NZ did really well in qualifying and came 2nd in his heat despite one of his ropes breaking.  Unfortunately he fell going around one of the buoys in the finals.

We had some dinner at the beach and went home to get the kids to bed as soon as we could.  Tomorrow has the best chance of wind and the forecast is for 15-18 knots.  If nothing changes overnight it will be a very full day.  Tomorrow is the final day of the event so we are keeping our finger’s crossed.  It would be terrific if the wind picked up a little more, particularly for Alex, so that the older boys in his division compete with sails closer in size to Alex’s.  You never know.  It’s not over till it’s over…

Windsurfing in Curacao & Bonaire – 22 April 2011

We had very little sleep between us last night.  Akim stayed up till 6 am trying to get his movie onto YouTube.  The internet was extremely slow and kept dropping out.  As it turns out he chose a song he couldn’t use because of copyright restrictions so it didn’t end up being published at all.  Now he has to add different music and start again.  I had a lot of trouble uploading the blog photos and in the end couldn’t publish the blog either.  Elli kept waking up all night because she was being feasted on by insects and was really itchy.  She was covered in bites.  In fact, she had bites on top of bites.  I was the same.  We even had showers just to stop the itching for a few minutes and covered ourselves in Caladryl.  Nothing was working so I even tried banana skins (I remember getting an email listing this as one of the banana’s amazing qualities about a month ago).  For the record, It isn’t one of banana’s amazing qualities…  I kept wondering what the result would be when the wasps that buzz around St Joris Bay smelt the banana.  The owners of the apartment we are staying in are away for about a week and the guard dogs, which you don’t normally know are there, barked all night, non-stop, really loudly and would not let up!

It’s Good Friday and most things appear to be closed today.  It seems strange not being able to have Easter as usual but I don’t have an oven to cook the usual Easter foods with anyway.  I’m not sure how much time we’ll have over the weekend too.  We decided to try to get to the 10 am Skipper’s meeting because there was a chance it would be windy enough for racing today but we were sooo tired.  Luckily, Alex was the only one of us that managed to get a good night’s sleep last night.  We were up too late for me to make breakfast so we each grabbed a banana.  I quickly showered to get rid of the banana I had all over me and we rushed to St Joris Bay.  We were a little late but it didn’t matter because the racing was postponed until midday.  It looked like it was going to be another long, hot day but it didn’t turn out to be too bad after all.

First, we saw a helicopter circling the area and watched it for ages while it performed the most amazing stunts including a loop.  Then we chatted to a lot of people as we have already made quite a few friends.  We saw Pedro from Portugal, the New Zealanders, Constantino and Jurgen from Bonaire and Sven (a little boy who knows Alex from his YouTube movies).  Also, Roeland who is a pilot with the coastguard here and originally from Holland.  He gave me a book to read by Bill Bryson called “In a sunburned country”.  He has invited us to have dinner with his family next week (his wife Inge gave us some Children’s Benadryl Allergy with an antihistamine for Elli to take tonight to help with the itching.  She said that if you scratch the itches and make a wound they get infected with “monkey pox”).  Then we saw Nancy who is originally from Columbia and one of her boys is in Alex’s division,  Petra who is Oscar’s mum, Alima and Steven’s dad and Hans who is Ben’s dad (another boy in Alex’s division).  All the locals are really friendly and helpful people.  The Aloe Vera farm had a stand and we tried the tester on our bites – it seemed to work for a while so we bought a bottle and nearly used it all up today.

We bought Alex a racing timer and some longer harness lines.  Alex entered the Stand Up Paddleboard race with the adults and went on the back of one of the competitor’s boards and knelt behind him and paddled with his hands the whole way.

He then went wake boarding and loved it.  The man with the wakeboarding boat couldn’t believe it was his first time and commented on his excellent balance.  He didn’t fall in once over half an hour of riding.  Elli and I went in the boat and she loved the ride.  Alex’s arms must have stretched a couple of inches after today’s effort.  He should sleep well tonight!

Later Alex and Elli went out with the race organiser to check the wind on the course.  Elli and Alex had a go on the bungee trampoline which they loved.  We had a repeat performance by the percussion group that performed at the opening ceremony.  It isn’t actually bongo drums – I don’t know what the different drums are but they will be on again tomorrow night and we’ll video them then.

The wind picked up a little and, although it was not strong enough for competition, they held a slalom race for all divisions (including the Masters and Grand Masters) together.  It was pretty tricky for the kids and none of them enjoyed it because there were too many windsurfers in the race and they were worried that someone would run into them.  Also the water was all chopped up and the wind too light for them to do very much anyway.  The adults’ 10 metre rigs tower over Alex’s 4 metre and steal all the air making it very difficult to balance.  Only 3 kids from Alex’s division participated and one didn’t finish.  The other beat Alex but was holding a 5.8 metre sail.  It was a great result for both of them to finish such a long race under these difficult conditions.  Amado from Bonaire won the under 18s prize.

We had dinner at the event and went home.  I gave Elli the antihistamine and she fell asleep pretty quickly.  Hopefully she will be able to sleep tonight.  We sprayed the house with insect spray and ourselves with insect repellant so we could hardly breathe but we hope we will at least avoid last night’s issues.

The forecast shows tomorrow and Sunday should be windy enough for racing so they should be pretty busy days.  All the heats have to be run now to get valid results.  It should be fun!

Windsurfing in Curacao & Bonaire – 21 April 2011

Day 1 of the Slalom World Championships and we got to St Joris Bay at 9 am for the skipper’s meeting.  The notice board said the meeting would start at 10 am.  We heard all about how the races would be run and the different coloured flags which notify the competitors of how much time remains before the start.  All pretty complicated for a 9 year old!

Unfortunately, the races were postponed because the wind strength was below the minimum 11 knots required.  We had to check back every hour to hear that the races were still postponed.  This went on all day…

Alex went out despite the lack of wind and did a bit of freestyle windsurfing and he was brilliant!

It was hot, so the children found their friends (Oscar and Alima) and played in the water all day.  They didn’t get sick of it and didn’t want to leave at the end of the day.

We dragged them away and took them home for showers.  We met everyone at the Ostrich Farm for dinner.  And we ate OSTRICH for dinner (which, although we expected would taste a bit like chicken or turkey, tasted a lot like beef!  It actually tastes very nice!  The only problem was that, being an ostrich farm, you had to eat while looking at the live ostriches running around…

We met the New Zealand guy today.  He is 17 and really nice.  His mum came over with him.  Just like us, he was a little concerned that he might not have a big enough sail with him.  On the way home from dinner, we saw the oil rig that arrived a couple of days ago.  It was lit up like a Christmas tree and makes quite a sight.

Today was the second day of competition and unfortunately ended up being the same as yesterday.  It looked a little more promising in the late afternoon but we didn’t get the wind strength needed.  We arrived a little late for the skipper’s meeting and saw that the racing was postponed so we went home again and had lunch, returning at 1.30 pm but of course things went the same way as yesterday with notices going up every hour postponing the racing until the end of the day.  I went out on a little boat with Elli, Alima, Alysa and Daphne for a short time which the kids loved.  Alex and Akim windsurfed a bit and Alex practiced going around the slalom course.  Alex had a tiny go on a stand-up paddle board.  We stayed for dinner (lasagne, spaghetti bolognaise and salad) and went home.

Akim has been working on a movie of Alex wave sailing at the Nationals in Gerroa in February and he finished it tonight.  Towards the end of the movie, there is a segment of Alex explaining how to do a loop – he explains it so well!  Akim is compressing the movie so he can load it on to YouTube as I’m writing this so I’ll post the link tomorrow (hopefully).  The internet has been slow and the connection has been dropping out a lot making a lot of things difficult.  It has taken me such a long time to upload photos for this blog and, sometimes, I’ve had to give up without putting all the photos I would like in.

Windsurfing in Curacao & Bonaire – 19 April 2011

The IFCA Slalom World Championship “Curacao Challenge” begins today.  There will be live streaming of the event at: http://www.curacaochallenge.com between 10 am and 5 pm each day so you can watch the races live via webcam pointed at the water and the main stage!

Registration was from 3 pm today and when Alex registered he got a rashie, T-shirt, a sticker for his sail and a bag which was like a show bag containing 2 water bottles, 2 pens, a notebook, some sunscreen, some aloe vera, a milky way, some chewing gum, a coaster, an apple juice,  He got a cup with his sail number on it so he can get free drinks and a band to wear around his wrist for the duration of the event so he can get free food.  It looked so good, Elli wanted to register too!

The wind was the best it has been since we arrived and Alex went for a sail with his 4.2 Severne Code Red and said he was very happy with it.  Akim said he had never seen him go so fast compared to the adults who were on 9.8 metre sails (the maximum allowed) but because we were not really expecting to sail he didn’t bother to bring the GPS so we don’t know exactly.

The event was officially opened at 6 pm with the Premier of Curacao and the Minister for Education and Sport as well as the representatives of the largest sponsors attending and giving speeches.  We heard that there are 16 countries represented including Australia and New Zealand.  We haven’t noticed the New Zealanders around yet.

We saw the Bonaire team including Constantino, Juergen and Monique.  Unfortunately, Chepi isn’t coming.  We don’t know why. We’ll catch up with him in Bonaire.

There was a big bonfire and music.  There was a performance by a percussion band with bongos and other drums which was excellent.  We had dinner there and brought the kids home for showers and bed as they have to get up early for the skipper’s meeting at 9 am.

Windsurfing in Curacao & Bonaire – 18 April 2011

We went to the airport yesterday morning to see American Airlines to try to find out what we can do with the windsurfing gear on departure in June since we are on a very early flight and may need to return the car the day before we leave.  We may be able to leave the windsurfing gear there the day before and we now have the phone number of the person we have to ring to make arrangements with.

We went into town but, being Sunday, everything was closed except the museum.  It was quite good but we visited an exhibit which included a slave trading ship and had a lot of pictures and shackles etc.  The children found it quite disturbing and Elli was upset by a photo she saw of 2 little children crying.

We were invited to have dinner with the Stomps and they had a BBQ.  The food was terrific (especially the fish).  They are very good company and we had a very pleasant evening under the full moon.

Just as an aside, I now have over 100 bites on my arms and legs and they are really, really itchy.  I am sure it is not the mozzies but these other little insects they call wimpirie.

Today looked like it might be windy but ended up totally still.  We went to the boat freighting company to organise sending the windsurfing gear to Bonaire by boat after the competition.  We are due to fly out of Curacao on Tuesday 26 April.  They told us that we can send each board for around $25 but that we would have to pay 8% customs duty in Bonaire which we could get back on departure.  The boards would take around 3-4 days to get there.

We decided to check out our other options back at the airport.  Insel Air told us that we could only take the boards by plane on one of their bigger planes which go on the weekend or sent by air cargo which would cost over $200 and not go until Saturday.  We decided to change our flight to Saturday 30 April at 10.15 am and so the boards will be free to transport and come with us on the plane.  So now we will be in Curacao an extra 4 nights.  At least this way we will be able to use the gear here and not be sitting in Bonaire for up to 4 days without boards.

We went into town and bought a cheap mobile phone so now we can use the SIM card we bought the other day.  I bought some Caladryl (clear) for the bites and put it on immediately – works well.  I decided to wear long pants from now on which is worth it even in this heat!

We took out Elli’s braids today – even though she has been wearing a hat, her scalp was getting burnt because so much more of it was exposed than usual.  It took longer to undo them than to have them done in the first place.  Her hair was all frizzy and she loved it like that – she was brushing it all day!

We went to the Spanish Waters and it was calm so we went home to pray for wind….

Windsurfing in Curacao & Bonaire – 16 April 2011

A pleasant day but hardly any wind again.  We had some afternoon showers.  We went to the supermarket in the morning and the children started their journals.  After lunch we headed to St Joris Bay and the activity was overwhelming.  There were people everywhere constructing.  We saw a lot of people we had met at last year’s event.  Elli and I played and went swimming with Alima and Alex went windsurfing.  We had the opportunity to see the other competitors in Alex’s division and we feel that in these light wind conditions a good outcome for Alex is far from guaranteed.  The 11 and 12 year olds are holding 5.8 metre sails (in the next age division they are holding over 7 metres).  Not only that, but you can tell they are very accomplished racers already.  There is a vast difference in their maturity and physically and Alex’s age and size will make it very hard for him.  His biggest sail is a 4.2.  Where the Bonaire children are in freestyle, the Curacao ones are in Slalom – undoubtedly the best in the world.  Since Alex has to compete in the under 13s instead of under 11s, he is at a massive disadvantage because he just can’t hold the same size sail (and we don’t have one anyway).  But, having said that, he is highly skilled and a good allrounder so it will be interesting to see where he places.  Whatever the outcome, I’m sure he will enjoy the experience and it will be great for future competition.

Alex, Oscar, Alima and Elli had heaps of fun running around, chasing each other and playing in the water and they didn’t want to leave at the end of the day.  One problem we have found is that there are a lot of “sea apples” ie sea urchins in the water.  Lucky I bought some water shoes for Elli!

We went home for dinner but ended up eating late because the kids were playing with Maui, Tiago and Noa and we had a beer with Melanie and Ivo and had a very pleasant evening talking…