Captains Courageous And Arrival At Fat Camp..........

The lifejacket was decorative.....wouldn't have helped much if there was a problem

How's that for band-width (a 1937 Spencer Tracy movie reference)! Shazam. Anyway, the moment had finally arrived. But let me rewind.......Amel Super Maramus (like our yacht) have a unique and dramatic "nuclear option" for going straight down wind. To quote De Gaulle (which oddly and redundantly translates to "of France")........France is not France without grandeur. And our French super boat is no different. On our boat there is an option to put genoas (a huge foresail) on both sides of the bow, creating an enormous wall of sail that propels you at very high speed. We had never used this before........and quite honestly were a bit fearful of this "nuclear option". The second foresail (called a ballooner) is a dramatic kaleidoscope of red, white and blue........a huge, preposterous middle finger aimed at the rest of the sailing world that seems to say "How do you like me now ?".

So while at anchor in Grenada, we planned, practiced.......went through scenario planning......and mostly prayed it would work. The raising of this second foresail is the dramatic moment. Why ? because if you look at kite surfers, their kite is about 1/10th the surface area of our ballooner we are raising. If something goes wrong, the one on the bow holding the sail could end up in Panama City before you can say "AHHHHHHHHH".

Downwind ballooner crossing the Caribbean sea

So, when the moment came, it worked (but not without a little drama). We sailed faster than ever and arrived in Bonaire many hours sooner than expected. Whew. But that was just the start of the adventure.

Is that a fish on our pole? And yes those are gardening gloves

As our loyal readers from Uruguay, Armenia, and Manchuria have reminded us, we are still "on the schneid" as far as fishing goes.......0 for the Caribbean. (just a quick Yiddish reference to keep you guessing). So, we put out the new pole and went about our business as our boat streaked across the water. In fact, I was actually going about my business behind closed doors downstairs when Kirstin shrieked "come quick.........huge fish !!!" I quickly concluded my meeting and to my astonishment a large fish was now on the hook.......he had taken the entire line running and we had him only by a thread. So for the next 20 minutes, I slowly reeled him in. Kirstin went from excited to completely ecstatic when she realize that this was a big Mahi (one of her favorites). Kirstin grew up in Wisconsin where the girls know how to fish.........she had always hidden this from me so I could be the man occasionally. Not wanting her favorite entree to slip away due to husband incompetence, she got out the rum and when Mr. Mahi was on the boat she ended his life quickly by force feeding him cheap 170 proof rum.....not risking that husband might fumble him overboard.  Game over. After a quick vivisection in the cockpit with our dull knife, our freezer was filled with yummy Mahi....40 inches of fine fish.

Couldn't hold his liquor

Humiliating to be caught by "the Cleveland Browns  of fishing"

As we rounded the southern corner of Bonaire, another dangerous job presented itself. Taking down the ballooner. Oh, yeah. Forgot we can't leave it up. The wind started shrieking and at this moment I was really scared. I was on front of the bow holding the bottom of the sail waiting for Kirstin to release it..............sending a huge cascade of sail right onto my head. I would have to pull in on board before it (and me) fell into the boiling ocean and kind of ruined our day. She popped the sail release and thank God the wind dipped enough for us to catch the sail before all of us got wet (and potentially dead). Whew (again).

The final act in our arrival in Bonaire was the heartless competition for moorings. Everyone likes Bonaire because hurricanes have been getting close to Grenada (the other sensible option) and, of course, destroyed the northern Caribbean last year. We arrived with super-secret intel from our French aristocratic friends Jean-Luc and Eva aboard Reve de Lune (likewise a Super Maramu.......hey, we have standards). Eva told us that there was a good mooring north of her yacht and we found it in the nick of time........now all the moorings are gone.

So now begins a wonderful routine that will last 5 months.........gym, dive, happy hour, dinner, Netflix, repeat. The gym is especially welcome because we were victims (again) of our own lack of willpower in Martinique. Our addictions? Bread, cheese, rotis, octopus fricassee, pastries, $4 drinkable Bordeaux and Macon Villages........you name it. We now need our muscle tone and normal weights back so Fat Camp (Bonaire) is a welcome destination for us. We love it here........except time seems to speed up. Can't fix that.