Bonaire continues to amaze me. 15+ from the BOS area went to sail and play on the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire. This is my 3rd trip since Aug. and I am totally addicted to this windy paradise. Everyone else who went LOVED it and are already planning their return.

I flew Air Jamaica again with Maggie. The chaos in departing Logan was mental but once I felt the wind as I deplaned I knew it was all good. Air Ja still serves Ting. YOWSA!! This airline is simply the BEST! Every flight into Mo Bay Dec. 21 was late so JM waited for all flights before leaving for BON. On the return we had a 2 hour layover so ate at Margaritaville. It was pretty good and very lively.

We stayed at a condo at Lighthouse Condos. I am representing this property now and can attest to the fact that is is both restful, comfy and most important, convenient to Sorobon/Lac Bay. We rented several units and loved the location. We decorated our condo with Xmas lights and decorations to bring in the holiday spirit. And the good news is Santa found us and left us with all kinds of goodies. We learned we had to put out our shoes (Dutch tradition) instead of stockings! Later we sailed Xmas day. It was my favorite XMas since I was a kid.

Sailing was AMAZING. It was light to nuking. I sailed anything from a 4.7 to a 7.0. There was moderate chop on the 4.7 sessions but no wave sailing at Kai. I was cool with that as I was there for any type of sailing. I sailed 8/9 days and didn't sail the 9th day as it was my travel day coming in. I rented gear for the second time at Jibe City. The new ADH, Gaastra and Fiberspar gear was GREAT. Ro, Jason and rocker, Steve took VERY good care of all of us. The owner, Ernst, is my all time favorite Dutch friend. He continues to run a great shop. Several others rented with Elvis at The Place and LOVED the new Protechs and Naish gear. Ruben and Taty were on hand to help with gear. Patoun and Elvis are still on the water teaching. Both shops ROCK. When you are tired of sailing you can sit at both shops and just chill and talk gear, life or whatever. The Bonaireans are the coolest people. Masha malaconia (very cool in Papiamento).

The Bonaire Kids were out in full force doing their aerials and planing freestyle. Three, Taty, Toky and Keke are preparing for their tour this year. Many head to Mid Winters and King of the Cape. Many of the little kids continue to ask how they can be riders or be sponsored. The energy and enthusiasm is HUGE. What is even more amazing is the SUPPORT of their parents and the WHOLE country. These sailors are the rock stars and the entire country is behind them. This was evident on Dec. 27th when Elvis, Bryon, Marc and I threw a King of the Cape Reunion/King of the Caribbean Kick Off party at The Place. Over 70 sailors, dignitaries, business owners and family came to dance, eat, party and celebrate the reunion of the Cape Cod Windsurfing Assoc. and the Bonaire Sailing Team as well as the planned King of the Caribbean slated for Dec. 2002. It was a wild night of dancing and more. It was quite fun learning the Tambour (sp?). I had to ask if this dance is legal!! YIKESSSSSSSSSSSSS...Bonaireans would put even Josh Stone to shame. Man, they can partyyyyyyyyyyyy.

The best news is Marc Lefebvre and I met with the officials and people of Bonaire and King of the Caribbean WILL HAPPEN. More to follow on a press release but it will be in early Dec. 2002.

My fav eating was our 4 hour fondue party Xmas Eve at Swiss Chalet. Thanks to Jake and Linda Richter for coordinating this amazing. night. Rum Runners still has the best oceanfront pizza dining. I loved Den Laman for fish and my NEW fav is Croccotinos for lovely Italian. Xmas dinner was at Richards. This oceanfront dining spot was simply amazing! Later we drove around town several nights looking at the Xmas lights. We found a house that had the most amazing display. It was so cool I gave the owner a bottle of champagne for " a prize". Another fav night spot was Sera Largu, one of the island's highest points. The view at night was stellar and the peace and quiet was amazing.

Town was hopping every night. Cuba Express was back at City Cafe. It was HOT in every way! Karel's pier is my all time fav place to hang with my best friends. Imagine sitting on a pier with the gentle trades blowing and the lights of the city twinkling having drinks and good conversation. There was music everywhere along with cool people and totally cool FUN.

My other fun night was learning Dominos with Ruben, Dara, Fab and Angelo. Angelo speaks only Papiamento so I had fun trying to work with him as a partner as I learned this cool game. YIKES...I cannot wait to return to play.

Another cool event was Fri. night. Mags, her friend Tina and I were heading to Pasa Bon for pizza (quite good but I still prefer Rum Runners) when we passed the airport. Lines of cars were parked at Windsock Beach (GREAT SNORKELING, BTW). I asked Tina if people were here for a party or the sunset but she explained it was the bi weekly arrival of the KLM flight from Holland. I couldn't believe how popular this event is in Bonaire. Families, couples and kids line up, set up picnics and wait for the arrival of this MONSTROUS 747. When it passes over Windsock it is FEET above our heads. The drone of the engine was DEAFENING. It was sooooooo fun..we were laughing hysterically over the mammoth plane overhead.

Bonaire is restful, quaint, wild and windy. What else can one ask for?

BIG HUGS to Ernst, Liz, Ditta, Elvis, Jimeno, my crazy and TOTALLY AWESOME roomate, Mary Ryan, Delno, Souhailey, Fab, Ruben, Taty, Dara, Randy, Kiri Thode, Holly and Tom, Liesje, Joyce and family, Edseline, Christina, all my Bonaire friends and the wind Goddess for a PERFECT Xmas break. I head back in April for more KOTCaribbean planning and of course windsurfing.

Irie

Annie

Caribbean Wind and Sun Vacations

Annie, loved your trip report.. we arrive on BON in one of those 747's.. I always enjoy the touch-down.. not to mention the laugh we get looking at it tower over the Airport!. Must get a photo one of these days. S

Annie-
Great trip report. Made me feel like I was back there for a second. Glad to hear King of the Caribbean will indeed take place. Good luck with continued sponsorships. I look forward to our PBD group party. Have your photos ready!

Oh I forgot to mention, the mosquitos were BADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD...we got eaten alive unless we had OFF on our legs while dining. Most nights I sat cross legged while eating..LOL..

Annie
Cape Cod

Annie,

I just checked at AA.com and I see lots of options in terms of flights for 2/16 - 2/24, BOS/BON/BOS.

The only difficulty I see is that BOS-SJU is sold out (or not available) on the 16th, which means you have to route through JFK (4806 or 4794 BOS->JFK, 1473 JFK->SJU, 5143 SJU->BON). You could also go BOS-MIA-SJU-BON.

Coming back is a straight shot BON-SJU-BOS (in Business - can you get an AD/75?). For Coach, you'd need to return via MIA, PHL, or EWR.

Of course, the best fare I can find is around $1600/person :-) (via Orbitz and Expedia)

I tried 17th-24th, and that produces an Air Jamaica round trip for about $870/person (Orbitz - Expedia was about $100 more - maybe it's an "averages" thing as in Orbitz I was able to do 1 adult, 1 kid, while on Expedia 2 adults) - much nicer connections too.

Aren't you a travel agent? You should have better access to this stuff than me... ;)

Jake

I am an IATAN agent but there are NO deals during peak times. I need one adult one child and could do the 17th-24th..what was the deal? Or price should I say for those dates with no more than ONE stop. Can you email me por fabor?

Huge HUGS ..u r in the lead for the contest so far Jake..

Annie
Cape Cod

Annie,

Feb 17 - Delta 8878 (Codeshare with AJ) - 0720-1130 - BOS-MBJ; AJ 50 - 1225-1520 - MBJ-BON
Feb 24 - AJ 45 - 1605-1705 - BON-MBJ; DL 8889 (AJ codeshare) - 1855-2250 - MBJ-BOS. Total for one adult + one child = $1750.

Go to www.orbitz.com to book and get same info.

Jake

Annie-- Expedia was just showing just showing $980 on Air Jamaica-- try calling them directly-- When I have booked directly with Air Jamaica the prices were better then the web-- Also Sunday seemed to have better pricing then Saturday-- Being the start of school vacation amd all-- Good Luck and welcome back----You didn't have to stand in the long line at Delta did you--

Why yes Jan, I did stand in the endless line at Logan..was there a choice?? LOL...

LOL..the security check in line was ENDLESS. They told us we HAD to go to the end but by 7:20 (our flight was to LEAVE at 7:20) I paniced and ran to the front. They let us through FINALLY.

Annie
Cape Cod

Here's a picture for you Sarah.

Will have to wait until my husband gets home. It is too big and I don't know how to resize it!

Annie, When we went in November the line was wrapped around the Delta terminal-- and that was the check - in-- never mind the security line-- But we were told that Air Jamaica had their own desk and there was only one other person in line-- Then it was about an hour to get thru the security check-- So wasn't too bad-- Had plenty of time to get coffee etc.before we boarded. We leave again 2/2-- can't wait--

Boy, oh boy...I had typed this lengthy response to Annie's KLM flight entry and my PC froze up and it would not let me "copy" and paste later on! Annie....we have seen that flight come in while we were in the waters in front of the Divi Flamingo Beach...all we could see were these huge headlights coming straight at us from the skies ahead of us...coming at us lower and lower and closer and closer....we were awaiting to hear that awful sound of "splash" when she turned to the right and disappeared (partially) behind the new condos next to Windsock Beach and then reappeared again.....her Tail Section was floating down the runway visible over the airport tower and was NEVER out of our sight! She floated down the runway and then did a 180 degree turnabout and came back towards the waters edge. Unreal! I did not have my camera in hand, which I normally even sleep with! All eyes in the area at the Divi were glued to this huge bird in the sky....I was wondering if we were all thinking the same thing...."what if"......next time we are there, I will make a point of being at Windsock Beach with the video camera rolling and the digital camera shooting away, too. Carole

PS Ever see the flick "Pushing Tin"???? I was thinking of Billy Bob Thornton the entire time...with his body lying down on the tarmac at the end of the runway as the big birds took off and landed.....I would hate to see the same thing happen to all of the folks at Windsock! Quite a site that would be, indeed! LOL.

PPS Wonder if anyone has ever done a study of the marinelife at Windsock during the KLM scheduled arrivals/departures??? Hmmm.

Here is the picture of the 747 at the airport.

Leigh Ann, thank you.. that's a great shot..S

Thanks, Leigh Ann! That's the sight!! I pray that this craft will always dwarf Flamingo Airport, if you catch my drift....don't want to see them "improve" it too much or make it too large as has happened to some others...seems to take away from the intimacy of the islands that way. Great shot, tho! What a sight it is to see as she comes in...Carole

Back in October, we did a great 2-tank boat dive with the folks at Photo Tours after our Nitrox course with them. After we surfaced from the second dive (at 18 Palms, if I remember correctly), we expected to head back to the dock -- but Roland kept going past the entrance to the Plaza inlet. Told us he had a surprise for us, something big and blue.

When we got down to the neighborhood around Windsock, he cut the engines and told us to be on the lookout for our surprise. That's when I remembered that it was Thursday, so I took a look out over Klein -- sure enough, there it was! The KLM 747 was headed right at us! We were directly under it when it went over and landed -- absolutely spectacular! Everyone agreed it was a good surprise, and a great ending to a good day...

Faith

You guys should take a trip to Amsterdam some day.. then hop on the 747 to BON and experience the landing!.. S

Sarah, that has to be a little scary - bet it seems like you're landing on water, doesn't it?

Steve

ADDENDUM!!!!!!

I just learned one of the windsurf boys are playing with me and apparently malconia does NOT mean cool..No wonder I could NOT find it in my dictionary..sorry if I offended anyone..



Annie
Cape Cod

Steve, yes it does! There's always spectators hanging around for the landing too.. big smiles all around when we pull up at the gate..