We reach Bonaire. At night, when else? We quickly lower the dinghy into the water to buy six beers and a packet of cigarettes for the skipper at "Karels", Kralendijk's trendy village pub.
It's not the first time, we moored our "Iron Lady" at the Murings off Holland in the Caribbean a tenth of a century ago. Anchoring is prohibited here because 80,000 divers visit Bonaire every year to dive around the island.
"Bon" stands for good, "Aire" for air. Air resort, my father Ortwin would casually translate it. But the island could also be called "Happy Colours" because it's so much fun to hold the camera lens halfway up into the sky.
We have visitors, otherwise we wouldn't have arrived here on time. Maya's best friend from Germany is visiting us, so the day consists of travelling, a tourist programme and snorkelling. I find the last necessary hoses, nozzles and cables at the local ship chandler to get our water maker from Trinidad up and running. A complete success that pays off straight away. Guests like to shower a lot, only to be soaking wet again ten minutes later. We no longer have to manoeuvre excitedly through narrow harbour basins without a bow thruster to fill up with water. Plenty of water. A new era begins on the "Marlin".
Thanks to our guests, the Capitana and I can finally go diving together again with compressed air tanks after many years of abstinence. It's like a first kiss or holding hands, so beautiful and calm as we glide past Bonaire's underwater world. A soothing silence that is rarely found on family boats.
The flight to Curaçao to take the guests to the airport abruptly interrupts the Bonaire mood, which has been fuelled by a deep-sea rush.
The Dutch Antilles are also known as the ABC Islands for short. The flying Dutchmen took Aruba in the west, Curaçao in the centre and Bonaire in the east under their colonial nails. I don't know whether they found anything here that they could turn into gold and ducats apart from lizards, thorny bushes and good air.
Today, these three islands are independent, but receive financial support from the Dutch government and are to the Dutch what Mallorca is to the Germans. Economically, Curaçao stands out, where a huge refinery distils Venezuelan crude oil into its important components for Holland. Otherwise: tourists.
With a top speed of 9.6 knots, the "Marlin" runs into the pass of Spanish Waters, Curaçao. We are greeted by a well-kept golf course on the starboard side. "But it wasn't here before!" marvels Nathalie.
From a depth of a few hundred metres, the water quickly rises to six metres. And the incoming water "slurps" us into the lagoon, which is now home to several marinas, hundreds of cruising yachts and a number of fishermen. Our home for the next four weeks. Our guest just says: "It's like a campsite for floating caravans!"
After our guests have said goodbye, we are slow to make contact with the close-knit Dutch cruising community - we simply don't speak the local language. And when 20 Dutch people are having a sundowner in "their" pub, they won't switch completely to English because of two Germans. But they make an effort!
The choice of moorings has changed. In the past, it had to be as inexpensive and sheltered as possible, today it is important to have WiFi and a good supermarket connection. Spanish Waters has exactly that. A few sailors, whose anchor chains have been lying in the silt of the lagoon for longer than they can remember, have set up a WiFi network. The local supermarket sends a bus every morning at ten o'clock to pick up the sailors for their shopping spree. Like the many other boats, we are waiting for the hurricane season to end so that we can sail further north.
We sail through the Anchorage Spanish Waters with Maya and get to know the friendly young instructors from the YSCO sailing school. Dan takes care of our daughter and teaches her how to sail an Opti. First we practise capsizing and righting. After two hours, he says to me. "It must be because Maya lives on the boat. It's really in her blood. What other children need two years to do, Maya can do in four hours."
Just one week later, our little Maya sails her first regatta and comes sixth. She still has to learn how to push away. Apart from that, she sails up and down the Anchorage and learns things that I could never have taught her so quickly.
But Lena is all fish in the water. Lena and I take a taster session with world champion apnoea diver Carlos Costa. That's all we can and want to do. Carlos shows Lena how to dive properly, how to hold her breath for longer. Me too, of course, and I'm immediately successful. Water 15 metres deep is suddenly no longer a problem. Lena manages four to five. Great. I also do a trial dive with Maya and Lena using a children's compressed air tank.
We set course for Bonaire again. Friends of ours are moored there. An American family with three daughters of almost the same age are sailing around the world on their catamaran. Reason enough to sail up against the trade winds, which is now normal.
The other sailors are scratching their heads: "But that's against the wind!" Exactly the course we like in the meantime. We are moored side by side with our American friends at two murings, and a lively swimming traffic of children develops between the boats, which are 20 metres apart. We manage to stay on Bonaire for a week, then it gets too colourful for us. As beautiful as life and diving are, we know where we like it better. We look longingly back to the east. Lonely beaches beckon. It is still hurricane season and we still have at least six weeks ahead of us in which we have to stay outside the belt.
To the east are the Islas Aves and Roques, which belong to Venezuela. We have travelled past them too often due to lack of time. Venezuela is not particularly recommended at the moment, especially not the island of Margaritha. However, the islands of Islas Aves and Roques are not considered dangerous and are strictly guarded by the Venezuelan Guarda Costa. We set sail in the afternoon. The forecast for the night is 23 knots plus. On the nose. It's not going to be pleasant, but once again a new adventure awaits.
