by steve, on October 31st, 2009 (
Bonaire, Jackster)
Our first order of the day on Friday was to take our tanks to the nearby dive outlet to leave them to have their hydrostatic test performed and to obtain our tags/induction. To our surprise, the woman performing our induction, Caroline, we instantly recognised as our dive master in the BVIs back in July 2007. We learned about the rules and regulations here. Most of the dive sites are accessible straight from the shore as the island drops off to a reef all along the west and north coast. Markers are placed along the coastal road where the dive sites are. We should be able to reach many in the dinghy and move Dignity to the established moorings when we want.
After our induction to the marine park and obtaining our tags we headed off to the marina to pick up some gas for the dinghy and to pay for our mooring. Next we went into ‘town’ to explore some more. There isn’t much to it but it is definitely more European than the English Caribbean. I picked up a SIM for my phone as we need to stay in touch with the dive outfit for our tanks and I needed to receive a call from the US.
Back on the boat we had lunch. Our plan was to use the hookah off the back of the boat in the afternoon so I checked it out in advance. I found the engine seized up. I pulled on the starter cord as hard as I dared but it wouldn’t turn. So began the task of dismantling the hookah to get at the innards. Once I had the engine out of the box and the pull cord off (among other things) I was able to get a wrench onto the shaft and turn it using greater leverage. This managed to turn the crank and once moving it eased up. I turned it over this way for a while adding more oil too.
Once I felt it was turning easily I put everything back together and fired her up. The engine ran but arhythmically. I checked the oil again and realized I had over filled it. Draining the excess out appeared to put things right. Then came the task of clearing up the deck of spilled oil and general mess.
After about 2 hours of work I had everything going. For our first dive we were down for about 30 mins. We started shallow so we couldn’t go too deep. We soon exhausted the accessible reef where we were so came back up and stowed everything away.
We then moved the boat a little further north to be away from the Friday night loudness and to get a better internet connection.
In the evening we went ashore to eat out. Our preferred restaurant, serving Indonesian food, was not open for business so we ended up having ribs.
In amongst all the days activity I was emailing Sherri from Trinidad to arrange the order and shipment of our wind generator and spare part for Jackster. We have settled on the AirBreeze unit which meets our preferences of robustness, noise and output. Thanks to all who helped on this.
No real plans for today bar checking with the dive shop for status on our tanks. There is only one guy on the island who does this and this is done at the weekends. But not every weekend. It depends on what else is on. We don’t yet know if he’s been able to do our tanks. If not, hopefully we can work something out.