Windsurfing battle wounds

Today we headed back over to Lac Bay to take our first windsurfing lesson. Neither Gavin nor I have ever done it before, and Lac Bay is supposed to be one of the best places in the world to do it. This is due to shallow, hip deep, warm water for at least a half mile from shore, constant strong winds that blow TOWARDS shore instead of out to sea, and the calm waters of the protected bay.

Windsurfing board and Jibe City's bar.

A windsurfer is ready to go!

Gavin learns the basics on the beach.

Hanna, our very blonde Dutch instructor, showed us how to get on the board and raise the sail all while standing comfortably on the beach. Didn't seem too hard. Then we walked out into the water and Hanna demonstrated all the moves in the water, then asked us to try. Gavin said before he even got on the board, "It looks pretty intuitive." Then he stepped crawled on the board and immediately fell into the water. I laughed at him and called out, "Intuitive, huh?" but I didn't fare any better. In fact, this handy animation shows about how my first hour of windsurfing went:


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Yes, both Gavin and I at first spent more time in the water than out of it. We got very little feedback, as the lesson was pretty much over the minute we got into the water. We then had an extra hour to mess around ourselves, and both of us managed to actually stay up on the board for longer times, but we realized quickly that Hanna had neglected to tell us how to STEER... If anyone came near me with their board I had no choice but to yell out "I'm sorry, I don't know how to turn!" I actually had a minor collision with an older guy and got so close to another guy that I made him fall off his board... Oops. I was one of those jerks... :D Also, the current and wind kept pushing us toward the "forbidden zone" next to shore with a lot of seaweed and, Hanna informed us, stinging sea creatures. So we had no choice but to jump off our boards and drag them back out to sea since we couldn't steer away from it. We were just seeming to partially get the hang of it, when Hanna came wading out and told us our time is up. So we dragged our boards back to shore and wandered over to The Beach Hut for lunch. At shore they encouraged us to sign up for the next level lesson, which would teach us how to steer. I guess they plan these things... :)

We had decided to definitely NOT go to Jibe City again for lunch since it was so expensive last time, so we walked a little farther down the beach to The Beach Hut. Sounds like a nice, cheap place, right? WRONG. I guess all the places on Lac Bay know they are the only game around for food and can charge pretty high prices... Gavin had a decent plate of ribs, and I "spicy" chicken salad. (so called "spicy.")

After lunch we were both in the mood to keep playing around with our boards, so we rented boards and slightly bigger sails after lunch to see if that would be easier to get moving. We had a bit more success, but still couldn't figure out how to get the board going what direction we wanted and still spent a lot of time dragging our boards away from the "danger zone." Toward the end of our hour, poor Gavin fell off his board and landed his foot on something sharp, and got a nasty, deep cut on the bottom of his pinkie toe. My own "battle scars" weren't so bad - just a number of bruises from falling on the board and the mast, and once I landed not on soft sand but a bed of shallow rocks...

Smooth sailing, at least for now... :)

Our first order of business after we drove back to Kralendijk was to buy some bandaids at a grocery store, but unfortunately they didn't have antibiotic ointment. We went back to our apartment so Gavin could clean his cut, then we went into downtown and found what is probably the ONLY pharmacy in town and got antibiotic ointment. Gavin was worried about infection after being in the sea water.

After that, we wandered around and did a little shopping downtown - it seemed to be mostly basic catering-to-cruise-ship fare - lots of jewelry and those "islandy" dresses that are floral, brightly colored and completely shapeless, the kind people look at while they are ON an island and say "Wow, this is so colorful and awesome, I have to buy this" and then they get back to the US or wherever they live and see how stupid it looks anywhere else BUT on an island in the Caribbean... :) (note, I have NEVER bought one of these "island" outfits! They look horrible on me, and in my opinion everyone else who wears them. :) ) All we bought was a woven hanging fruit basket that was probably made in India, but will still look great in our kitchen, if we can get it back to the states in one piece...

We had an early dinner at the Lonely Planet recommended restaurant Mona Lisa - a Dutch restaurant for steak and seafood. I was in the mood for something light, so I ordered a "traditional Bonaire fish soup" and a smoked salmon salad. Gavin ordered the "catch of the day," which was tuna. The fish soup had nice pieces of fresh fish in it, but was pretty bland, and the broth tasted exactly like the Lipton Cup-a-Soup I used to make when I was younger. (the single-serving bag of dried soup that you mix with a cup of water) They also, strangely, served our glasses of malbec CHILLED. Luckily it was warm enough outside that by the time our meal arrived it was warm enough to drink. :) Overall, this place I think was overrated and overpriced. That seems to be the trend here for eating out - bland food and high prices.

After dinner we headed over to the only food we have been delighted with so far in Bonaire - Gio's gelato shop. Tonight I tried their coconut gelato - YUMMY! Gavin stuck to his pistachio and hazelnut. It was still early, but we went back to the apartment to relax in the fresh Bonaire breezes to end our night.

 

 

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