Exploring Bonaire: Salt Flats, Donkeys, Diving & Dolphins!

Conor and Kelly lowered the fold-down platform on their Vision 444 catamaran Big Lost in Bonaire, clearing the transom as the kids jumped into the harbor before welcoming Conor’s visiting mother Charlie to the boat. With Charlie on board, the crew aboard Sailing Big Lost picked up a rental truck to spend 3 days touring the island’s reserves, historic routes, and service docks.

Family Reunion and Diving Platform in Bonaire

The anchorage stop began with jumps from the catamaran’s stern door into the harbor. Conor adjusted lines along the boarding ladder while the children lined up along the transom to dive into the clear water, testing flips and back flops off the fold-down platform. Ashore, Conor and Kelly greeted Conor’s mother Charlie as she stepped onto the dock and joined the boat. Stepping aboard, Charlie looked around the cockpit and smiled: “I can’t believe I’m here and you’re here. We’re all here together.” With the sunshade secured across the deck, the family finalized their road itinerary and climbed into their rental truck to begin a driving route across the south of Bonaire.

South Island Tour and Donkey Sanctuary

The southern route led the crew to the Donkey Sanctuary Bonaire, where visitors drive through open paddocks housing hundreds of rescued animals. Operating for 32 years, the sanctuary provides care, food, and medical rehabilitation for 800 donkeys. The animals are descendants of working stock brought to Bonaire in the 1700s to assist with construction and local labor before being released to roam wild across the arid landscape.

As the truck rolled along the dusty gravel paths, dozens of donkeys surrounded the vehicle windows searching for food. The crew cut carrots into pieces so each piece could feed two animals. The eager animals crowded against the doors and nipped at hands through the open cab windows, prompting Kelly to warn the children: “River’s going to have no fingers by the end of his boat life.” After Conor took a small nip to his hand and reached for a band-aid, Kelly reached across to crank up the glass: “I’m rolling up the window. You’re getting too personal.”

Washington-Slagbaai National Park Expedition

The following morning brought an excursion into Washington-Slagbaai National Park on the north end of the island. Finn remained aboard Big Lost to rest off a migraine, leaving Conor, Kelly, Charlie, and Maddie to navigate the desert terrain in the four-wheel-drive truck. The dirt roads wound through exposed limestone ledges where prehistoric marine fossils remain embedded in the stone walls.

At the Ceru Bentana site, the group inspected the historic lighthouse station. Explanatory plaques noted that the tower was struck by lightning in 1954; the lighthouse keeper died during the strike, while a second attendant survived by leaping 11 meters from the structure to the ground below. While walking near a grove searching for wild aloe plants, Maddie encountered a loose cactus stem in the trail. When asked if she had stepped onto the spine, Maddie clarified: “I didn’t step on it. I was walking and it rolled into my foot.”

The track continued past Pos Mangel, a marshy pool attracting shorebirds and flamingos feeding along shallow mud tracks. The group stopped to observe living cactus fences bordering the road, a construction technique documented at the park museum where enslaved workers planted dense rows of columnar cacti as barrier hedges. By 1:30 in the afternoon, the truck began its slow return journey along the severely rutted washboard roads cutting through the coastal desert.

Black Water Pump-Out and Sensor Repairs

Returning to maritime duties, Conor and Kelly motored Big Lost to the service dock at Harbour Village Marina to empty their holding tanks before securing an offshore mooring ball. While at the pump-out station, the attendant explained that the facility operates 6 days each week, handling boat pump-outs from Monday through Friday and closing at 1 in the afternoon on Saturday.

Once tied to a mooring ball beside their cruising friends aboard SV Sailing Pink Flamingo, Finn rowed across to visit, while Conor addressed an electrical fault in the port sanitation system. Kelly described the persistent gauge error aboard the catamaran: “So our port tank or black tank sensor isn’t working. It’s just showing that it’s empty even when it’s not empty.” Conor unbolted the inspection fitting, pulled the fouled sensor from the port waste tank, and scrubbed the internal probe inside a plastic wash bucket on the aft deck to clear debris and return the level readings to operational service.

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