I have the fan blowing on my butt – and it’s nice! No air-con anymore. Not for a while anyway. We will have to get line 2’s isotransformer fixed or replaced first if we want to use it through shore power. It’s ok. We needed to start going outside.

The little 12v fans we have begun to rule. We all claim one and sit beside them, enjoying the fake breeze.

September is traditionally the most dangerous month for hurricanes in this part of the Caribbean. October now is a month of change. The trade winds will start to ease back in. Though we had an unusually grey and rainy day yesterday. It was lush! It isn’t often rainy and calm here – at the same time. I sat outside and breathed the cool air in. Would never have done that with the air-con blowing inside.

We are on target to stay in the marina for a few more weeks – then onto a mooring buoy. There’s about sixty buoys outside the marina which line the promenade. All are currently taken, except for a couple of buoys which are too shallow for us to tie to. During this time, boats come into the marina, like this little happy glass-bottomed boat which ties up opposite.

Colombia also opened up from yesterday. Boats may move from Bonaire to Colombia now. Big news in this crazy, new world. It is also the next logical place to go from here – if you want to travel with the wind on your back. The nice way of sailing.

Colombia’s the next stop for those heading towards Panama – and into the Pacific. Plenty of people here are going in that direction. At the moment we have ‘reserved’ a buoy from a boat we discovered was leaving at the end of October. It’s in a great spot in the mooring field. Not too close to shore, and not too deep. It’s right on the drop-off. Bonaire’s reefs circle the water like a huge underwater step. It will be a great place to swim again, and take in the sea breeze.

It is funny though – this life on the water. I never did it until I turned forty. Five years later, it still feels like new eyes. There is always a push and pull between life untethered, and the benefits of being attached to the dock. The unlimited water of the latter is good, and we can fill the dive tanks at anytime. We even bought a toaster. A toaster! That is not a device you want to plug into the solar.

Meanwhile, the boat rumbles at you. Quest says, ‘My hull is getting green. I’m tied like a yard dog. Get me back to where I move around in the wind. You don’t need to charge your computers whenever you want to – or use your toaster. Come on!’

In three weeks time then, all things being well, we will leave the marina, travel less than a kilometre and tie up to a mooring buoy. The excitement.