Arrived in Bonaire mid-March 2018. Spent 9 days here. Majority of the time spent on the moorings. Mooring available for yachts up to 55ft at $10 per night (payable to the Harbour Village Marina Office. Customs and Immigration very friendly and free of charge.

Spent one night in the Harbour Village Marina so we could wash down get water etc. The Zazu Bar/ Bistro De Paris is excellent and the owner Patrice is incredibly friendly and helpful for cruisers. Our 2 children had a great time in the little pool at the marina. Snorkelling is incredible.

Posted on behalf of SY Golden Glow.

During the daytime, Bonaire seems to be one of the best organized, cleanest and safest islands we’ve visited in the entire Caribbean. After dark, however, this appears not to be the case.

Two examples from our opinion:
1. We rented scooters for two days and the rental company insisted we check the bikes into their facility from 5 pm to 8 am. They explained that if we locked them up outside overnight, they would be stolen or completely stripped for parts by morning.

2. We are on a mooring ball right off Karel’s Bar in Kralendijk, the small capital of Bonaire. Right in front of our boat, 100 feet away on the shore, is Divers Diner. We stopped there for happy hour between 5 and 7 pm. We found out that between 12-1am that same night, a fatal shooting occurred in that bar/restaurant between locals who had “history and a grudge”. So sad.

Ellen and Rand
Golden Glow
svGoldenGlow.com

We are about to leave for Cuba from Bonaire having been here for 4 weeks.
Excellent stay with the only issue being the lack of dinghy docks. We understand that Budget Marine is trying to obtain a permit to install a floating dinghy dock near the Yellow Sub dive shop. However, an ongoing discussion between STINAPA and the Bonaire local government about the construction of larger commercial docks is not completed yet.

Until this is solved, the best options are Karel’s bar, the cruise ship pier (if no cruise ships are in port) or the marina. Only the first two are close to ‘downtown’.

Regarding the mooring system, it is a bit of a weird system with two ‘cheap’ lines to ample sized concrete blocks. We did dive on the lines and did install an additional line so we could sleep well.

For diving, this must be one of the best locations in the world for cruisers. We did multiple dives straight from our boat LILY. Amazing!! Other dives by using our dinghy. Plenty of perfect dive sites with good mooring system in place!