Destination Guide · Curaçao · Neighbouring Island
Bonaire
The Bonaire National Marine Park, Klein Bonaire, and the finest shore diving in the Caribbean — the extended ABC-islands itinerary east of Curaçao.
From Spanish Water
30 nautical miles · overnight reach (E)
Best time to sail
Year-round, as an overnight or multi-day extension. The eastward channel crossing is steadiest on the settled trades; the marine park is superb in any season.
Bonaire lies about thirty miles east of Curaçao — the 'B' of the ABC islands — and it is the great extended day of a longer charter. The whole coast and the waters around the island form the Bonaire National Marine Park, one of the oldest and best-protected marine reserves in the world, and the island is famous above all for its diving and snorkelling: clear, calm, fish-filled water over pristine reef, with dive sites marked by name all along the shore.
It is an overnight or multi-day run rather than a day sail — a steady reach east across the channel on the trades — which is exactly why a visit feels like reaching a different world. We anchor or pick up a marine-park mooring (anchoring is restricted to protect the reef) in clear water off the leeward coast. Just off the main town of Kralendijk lies Klein Bonaire, a small uninhabited island ringed by white sand and shallow reef — a turtle-snorkelling and swimming anchorage as good as any in the region.
Ashore, Kralendijk is a small, brightly painted Dutch-Caribbean town, calmer and quieter than Willemstad. The south of the island holds the salt pans and the pink flats where flamingos feed, and the whole of Bonaire moves at the unhurried pace of a place built around the water. Bonaire is the dive-and-snorkel extension of an ABC-islands voyage — the reason to take the longer week.
Anchorages
Klein Bonaire
The small uninhabited island off Kralendijk — white sand, shallow reef, and turtle snorkelling, on a marine-park mooring in clear, calm water. As good a swimming and snorkel anchorage as any in the region.
Kralendijk waterfront
A marine-park mooring off the brightly painted town — calm leeward water, the reef wall close in, and the town a short tender ashore. Anchoring is restricted to protect the reef; we use the moorings.
Leeward dive sites
The named dive and snorkel sites strung along the protected leeward shore — clear, fish-filled water over pristine reef, picked up on park moorings as we work down the coast.
Ashore
Bonaire National Marine Park
One of the oldest, best-protected marine reserves in the world — the entire coast and surrounding water. Pristine reef, abundant fish, and the finest shore diving and snorkelling in the Caribbean.
Kralendijk
The small, brightly painted Dutch-Caribbean capital — calmer and quieter than Willemstad. A relaxed town for a walk, a meal ashore, and provisioning on a longer voyage.
Salt pans & flamingos
The pink salt flats of the south, where flamingos feed in the shallows — a striking sight and a reminder of the island's salt-trading past. Reached by road from the anchorage.
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RexSailing · Spanish Water · Curaçao