F R E E B I R D S: May 2008

It’s July and we are

now working on the May newsletter. We’ve been busy having fun. You would think we just sit around on the boat without much to do, but we’re busy all the time. So no apologies, but we’re going to try to do a better job at keeping up to date.
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We’ve all just had one of the most amazing experiences of our lives. I was sitting in the cockpit one morning at our anchorage in Santa Cruz, Curacao having coffee. There was a huge fish that leaped completely out of the water about 150 yards behind FreeBirds. Then I realized there was a huge pod of dolphins playing and feeding near our boat. Petra, I and our guest, Rebecca, jumped into the Mercedes and raced over to the dolphins. (Captain Smarty was still asleep.) They were much bigger than the dolphins with which I wake boarded. (We found out later that they were “ruff tooth” dolphins.)

We were excited that we had our brand new underwater camera that had arrived the day before. Until we found out that the battery had not charged. Petra got into the water and held onto the Mercedes with one hand, and the almost dead camera in the other to get some video. It was amazing. These were totally different than the smaller Spinner Dolphins we had seen many times before. When the camera died, Rebecca and I decided to motor 200 yards back to the boat to get Marty. We left Petra in the water, solo, and headed for FreeBirds. As soon as she was alone, separated from the dingy, 30 of the 80 dolphins raced to within a few feet of her. She screamed for help. I was about 20 yards from her and raced back. She was yelling that they were all around her and she was scared. She felt much safer when hanging onto the Mercedes.

Rebecca and I jumped into the water with Petra, and swam slowly away from the tender. As soon as we did, ten of the very curious, LARGE, dolphins started to surround us.

We didn’t sense that they meant to hurt us, even though we had heard stories of dolphins attacking people. (These stories usually surround some

type of abuse by the humans first.) Rebecca swam underwater and started to do summersaults. Immediately three dolphins broke from the group and started frolicking around her. It was play time. Let the games begin. We spent the next hour inventing and playing games with these incredibly fun and intelligent creatures. I created a game called

Torpedo. I would snorkel underwater directly at a group of three dolphins. They would charge directly towards me. At the last second, they would split and pass within one foot of me on all sides. We did it again and again. Another one wanted to play Fin. Whenever I surfaced for air,

he would follow within inches of my fins with a smile on his face.

Now that we were comfortable with our new friends, I decided to go retrieve Marty. Leaving the girls, I motored back to get him. He was in the water, solo, with another group of dolphins near FreeBirds. He said he had just watched his group playing with a stick, passing if from one to the other. We grabbed our older camera, and joined the girls. The video you will see now is a collection of clips, put to music, of the second hour and half that we all played with the Dolphins of Curacao.

Have you ever wondered where that good Calamari at the bar comes from? We leave a flood light on the back of our boat for security every night. Marty grabbed a net and captured a very surprised squid one evening. He cut it up while the girls with the girls “oohhhing and awing,” then we ate it within ten minutes. That’s a fresha!

One windy day, Marty spotted a bird trying to make its way back to shore after being blown out to sea. It was a very tired land bird, that ran out of gas near our boat. Marty jumped in and grabbed the little guy who was very happy to be rescued. He spent the entire day in our Captains Chair. We would forget he was there as we passed by almost squishing him several times. After about eight hours he had enough rest and water to feel strong enough to fly to shore.

We sailed eighty miles to our next country. Bonaire (the “B” in the ABC Islands with Aruba and Curacao) is known for excellent Scuba Diving (the entire island is a Marine Park), great Kiteboarding and Windsurfing, and Salt Mines. The Salt Mines are incredible. The Dutch seem to only be comfortable on land that is nearly, or totally, underwater. A huge part of Bonaire is underwater and used to obtain salt. They have miles and miles of dammed fields of water. (When my daughters were young we used to say, “there’s a dammed field. And there’s a dam car. And there’s a dam building. This would go on for an hour.) They add iodine, which turns the water red, then wait for the water to evaporate. Then they scoop the salt with huge tractors into piles that look like huge heaps of snow. Then they flood the fields again with ocean water, and start the process all over.

The windsurfing is done at a wonderfully funky place called Jibe City, which is owned by our friend, DJ. (You’ll see how happily drunk a Dutchman can get in next months newsletter.) Jibe City is at an ideal bay that is between one and four sandy feet deep. The wind is between 15 and 20 mph all year round. If you’re a wind surfer, this is Mecca.

We used Marty’s camera to shoot video of a weekly event on the roads of Bonaire. Motorcycle kamikaze’s meet every Saturday before sunset to show off their stuff. Groups are separated like gangs around various bikes. Every five minutes or so someone will decide to open the throttle while trying to hang on for a quarter mile. It’s amazing to watch.

Petra and I looked like fish out of water. Being the only two white people made us stand out almost as much as Petra’s short shorts and halter top. Petra followed me nervously as we walked, cameras in hand, up through the pit-crew packs, that all became silent as we approached and walked by. In a moment of inspiration, I said loudly, “we are a YouTube film crew. The whole world’s gonna see your bikes.” Maybe this bought us an extra few minutes of life. They say not to show fear with dogs and sharks. Was it working? I walked up to one of the biggest weight lifters I had ever seen who was sitting proudly on his most prized possession.

“Do you mind if I film your bike,” I asked. He looked away from me and rubbed his fingers together indicating he wanted money. I laughed and said, “this isn’t for me. It’s for everybody else to see what a great bike really looks like.” He thought for a second, looked me coldly in the eye, then got off the bike. He motioned with his arm to film away, never saying a word to me. Obviously we had made it through the gantlet to the top dog, and were being allowed to live. A couple of the guys wanted to know what website the video would be on so they could check it out. This gave us the idea to print up shirts, hats and jackets that said;

YouTube
Filmcrew

http://www.befreebirds.com/

So now when we get our new camera gear, we can look more professional. With the help of my ex-racing partner, Boris, who owns T-Shirts Unlimited, we’ll be all set up when we travel to the states next month. YouTube has more respect now than any major network. People would rather be seen there than anywhere else as it’s worldwide. So, meet you new YouTube film crew, Petra, Marty and Brad. Get ready for BeFreeBirds Film Productions.

We took about twenty people on a day sail on Sunday afternoon. It’s amazing that we probably could’ve fit another twenty comfortably. Even with all aboard we still hit twelve knots in light winds.

We weren’t really able to kiteboard in Curacao because of the gusty winds (steady is better). So we’ve started learning again at a kite center on Atlantis Beach. It’s just a bus with a few boats to pick you up when you drift out to sea. Once you can kite upwind, the rescue boats aren’t necessary. We’re looking forward to that day. (The pictures of the people that look like they know what they are doing, aren’t us!)