Snorkel Video clip

We did a snorkle a few weeks ago, from La Dania's leap to Karpata. It was windy and choppy, but we went in the downwind direction.
The coral in the La Dania area is particularly nice.

IBCB Opening Day Video

I've put together a few very brief video clips from the opening ceremony and first service at the International Bible Church of Bonaire on July 10.

First Service at New IBCB Building

Yesterday was the official opening day and first worship service at the new International Bible Church building. There was a brief ceremony outside and then we all marched in while singing "I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart... for He hath made me glad."





Bicento and Betty (Ratzlaff) Henriquez came over from Aruba for the weekend. You can see them sitting in the middle on the left side in the photo below.

There were lots of friends and visitors in attendance. It was standing room only after a bit. Probably were 145 people or so.

Here is a view looking from where the muscians were standing, back to the porch on the left, and the main entrance on the right.

Everyone hung around for quite a while after the service and enjoyed cake, coffie and punch. Friendly fellowship after the church services is one of the main drawing cards of the IBC.

IBCB Grand Opening this Sunday

We're going to have the first Sunday worship service in the new International Bible Church building this coming Sunday, July 10.

There is lots of finish work to do on the building, but it is definately ready to use in its present state. That scaffolding was up yesterday, but some volunteers are taking it down today, and I'm going to haul it back to TWR later this afternoon. Most of the work on the building continues to be done by volunteers, both local people and companies, as well as international visitors.

The grand opening kicks off promptly at 9am, and everyone here on the island is very welcome to come join us for this happy event.

New Time Lapse Milky Way video

I really like the stars and the colors in this time lapse video of the southern Milky Way. If you have a fast Internet connection, watch it in 720p instead of the low res default setting.

Clear Skies Again

The night-time sky was very nice Sunday evening so I went out to the backside of nowhere with my camera and tripod, and shot some Milky Way pictures, 687 of them to be exact. I hope to make them into a time lapse movie some time soon.

Here is one frame from the sequence. It is a 30 second exposure at f2.8 and the ISO was 1600.

New Google Earth Image of Bonaire

I was using Google Earth a week or so ago to show Ethan and Andrew some good hiking trails here on Bonaire. I was surprised and very pleased to see that pretty much the whole North half of Bonaire has a new satellite picture from January 2011. You can see how green Bonaire was/is from all the rain in 2010/2011.

The details when you zoom in on this image are wonderful, there are fewer pesky clouds in the way, and this picture shows a lot of new construction that wasn't on the old images.

For example, you can see the new International Bible Church building if you search on:

12.169620, -68.284757

Summer Milky Way

We had nice clear skies Saturday evening so Ethan, Andrew, Bud and I zoomed out to Red Slave to see the Milky Way. We did some binocular observing, picture taking and a little telescope viewing. The top shot was taken early in the evening and is looking a little more to the east than the shot below. It shows the stars east all the way to Scutum on the left.
The shot below was taken later and you can see that the Milky Way has tilted a bit as it makes its way around the south pole. It also shows the stars all the way west to the southern cross on the right.

Getting Here from There

According to a recent Bonaire Insider story, Insel Air has extended its promotional fares on the new Charlotte to Curacao direct flight with continuing service to Bonaire. These new flights are on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
If you book your trip before August 13 and complete your travel before December 14, the round trip fare from Charlotte to Bonaire, including all taxes, is just $366.70. That sounds like a really great deal to me.
You can find out more, inlcuding the specific flight numbers of the new flights, info. on connecting to US Airways flights, etc. on the Bonaire Insider web site.
Insel Air also has a weekly direct flight to Bonaire leaving from Miami on Saturday afternoons that a number of our friends have taken advantage of.
Saturday is the big day for travel to Bonaire with Continental flights arriving in the morning, Delta arriving in the afternoon, and Insel Air arrriving in the evening.