Bonaire is an island off the coast of Venezuela in the southern Caribbean Sea. The easternmost and least populous of the so-called ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao), it has a permanent population of about 20,000. The island was colonized by the Netherlands in 1636 and it remained under Dutch control throughout the colonial period except for brief occupations by British forces during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1815 to 1954 Bonaire was part of the colony of Curaçao and Dependencies; it then joined the the Netherlands Antilles, a federation of the Dutch territories in the West Indies. The Netherlands Antilles was dissolved in October 2010 and Bonaire now has the status of an overseas municipality of the Netherlands. Bonaire plus Saba and Sint Eustatius in the Leeward Islands are known collectively as the Caribbean Netherlands.
Dutch is the official language in Bonaire although a Portuguese-based creole language called Papiamento is commonly spoken. In Dutch vuurtoren is a lighthouse, lichtopstand is a smaller light beacon, baken is an unlit beacon, eiland is an island, baai is a bay, kaap is a cape or headland, and haven is a harbor.
The lighthouses are presumably maintained by the Bonaire Port Authority. In 2008 Tideland Signal Corporation installed new MaxLED-200 optics in Bonaire's navigational aids. According to Tideland, all the lights had been out of service for several years prior to these renovations.
ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. NL numbers are from the official Dutch list. Admiralty numbers are from volume J of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 110.
- General Sources
- Online List of Lights - Bonaire
- Photos by various photographers posted by Alexander Trabas. The Bonaire photos are by Rainer Arndt, Capt. Peter Mosselberger ("Capt. Peter"), and Capt. Theo Hinrichs ("Capt. Theo").
- Lighthouses in Bonaire
- Photos by various photographers available from Wikimedia.
- World of Lighthouses - Caribbean Netherlands
- Photos by various photographers available from Lightphotos.net
- Bonaire Leuchttürme
- Photos and notes by Lothar Döhle on the lighthouses of Bonaire; these photos were taken in 2002.
- GPSNauticalCharts
- Navigation chart for Bonaire.
Lacre Punt Light (Willems Toren), May 2023
Google Maps photo by Siebren Buma
