Curacao (ABC Islands), 28 October to 21 November
Curacao (The ‘C’ of the ABC Islands, Caribbean Netherlands) 12O04.309’N, 68O51.573’W 28 October 2018 to 21 November 2018
Sunday 28 October 2018: Bonaire to Curacao, Spanish Water, 38 miles, 6hrs 20 mins, 1.5 engine hrs, 6.0 knots average speed Total miles since Falmouth 2016: 11819 Departing Bonaire early morning, the wind directly behind, enabled us to fly our twin headsails and experience a very pleasant sail across to Curacao. All went well until we were approaching the port and on furling our sails they jammed plus we managed a locking turn on the winch, all whilst heading towards land very fast. Changing course would have made the sails even more tricky to furl, so it was a bit hectic for a time until we rectified the situation – brute force, ignorance and some choice words!!
The mooring facility in Spanish Water was a new experience for us. 70 boats, split into 2 groups, were meeting in Curacao to start the Ocean Cruising Club Suzie Too Rally, heading up to Belize over the next six months. In order to fit the large number of boats into the anchorage, the Port Authority had laid a long line the length of the bay for us to tie our sterns to, the bow being held by the anchor.
It would have been nigh-on impossible to moor without assistance from other cruisers in their dinghies, taking our stern lines and attaching them to the mooring line.
The line had other benefits – perfect to tie our paddle boards to for SUP yoga!
The Security Guard enjoyed the view!! The Old Fort The bay on the other side of the anchorage, by the Fort, was also sheltered so a great area for ‘Noodle-Fit’. It’s amazing the number of exercises you can do in the water with a ‘noodle’ (a long, tube shape piece of foam). Checking in with Customs, Immigration and the Port Office was a major chore in that the offices were in Willemstad, a good distance away, not on a regular bus route and not easy to find! We were particularly grateful to a fellow cruiser with a hire car! Willemstad (the tourist area) was very pretty with its swinging bridge, market, bars and restaurants. The rest was a hideous oil terminal, extremely industrial with busy roads. The boat yard was excellent; we and several other rally boats were grateful for their efficient services.
A priority job we needed to address was to purchase dyneema line and fittings to replace all of our guard rails around the boat. These rails are there to stop us falling overboard. A fellow cruiser came aboard for drinks and leant on one of the rails that subsequently broke! Fortunately he didn’t go overboard, infact it did us an enormous favour as had we been at sea and this happened, the consequences could have been very unpleasant. On further inspection we discovered the lines had actually rusted underneath their plastic coating. Another priority was to address what I thought was a mosquito bite on the end of my nose that didn’t seem to want to go away. A cruising friend, who had experience of ‘basal cell carcinoma’ – a form of skin cancer normally associated with sun damage – suggested I had it looked at, so off we went in search of a skin doctor. Coincidentally, the one we found had been a consultant in the UK for five years, so I was fairly confident he knew what he was doing, plus, although Dutch, his English was very good! He took a biopsy immediately for testing. I was able to do my first drift dive during the week awaiting the laboratory results. This turned out to be my last dive until after the New Year so I was pleased I did it! Sixteen of us dove. We were dropped into the water at one end of the reef, drifted down with the current for forty-five minutes, and collected at the other end by the dive boat. Unfortunately I didn’t take my underwater camera. The lab. results, a week later, revealed cancer cells and I was able to have surgery there and then, my reward being an ice cream on the way back to the boat. I missed out on lots of social occasions during my recovery, but had lots of Suzie Too rally friends visit, some bearing gifts, mostly edible😊, which was lovely! They really are a wonderful bunch of people. Suzie, the rally organiser, had arranged a parade of sail in Willemstad, the capital city. Twelve boats attended, mostly dressed overall; a wonderful sight. We followed by car and partied with them in the evening. The local TV company filmed the event which was fantastic publicity!
Hoisting flags, preparing for the Parade of Sail. We shared a hire car with Tourterelle and did a couple of days sight-seeing.
Christoffel National Park – amazing scenery
Shete Boka National Park (below) – equally as amazing!
Next stop: Aruba |
Lady Rebel is lucky 13 from the right.
