Curacao our position now 12.04.78N 68.51.38W
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Tue 13 May 2008 21:41
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A weather window appeared while in Jamaica giving us a good 4 or 5 days of
calm weather. It seemed too good to be true, 10 knots or less (on the nose,
we're going east/south east) and seas of 3 to 4 feet or less. It would mean
motor sailing, maybe all the way, but what the hell anything is better than what
we had going the other way. We fueled up and cleared out with Customs and made
our way ESE in case the forecast was wrong and we needed to take shelter in DR.
After our first 24 hours the sea was still good and the forecast was
holding, we continued on our course more or less for another 24 hours. That day
the forecast if anything improved, though the wind didn't change
direction so we continued motor sailing but now heading for Curacao.
We averaged pretty much 150 miles per day so day 4
we arrived for the first time in Curacao the middle of the three ABC
Islands, the Dutch Antilles. Time for some retail therapy, the shops are quite
good and there are a couple of chandlers. The island doesn't impress us too much
but its all ok. We met some old friends from Trinidad and Margarita in the
anchorage, Beth and Richard from Slow Dancing, they called us on the
VHF and said they would take and show us where customs and immigration are. That
was great, it saved us such a lot of time, we didn't have any money even for the
bus fare, before getting to town so Richard paid that for us all. By the time we
cleared customs and had a bite to eat there was little time left in the day for
shopping. We made our way back by bus to our respective boats ie. Slow
Dancing, Chaser 2, Waylander and Hoofbeats for a chill out and an early
night.
The public transport system is not very good, a bus
runs every hour ish!, if you miss it you wouldn't know and just keep waiting.
Taxis cost a fortune, crazy price, 25$ for a 1$ bus ride, we hired a car for
25US$ a day!
So we've done our shopping and are now waiting for
a weather window for the Venezuelan coast, a sail of only 60 miles so a daysail
away. Of course the wind is now blowing a hooley but we're still pinching
ourselves that we had it so good for the 600 mile trip previously.
While waiting we tried a bit of snorkelling on the other side of the bay, it was
so good Yvonne nad I asked about doing a PADI course there. The dive shop said
if we were comfortable with it all, we could do the 5 dives in two and a half
days, the cost is 290US$ each. So yesterday and today thats what we've been
doing and tomorrow all being well we shall both have our PADI tickets. The
diving and the fish have been great as you can see from some of the fotos, so it
will have been worth coming here if only for that.
Chris and Tony, Sharon and Tony have their PADI so
now we'll be able to do some diving together next time we find a dive school in
good water.
So thats all from here, we hope to leave in a
couple of days so they will be no further update til we reach PLC 300 miles
east.
IMG_7155.JPG IMG_7192.JPG IMG_7205.JPG IMGP4580.JPG IMGP4613.JPG IMG_7179.JPG IMGP4616.JPG IMGP4623.JPG IMGP4646.JPG IMGP4650.JPG IMGP4651.JPG IMGP4663.JPG IMGP4637.JPG IMGP4639.JPG IMGP4687.JPG These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/ |
