Date: 5th November 2021
Current Location: Spaanse Water Anchorage, Curaçao
I've talked about this before but with another hurricane season rapidly closing out, the friends we have made over the past few months both here in Curaçao and previously in Carriacou are starting to plan the next phases of their adventures.
The social scene here in Curaçao is not the same as in the Eastern Caribbean islands but Thursday night in Caracasbaai is Captain's Dinner or Cruisers' Night at "The Pier" restaurant next to Anchorage A dinghy dock. We just got back from there and the conversations were wide ranging and VERY boaty.
First up we met friends Zoltan and Sabine, German Swiss on iCat. Over the past week we've installed two long range radios with them, learned about the Swiss pension and union systems and reorganised our third cabin. They plan to sail north to the Dominican Republic and up the eastern US seaboard. They then hope to complete The Great Loop to Nova Scotia, Hudson River and down through the USA ending up at the mouth of the Mississippi. They asked us to introduce them to James and Shelley, themselves from Nova Scotia who had lots of good tips for their plan northwards. Beware the tides in the Bay of Fundi, don't miss the inland lake, it is -25° in winter so take warm clothes etc.
James and Shelley of Carina, who we bought the kayak from in Grenada, are planning also to go north (though they might go west to Panama instead after visiting Santa Marta in Colombia), up to Greenland, Iceland and the Azores, then maybe back to S America and the Beagle Channel. They leave the anchorage here on Sunday when the winds round the nasty Cape on the way to Colombia are supposed to be less fierce.
Then it was time to say goodbye to Harry and Ann on Whisper from the US. Relatively inexperienced they just want any information from anyone about anything. They will go north too, leaving tomorrow to Puerto Rico via Bonaire where they will haul out for some boat jobs. Like us on our first year of cruising they are amazed at how they are included as equals by the rest of the cruising community.
A lively discussion then developed about the pluses and minuses of sailing our own boats to the Galapagos Islands before moving on to talk about the Las Perlas islands the other side of the Panama Canal and whether the Pacific Islands and New Zealand might open up again.
And yet tonight was a relatively quiet night. Tony and Rosemary on Celtic Rose left for Bonaire this morning and Duncan on Czarina Blue is off tomorrow too. The anchorage is emptying and tearful goodbyes are the order of the day. This is an incredibly tight knit community of like minded, independent, self reliant, mutually supportive sailors. There always seems to be someone around to answer any question, be it medical, mechanical, navigational or meteorological. The knowledge base is huge.
As for us we will stay behind here in Spaanse Water, Curaçao for another couple of weeks before lifting out in the somewhat dubious Curaçao Marine boatyard (who never reply to emails) to do some long overdue work on Mehalah's prop shaft. Once complete we'll book flights back to the UK to see daughters Jenny and Emma and provide some temporary respite to my brother and his wife supporting our ever more dependent mother. With Covid rates rising again in Europe we are very uneasy about flying but feel on balance it is something we need to do...and it will be great to see the girls for Christmas. We just hope we don't get stuck back in the UK again, that Boris lets Christmas happen this year and that Curacao doesn't ban UK visitors.
We've been in this anchorage in Spaanse Water for most of our time here but we did spend three days in Klein Curaçao, a small island 15 miles back upwind. Unlike most boats we decided to sail rather than motor so we actually got to do a full day of tacking in lumpy seas, against the wind and against the current. A long day but a stunning location.
During the day several big tripper boats with names like Rastamaran, Cool Runnings and Mermaid make their disco fuelled trips there but in the late afternoon they all leave and peace descends again. For two nights we were the only boat there. Iddylic but slightly unnerving with poor holding in the loose coral and being only 40 miles or so away from lawless Venezuela with lightening flashing all around. Each morning we ran along the beach and counted the new turtle nests as it was full moon, the time they come ashore to lay their eggs.
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| Klein Curacao |
Other random events that allow me to post at least a few photos included:
Gilly having her hair cut....
Dismantling and rebuilding the seaweed clogged toilet filter ...
Fixing our first dinghy puncture using the magic "Final Fix"....
Putting on those incredibly uncomfortable sticky climbing boots for the first time in many years.....
Knitting poppies for ex tank driver Tony and wife Rosemary using kebab sticks as knitting needles....
Growing two sourdough cultures (and killing one) and baking our first sourdough loaves....
Trying and failing to refill our UK cooking gas bottles so went to a remote beach to illegally decant from a standard US bottle...
Beginning the mammoth task of redesigning the 'spare' cabin with Zoltan and Sabine...
Spending an extremely hot 5 hours in an extremely cramped lazarette fitting the new SSB tuner.
So that's it for the time being. Hope to see some of you back in the UK.
John and Gill
