Eastwards for a Change - Back to Bonaire (and on to Aruba)

Current Date: 9th March 2022

Current Location: Oranjestad, Aruba

This is a post in four parts. Part 1: Christmas in the UK. Part 2: Return to Curacao. Part 3: Bonaire, Part 4: Aruba.

Part 1: Christmas in the UK

A family Christmas saw us finally reunited with both daughters for the first time in two years. Jenny, who had been across from Spain looking after her friend's new baby, joined us and Emma came up from London for just over a week. Lovely to see them together again.

Emma and Jenny

Christmas Day saw mum, brother Philip, sister-in-law Jane and mum's carer Kriztina join us for the traditional excellent and very large celebratory meal.

Phil and Mum

We then met up with all Gill's sisters, her friend Helen and her Aunty Jeannie. A lot of plans fell by the wayside though as we tried to dodge the omicron outbreak, initially for mum's sake and later so we could fly ourselves.

Gill's family together at Christmas - without us!

At last it felt like a proper Christmas after two global years of separation.

Other things were going on too. The disused canal that runs past our flat will soon be joined to the famous national canal network. One of the main projects in the current phase of restoration was to build a new railway bridge over the canal. You can watch the amazing seven day transformation here.

Then it was up to Gleaston in Cumbria where we spent 30 very happy years for New Year with the gang. Great food, fantastic company and another VERY late night.

New Year in Gleaston

We also found time to visit the source of the River Thames with Rachel and Mark in the middle of  a field somewhere in Gloucestershire.

This stone marks the official source of the River Thames.

Soon it was time to pack all the goodies we had bought for Mehalah and weigh and reweigh to ensure we stayed within our weight limit. This included a new holding tank ( read shit tank) for future installation.

Holding Tank box

Part 2: Return to Curacao

And before we knew it the reams of forms, Covid tests and declarations were sorted and we were back in Curacao. ..And the holding tank was on its way from temporary hotel to boatyard.

Have holding tank, will travel.

Part of the installation required drilling a hole in the boat, never a nice thing to do but the smells have to go overboard somewhere.

Nice new hole saw comes in handy.

I also want to install a watermaker at some stage. That needed another hole this time in the bottom of the boat. Even more scary! But it all went well and is now just waiting for the magic watermaker that can turn seawater into fresh water.

Hole before through hull installation.

Meanwhile Gilly busied herself making some new flags. Bonaire, Colombia and Panama.

Panama's flag.

Our previous boat, Petronella, was a Joshua ketch. Tucked away in the corner of Curacao boatyard I spotted Northern Light another Joshua. She has made many well documented passages to far flung high latitude destinations with her previous owners but she now looks very sad here in Curacao. I'm surprised she hasn't been bought up by someone wanting to join this year's Golden Globe round the world race that has a special category for these beautiful yachts.

Northern Light awaiting some love.

As always the yard was full of characters each with their own story to tell. At Curacao there is a nice covered area where cruisers can meet up, chat, and on Saturday bring their own food to barbeque. Here we found Roelof and Els, a Dutch couple who have spent their lives buying and selling houses to do up, building kitchens and generally being entreprenurial. Having owned a small boat in Holland they decided it was better to be in the warmth of the Caribbean. So they bought Sotavento unseen, a 44' aluminium monohull. She had lain in Curacao yard for several years presumably due to non payment of yard fees and, though basically sound, was in a sorry state. They proceeded to totally gut her so there was nothing left inside at all. We helped them with the sails and rigging and they planned to sail her basically empty up to Guatemala via Jamaica after first visiting Aruba. There the would have her fitted out. The last we heard of them they had made it to Aruba but engine problems meant they had to be towed into the marina there. A resourceful couple they'll be fine.

Roelof and Els

And then there was Beth. Beth the intrepid. Beth the surprising. Beth the survivor. After a long term relationship turned sour she went to Puerto Rico, bought a 30' boat severely damaged in a hurricane, sailed it single handed for four days to Curacao with leaking seacocks, no wind steering or autopilot. She arrived so tired and without an engine that she was towed, hallucinating into the boatyard where she is slowly making her shipshape again. Beth is very capable not very confident. Between us we sorted out her old seacocks and drilled a hole through her hull for a new one. It appears she owns a substantial range in South Carolina. Whilst in Curacao she hired a very cheap rental car, the Shit Bucket, that conked out on the main bridge across the river. Quite a lady!

The redoubtable Beth

It was about this time that we heard that Mariel our crew across the Atlantic, had given birth to Basil John. What a cutey and congratulations Mariel. Another dream come true.

Basil John

Launch time again and we need to check all those new underwater holes. New log - check. New through hull - check. New dripless seal - oh dear, dripping. Call in the yard (after all they installed it), compress it a bit more. Not perfect but we can live with it.

And off we go east to Bonaire, supposed the most laid back of the three. As expected we soon found out why we prefer to go west. A fair wind and big current against us meant we had to motor the entire way. A couple of hefty squalls as we crossed the channel in company with White Pearl who were also making the same passage. Queen Emma Bridge opened for us both early in the morning. However with the new cutlass bearing installed the engine seems to be out of alignment so we had a nasty and concerning vibration the whole way across.

Approaching Queen Emma Bridge

We arrived too late for our marina berth so tied up to one of the famous Bonaire mooring balls (currently only $11US a night but controversially about to increase to $45US a night). After the weekend we went into the welcoming Harbour Village Marina where, guess what? Our much travelled spares, food and other possessions from the UK barrel and from Grenada had finally reached us via Peter and Sally on SV Milly as they passed through on their way to Panama.

The marina was a good place for laundry and other jobs and also for stocking up because we had visitors arriving! Dave and Vera, our long time neighbours and regular sailing buddies flew in from the UK a few days before we arrived and after checking in we met up the grand reunion. With Covid raging back in the UK it was their first trip abroad in two years. They were ready to chill, eat good food and explore.

Bonaire sunset towards Klein Bonaire.

D&V had hired a car for a couple of days so we went south to the salt fields and on to Lac a flat area of sea sheltered from the ocean by a series of reefs. Shallow water and steady winds make it a world famous windsurfing destination so we sat and watched whilst eating a delicious lunch. It's a long time since we windsurfed back in South Africa but we reluctantly gave it a miss.

Lac.

Next day we went north to the Arizona like (I imagine) cactus and scrubland national park. It was hot so we put the air con on and drove round the 'short' route stopping to climb Mount Brandaris. It's only 241m but a bit of a hot scramble. Dave and I made it to the top with Gill and Vera deciding to wait in the shade after one of the more scrambly bits.

Off we go.

Cacti. Lots of it.

David the mountaineer.

Now the most interesting thing for me about Mount Brandaris is that it is the highest point in the Netherlands. Wow, that's really something!

The top.

It was all going so well. But Vera had a cough (Vera always has a cough) and Dave was hot (well, it was hot). But then I was so tired I could barely get up into the cockpit. Oh no, maybe do a test. Oh dear, three of us with Covid.

Three positive Covid tests.

Let's isolate on the boat. Luckily G&V had just done a big food shop and they are both great cooks so 10 days snorkelling, paddling swimming and chilling made for a great quarantine but still, what a shame. No meals at It Rains Fishes or La Cantina and no further exploration possible. You win some you lose some and anyway it meant we could listen to the nightly, noisy parade of motorbikes along the seafront. It also meant we could savour the amazing fish life. The mooring balls are famous mainly because they are right on the drop off zone. Your bows are in 5m of water, your stern in 30m. And the water is SO clear you can see the fish swimming below you. Clown fish, baracuda, zebra fish, parrot fish. They are all there in abundance. Even walking along the sea front you can see 2lb colourful fish playing in the shallows.

Drinking beer.

Eating food.

Paddling the kayak.

Toasting good friends.

Before we knew it they were gone and we turned our minds to other things though by this time Gill also had Covid so we remained stuck on the boat. Time to fix the SSB radio I had bought from Zoltan in Curacao. It needed cables brought from the UK and I settled down to "clone" it that would allow me to use the Pactor modem to send emails via the radio when out at sea (as we used to do from Petronella). If I saw "Good Clone" I had succeeded....

First step success, still more work to do though.

Peter and Sally on SV Milly asked us if we would be their line handlers when the transit the Panama Canal. Of course we would so we need to try and get to Panama for early April. Panama is around 800 miles away so we'd better think about starting. But not before watching a bit of water polo. Now that is a very hard game.

Brutal water polo.

Part 4: Aruba

It looks like nice winds for the next couple of days so we decided it was time to head west again past Curacao and on to Aruba. For that we needed a PCR test and having so recently been infected we were concerned we would still test positive. We explained this to the nurse at Bon Bini medical centre and she said go back and see her if we turned out to be positive. Then she gave us the most gentle ever swab up the nose. Perhaps it didn't go far enough up our nose to register but whatever the cause they both came back negative within a couple of hours. And so they should at $250US. for the two tests Then it was off to immigration and customs to check out and dinghy back to Mehalah. As we hauled the dinghy up onto the foredeck the rope got stuck around the pulley at the top of the mast. Rats, that's not good. Anyway, rather annoyed, we improvised and tied it down ready for what promised to be a fast but gentle 110 mile overnight sail to Aruba.

Initially we sailed under yankee (small front sail) alone hoping for the steady easterly winds and promised west going current. But it was not to be. The wind was light and the current non existent. We changed to first a single reefed main and then full main and slowly but surely our speed picked up as we made our way up the west coast of Curacao and onto the open water towards Aruba. A couple of nicely executed night time gybes and we started flying along still under full main sail. At about this time Paul (named after Paul Weller who kept going whatever the circumstances) decided to stop working so we needed to use the autopilot which we we don't usually do. And of course the engine is still dodgy so we didn't want to run that more than necessary. 

Anyway the winds continued to increase and the waves got bigger. Not scary bigger but definitely bigger. Soon it was obvious that we would after all reach Aruba in the light as we had hoped and we prepared to check in. Arrival in a new country is always interesting. Here we had 20+ knot winds and a 1-2 knot current in our favour and we had to enter through a narrow dogleg entrance between two reefs. Normally you can anchor or tie up in the marina before going to immigration but here it must be the first thing you do. With yellow quarantine flag flying we inched our way in. A radio call ascertained we needed to go round the rusting, grounded hulk near the entrance to the commercial dock, take a sharp left and tie up against the wooden dock. We crept in and tied up. We had 0.2m of water below us a reef directly to our port side. Into immigration where a surly officer eating his lunch and listening to a loud radio station did the honours and then it was back to customs for their procedure, mostly form filling. And then, for the first time ever customs came aboard. The main man chatted to us about our passage whilst his mates were busy on deck doing something. Maybe they were swabbing for drugs as we are only 20 miles off the Venezuelan mainland here. We don't really know.

To get out we performed a text book reverse and forward 180 turn just missing the shallows to port. It must have looked great to anyone watching so we didn't own up to the fact that we were really trying to reverse out!

Three miles left to go to the marina and dolphins came to play off the bow and welcome us to another new country. After a bit of faffing about we followed the cruise ship buoyage into the small fishing harbour marina and tied up to a wooden jetty, scratching the side of Mehalah as we touched on a non fendered section of hull. Bugger.

I put the boat to bed, Gilly checked in to the marina, we went for a good Mexican meal and then...slept. Only people who have sailed overnight know what that first sleep is like. Warm, full, clean and satisfied with the passage you fall into the deepest of deep dreamless sleeps.

Up early for jobs. A good day. The stuck rope at the top of the mast is repairable. I climbed the mast to recover the block, then we cut away the rope and went to see if we could afford a new 50m of 14mm rope here in Aruba. $450US. We couldn't! So we rigged up a replacement until we can import a new line, or of course, one of our readers comes to visit with a nice coil of rope! Then we investigated last afternoon's scratch on the hull. Turns out it just superficial and a quick rub down and it's as good as new. Result! That just leaves Paul the self steering and the engine/prop shaft to sort. Tomorrow is another day.

So. The first full day in Aruba and it's "First Impressions" time. Curacao (the "C" of the ABC islands) has a reputation as a commercial island. Bonaire (B) is the laid back, nature and especially diving and snorkelling island and on Aruba (A) we expected a brash, full on American cruise ship island. But we've been pleasantly surprised. Yes, the main street is full of cruise ship "tat" as the girls would call it but the people are SO friendly. Apparently, and this may not be true because we haven't talked to all that many people yet, but it seems that whilst Bonaire and Curacao have long slave trade histories Aruba avoided the worst of the trade. Perhaps this is why it feels initially more open and truly welcoming despite the thousands of tourists bought here every day by plane and ship. We like it. And its a real mix. There's a Dutch guy on the big motor boat next to us who has lived here for 24 years having completed a solo round the world trip on his own designed and built sailing boat. At the excellent Mexican restaurant we went to yesterday to celebrate our arrival we were served by the 16 year old daughter of the owner from Colombia with a father from Venezuela. And at the Dutch Pancake restaurant tonight the waiter was an Arubian but his mother was Colombian and his father Dutch. Like most on the island he is fluent in his first language Papiamento but also in Dutch, Spanish and English. Papiamento is a mix of Spanish, Dutch and English and is only spoken on the three ABC islands.

I think we are going to like it here and we may be here sometime. The strong winds continue to blow til April when we need to be in Panama to help out friends Peter and Sally on Milly through the Panama Canal.. As we have already been to Colombia we might give it a miss and sail straight to Panama instead, a journey of some 600 miles potentially with strong winds and big seas. We shall see.

Flora and fauna update.

1 large cara cara bird eating a small iguana

This large iguana tried to come aboard Mehalah this morning.

Large lizard.

Loads of magnificent frigate birds circling above Oranjestat.

Magnificent frigate bird.

1 x Spotted Eagle Ray

Flying through the water like an aeroplane.

Oh, and of course the ubiquitous diving pelicans (how don't they break their necks?), the pretty bananaquits, humming birds, grackles, yellow orioles and the rest.

Link to the full Mehalah blog.

A Short UK Post

Current Location: Boat - Curacao Marine Boatyard. Us - Ebley UK.

Date: 11th December 2021

Just a quick catchup today.

We're back in the UK. The trip back via Amsterdam was fine but we arrived 7 hours after the "Day 2" Lateral Flow Test became a Day 2 PCR test. Total confusion meant we weren't officially out of quarantine until Day 10. Still, that's what you have to plan for nowadays I'm afraid.

Anyway we continued with the jobs list in the water. Gill's big task was to make a cover or "chaps" for the dinghy. In the tropics, even with the more rot proof hypalon dinghies, the tubes are affected by the ultraviolet light and can become useless after a few years. Dinghy chaps can help to slow this process and generally protect the dinghy.

A big, difficult job but it looks great now it is all finished.

Before long it was time to haul out. We have had a worn cutlass bearing (a sleeve the prop shaft run through) since we bought Mehalah and we wanted to fix it. This entailed a trip along the coast, through the world famous heritage site Queen Emma Bridge and then a couple of miles upriver to the boatyard. Crazy Swiss friends Zoltan and Sabine together with Uli and Gabbi thought they would film our arrival at the bridge. Here is the result. It does incorporate a few in jokes I'm afraid but I still thought it was worth posting.

And so to lift out. This time on a trailer rather than the usual sling. All went smoothly though the yard did then try to blast off our nice permanent antifoul with their super strong water jets! Instead we just scraped off the slime.

Now it was time to fix that cutlass bearing.

The propeller needs to come off, then the rope cutter and then the bearing needs to come out. Usually the prop shaft is pulled out and the bearing cut out. But on Mehalah the rudder gets in the way so it has to be done with the prop shaft in place. So we got help with it from the excellent CMS team. They used this special tool.

And here it is at work.

So there we are. Back in the UK for Christmas. It'll be great to see our daughters and to help brother Phil and Jane care for our ageing mother. Back to Curacao on 20th January, Boris and omicron willing.

Our next decision will be what to do when we do get back. We're off to Bonaire to start with (the "B" of the ABCs) where Cumbrian friends Dave and Vera will visit us. After that it's north to the Dominican Republic (no), back to the Eastern Caribbean (no), through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific (no), to Colombia, Panama and the San Blas Islands (probably) or through the Panama Canal and turn right to Mexico (probably not). Watch this space!

Happy Christmas to one and all.

More Goodbyes

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.

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

Goodbye Grenada, Goodbye Carriacou

Leave Date: 19th September 2021

Current Location: 100 miles west of Carriacou, sailing west towards Curaçao.

Three weeks ago Grenada had no cases of Covid. Life went on in its happy way with few masks, plenty of hugs and spliff sharing in the local community. Now it has in excess of 2,000 cases. The hospitals are full and there are only 17 ventilators in the country. There are more deaths every day. Cases are growing exponentially. The Health Minister reckons that in two weeks time 50% of the population will be infected! And it will take two months to vaccinate just half the population at current rates.

For us it has meant another virtual shutdown. All social activities stopped, beaches only open from 5am to 10am and on Saturday and Sunday no movement allowed at all. Rumour had it that Alexis, the supermarket used by the cruising community, was going to close until further notice. It didn't, but it might have. We could see another total lockdown being announced which we were keen to avoid if we possibly could. So we looked for alternatives.

It's always difficult to break the links you have built up both with fellow cruisers and local people we have met when it is time to move on. Grenada is particularly hard to leave as it has been our home now for well over a year. There's always a reason to stay. We have taken shares in the local Keep Carriacou Green recycling project, planned to work on a Ram pump with Paul our Stroudian Grenadian friend and become firm friends with Jenny, she of the market garden in the hills. We've loved it here but weighing up all the pros and cons we've decided to move on again. Westwards, ever westwards. This time, we hope, to Curaçao one of the Dutch Antilles, the ABCs. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.

A and B and C each have their own entry rules. We THINK that Curaçao will let us in without a leaving PCR test from Grenada but no one is absolutely sure. Anyway we can't get one because Carriacou has no testing facility and there is a moratorium on travel to Grenada the big Island. The Curaçao government websites are contradictory to say the least but Derek and his mate on Zenos did the trip successfully a couple of weeks ago and were granted entry. Since then though Grenada has gone from Green to Red in the WHO's list of risky Covid countries. Anyway we're giving it a go.

Goodbye Carriacou

We checked out on Friday along with Rosemary and Tony on Celtic Rose who we are buddy boating with and weighed anchor quietly early on Saturday morning for the 440 mile passage to Curaçao. And that's where we are now, motoring 85 miles off the Venezuelan coastal islands with 340 miles still to go.

Day 1: 2-5 knots of wind. Hard work. 80 miles covered.

Day 2: Much the same. Engines on as we hit a big NW going current which helps us along at 6.1 knots for the afternoon.

At Ease

Day 3 (Today): Quite eventful today. Celtic Rose started their starboard engine and it started smoking. Tony had a spare water pump and once fitted this was sorted. Meanwhile both rods screamed at the same time. Result? 1 x 4lb mahi mahi and a large floating branch??!!

Gutted and filleted we dropped half overboard in a bag beneath a fender for Celtic Rose to pick up. Fish supper tonight guys.

The wind filled in a bit - at least to 6-7 knots on the beam, blowing out of Venezuela. After a lot of messing around with Paul the wind steering we resorted to the autopilot as the batteries are fully charged from all the motoring. A perfect sail is the result. Swell, half a metre, classic trades sky, warm and soporific with Chris Rea playing in the cockpit (thanks Andy!). And just to put the icing on the cake a tern came and sat on the port davit. And then another one. Yes, Dick...."one good tern deserves another".

So we're now over half way. A slow technical crossing so far. We get weather updates from Jenny each day. CR provide the AIS information. We catch the fish. They keep us cheerful with their Geordie and N Irish accents across the radio on Ch68.

Mehalah at sea.

Gill talked to the captain of a very large ship last night who was headed fairly close to us both. "Good evening madam. Have a safe passage".

Lots of birds around. Terns, swallows which are also landing on the boats (in CR case even venturing inside with both of us recording a sad swallow death on deck), gannets and even a pelican who circled us a couple of times. No dolphins though and no whales either. That's a shame.

Day 4 (Today again): At last better wind as we gybe our way west roughly along latitude 12°20'. A few tricky gybes. Shaft Lock on Shaft Lock off. Try to keep close to Celtic Rose with our different boat characteristics. A bit of time to read or catch up with the blog. Make sure the preventers are tight. Have lunch. Plan for arrival! Which side of Bonaire to go? How fast? Sail or motor which parts of the last 100 miles? Try to arrive around midday then early or late it's still light. Discuss and agree with Tony and Rosemary. And on and on goes the ocean. Odd boats, a big crash as we hit something (tree trunk, no damage evident). Wait for the stronger winds again predicted by Jenny via the smart little InReach machine.

The navigation lights of Celtic Rose behind us all night.

Day 4 (2.40am): Running down the eastern side of Bonaire, the B of the ABCs. During my previous watch conditions were wonderful and it was a joy to finally be sailing slight off dead downwind with all that entails.

Early morning.

It's another bright, light night as full moon was yesterday but conditions feel different today. The air is fresher and and there are strong currents and overfalls here. Even though the ABCs lie in the Caribbean Sea it feels as though we have reached the area influenced more by South America. Another significant step, albeit maybe a psychological one.

The ABCs are known as the Dutch Antilles being former Dutch colonies. I had assumed therefore that the currency would be euros. We think though that Europe haven't reached here. Guilders then? Probably not. Tony thinks the currency is florins. Needless to say we don't have a big store of florins stached away.

[You may be able to tell I am writing this part of the blog primarily to stay awake].

So what lies ahead for the next few days? Well, we should approach Spaanse Water around lunchtime today.

*** Ah, there's the lighthouse of Boca Spelonk flashing. The first land for five days. ***

***Oh, and now my phone has pinged. I'm back in the world of mass communication ***

We rounded the southern tip of Bonaire and caught the west going current. Amazingly we were able to set our course for Curaçao as the wind swung round, for once in our favour. 25 miles surfing down the waves towards our destination. Under one reef as we only just dodged a thunderstorm on the way. A lovely sail, that we thought we would have to motor, to set us up for the entrance to Spaanse Water.

Here is a taste of the arrival info sent to us by Derek on Zenos. Zenos was anchored behind us in Tyrell Bay and made this same trip a couple of weeks ago. Carriacou Cruisers Facebook page told us they had arrived so we contacted them and they provided us with this really useful information. Beers for them once we are out of quarantine.

When we arrive in a new country we have to fly a yellow 'quatantine' flag until we are cleared to enter when we can, and should, drop the yellow and hoist the country courtesy flag. When I was back on the UK I had printed two big sheets of flags. One of the Caribbean countries, one of S America. At the price of just two made up flags we can go anywhere just by cutting and sewing these new courtesy flags.

First impressions as we approach? This is not one of your beautiful green, colourful houses, typical Caribbean islands. In the distance it reminds us more of the harsh Canary Islands. Oh, and it looks as though they use guilders not florins after all. We don't have any of those either!

......The entrance to Spaanse Water, a large multi lobed anchorage, is along a narrow and shallow cut. After calling the Coastguard we were allowed into the quarantine part of the anchorage. Our depth finder chose this exact time to stop working so we crept in behind Celtic Rose, turned left and found the anchorage. Within an hour the very smart coastguard boat, together with masked doctor appeared. A quick PCR test, more forms to fill in and looks like we can stay. Yay!! They took our passports and boat registration document so we can't nip off during the night. Tomorrow they will bring out results back in a little bag which they will pass to us. Then we need to go into Willemstad the capital to sort out immigration, customs, SIM card, anchoring permit etc etc.

PCR test. Coastguard doctor comes to Celtic Rose.

2 Days Later: We are in! Negative PCR results confirmed via VHF radio and we were off in to Willemstad for all the arrival admin. Immigration was shut. Then it opened. Wrong immigration. Need to be other side of river where liners check in. Taxi there. HMS Tamar docked there. White ensign, jolly British. Immigration done. Harbour Master next. Pay for anchorage. Back across the river to Customs. All very polite and friendly. Amused to hear Gill was the 'Master'. And that was that. We have three months stay confirmed in Curaçao (pronounce cure-a-sow). Then it was SIM cards, vital veggie shopping and back to the boat. A busy, busy day but very successful.

Willemstad, and Curaçao, are nothing like the Eastern Caribbean. Spanish, Dutch, American, Venezuelan? I'm not sure. But the middle of the city is a fabulous mix of cultures. It feels much more western than Grenada, and things do seem to work better too. We'll be happy here for a while.

Eating together in Willemstad. It's a while since weve been able to do that.

And then our friends James and Shelley (who sold us the kayak back in Grenada) turned up.

An emotional welcome to Carina.

Well, it was very different sailing in company or 'buddy sailing' as it is called. It feels less adventurous, as if you have a bit of a comfort blanket should anything go wrong. That's both good and bad. I would probably do it again on a shortish passage like this. But for me there are too many compromises on both sides to want to do the same over a longer passage. But it was great to be able to chat on VHF to Rosemary and Tony and after all we were transitting a known pirate area. Perhaps we shouldn't have kept our AIS switched on?!

I've just reread this and realised you might not even know where Curacao is! Here's a map.