Curacao - the end of our Caribbean tour

The sail from Bonaire to Curacao was the rolliest one ever - the boat pitched and swayed like it was trying to throw us out, I just hated it. The coastguard helicopter flew out and circled over us for a few minutes when we were a couple of miles from Curacao (wonder what that was about?) and we found our way to Spanish Water where we are happily anchored. It's a massive anchorage with about 100 boats, a morning cruisers' net and free shuttle buses daily to the supermarkets. Checking in is a real pain in the neck. You have to take a bus to Willemstad, to the Customs (which are open 24 hours a day - fantastic!) - that's a quick check in with very professional, helpful staff. Then you have to either walk over the floating bridge (which was out of order, naturally, when we were there) or take the free ferry from Punda to Otrabanda and walk about a mile and a half through deserted warehouses, up and down hills, to find an obscure Immigration Office which has limited hours - there you do more check in. Then you have to go to the Harbour Authority which is in the next building upstairs and tell them where you are anchored. This is most annoying because if you want to go to a different anchorage or bay, you have to go back there and tell them where you are going to be anchored. It took us 3 hours to do this process, and is a huge deterrent in moving around the island. If we want to go to another anchorage/bay, we have to move there, anchore, go back to the Harbor Authority and tell them where we are anchored again - another 2 or 3 hours trip, depending on the bus service. So we won't be moving from Spanish Water.

Willemstad is a very pretty, very Dutch town. This is a view of Punda (from the ferry).


We spent some time walking around Punda - at times like this, we could have been back in Rome or Venice for all we knew!



This is the floating bridge (above) - it apparently had broken down the night before so we crossed using the free ferry instead.


Below is Otrabanda where the Immigration office is and the Harbour Authority. What a long walk and not very pleasant, through deserted warehouses etc.




Otrabanda.
Watermaker Barry arrived from Venezuela yesterday and coincidentally anchored next to us - he's coming over today to get things going. Well, he was - but unfortunately he doesn't have the right size membrane for our boat so we have to wait until we get back to the US to sort that out.

We have done a supermarket shop at Vreugdenhil supermarket. On Saturday or Sunday I have to go back to Immigration to checkout, and then when Phillip's crew arrives on Wednesday, they have to go back there to check him in and check the boat out. Real drag.

Anyway, people here (the cruisers) are so friendly - we had two people come over to us on the first day we were here to welcome us and tell us where/how/who/what we had to do and where certain things were. Happy Hour at Asiento Yacht Club Tuesdays and Thursdays, daily supermarket bus from Kimakalki Yacht Club at 9 am every day, one at 10 am from the other dinghy dock, and Sundays you can get a free shuttle to the hardware stores and Budget Marine etc.

So we're all set now, just prepping the boat for Phillip's trip next week. Phillip may be buddy boating with some people we met on Forewinds - Pat and Frank Ready (he did a lot of surveying for the EXPLORER charts in the Bahamas) and their dog, Chi Chi. They are heading to St. Thomas and may wait for Phillip so they can buddy boat most of the way. I fly to Miami on Monday 18th to stay with Ant and family for 2 weeks, then I will go to London for a few weeks and join Phillip in Baltimore around 1st July. Phillip's crew member, Mark, arrives here on the 21st I think and probably the following day, off they leave.

Paul and Joyce are still in Bonaire, diving away, and they hope to get here by Saturday. They are heading to the Rio Dolce in Guatemala where they will leave their boat for the summer.

Anyway folks, can't believe the Caribbean tour is almost at an end - but we are really looking forward to the Chesapeake Bay. So this may be the last blog for a while - when we're both back on the boat, I will do an update. Cheers for now, and Delphinus, happy and safe sailing back to Florida.