Last time we spoke we were in the little island of Curacao. This time, we are still in Curacao and will let you know what we have been up to for the last few weeks. To be honest, not a lot! We are still anchored in the green murky waters of Spanish Water.
We are currently waiting for a weather window to make to the trip further west to Colombia. There is a lovely cruisers community here in Spanish Water. The whatsapp group pings away all day with messages from people advertising social events, diving trips and the like. We have partaken of a few of those. Tuesday night is Sailors Burger night at Uncle J’s bar, a short dinghy ride from Azimuth, boasting cheap and cheerful burgers and a bucket of beer. All very friendly. Thursday night is the ‘Captains Dinner’ at the Pier, another local restaurant which is a lovely evening with 30 or so cruisers sat round a giant table eating good food and drinking the local booze. We have met some interesting people at this event.
The local beach provided an amusing diversion on super hot afternoons. The green waters of Spanish water are not the most inviting to swim in, the temperature of the water is about 32 degrees, however, the local beach is fronted by crystal clear azure blue water and welcomes us to take a long dip and cool off from the fierce sun.
We have taken a few trips in to Willemstad over the past few weeks. It took 3 attempts in total to get in to the Maritime Museum. The first attempt was on a Monday … it was shut. 2nd attempt was on a Friday … yep it was shut! Finally we got our opening days sorted and the next Tuesday it was open! It was worth waiting for. The island history is very interesting. Quite typical for most Caribbean Islands. Firstly the locals were rounded up and killed or enslaved, then the European powers proceeded to fight over the island, with this time the Dutch being the final victors. All that naval activity meant that the island had plenty of wrecks and the museum was full of interesting stuff. It also had a real good cafe were we enjoyed lunch!
On one of those days that the maritime museum was shut we thought oh well, lets walk up to the Curacao distillery. Its only a mile away … in the sweltering sun! Took about a hour to trudge our way there but the delicious cocktails were definitely worth the effort! They still use the same copper still from the 1850’s here in this distillery. They take sugar cane alcohol and flavour it with orange peel picked from the local fruit and cook it up in the copper still. Then lots of other flavours are added to make a range of liqueurs with a range of vibrant colours.
On one of the other failed Maritime museum attempts we went for a walk through the town and found a really nice restaurant for lunch inside the arches of the sea wall. A really nice little place and we were the only people in there.
Eventually we ran out of water sitting in Spanish Water. No one wants to run their water makers in the green soup, so we took a trip out of the bay. It was a good chance to test the autopilot after the last disastrous trip and we also had our newly mended mainsail to put through its paces too. It was flippin rough off the coast of Curacao that day, the wind blowing about 20 knots and we both felt sick! We have definitely been sat way too long in a swell free anchorage.
One of the highlights of the stay here has been the Spanish lessons that we have been having with a small group of other cruisers run by a guy called Ronnie from Puerto Rico. Ronnie is a real character, having been sailing boats of one form or another for the past 65 years. The lessons are a lot of fun and I think we are learning a little too. Trying to get ready for all the Spanish countries that are coming up in the next few months. Ronnies stories of his travels, encounters with Whales, sailing in the Olympics in 1984 amongst others are also all very entertaining.
About a week ago, a boat called Zora rocked up in the anchorage. Onboard was Rhys, who has sailed from Kinsale. Rhys is very good friends with Niall and Bernadette whom we bought Azimuth from in Kinsale. I had been in touch with Rhys via whatsapp and we had been following each other around in the Caribbean but never quite meeting up. So it was great to finally met up. This week we decided for a change of scene, and when Rhys told us he was heading for the small island of Curacao Klein off the east coast of the main island, we thought why don’t we go too. You have to get an anchoring permit to visit anywhere outside of Spanish Waters, so we headed in to Willemstad to the get the permit from the Harbour masters office.
A 4 hour round trip and and we returned to the boat, and set off. A stop at the fuel dock to fill up with diesel. About 80p a litre here! We took on 600 litres, the first time we had taken on fuel in nearly a year. Last time was 300 litres in Cape Verde. Not bad for 5000 miles travelled and not a single visit to a marina since we left the UK.
Klein Curacoa was well worth the trip. What a difference to Spanish Water and its almost like we have forgotten what cruising is all about. Its been about 2.5 months since we sat in a anchorage as good as this. The water was the clearest we have ever seen. I took this video of all the fish swimming around Azimuth.
We took the dinghy to shore and had a walk round the island. A beautiful but very desolate place. If you were ship wrecked here it would be hard to see how you could survive, other than the fact that the place is visited here every day by 5 tourist boats!
The beach was very spectacular. The colour of the water was amazing and the sand incredibly soft
The path from the beach set out across the flat barren island, and the object that drew your attention was this very grandiose (at one time) but now abandoned lighthouse.
Scattered all over the island were the evidence of long dead corals
Eventually the path led us to the west shore that faces the Caribbean Sea. Two ships had met their end here. One of them a big sailboat. Much bigger than Azimuth. There must be an interesting story to tell behind this. A real sad ending for sure.
The beach on this side of the island was covered in drift wood, but also lots of evidence of turtles nesting too.
We were really enjoying ourselves on Klein. We had a permit to stay for 3 nights, but unfortunately the weather had other ideas. Big thunderstorms would make the anchorage untenable so we all headed back to the safety of Spanish waters
So that’s where we are as I write this. Hopefully that weather window will form soon, and next time we will hopefully see you in Cartegena in Colombia!