It never is easy to say goodbye or what we say “see you later”. We spent our last evening with some of our friends at the Paradise Moon Bar for Happy Hour. Amie, Pam and Karl of Paradise Moon Bar have always been so wonderful to us thanks guys. Randy and Lourae without you guys Bonaire would have been half as enjoyable and fun, thank you so much for all you’ve done for us, you are true friends. We got an early start and after we had checked out with the port authority and the marina a huge cloud popped up out of nowhere and started growing at us. We better wait a bit, we thought. After that growler another showed up and just behind it another one. By the time all had passed it was noon time and too late for us to head out so we spent one more hot and mosquito infested night in the marina. Paradise Moon Bar was happy to see us again and we had dinner at the Sunset Resort which has the cutest patio overlooking the beach and the burgers were wonderful.
Just after the sun came up the following day we scooted out of the marina, pulled the main up and motored towards Curacao. As soon as we were out of the lee of the island the breeze picked up and we were able to sail. We pulled the spinnaker up and sailed all the way to Klein Curacao. We haven’t had a sail like this in quite a long time and really enjoyed it.
Half way to Klein Curacao a flock of Flamingoes flew by us.
Klein Curacao is a small and very flat island about 1 ½ miles long and ½ mile wide. In the middle of the island stands a beautiful old lighthouse. There is not much vegetation on the island and what’s there is max one foot high including some lonely cactus. The eastern shore is all rocky and rough with a few wrecks of a sailboat, fishing boats and a big cargo ship. It makes for great hiking and the lighthouse takes good photo from any direction. The middle part of the western shore is a beautiful white sandy beach with a few thatched roofs for the tourists.
Klein Curacao is surrounded with the same deep reef system as Bonaire and Curacao and the water is crystal clear. There are about 4 moorings in the leeward side for charter boats which bring boat loads of people to the island during the day. At 3pm they all left and we were the only boat left. It was absolutely beautiful we had a wonderful breeze a beautiful sunset and NO mosquitoes all night long and we could leave the hatches open. The sunrise was even more spectacular as the sky was filled with colors from light blue, pink, orange, red, yellow, just amazing.
Although the wind was right on the butt but we did have a really nice wing on wing sail all the way to the entrance of Spaanse Water in Curacao. The entrance to Spaanse Water is an 80 foot wide canal absolutely breathtaking. On the other side of the canal it opens up into a good size lake with several separate bays all surrounded with beautiful homes. Our marina Seru Boca was just around the corner to the right belonging to the Santa Barbara Plantation is surrounded by the golf course from the Hyatt Hotel. It’s a nicely built marina with floating docks with mangroves around, yikes mosquitoes. Turns out that we didn’t get to see one in the evening not even when we took a shower at the outdoor showers of the marina. The electricity is outrageously high 65 cents a kilowatt ouch.
After settling in we took the dinghy on a discovery tour. The anchorages are all full with boats. I don’t think I have ever seen so many boats anchored in one spot. At Kima Kalki marina we ran into our buddies Sundial, what a happy reunion, even Elvis the dog remembered us. Pam was so nice and took me into town the following morning to check in. Checking in here is a breeze they are super friendly and didn’t mind that we were already 5 months in Bonaire. The rule is 90 days per year combined. Pam and I had a blast it was like good old times. She was my shopping buddy in Venezuela and it’s so good to have my shopping buddy back. She took me to one of the grocery stores I thought it was Christmas all over again. The store had so much I think our diet it put off again for a while. I even found rabbit so we’re going to have rabbit stew tomorrow.
The rabbit stew turned out to be a bust. I cooked it exactly as my father used to but when I tasted it before serving it had the funkiest flavor, it tasted old and rancid and ended in the garbage. So I learned that when something in the freezer section is frozen just wrapped in seran wrap, don’t buy it and most in the freezer section is poorly wrapped in just that.
Other than getting used to our new home we cleaned the boat inside out, did laundry figured out how to get into town by bus. The Seru Boca marina is really out in nowhere and so quite you can here a mouse fart and at night it’s so dark you don’t even have to close your eyes to sleep, we love it.
Hurricane season is in full swing and all I can say is we left Bonaire just on time. The first night in the marina here in Curacao, Bonaire was hit with a very strong wind reversal (which blows the wind on shore into the mooring area) and boats had to abandon anchorage and head into the marina for safety as the rollers get to be about 4 feet and you only have anywhere from 75 to 100 feet from shore on very short scope mooring. (So a few days later when they had another bad one, one of the yellow sub dive boats broke the mooring and ended up on the beach.) The very next evening the wind turned around here in Curacao and blew a strong 25 knots. In no time the VHF radio was busy with announcements of numerous boats dragging, it was a mess but Paradise was securely tucked into the secure Seru Boca Marina. The last ten days went buy like nothing, guess we were too busy cleaning and catching up on computer stuff. Today October 1, we’re flying to Bonaire for the regatta. We’re looking forward to it and especially staying with Randy and Lourae at the 5 Star Resort “Villa Blue”.
Just two days before we left for Bonaire at 3 in the morning we were rudely awoken by the refrigerator sounding like a skeleton jacking of in a tin can. Then the unit ran and ran but the temperature didn’t go down we knew then we had a serious problem. Sid tried to contact Glacer Bay for two days but nobody answered the call. Even now two week later there is still no answer they must be either on vacation or busy with the Annapolis boat show. Luckily we have the option to use our freezer as fridge. Although a bit small it can only hold stuff for two dinners at a time which mean I will have to do more shopping trips into town, which is not very convenient from here. There is nothing within walking distance from Seru Boca, actually from the entire Spanish Water area. The Hyatt Hotel on which property we’re on provides a shuttle at 08:15 to the main entrance from where we can catch a local bus. Most of the time the Shuttle does not show up and by the time we finally get to the bus stop they now run only once an hour, if. One of the grocery stores Vreugdenhill sends a daily free bus to the marinas for a one hour shopping trip but for Seru Boca only twice a week. So we’ll be roughing it until we can get the fridge fixed.
Just good we had not much in the fridge left other than pickles jars, sauces and such things nothing on food was lost and freezer was empty as we were going to turn it off anyway while in Bonaire.
We are so out in the boonies that even the taxis don’t like to drive out here and charge outrages 45 dollars to get to the airport, it’s cheaper to rent a car and we did just that. Imka a local rents his cars out for 25 bucks per day, we rented it for three days and Jeannie our neighbor on Dragon Fly drove us to the airport in the morning and had the car for the rest of the day. The first rental day we hit every grocery store on the island. The second day we had to check out with the authorities which took half the day and as we finally started on our excursion around the island it started raining so hard we could not see the roads as they turned into rivers. We ended up in a little cove named Playa Porto Marie and sat in the car in a heavy downpour with roaring thunder for at least 20 minutes before it was safe to head for the restaurant on the beach and enjoy lunch.
The flight to Bonaire was short and sweet in a Britten-Norman BN-2A Islander which has room for 9 passengers. The copilot seat is open for a passenger and I was the lucky winner to sit next to the pilot. I was amazed that after take off it was a straight shot and only 25 minutes later we landed in Bonaire. Although we were sitting on the runway for at least 30 minutes as they lost communications with one of the towers. 5 planes were in front of us and when the runway was cleared we enjoyed watching their take off, especially the US Air Force tanker who is based here. Randy and Lourae were already at the airport and first thing at Villa Blue we all hit the pool.
The Bonaire Regatta is a huge event, so big the schools in Curacao and Bonaire close during race week. The evenings were filled with Regatta Festivities along the Sea Promenade, Wilhelmina Park and on the streets of Kralendijk. Stands with variety of local foods, souvenirs, games and handicraft attracted locals as well as tourists. International and local bands were performing daily until 3 in the morning. The 2010 Regatta also is a very special and unforgettable regatta as it was the last regatta within the Netherlands Antilles. Due to this they dedicated the 2010 Regatta to the Netherlands Antilles as gratitude for the support received from the sister islands and Aruba during the last 42 years. On Saturday October 9th just before we entered the magical 10.10.10 at midnight, date of the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles and the official entry of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba as special municipalities in the Kingdom of the Netherlands the sky filled with an explosion of fireworks. Kind of funny to think that one minute before midnight on the 9th we were still in the Netherlands Antilles and with the first second of the 10th we were in Holland and didn’t even have to travel.
We had many racing classes: Racing Class 1 and 2, Cruising 1 and 2, Open Class, Multihulls, Optimist, Sunfish, Laser-Splash, Beach Cat, Sailboards, Traditional Fishing boats, Windsurfing and Microboats. Randy and Lourae’s “Mocko Jumby” is a 24 foot Corsair Trimaran a little bullet running away from our competition which had no chance, one was the new 42 foot Lagoon Catamaran “Jacky S” (Venezuela) which is as slow as a snail the other one was a Main Cat. The funny thing was the owner of Jacky S was talking with Randy about the boat rating at the Captains Meeting the day before the start and asked Randy: “How can your boat be rated faster than mine?” Randy just said: “I guess we have to wait and see out there!” He also introduces his crew to us, his sponsor, the chef and a Venezuelan Olympic sailor. We were not sure if we should be intimidated, he sure came across that way.
Race Day 1:
Not much wind just enough in the squalls and kept us moving all day on a 22 mile course. The wind was out of the W and SW which never happens on race week and we had a down wind start and that was the last time we saw our competition. We finished the race, sailed the boat back to marina, put her away, washed her, got in the car and drove 20 minutes up to the house, got into our bathing suites, grabbed a cocktail, jumped into the pool started looking at the boats and there was our competition only half way through the race. We pretty much sailed fast in light conditions because we finished at least four hours in front of our competition. Weather was rainy and squally all day and we were soaking wet and as soon as we cleared the finish line the sun came out again.
Race Day 2:
Was a 17 mile course and again a down wind start, light winds all day but no rain. Again we were in the pool before our competition finished. Jacky S had to finish with navigation lights on, poor guys.
Race Day 3:
Race was shortened to 8 miles due to very, very light winds. Same thing again we started and left our competition in the dirt, by the time they caught up to the dirt it was settled. We passed every boat in the fleet except for four but our elapse time was faster than any boat in the fleet and our corrected time was also faster than any boat in the fleet.
Race Day 4:
They had us set for a 20 miles race while the rest of the fleet had the same 8 mile course, so we asked the judges if we could race the same as we really have no competition in our class, at least now we could compete with the bit the racing boats. This time we weren’t as fortunate to be the fasted but only by 2 minutes. The wind was pretty fluky anywhere from 2 to 15 knots causing a lot of grief to the boats with spinnakers. We did the 8 miles in have the time as the day before.
Even the commentator at the finish line called us animals.
Challenger, Clair de Lune, North Star and Tusson Takk II were still in Bonaire and cheered for us at the trophy ceremony.
We got our racing fix in, had a blast and truly enjoyed being spoiled at Villa Blue. Randy and Lourae thanks so much for everything this was an unforgettable event and just wonderful to stay with you. Many thanks.
The flight home was really kewl, we had the same pilot and he let me sit next to him again. After take off he turned the plane around immediately and so we flew right over Kralendijk and the mooring fields what a sight we recognized the boats on the moorings, saw the marina all the way up to Villa Blue. In Curacao he flew across the island towards Spanish Water and right over our marina where Paradise was waiting for us. Then he followed the coast line along the western side of Curacao with the most spectacular few of Willemstad. What an incredible scenic flight, wow.
We were surprised to see Sandy on Sundial instead of Jeannie to pick us up. Imka rented our reserved car to somebody else instead; he’s obviously not very reliable. Really a bummer as we had planned to do the island tour on Sid’s Birthday which is today the 13th. His Birthday present was his first SSC Check yeah, Happy Birthday Sid.
WHYYYYYYYYYYY US??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was putting groceries away when I saw a bee inside the boat, hmm weird --- the hatches are closed and the AC is running --- hmmm --- must have come in with Sid. Five minutes later I see one crawl up the mast --- hmmmm --- nobody left the boat: "hey Sid I think we may have bees in the mast again!" - "Nahhhh!" He goes out and checks, comes back: "nothing", sits down at the computer again and not two minutes later he sees one crawl up the mast: "I be damn!", so he goes out again this time with the binoculars sits in a chair on the dock and watches. Sure enough a couple of bees flew in and a few flew out. If this isn't called DEJAVU, yikes. Thought you might get a chuckle out of this, because we were not laughing arghhhhh.
What’s this thing about three time’s the charm; this is the 5th time for us. Why us???!!!!
Sid had it under control instantly when he pumped pesticides up the mast and the pro he is now with the help of a fan blowing under the floor boards and up to the top of the mast which turned into a smoking chimney. Sid had a sore neck from watching the mast head for an hour.
We now are on week 4 waiting for the refrigerator company to end their vacation; it’s getting a “little” old and frustrating. So what do you do when you’re stuck? Easy, rent a car! We are so good in choosing times for that, like last time it also rained buckets this time, but no problem the day was dedicated to shopping. We found a few new stores and a very nice wine store where you can taste any wine they sell, really any! I had a good time while Sid had fun watching me. Later in the afternoon the weather cleared and with the freedom of the car we started looking for an inviting patio restaurant to enjoy a cocktail after all it was 5pm. I think they all knew we were coming and changed the signs “Open at 6”. Finally on top of a hill overlooking part of Spanish Waters we found “El Gaucho” not open until 6 either but they welcomed us to the bar where we enjoyed not just the view but a couple of cocktails each. The manager let us know that they have a free Shuttle to run guests back and fourth, kewl, we’ll definitely come back.
Although Curacao is double the size of Bonaire it only takes one day to drive around the island and see everything. The island is a lot prettier and definitely greener than Bonaire result of more rainfall, although we really do miss the anchorage and clear water in Bonaire. Our first destination was Santa Marta a very hilly area which revealed an incredible view over the very protected but isolated bay surrounded by hills. As we came to what we expected to be a nice beach with a restaurant we found an abandoned resort that had been gutted to rubbles. Amongst a few private homes nothing else was there and we had to turn around at a dead end. Next stop was Santa Cruz a small beautiful sandy beach with palm thatched roofs and the water’s edge lined with chunks of coral and broken shells. Next stop was West Punt a very picturesque area with a very few small beaches surround by high cliffs with beautiful houses built on top. We were looking for Playa Piskado known for restaurants serving wonderful local dishes but our luck again the beach was under construction. We returned to the restaurant above the cliff in Playa Forti with the spectacular view over West Punt area and had lunch. Sid’s burger wasn’t so good, didn’t even look good but my fish platter was quite tasty, although for what I was told that all the seafood are caught here, so I was a bit surprised that they catch imitation crab in these waters. We watched some brave tourists jumping down the 50 foot high cliff into the crystal clear water. Seemed to be some kind of “Fetch your Flip-Flop” thing as every diver tossed their flip-flops down the cliff and then jumped after them. It was fun watching.
A short distance down the road around the north end of the island we found Sheta Boka National Park with Boca Pistol a blow hole. This side of the island is as rocky and hostile as the east side of Bonaire. Also pretty much everything that grows on the islands has thorns. It is a very beautiful island. The blow hole was pretty impressive.
With Sid’s lead foot it took only 20 minutes of driving to get back to Willemstad. Sid’s shoes are blown out so we tried to find replacements, yeah right! Shopping here is as tough as it is in Bonaire and the shoe store that sells Nike’s were all sold out, all they had left were the shoes on display. The sales girl helping Sid checked if they had one of the shoes in Sid’s size, unfortunately or fortunately not because just as we were ready to leave the store she brought up the fact that it was a lady’s shoe, silly girl!
The following day we drove around the southern part of Curaçao our neighborhood, and drove probably every road or dirt path there is. The southern part is not as hilly but still pretty remote and beautifully green. I have no idea how we missed the big sign into the Ostrich Farm but after a few u-turns we found it. Like any typical tourist we signed up for the tour on the safari bus around the farm. We had fun and the tour guide fluent in Dutch, English, Spanish and Papiamento explained interesting facts you would never guess. We noticed that many females had naked butts, so we figured it was kind of allergy or something. His explanation was that when they lay eggs they need more calcium and in order to get that they pull their own feathers out and eat them. Some are smarter than others and eat the feathers of their mates instead. They lay about 40 to 80 eggs a year. Their brain is smaller then their eyes therefore a bit on the dumb side as they could just duck under the fence and escape, but… The farm has different sections, eggs hatchery, nursery, pen were the ostriches will eventually turn into ostrich burgers. An ostrich can easily reach 80 to 100 years of age so they keep the same ostriches for breeding. They also had some emus, which lay eggs about half the size that of an ostrich and in dark green. Their brains as well are a bit too small for them to realize how high they can jump and escape.
The ostrich eggs are so strong you can stand on them without breaking them, but drop it and it breaks, wow. The farm has its own ecosystem. Since the grass growing on the island is too salty for the birds they have a great lawn mower team of black bellied sheep eating all the grass then are moved into the next pen to clear and so on. Not just that a three hundred pound ostrich can produce about 100 pounds of useful meat, what to do with the left over. Easy, build a pond and get three good sized crocks problem solved. They are quite fond of the delicious ostrich meat and bones. Neat little ecosystem wouldn’t you say?
After the very informative tour we sat at the restaurant and enjoyed the best burger ever an ostrich burger, yummy. Best yet they also have a free shuttle so I know we will come back for another burger or even a nice juicy ostrich steak.
Continuing our tour we took a bumpy road to Playa Kanoa the islands surfer’s beach. Neat area but oh boy in heavy surf I don’t think this place is very safe as the waves end on a shelf of stone, ouch. There also was a little lagoon were several fishermen keep their boats, looking at the entrance and the surfer dudes we wondered how they mastered to get into the lagoon with surf breaking heading between two reefs in a very, very narrow channel. Just as we discussed this one came back and showed us how it’s done. The main thing is timing and motor power.
Earlier that day when we missed the ostrich farm we found a kewl looking restaurant with an aviary and believe it or not the sign said open from 11 till 11 and since it was already cocktail time again we decided to go there and check it out. Guess what??!!! They are closed on Thursdays, our luck again. We knew the Hyatt Hotel was open so we headed there instead. Wow, what a ritzy place, at the lobby bar we felt way underdressed and were intimidated to order a drink, instead we walked the beautiful hotel grounds to the beach restaurant. Beach restaurant sounds a bit more like shorts and T-shirts right? Wow we now were really under dressed. Nice though and the bartender didn’t mind our attire a bit and did talk our ears off. We had a fun couple of days.
The weather has been a bit out of the ordinary with high temperatures, humidity, no wind and occasional squalls with rain and wind out of any direction. This weather was called Monsoon weather which was caused do to some weather system north of us sucking up all the wind. Then just a few days ago this huge system started building up to far south between Africa and turned into a Low. The system was 600 miles across we knew this was not a good sign. This Low turned into a tropical depression and is now hurricane Tomas beating up St. Vincent and St. Lucia as its eye is right over them as I’m writing this. As with every storm system you never know where they are headed until they become a hurricane. It was uncertain what kind of weather we would get we could be the target of a tropical storm. Luckily Tomas built into a hurricane rather fast which is helping us out. Tropical storms can head any which way but a hurricane normally heads in a northerly direction unless it looses strength back to a tropical storm, then any direction again. We still are monitoring the situation and know that with eventual strong squalls and higher gusts we will get a lot of rain and definitely wind out of the west but we are out of the cone of tropical force winds.
Sid got a crew position on a very fast boat, a Henderson 30 name “Team Ibis” which is feared by the other race boats here in Curacao. Their only competition is a Grand Soleil. Team Ibis needed an extra crew for the Heineken Regatta which is an annual event and held this year on the 13th of November. Sid’s really exited about it.
Tomas weakened to tropical storm strength when he passed us just 100 miles to the north on November 1st. Therefore we didn’t get much out of it but Tomas displayed an incredible lightning show all around us; it looked like giant LED lights flickering. Around 22:00 a few heavy gust of wind passed through the marina. While our wind indicator measured 17 knots of gusts some boats in the anchorage measured gusts up to 45 knots. We had heavy rain but slept through the night like nothing was going on at all. Poor anchorage was up all night. The highest wind speed we recorded over night, when we were sound asleep, was 24 knots. Seru Boca Marina truly is a very protected marina. Tomas brought 265 millimeter about 10 inches of rain to Curacao (this is more rain than their yearly rainfall). There was more water on the island than around and many people had to be evacuated due to flooding. One Hospital waste deep in water had to be evacuated. Tomas caused the death of two people. Although there was no wind damage anywhere heavy damage was all done by rain. We were lucky once more to escape a dangerous hurricane.
After six weeks of waiting for Glacier Bay our refrigerator company to come back from vacation we find out that they don’t support our product anymore and gave us the company that took it over. For a further frustrating week trying to get in touch with the new company we finally were able to reach Pat and he surprised us with his responds, he worked over time for us, email went back and fourth until midnight. We needed a pressure gauge to evaluate the system, borrowed one from a boat in the anchorage, gauge had a blocked hose, Manuela started calling around local businesses to find out where to buy one, first call answered the very friendly Dutch guy, although not having any gauges for sale was very interested in the problem and offered to come out to the boat, (we now think why he was so interested is he’s planning on going cruising himself). One our later he showed up checked it out and found that the capillary tube from the sensing bulb to the expansion valve was broken those closing the valve and not letting anything buy and also vacuuming one side.
November 12th I was sitting on deck of our friend Christa’s boat sipping a sundowner as I noticed a water spout on the south east side of the island. It was moving pretty fast lasted at least 5 minutes if not longer until it hit the island it slowly disappeared. Two minutes later a now very thick funnel cloud started descending and a tornado roared on the island for about 2 minutes and just like that disappeared into nothing, but instantly 2 very thin tornadoes started at the same time just a bit behind where the tornado was. It was pretty spectacular to watch this just hope there was no damage anywhere.
All the heavy rains we’ve had in the last two months brought out mosquitoes. When the sun goes down you better hunker down inside and make sure all the hatches are closed, the attack of the mosquitoes is unreal, never seen anything like it. Even in the anchorage where they usually have no mosquito problems they are plagued by it. Even down town you get molested by them including in air-conditioned stores. They do have Dengue fever in Curacao, I have a feeling this year will be a bad one.
Now to the good news or great news!!! As I mentioned in the last Blog Sid had the opportunity to be crew on a Henderson 30 “TEAM IBIS” to race the Heineken Regatta Curacao. The annual Heineken Regatta Curaçao held from the 12th to 14th of November with an incredible opening ceremony with lots of cold Heinies and wonderful Pupus and an incredible band. I danced from the begin they started to the very last song and oh boy the following morning I got out of bed like an old lady and was sore for days.
The amazing thing about the Regatta start was the starting line was set up in the channel between Punda and Otroban in Willemstad a channel about 150 feet wide not much room to maneuver amongst all the many boats. It made for very exciting starts for the spectators not to mention the adrenaline rush for the racers. Each Race TEAM IBIS took off like a rocket. After the start I headed out to the beach front and watched the race form the pier where the windsurfers had their races. To the west of the island a very noisy cloud started expanding and threatened the race, luckily that finally decided to head over the north side of the island, but as soon as that threat was gone a cloud started growing from the south east and did not look good. It spread out fairly fast and TEAM IBIS was just turning into the channel on the home run to the finish line as the cloud let go. White frothy water was headed towards us and all in the background disappeared in heavy rain. All the same class boats behind TEAM IBIS got a pretty good push and corrected time on TEAM IBIS who crossed the finish line first. The second race was delayed due to rain then again because one of the big freighters was heading out the narrow Annabaii Channel where the starting line was.
Saturday we woke up to a heavy downpour and the satellite photo did not look good at all, the whole area from Colombia to Venezuela was covered by a huge cloud with nothing but rain caused by the ITCZ.
Here is Sid’s take on the races since he was there:
First race was light wind and threatening to squall. Finished before the squall but the squall provided heavy winds for the rest of the fleet and we got a fourth.
Second race: was shortened due to delays of start due to rain and outgoing cargo vessel. Light rain, light wind, got a very good start and we finished first but got a second in our class.
Third race: Heavy rain throughout the race, good start, moderate winds, passed the whole fleet and the big boats ahead of us, first to finish over all and in class.
Fourth and last race: just before the race we checked our standings and it was upside down. They questioned the race committee about the standings and found out that during time calculations they had transposed numbers on several other boats that showed correcting out on us. That was all straightened out and we were ready to race but because of our fourth place and no throw out this was a MUST win. The race start was perfect, we headed out the channel and didn’t make one mistake, we passed all the boats by the second mark and blasted to the finish (race was shortened due to weather) and got our first. Question still was did we win first over all. With all our work we did it yeah what a hoot.
The Award Ceremony was awesome. Team IBIS on first in Racing Class 2 and this year for the first time they had an over all win with a nice check of Nafl. 10.000 about US$ 6000. This check looked really good in front of Team IBIS.
What a party that was with a shower of champagne over the crew, lots of photos and an interview with Joey Stevens, the famous ‘man with the parrot’ on See TV’s One Caribbean Weather.
http://onecaribbeanweather.wordpress.com/
He told us that it will air on CNN and CBS sometime in December or January. We’ll probably be underway by then and never see it. Sid had a wonderful time and Team IBIS said he blended right in and Karel the owner asked Sid to race on the last Regatta of the year in December, wow Sid feels really good about that. The funny thing about Sid being on Team IBIS was, all the boats of course know each other and crew and seeing a new face on Team IBIS (Sid’s mustache!!) and Team IBIS was able to beat the fastest boat in the fleet during the last three races. A rumor went around that Team IBIS had a secret weapon. Somebody even asked if Sid was a professional because the boat was working so well. Team IBIS never told anybody anything except Sid was an American crew member and we left them guessing! Sid had a blast and can’t thank Team IBIS enough for having him as crew and the grin will be on his face for a long time.
By the way you can watch Team IBIS on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPdWSEA8OCo
We very truly impressed with Martin the mechanic and knowing that he wants to go cruising himself we invited him and his wife and 6 year old daughter to come for a visit on Paradise. We had such a wonderful time and maybe we convinced his wife Norma that living on a boat is fun?! His daughter Isabelle had no problem with it at all.22. November Anne and Steve “Fine Line” came back to their boat and brought us lots of goodies from the States including our part for the fridge, yeah there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We called Martin the following day and even though he was very busy that day he showed up at 5 PM and fixed our fridge teaching Sid so he can do it next time himself. He left at 9 PM and we couldn’t believe that the bill was as low as it was. We truly found one honest and hardworking friendly guy!
Fridge was fixed just in time for the Thanksgiving leftovers. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast on Fine Line. Judy on Clair de Lune cooked a juicy turkey and wonderful gravy with chunks of meat in it. I hate Brussels sprouts, but the way she cooked them (bacon, onions and sour cream sauce) wow, she disguised them really well LOL. Judy also made a pistachio marshmallow thing that was interesting. Anne on Fine Line made the thickest mashed potatoes I've ever had and yummy green beans with almonds. Christa from Germany, it was her very first Thanksgiving, made a wonderful bread with all kinds of nuts and seeds and a green salad with a delicious homemade honey balsamic dressing with dill. She truly enjoyed Thanksgiving and was amazed on all the different dishes. I made cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries, apple and orange and also tipsy sweet potatoes. For dessert Judy made to die for pumping and peach pie. Anne topped the feast off with home brewed coffee and a delicious dry port wine, which made us only want more to drink. We all were so full that we had a hard time getting off their boat and made it home just in time for another nasty squall erupted over us. It was a very very nice Thanksgiving, actually the best we've had while cruising. Steve was very thankful for his health (last June he fell on the boat and hit his head, a couple months later as they were in Peru he had signs of stroke and was flown home immediately and had surgery, a blood cloth was removed that was caused by his fall in June. He’s doing great and they finally were able to return home to Fine Line). We were all thankful that we have such good friends to share an important family day with each other. Ed was funny he was thankful for Skype so he can talk to his grand critters.
Hard to believe it’s been almost 3 months in Curaçao we had only planned to stay 2 weeks. It shows once more that cruising plans are written in Sand at low tide.
Weather has been awful, lot of nasty squall and rain keeping everybody from sailing to other destinations, including us. The mosquitoes worse than ever and I’m surprised the stores haven’t run out of bug juice yet!
We will provision on Wednesday, Howard on Lady Hawk is returning Thursday from his one week stay in the States bringing us some parts and on Friday we should be underway to Aruba. Unless we get stuck now with the water maker, Sid changed the seals but the salt count is still at 1200 so keep your fingers crossed that we can fix the problem and leave.
Received this in the email, don’t know who wrote it but all I know it could have been me because that sums up our stay in Curacao:
Cleaning Poem
I asked the Lord to tell me
Why my house is such a mess.
He asked if I'd been 'computering',
And I had to answer 'yes.'
He told me to get off my fanny,
And tidy up the house.
And so I started cleaning up..
The smudges off my mouse.
I wiped and shined the topside.
That really did the trick....
I was just admiring my good work.
I didn't mean to 'click.'
But click, I did, and oops - I found
A real absorbing site
That I got SO way into it -
I was into it all night.
Nothing's changed except my mouse.
It's very, very shiny.
I guess my house will stay a mess.....
While I sit here on my hiney.
Amazing whenever we get ready to leave for the next destination how time just runs away. We did have a fun Pizza night onboard Fine Line and played “Shit Head” a fun card game with Anne, Steve, Christa, Judy and Ed until late. The following day was provisioning day and for dinner we went for a last time to the Portuguese restaurant again where they serve the wonderful skewers. On Friday morning Howard knocked on the door, he just arrived from the States and had our parts well part of it. The lights Sid ordered he placed in his backpack and the NyQuil in his luggage and that did not arrive, How, lucky can we be that he had stuffed our bulbs into his carry on. Then there was the sad “see you later” part to Christa, Ed and Judy. We left the marina around 11 and had a pleasant sail up to Santa Cruz Bay, although the wind was gusting down the different canyons. Seeing Santa Cruz from the water side, is actually a lot prettier than what we had seen by car. There was a swell wrapping around the northern end of Curacao coming into the bay but they were gentle and it was quite comfortable. We enjoyed sitting in an anchorage all by ourselves again even if it was just for one night. We woke up to heavy rain and decided to wait until daylight before heading out. Nothing worse then getting up in the dark and having to stand in the rain to pull anchor (Sid); we finally left at 7:30 still raining. It rained pretty much the whole trip long and as we left the lee of the island the swell grew(6’to8’) and the sea became pretty unsettled, that washing machine effect again. We had just the jib out with motor on as the squall were unpredictable and too numerous. Max the Autopilot did a good job steering us on course and Sid had not really much do to with the jib while I laid down not trying to get seasick. The wind was 10 to25 kts. Didn’t get seasick but we did get wet, both of us. It was a lumpy, bumpy, wet but very fast trip. At one point we were going 9.1 knots over ground and maintained between 7 and 8 knots all time, had a current with us that helped, boat did a steady 6.8 to 7 through the water which is above hull speed and it took us only 7 hours to sail the 56 miles to Aruba. A nasty stink from the oil refinery greeted us, not very pleasant, but at least the water was calm again as we were in the lee of the island. It stopped raining as well and when we pulled into Barcadera to check in with the authorities we found a space on the dock and didn’t have to tie up to a Venezuelan fishing boat, what a relief. The Venezuelan crew was very friendly and helped us to get on the dock. Checking in is very easy although I had to wait 45 minutes for the Immigration guy to come back (I was hoping for him to come back as I really didn’t want to spend the night on this dock because it was full with nasty flies and gnats. Why is it that Immigration employees have an attitude or most are never friendly? With serious face he wanted to know how long we wanted to stay, we knew that they give up to 6 months so I asked for the maximum. “No” was his answer, so I asked him how long the max stay was, he said 30 days. I looked at him and said, “No I don’t think so, it’s 90 days to 6 months!” He looked back at me and surprise had a huge grin on his face then said we could have 3 months. Customs was a lot easier. For anybody checking into anywhere from the Virgin Islands down to Trinidad to Aruba, they all are on the same system called eSea Clear http://www.eSeaClear.com you can check in online in advance and when you get to the destination clearing in just tell the officer you checked in online. They then print the paper work out and all you have left to do is sign the paper and you’re in, no more filling out paper work, as fast and easy as that.
The friendly Veni guys helped us off the dock and we handed them 7 beers for the crew as a thank you and headed 4 miles further north to the north anchorage of the airport where Fine Line anchored a day before us.
Approaching the anchorage the depth sounder did not work, something we knew was on the fritz, so doing a few donuts(that’s circles) and Sid hooking up our back up system we dropped the hook in 8 feet of water. I reversed the engine and Paradise started backing up slowly but then when I tried to set the hook there was no reverse or forward gear. Sid found the shaft came out of the coupler and was just at the edge and if it wasn’t for the zinc the shaft would have jumped all the way out and prop would have jammed up the rudder, could have been disastrous, yikes!!!! Transmission works just shaft wouldn’t work. Cruising after all is finding exotic places to work on your boat. Sid jumped in the water right away to assess the problem. Early the next morning he jumped in again and pulled the shaft a bit further out to look for the key which luckily didn’t fall out. He went back into the water to push shaft back in but that was not possible so he took the coupler off the transmission and of course the key fell out and disappeared into the bilge, oh did I tell you yet that “Murphy” still lives on our boat?!!! After a lot of funny words, Murphy wouldn’t even like Sid found the little runaway key and was able to fix the shaft. The engine is purring away and the gears are working, thank you Sid.
Had Limo driver (dinghy) Steve with Anne pick us up at noon and met with Roxanne on Bamboo in town for a wonderful lunch. Bamboo is at the Renaissance Marina which is surrounded by wonderful restaurants, expensive stores and casinos, very nice. While having lunch the rain pounded down for what seemed an hour. I’ve never seen a downpour like that.
The weather has just been horrible with nothing but rain. Venezuela and Colombia are having major flooding, in Colombia alone 1 ½ millions are homeless and many were killed in floods, the rain just won’t stop. It looks like we’re stuck here in Aruba for at least 2 weeks until the weather clears. Actually it’s fine with us as we have to order a new membrane for the water maker anyway. Isn’t boating fun???!!!!! Well it’s time for some rum, it’s been just another adventure. Bottoms up!!!
After 3 days of solid rain a bright disk appeared on the sky, we were told it was the sun, wow!!! With the sun out it was a perfect day to venture into town but not without an umbrella as there still were occasional squall passing by, some passing by and some passing right over us. The ground is so saturated that no matter were you go you have to dodge huge puddles and on our way to the Marina Office we were concentrating on where to step and where not to. At one point we had no choice but head across a soaked lawn and doing so we carefully stepped across in fear of slipping or stepping in deep puddles. I didn’t know that Aruba is a Hollywood fan, they have a walk of fame too, just like in Hollywood you know where you find the foot and hand prints of celebrities. Best part Sid and I are the first celebrities leaving our foot prints here in Aruba! I did a giant step out of the grassy area onto the side walk to avoid a huge deep puddle but instead I was stuck in ankle deep cement and by the time my brain realized what just happened I was in the middle of it. Sid had one foot in it but managed to back track. I felt horrible for the workers, for having ruined their job and kept apologizing but they felt bad and apologized back it was a lot of apologizing I tell you. While I was standing in the bucket of knee deep water washing the muck off they marked the danger zone with a yellow tape, hmmm it may have been their fault after all. We all had a good laugh especially a couple hours later when we returned I walked up to the guys asking if I could do it again and take photo (forgot in the first place that I had the camera with me, hey can you blame me I was star struck at that moment!). Aruba sure knows how to treat tourists not just did they give us the feel of fame status but the first night they welcomed us with an enormous fireworks display that after what several times we thought was a finale ended in a magnificent explosion of one of the best finales ever. Welcome to Aruba!
Bill on Bamboo was returning after a 3 week State visit and his wife Roxanne organized a welcoming party for him on their beautiful and huge catamaran. Since it’s been nothing but raining here for the last month we all awaited for him with snorkel and mask on, some even wore fins. It was a heck of a party and Roxanne went all out with a giant buffet with all homemade delicacies, it was a feast and Manuela had to prepare some rum punch twice which was potent enough to sedate a few of the party members. It was a fun party that started at 14:30 and we don’t remember anymore if it was 22:00 or 23:00 when we went to bed. We met new boaters and one particularly stood out, Sid just knew he’s met him before. Sure enough they knew each other some 20/30 years ago when Barry was a tow truck driver for the police impounded cars, small world. The two had so much to catch up and it was truly fun listening to them.
Aruba is an amazing shopper’s paradise the stores are huge and you can get pretty much anything from Europe to the States. Every single Isle I entered it was all over “Merry Christmas” again, oh that’s write almost forgot Christmas is just around the corner, silly me. I found Orville Redenbacher popcorn, frozen Limeade for Silver Fizzes, Clamata juice, Hooters wings sauce, real sharp cheddar, boiled peanuts……..
The weather has cleared no more rain other than an occasional squall and amazingly it went from humid and hot to pleasant and cool and at night you almost want to pull the blankets over your shoulders. Aruba has been a very fun stop with many wonderful meals in the many good restaurants. The best though was with Steve and Ann on Fine Line and Bill and Roxanne on Bamboo to the Brazilian Restaurant “Amazonia”. This restaurant is a must and you’ll leave not just pounds heavier and so full you want to roll home but with an experience that you will never forget. First they give you instructions on how the dinner works then you go to the huge salad buffet and you go ohmygosh if I try everything I will not have room for the main course and so you just pick out the very best: grilled asparagus, marinated Portobello mushroom and artichokes, colossal olives, sushi, the best ever sun dried tomatoes, delicate pumpkin soup, Brazilian black beans, roasted peppers and on and on. After you’re done with the appetizer, yeah right sounds like a full meal already, you turn that wood plug sitting on the table over from red to green and in less than a minute 6,7,8,9 or even more guys show up with huge swords filled with meats from chicken legs, wings, bacon wrapped breasts (chicken breasts that is), to filet of pork, leg of lamb, huge hunks of sirloins and rib eye, fillet mignon, sausages and grilled pineapple and each cuts a good junk off the sword onto your plate. The plate was filled with all these wonderful pieces of meat we did not know where to start. Wow what a feast and not just that during our affaire with all the yummy meats all the waiters and probably cooks were all in the main dining room area playing all kind of instruments from drums to who knows what and singing some Portuguese songs it was awesome. When we were done with the huge plate full of meet we were ready to pop but wanted to test the green and red plug and turned it again so that the green was showing and swoop the boys were back with more meat. We of course felt bad now that we had called them over for nothing and oh well just had to have a few more slivers of this or that, yeah write on feeling bad. Then some of us (the smallest ones) still had room for desert!!! We literally rolled out of the restaurant and to the bus stop. They should weigh you before you eat then again after and charge by the pound. What an incredible experience and we swore we would not eat for at least 3 days. Next day’s lunch some of us were spotted at Taco Bell!!!!
Then after a long 8 months we received an email from Wind Shear that they arrived in Bonaire and wanted to know where we were. Only 3 days later they dropped anchor next to us. It sure was great to see Rob, Debi and Captain Jack again and from here on we’re sharing our next adventure of sailing along the coast to Colombia, yeah, we’ll have fun.
Together with Fine Line we rented a car to do some serious provisioning and oh boy did we provision. We hit every store there is it seems twice. Anne and I had to go back to the kewl Christmas store next to Price Smart and both bought a cute 1 ½ foot plastic Christmas tree plus some ornaments. Mine is all nicely decorated and hanging upside down in the cockpit and looks just wonderful. After two long days of nothing but shopping we decided we deserved to go out for dinner and both Anne and Manuela wanted to visit the famous Charlie Bar. That was the day Wind Shear arrived so we squeezed 6 bodies into the car. Like a sardine can on wheels we drove south and found Charlie’s like we owned it. Truly it is a fun looking bar which takes you back many years in our youth when hanging around those fun bars with all kinds of junk and nick-nacks hanging from the ceiling. Each couple ordered the special of one pound peel and eat shrimp, which disappointedly was 5 shrimp on a plate = 1 lbs?? I don’t think so. We had a wonderful time but we all agreed it is a total tourist trap and a rip off and very expensive. We did meet a fun fellow though, he brought a chair over to us and sat on it cowboy stile lifted his cowboy hat and introduce himself as “Boa Bob”. We had no idea that Aruba has a huge Boa problem as in those long slinky huge snakes which can swallow humans. Yep that kind, he offered to cook up some Boa for us next week.
Our membrane we ordered for our water maker arrive the very next day, amazing fast, but then Customs kept it for 5 days before releasing it to us. Wind Shear had to order a new tuner for their SSB which they did while still in Bonaire but had it shipped to Aruba and this one arrived one day after we finally had our membrane out of the Custom custody.
We all were on a countdown to leave Aruba for Colombia and all agreed that the weather looked perfect for Friday. Two nights before that Friday we woke up to a swell heading into the anchorage rolling us now and then sideways. By 7 in the morning the roll was getting uncomfortable as the swell grew bigger and bigger and when some started to curl and break about a boat length behind us we re-anchored a bit further out. 30 minutes later huge 6 foot swell came rolling into the anchorage and within minutes you saw one boat after another pull anchor and leave for the south anchorage which is very protected behind the reef and mangroves (normally you can not anchor but in bad weather it is ok. Even all the tourist boats came in). I think we were one of the fastest out of there. Later on that day we took the dinghy into town and had to cross this anchorage again and couldn’t believe the size of the swells and the pipelines outside the reef, a surfer would have died to be here for that. As we went into reverse to set the hook a loud knocking was echoing through the hull, not good. We did have reverse but the sound, Sid found out that the shaft came out again by a 1/4 inch. Again the shaft zinc saved the shaft but was rubbing on the strut in reverse Sid went back to work this time it is fixed (hope hope).
Our view of the airport was really kewl now as we were halfway along the run way and really got an incredible view of takeoff and landings, awesome!!!
The heavy west swell lasted for two days and was still unsettled on Thursday night. That morning when we heard the weather report Wind Shear and Paradise backed out on leaving on Friday, there is no way we would go out in 20/25 knots of wind with 7 to 9 foot seas on the beam with a 7sec interval, and so we postponed our departure for Sunday.
PS: also from an email, love it:
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Landing of a KLM in Bonaire, note where the road is:
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