Dutch Antilles, Curacao – Nov/Dec 2006
We left Trinidad on 18th November, it was hard to get away! After 7 months sitting in an anchorage and now with a new baby, it took a lot of organisation to get everything seaworthy and safe again. In fact the final tidying was done after we checked out with Customs and Immigration, we went to Scotland Bay on the way out of Trinidad, to do final packing away for the 4-day, 478 nm voyage to Curaçao.
We decided not to visit the Venezuelan islands as we had no interest in pirates, although many friends had been that way with a mixture of stories.
We headed NNW from Trinidad so as to go north of the Venezuelan islands and Bonaire, and that way when we turned west we were a long way from the Venezuelan coast and in deep water, in good trade winds and reasonable seas, and further offshore than most of the tankers.
We had good wind and current once away from the coast, and beat our record so far, achieving 164 nm in 24 hours!
This was Lisa’s first voyage at sea, and she settled in very well. She couldn’t get the hang of going to sleep whilst rolling around to start with, but before long she was fine, supported by extra pillows to reduce the wobble. In the day she was fine in her baby hammock outside as long as it was positioned opposite the boat motion so she didn’t swing wildly, and she was fine in her chair indoors or out. She didn’t appear to get seasick, although it seems very young children are not affected like older ones.
The wind increased the further west we got, and by the time we arrived at Curaçao we were using a triple-reefed main and reduced genoa, and wondering if we would reef again if we had had a fourth set of reefing points!
The entrance to Spanish Water is obscure, looking like the exit of a stream, but our C-Map software charts confirmed where we were, and other boats were using the narrow channel. Once inside, the channel opens up into a lagoon with various arms and anchoring possibilities, along with various marinas. It is the seventh-largest natural harbour in the world apparently! And as a bonus it is always windy, so we get lots of power from our wind generator as well as our solar panels. The wind keeps the boat cooler as it doesn’t allow our grey deck to get so hot. And the flat water in the lagoon looks for very inviting windsurfing. There are a couple of good beaches a dinghy ride away.
Spanish Water is a bus ride away from Willemstad, the capital of Curaçao, where we had to sign in the next day. The formalities are numerous but easy and everyone is friendly. Whilst in Willemstad we passed the floating fruit market, and bought our best passionfruits yet. These fruits are brought on boats from Venezuela, the vendors are friendly and the fruit is good and cheap. We will go back for a full day to explore the town more. Large cruise ships moor in Willemstad so unfortunately the place is full of holidaying Americans and it is really touristy along the seafront, but I’m sure it isn’t all like that.
We have met up with some old friends here, they are Dutch and we first met them in Gibraltar over a year ago. Now they too have a baby and they stopped in Curaçao to work during the hurricane season (the Dutch can work here freely). They are going the same way as us.
Lisa had a bad reaction after her first sail. She was fine on the journey, but her little digestive system didn´t let anything out during the sail and once we were here a day or so she started to get restless and uncomfortable. It took a couple of days before everything worked itself out of her system and she got back to normal.
There is a free bus to a supermarket which runs from Sarifundy’s marina every day. The service is functional, but not helpful as Jesse’s maxi-taxi service in Trinidad was. The supermarket is really good, although many goods are marked in Dutch only, and you have to watch the prices – some goods are cheap and some expensive.
Internet is available but not from the boat.
After a week our friends Tony and Linda arrived, they had stayed a little longer in Trinidad. We stayed on a little longer for this reason, and we decided to hire a car for three days as a treat. Curaçao is safe and small enough to explore easily. With the car we visited an ostrich farm, and the Hato Caves full of stalagmites and stalactites. The caves were good, but not as good as St Michaels Caves in Gibraltar, which were the last ones we saw.
We found a delightful beach at the westernmost point of the island, and near town we found a truly excellent Chinese restaurant, Ho Wah’s.
In town there is a great selection of shops, many of them designed to cater for cruise ship passengers, some have inflated prices but in some you can find just the item you are looking for, and at the right price.
Curaçao is part of the Netherlands Antilles, it belongs to Holland although not to the EU. The currency is the Netherlands Antilles Guilder, at an exchange rate of about 3.5 to the British Pound, and fixed at 1.78 to the US dollar. You can withdraw USD at many ATM’s with no penalty. Many shops will take US dollars but often at not quite such a good rate.
Dutch is spoken throughout, but Papiemento is the local language. This is a language made out of several European and African languages by the slaves in order to not be understood by their masters. I wish I had come away with a newspaper in order to get a better look at it.
Although the general population of Curaçao is better off than that of Trinidad, the medical facilities are still old-fashioned for the majority. Europeans go private to get care similar to what they take for granted in Europe. It was interesting to chat with Astrid, our Dutch friend, about her experience having their baby in Curaçao.
Soon it was time to move on, so after two weeks we left for Cartagena, Colombia.