Bonaire to Curacao

Monday 15th September

EDWARDS 25TH BIRTHDAY

We called Edi at school early this morning, to wish him a happy birthday. Then we spent the rest of the morning getting the boat ready for sail.
We weighed anchor at 11am, a little later than we had hoped to leave, but we should still arrive in Curacao well before nightfall. We had good wind 18 - 25 knots, and the sail down the side of Bonaire was lovely, calm seas and good wind, but once we cleared the island the seas became quite rough and choppy, we continued our sail at a steady 8 knots.

As we approached Curacao the waves became larger and the wind stronger, it was quite a rough sail for about 30 minutes until we had cleared around the island.

Curacao is the largest of the Netherlands Antilles islands; off the coast of Venezuela. We started our approach through the entrance to Spanish Waters, with no buoys to guide us in we approached with caution. We dropped anchor in one of the bays with lots of other sailboats.

Curacao is not what I expected. I had been unsure of visiting this island, having heard so many tales of the high crime rate, drugs and general lack of security. Curacao was after all a center for pirates, in the eighteenth century, as far as I had heard, not much had changed, However, upon approach I was amazed by the expensive villas and houses lining the entrance and surrounding the harbors.

The Curacao yacht club looked very swish and expensive, although it’s only available to members. The craggy cliff face’s that towered either side of the harbor had an almost prehistoric appearance. Other than the cliffs, the land was very flat. The abundance of cactus tells me this again is a very dry island.

So far the island looks beautiful, further exploration will reveal the truth I’m sure. I’m quite excited, albeit with a little trepidation about exploring this island.
I made a curry for dinner and we watched another movie.