Weeks 36 to 37
Tuesday 25 March to Tuesday 8 April
Headed off from Bonaire on 26 March, having waited 5 days for a repair to the wind vane to be carried out. Christine did not feel ill on this crossing (thank goodness). After sailing all day we anchored in Spaanse Water in Curacao about 5.00 pm. We stayed 2 nights in Curacao and whilst there caught a minibus to Willemstad where we had to clear customs – the minibus is one you just flag down on the side of the road and we ended up having a tour of the island whilst it dropped off the other passengers. Willemstad, the capital of Curacao, is very pretty and similar to Bergen in Norway with its brightly coloured buildings. Whilst at the customs office we met another English sailor called David from a boat called Savanah who kindly invited us on board for tea and biscuits. He once spent five years traveling the world on a motorbike! We then headed off for the “Old Market” where the locals serve fresh local food and we had a wonderful meal of meatballs with rice and beans. Next we went to find the distillery where they make the Blue Curacao liquor used in many cocktails but unfortunately as we arrived the place closed for the day … having walked for 2 hours!! The beaches in Curacao are supposed to have the second best snorkeling in the world but unfortunately the only beach near our anchorage did not have any coral or fish but did have beautiful crystal clear water for swimming!!
From Curacao we had an early start to get to Aruba in daylight. We saw lots of huge flying fish on the way. Apparently they swim at 44 mph before taking off. The first sight of Aruba was a huge power station in a thick black fog of smoke, not quite what we had expected to see. We could also see the coast of Venezuela in the distance. We arrived in Oranjestad about 6.30 pm and had to wait for the immigration officers to visit the boat before we could go ashore. They arrived at 9.30 am the next morning, so no night on the town for us!! Oranjestad is on the cruise ship circuit and we were dwarfed by 3 enormous ships in the port. Once we had cleared immigration we moved out of the port to the marina and then set off to explore. Sadly, due to it being Sunday, everything in town was closed. In the evening we found a great duet to listen to in a plaza behind the Renaissance hotel.
We managed to get ourselves talked into going to a Marriott Hotel “owner vacation” presentation! We headed off on the local bus to be met at the Marriott by very friendly staff and fresh coffee and donuts. Having been shown around the hotel, told how much it would cost us if we wanted to invest in an apartment and promising to “think about it” we were given a beach towel, aftersun lotion and $100 to spend in local restaurants! Not bad for an hours work!! Afterwards headed off up the wonderful white sandy coves to the wreck of a WWII warship called the Antilla. Darryl snorkeled out to it, but it was too far for Christine. In the evening we went to the Renaissance Hotel in Oranjestad armed with our $100 vouchers and ate at the Aquarius seafood buffet and wow what a feast! We had a wonderful Aruban waitress called Ursula who just kept encouraging us to eat more and more. We had about six courses including sushi, beef, lamb and the most amazing seafood, cooked to order. We had lobster tails, king crab legs, king prawns, scallops, tuna, grouper, mahi mahi and then dessert followed by cheese and biscuits, all washed down with a lovely bottle of pink wine! What a great evening on the Marriott!! After dinner we went for a nice long walk (which was needed after the amount we had eaten) to an outdoor cinema. What a great feeling, lying under the stars on a sunbed watching a movie. This really is the life!!
On 1 April we set sail for Columbia. We were sad to be leaving Aruba so soon as we really liked it there. Christine was ok for the first half of the trip but started to feel ill the next morning. During the night a little bird landed on the roof of the boat and hitched a ride for quite a while. A pod of dolphins, which looked like a mum, dad and baby swam along with the boat. We arrived at an anchorage called Cabo de la Vela about lunchtime and decided to stop for the night to break up the journey. There was already a South African boat, Odyssey, anchored with a lovely family on board. We ended up being there for 3 nights as the winds got up to 31 knots! One day lots of army people arrived and appeared to be watching the boats which was a little worrying. However, when we went ashore we discovered there was an army base and they were on exercise. Not much else around, just lots of goats and shedded snake skins! Whilst we were anchored saw lots of local fishermen and gave them some beer, biscuits and Steve gave them a t-shirt. Jeremy gave them his little boy’s old bike which he had outgrown.
4th and 6th April, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO COLIN AND SARAH
Set sail along with Odyssey on 6 April and headed for the “5 Bays”, another over night crossing. Sadly Christine was pretty ill for the whole trip and spent most of it in bed. Just as the sun was going down another pod of dolphins came to play. These were much bigger than the ones we had seen previously and were probably spinner dolphins judging by the leaping and turning display they gave us which was just amazing to watch. The winds got up pretty high during the night and poor Darryl got drenched twice going on deck to reef down the sails.
The next morning the coast of Columbia was in sight. It looked very pretty with high tree lined hills and in the distance snow topped mountains (maybe?!) This area is compared to the Norwegian fjords for the scenery. We anchored in Bahia Guayacia about 10.00 am, closely followed by Odyssey. Just as we slowed down to come into the bay Di wound in Steve’s fishing line and we had caught our first fish of the trip. A lovely big mackerel which we had for dinner that evening. Jeremy had caught 3 fish! We think we might need to get some tips from him!! We went ashore with Jeremy and his children, Kila and Max. Met a local chap called Reinaldo who offered to take us on a tour of the Indian graves in and around the area which we agreed to do the next day. Reinaldo does not speak any English but luckily Jeremy is quite good at Spanish and Christine managed to help out with some words she remembered from her school days. This bay is where Columbian people come for weekends so nothing is open during the week but Jeremy managed to persuade a local family who run a little restaurant to open for us on Wednesday evening. The bay only has about 10 houses and 3 restaurants and lots of fishermen. Next day we went snorkeling but had to wear our wetsuits as there are lots of jelly fish. Saw a sea snake looking pretty mean and lots of lovely coral and reef fish. Met Reinaldo for our guided tour and he showed us the graves which had been dug up for the valuables which were buried there. We saw the remains of lots of ancient pots, some human bones and a tooth!!
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