In Curacao

Yes, finally, I have made it to Curacao.  They had warned me about the crossing, and, I must admit, it was a tough one. 

Cleared customs at Barcadera at 9 in the morning.  All went smooth, and no problems at the dock (was able to find a spot at the small boats dock, plus the wind was a lot less).  Earlier in the morning I had furled my working jib back on (had not been able to do that since it is better with less wind).  After clearing all paper work (customs and immigration) I put a reef in the main, and then left.  Attempted to motor sail inside the reef, that was not working out.  I had to tack anyway (mostly you attempt to motor sail to avoid tacking) and touch bottom a few times while going out (I had been at that reef entrance when I gone there with the charter sail, but I had not memorized the route exactly enough, and it is a very narrow entrance).  Anyway, I got out and started sailing as close to the island as possible.  But, with that wind, I was going pretty much straight south.  When I was more than halfway to the Venezuelan mainland I tacked, to go underneath the south point of Aruba.  I should have been clear by miles, but the current was pushing me so far north that I was a lot closer to the island than I planned to.  That is also where the wind disapeared (that is about the last thing I expected, too little wind) and I had to take the reef out.  The seas were confused there, rollers and waves from 2 different direction, and with little wind I was making headway slowly.  Around 3 in the afternoon I had finally cleared the island.

About an hour later I noticed a fast rubberboat passing, I was curious what they were doing and got my binoculars out.  Don’t know if that was a sign for them, but the changed their course to come straight towards me.  When they came closer I could tell it was the coast guard.  So I picked up my VHF radio, assuming they would call me up, but no, their helmsman signalled they were coming, and next they I know they were right next to me (in the high/windward side), and two guardsmen jumped across.  The coast guards had a look at my paperwork, had a quick look around the boat, noted down some information from the customs papers and asked a few questions.  They were probably aboard for about 15 minutes, asked about the other sailboat (I had just been passed by a large sailboat, they were going at least 2 knots faster than me).  They jumped back to their boat (must say, their helmsman was pretty good, our boats never touched) and that was it.

I was going pretty much straight against the current, not going any faster than 3 knots.  There were short waves but it wasn’t real rough (rough enough though to skip cooking, and just make some sandwiches instead).  Overnight it was pretty busy.  I wasn’t really setting my alarm at fixed times, but would look at when the next freighter would come close and set my alarm accordingly.  There were no real close passings, but plenty of traffic to keep an eye on.  Nice sky, especially after moonset, plenty of stars were visible (including the southern cross), but I was to sleepy to get on the computer and learn more about the stars.

Next morning at daylight I had the feeling that I had gone far enough south to change tack.  This would make me aim for Curacao, at that point I was sailing parallel to the island.  For a while that turned out to be a pretty good tack, the boat was making better speed, but the current was still putting me pretty far north.  When I got closer to the island the wind started to increase, to the point that it was time to put a reef in.  I got as close to the island as I felt comfortable with, tacked, and on the new tack (parallel to the island again) I put a reef in the main.  The wind was strong and gusty, over 25 knots with a few gusts over 30 knots.  For a while I was able to stay close to the island, but then a current picked me up again and started to push me away from the island.  I was very surprised that the wind was so strong there, I was counting on the island giving me a little cover.  Not sure if the stronger wind was there because of the nearby landmass, or if it was just a coincidence that the winds were getting stronger just when I was close to the island.  After being set way from the island quite a bit, made another tack back to the island.  Looking at the tracks, I was not getting much closer to Willemstad at all. 

In Reed’s almanac, I had read that at 1800 the harbor of Willemstad will no longer open the bridge for recreational traffic.  And, clearing customs was supposed to be done in Willemstad.  When I was about three hours motoring away from Willemstad, I decided I was going to try to motor in, in stead of having to stay out there for the whole night.  Three hours of motoring into the wind and seas is not very pleasant, but you have to get there somehow.  Right when I got to the entrance of the harbor I was passed by a tug boat, creating a big wake, added to the waves coming in, it made for some interesting seas.  There were about 3 big boats coming in around me, all going through the bridge at the same time.  I had been listening to VHF channel 16, but never heard a thing.  Called up Fort Nassau (local traffic control) but no reply.  Then I got on channel 12, and they did reply.  Told them I wanted to clear customs, they asked me where I was, so I tell them.  Then they tell me to go to the Spaanse Water.  That is another 5 miles south.  By that time they had closed the floating bridge, so I had to get back on the radio to ask for a bridge opening.  Then another 1 1/2 hours to go to Spaanse Water.  I wasn’t quite sure if I could expect a customs office there, but did not sea anything like that.  So I called Fort Nassau again, and they told me I could just anchor there and do customs and immigration the next day in Willemstad.

Found a spot all the way at the west end of the anchorage, one of the closest spots to the dinghy dock.  Once that was done I made a quick and lazy meal (Tortellini, one of my old time favorite things to cook with little effort) and went to bed.  This morning I slept in till 8:30 and then slowly got going on organizing the boat: checked my anchor, ran out a second anchor, than refolded the sails (folding the sails on a rocky sea with nobody behind the wheel is normally a messy thing) and put the sail covers on.  Have two minor sail repairs to be done, and unfortunately the `repaired’ deck drain did leak a little bit (very little, but….). 

Once that was all organized I took the kayak to shore (down wind, so without any effort).  Asked for directions and then got on a bust to Punda (part of Willemstad).  There I went to customs, did some paperwork, then had to go to immigration (in Otrabanda, across the water) and then to harbor security.  After all paper work was finished I walked around in Ortrabanda and noticed there were plenty barber shops.  So I decided to have a haircut, hair dresser was from the Dominican Republic, but some of his co-workers talked Dutch.  Even had a shave…., this must be the best I have looked in a long time….

After that I walked around a little more in Otrabanda and found an internet cafe, where I sat for the last 50 minutes to type the story above.

From my first observations Curacao is a little more a normal (meaning less touristic) place than Aruba.  I like it.  Now I hope there are still buses going back to the Spaanse Water (that is about 8km from Willemstad). 

Plan is to stay here a week or so, have to keep an eye on wind forecasts and find a good opportunity to hop over to Bonaire (Kralendijk).   Which is of course also to wind ward, but not as far as the Aruba to Curacao crossing.