To Klein Curacao

I had decided it was time to move on, so on Thursday (12th) I was going to leave for Bonaire. Since that was expected to be a tough sail I would do that in two stages: making a stop in Klein Curacao. In the morning I did some last shopping, and after lunch went on preparing the boat. With help from Jim (Psyco Sailor) and Mike (Windshadow IV) we picked up both anchors. By the time that was all done it was about 3 o’clock. But, it is less than 15 miles to Klein Curaçao, thought I would still be able to make it to Klein Curaçao before dark.

Left with a reef in the main, the wind had been between 20 and 25 knots, even in the anchorage. When I was on my way through the narrow entrance of the Spaanse Water I noticed that Mike’s crocks were still in my cockpit. Well, decided to turned around and bring them back. By the time I was out of the Spaanse Water it was almost 4 o’clock. Time was going to be tight to make it before dark.

Coming outside the waves were not too big (in a way I was still behind the lee of the island, but around here that doesn’t always make a difference). But there was a lot of current, even when motoring the speed quickly dropped to about 2 knots. Once the sails were up the speed was not improving much. And I was actually not really getting further south, mostly just being pushed away from the island more. But, it is only a short trip, so we’ll just keep going. Kept heading south, and after a few hours I was about at the latitude of Klein Curacao. But I knew that I would not be able to make it if I changed tack right there, the current would push me back. So, I kept going south, still doing a meager 2 knots at best (well, the speed log [which measure speed through the water] was telling me 4-5 knots, but the speed over ground was no better than 2). Did this for another 3.5 hours. By than it was already past midnight, and I had not installed the windvane since I had planned on staying behind the wheel for the duration of the short trip. When I went on what was supposed to be the eastbound tack, I was really up for a suprise: I was going back the exact same path I had come down! The only difference being that now I was going quite something faster (over 4 knots). So, after about 2 hours on that tack I had come to a point where I had been more than 5 hours ago. This was not encouraging.

Time for a different tac(k)tic. Now I kept on tacking just on the south side of Curaçao, not making a lot of progress, but at least a little bit of progress. Did this for a few more hours until I decided that this really wasn’t getting me anywhere, and started the motor. With the motor (and still sailing) I was able to get a little better speed, which meant that I was not being pushed aside as much by the current. About 7 in the morning I was just of the north side of Klein Curaçao. This is where the currents and waves the went around the north and the west of the island were meeting again (at least, that is what my explanation is): completely confused seas, steep waves coming from 2 directions, something you can see around the points of the wadden islands at home when the tides run in/out. But, not something I would expect where the water is about a 1000 meters deep. But, with the engine and the sails I was able to bump my way through it, and by 8:30 I made it to the lee of the island. There was even a little less wind, no waves, but a fairly big swell that came around the island.

So, I had managed to do 13 miles (which according to my distance log was 50 miles through the water!) in more than 15 hours, that is crazy. But, at least I made it, now I was up for the next challenge: mooring to a buoy. Because of the reefs and the poor holding ground, you are not allowed to anchor at Klein Curaçao, instead there are a number of mooring balls where you are supposed to hook up to. Picking up a mooring ball is not an easy task when you are by yourself. You manouvre the boat as close to the ball as you can, than rush from the wheel to the foredeck and attempt to pick up the line (tether) with your boat hook. To make things worse, the tether lines on most of these mooring balls were not afloat, but hanging down in the water. Then some of the mooring balls are reserved by some chart boats (they have a name on them). Other factors adding to the challenge here were the wind, and a swell coming from across. My first attempt was actually pretty good: managed to get the boat hook through the eye of the tether, but then the wind started to blow the boat away from the mooring. I attempted to hold the boat with boat hook, but that was a lost battle. But, I was not able to unhook the boat hook in time, so I had to let go of the boat hook. Now, what to do….? I have only one boat hook (used to have two, but on the way from Jamaica Neptune had claimed the other one) and there is no way of picking up a mooring without the hook. Luckily (?) the boat hook came loose of the tether, so now I just needed to pick it out of the water. So for the next 20 minutes I was chasing behind a boat hook, a lot harder than you would think.

Had a few more attempts to pick up a mooring, being tired and frustrated, I really never seemed to get anywhere. At least once the boat got blown over one of the mooring buoys (iron buoys overgrown with barnacles). Then I managed to get hold of a tether one more time, but again the hook got stuck and the boat got blown away before I was able to connect to the tether. This time the hook never came loose and it was time for a change of plan. Decided to drop an anchor (what other options are there?) and once this held a little bit I paid out a lot of chain. Then the boat was pretty close to the mooring, jumped in the water to pick up my boat hook, and later attached a long anchoring line to the mooring. Took a little breather after that and then continued by picking up my anchor so I would be on the mooring only. Was neatly moored before noon.

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One Response to To Klein Curacao

  1. Mark Cole says:

    That’s a good sea story! You had me sitting on the edge of my seat.

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