Off to Curacao

Our second to last day in Bonaire we rented a golf cart and joined Mojombo family on a self guided tour of the island. We saw the wind farm at the North end of island where the island gets about 30% of its electricity. There is also a huge oil transfer facility up here where Venezualan oil is reshipped to larger ships as there is no deep water ports in Venezuela. Then the last day we went for a snorkel again with the Mojombo's for the morning over at the island of Kline Bonaire with our dinghies. The South end of this island probably has the best snorkeling we have seen on Bonaire. Then in the afternoon we cleared out with customs and immigration for Curacao, and got the boat ready for a short ocean passage.

We left just after 5:30am next morning to do the 35 miles to Curacao, the C in the ABC islands. We had a slower passage than we thought it would be as the winds did not fill in as strong as predicted. But we still arrived a bit before 2pm with a couple of hours of motoring at each end of he passage. Four squalls went by us but only one grazed us with a few minutes of rain and a bit more wind.

As we came around the bottom end of Curacao the swells eased and we had a smooth motor up to the entrance to Spanish Waters where we planned to anchor. The channel is narrow but easy to navigate.mainly just staying in the center and the chart plotter seemed bang on. The place is full of yachts and most seemed to be Dutch. We found a spot to anchor in A anchorage area though we suspect we are a bit out of bounds along with a couple of other yachts. As soon as our anchor was down a big rain squall came through with about 20 knots of wind to test our holding. The holding was good.

Curacao is a bigger island with over a 100,000 people on it and is much busier than Bonaire. After a day here we were sort of missing the quiet life at Bonaire. But it is okay here and more to do as well, though to takes more work to do it. The day we arrived we took the bus into Willemstad to clear with customs and immigration. The town is pretty with lots of colorful buildings and interesting shops. We did not get back to the boat until after dark as it is a bit slow dealing with the two offices and the buses only run every hour.

The last 3 days since we've been here have been cooler than Bonaire and we have had a lot more rain. Today it rained off and on all day and a lot of rain last night. We also found a nice place for walking, away from the traffic. If you go left instead of right when coming out of the fishermen's dock, you can have a nice walk down to the point where there is a old fort. You also go by a a good beach on the way. It is an interesting walk through the fort and no fees for a change. We found out later that Bonaire also had a huge amount of rain the same time we were getting it here.

INFO

-We anchored at 12 04.82N 68 51.78W in 18 feet of water.

-We noticed that the Free Cruising Guide to the ABC's (downloaded off Internet) has the C and D anchorages reversed from what the port captain map shows.

-The Spanish Waters anchorage was pretty full when we arrived Oct 30. But still holes here and there. Anchorage C (or D in cruising guide) had more room with only 2 boats in it, but still not a unreasonable dinghy ride in.

-It took us a couple of days here to get orientated as there is little info for cruiser's out there ad the free guide is limited though it does help.

-To go to customs and immigration. From the dinghy dock at fishermans dock (waypoint 12 04.76N 68 51.96W) Do a 3 or 4 minute walk up to a small traffic circle to the bus stop (bushalte sign). The bus, like everywhere here , takes US dollars or Guilders. Take the bus right into Willemstad Punta area and stay on bus to the end of it's run which is the bus terminal. This is also where you catch the bus back. Bus is 6A or Caracus Baai bus and this is bus you take there and back. The Free cruising guide shows where the two offices are, and port captain is right beside immigration. Note, the customs building has no sign on the door saying what it is, just go in. It is the last building along the waterway before you hit the other channel. The building does say custom at very top of building in huge letters, but we did not see that until we were on the other side of channel walking to immigration. It is about a 20 minute walk from customs to immigration ( no whining it's not quite your mder or minimum daily exercise requirement).

Note the 6A bus between Spanish Waters and Willemstad only goes every hour to hour and a half depending on time of day. Fare is about $1.00US and can get a schedule at booth at bus terminal. The only fees we had to pay was a one time $10 anchoring fee to port captain.

-There is a free shuttle bus every day except Sunday to a large grocery store about a 15 minute ride away. It leaves from the fisherman's dinghy dock at 10am every morning. The Budget marine and Island marine stores are only a few minutes walk away from this grocery store. You get one hour to shop before bus heads back. This grocery store is very good with best selection of goods anywhere we have seen.

-There is a currently a cruisers net on VHF72 at 7:45am every day except Sunday.

-There is a waterboat that will deliver water to your boat every Wednesday , but call him up on Monday or Tues on 72.