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| Fort Beekenburg |
Before I begin telling you our news, we would
like to say ‘Thank you’ to everyone who contacted us, checking to see if we
were okay with Hurricane Melissa, bearing down on the Caribbean. Luckily,
Curacao is in the south Caribbean Sea and technically NOT in the hurricane belt
but, one never knows. One of the first things we do, in the morning, when we
are living on the boat, while the kettle is boiling, we check the weather. Our
life on the boat is so dependent on the weather. THANK YOU to you all. Much appreciated.
Now let’s begin………
I know we often say this, but it is amazing how
fast time goes. I can’t believe we are back in Curacao preparing Passages for
our next sailing phase.
We had a great time back home in Perth. I know
for Mel, Passages is never far from his thoughts as he is always researching
something for her. As for me, she’s far away and the last thing I think about
as I am busy enjoying seeing all my lovely friends and family, spending time in
my sewing room and garden.
But here we are back in a very hot and humid
Curacao after taking three flights to get here. I am thankful we stopped
overnight in Miami after our 16-hour flight from Doha to Miami. We had arranged
for Passages to be moved from the storage yard to the boat yard, so work on the
various projects could start. In the meantime, we had organised to stay in some
lovely accommodation, with air con and a swimming pool.
I spent the first week, enjoying myself in the
Ritz Village, while Mel spent time working on Passages. The stern of the boat
had to be repainted as the paint work and signage had been damaged when the
wind vane was installed a few years back (2023). The woodwork in the cockpit
and the caprails have 
The Ritz Village - pool area.
been revarnished, and Mel had organised the boatyard to
polish the boat. Passages looks so bright and shiny. Mel has also been checking
all the thru-hull valves to ensure that they don’t fail when in the water. He
has changed a few black water valves as they were clogged up (calcium
build-up). It is amazing how over a period the salt deposits accumulate and
close the flow of the pipes and valves. In between, Mel has worked on the dynaplate
– this is the main earthing point for the electrics and for the SSB Radio.
As always, we had planned for Passages to be put
back into the water last week but as always, our time frame very seldom works
out, so we had to find some alternative accommodation. We couldn’t stay in the
Ritz Village as they were fully booked. The Ritz Village was only 1.5 kms from
the boatyard and it was easy for Mel to pop back and forth to our
accommodation. We managed to find another self-contained accommodation a little
further from the boatyard BUT closer to Budget Marine. There are always pluses
and minus in everything. Our current accommodation is also closer to the beach
although we noticed that many of the beaches are closed off and are part of
multi-national hotel chains where you must pay for the use of the beach and
sunbed.
We hired a car for the time we are here in
Curacao, and it makes such a difference for exploring. On Friday we travelled
down to the SE of the island to see the main anchoring area in Curacao, Spanish
Waters. Many people anchor there when they first arrive in Curacao, but it is a
very long way out of town, with immigration and Customs being in the city
(Willemstad). There is public transport into town although the wait can be
excruciatingly long. We noticed that a few boats seem to have spent the entire
hurricane season in Spanish Waters.
Close to Spanish Waters is Fort Beekenburg which
is located at Caracas Bay. This Fort was built in
1703 on the orders of the
Governor at the time, Governor Van Beek to protect the entrance of Spanish
waters, as it was one of the few places where ‘enemies’ could make landfall to
capture the capital of Curacao, Willemstad.
The vegetation of Curacao is very interesting as
it is extremely dry, so the island is covered with large
Fort Beekenburg.
and very spikey cacti.
It is amazing to see how parrots/bird life have adapted to the conditions and
build their homes on the spikey cacti, while enjoying the juices from the
cacti.
We spent some time enjoying a few of the beaches.
After visiting Fort Beekenburg, we had a refreshing drink and swim at
Caracasbaai, where many of the locals were enjoying their weekend. There were
places to BBQ and beach pavilions.
We had a look at one of the popular beaches, Jan
Thiel, but as mentioned earlier, it is surrounded by hotels and was quite
crowded with holiday makers lounging away on the MANY sun beds.
Mambo Beach.
We spent some time on Mambo Beach, literally just
down the road from our accommodation. We hired sunbeds (US$8 each) and enjoyed
the lovely water. A sea wall has been built to create a HUGE sea pool otherwise
it would be rather difficult to enjoy the beach. This is what has happened in
many of the beaches in Curaçao so people can enjoy swimming in the sea with
relative safety and comfort. The temperature of the water is what I would
consider to be just perfect, although I know, Mel would prefer it to be a
little cooler.
In between Mel working on the boat, I have
enjoyed staying in our accommodation.
It is now Saturday 1 November and Passages is now
in the water, and we have moved back on board. I am always amazed at how much
stuff we put away when Passages is in storage. She has so many covers as the
sun can be brutal. In fact, as I am typing this, Mel is working on the
connections to our shore power. When we packed up at the end of the last
sailing season, we noticed that our shore plug and extension was not looking
very good and seemed to have melted. Mel has just checked all the connections
and circuit breakers and replaced some bad wiring lugs.
When we are in a marina, we usually use the power
on the dock instead of our batteries, so we have this very long and rather
heavy power cord that connects to the electrical socket in the back of the
cockpit. It’s times like this when we can use our air con, and boy am I happy
with that, as is so hot and quite difficult to sleep.
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| Passages in the boat yard. |
So, our plans are as follows: for the next week, we hope to have some adjustments made to our arch so our newish and smaller dingy can fit better when we haul her up at night when at anchor. There is quite a bit of cleaning and polishing to do and the provisioning never seems to end. Although I am not too phased by this as in Colombia, where we should be in about 3 weeks’ time (apparently from chatting to Linda, in another Island Packet, two pens down from us), there are plenty of grocery shops. I will be busy updating the groceries inventory and finish sewing the courtesy flags for Aruba, Colombia and Panama.
So, until next time…..
Take care, keep well and stay safe.
Best wishes, always
Mel and Caryn
Fort Beekenburg.
