Weatherly Sailing Adventures
Bonaire is the first island I arrived at in the Netherlands Antilles. The local language is Papiamento, a mixture of Dutch, Spanish and English), but English was widely spoken here. It felt much safer and more civilised than in Venezuela, mainly for the security issues mentioned about Margarita. It was also easy to withdraw cash, even American dollars, from any ATM machine, and checking into and out of the country was free. I even caught up with friends from yacht 'Kesmet' who I met in Margarita, and had some lunch and drinks with them. We went for a BBQ dinner one night at a beach resort and danced to a steel drum band playing calypso music.
It was a time to relax again for a few days. The water was very clear and deep at the moorings off the town of Kralendjik. I bought some much needed food and groceries from a supermarket, and pushed on for Curacao.
Curacao seemed much more Dutch than in Bonaire. The people are are mix of fair skinned, blond haired Dutch people and also brown skinned Africans, similar to those I saw in the Eastern Caribbean. I saw an eye opening museum in Kralendjik town, about the brutal slave trade by the early Dutch and Spanish. They shipped slaves from Guana and western Africa across the Atlantic to the Caribbean for the sugar industry and into America for personal slaves. The slaving industry was even approved by pope Pius, who gave an Asiento (permission) for Spain to continue the transportation of slaves. That's how there are many African descendants today in the Caribbean and America, though slavery was stopped centuries ago.
The town of Willemstad is very Dutch in architecture. Roofs are stepped and curly, with high, shuttered windows. Even the bridges across small canals look exactly like the ones in Amsterdam, with heavy, overhead cantilever systems to open the bridges.
I liked the place, and it was very clean and safe to walk around. Spanish Water was a long way from the town, and it seemed like I was spending much of my time in bus stops waiting for busses or trying to get to out of the way places on busses searching for spare parts. I heard the Cartagena, in Colombia was better, so I postponed many jobs till then after finding difficulties getting tings done here.
Unfortunately a hole developed in the membrane of my injector pump governor, and I spent a lot of time phoning and looking around shops for a replacement part, to no avail. Finally, I just stiched a piece of nylon over the hole and the motor runs normally again, and should run ok till I get to Cartegena where i should be able to locate a spare.
I met some New Zealanders from way back in Gibraltar and they invited me for dinner - it was nice to have their company and hospitality as I was feeling disheartened about my boat problems, my inability to get things fixed there, and crushed that Tes was not with me.
Finally, I choose a break in the weather, and motored out of the natural habour of Spanish Water through a narrow, tree lined channel and out into blue water. Then cruised around the north-western end of Curacao, which has fine white sandy beaches. I found a small village with just a little restaurant open where I changed my guildas for euros. I talked with the elderly owner, who had a model Dutch house complete with windmill and dolls wearing clogs. The culture seemed far away from the Caribbean.
I test ran my engine for 4 and a half hours at high revs (2200rpm) to simulate transitting the Panama canal. I am meant to maintain at least 5 knots, and I think it should be possible at the speed I pushed it on the trial, though another 100rpm caused the temperature warning to go off.
I arrived in Aruba late in the evening and had a quick look at the town. It also seemed very Dutch in architecture. I had a drink at an upstairs bar though I was too early. I returned after dinner and some couples came in dancing salsa very well, and the atmosphere seemed lively. a pity I was so tired from sailing, as I had to venture back to the yacht and get some rest.
early next morning I set sail for Colombia in a moderate breeze and clear weather. I was keen to be moving on again and continued on for 2 nights, waking myself with the alarm every 20minutes to check for other vessels, and my navigation along the coast.
