Apocalypse sky?

When we first sailed to the entrance of Willemstad, Curacao, the sky looked like a movie depicting the pitfalls of pollution. The combination of the brightly painted buildings, the smokestacks emitting greenhouse gases and a few gathering rainclouds made us wonder if we were sailing into a grisly movie set recreating the industrial age! Our first impression of Willemstad was negatively affected.

The walking bridge swings open to allow LIB access.

But in fairness to Curacao, during the remainder of our stay, the sky was mostly clear and blue and that first sky was the worst one by far.  On a positive note, Curacao has an active group called GreenTown that is working hard to raise awareness among Curacao citizens, children and industry of the opportunity (read need) to clean up the island.  This is a very important step and one of the only groups we have seen in the Caribbean trying to affect change! So, even though Curacao has an issue right now, there is hope that GreenTown will manage to make a big impact on the future of the island.

As you know from our last blog, we moved to Curacao to meet Deneen, who has bought LIB.  Our first few days were spent preparing for the survey and haul out, then meeting Deneen and her broker, Robert.  (We were very impressed by Robert and thought he did an excellent job.) Kind of surprisingly, we had a great time with the haul out and survey and especially getting to know Deneen.  The fact that Curacao Marine did such a careful job lifting LIB made the whole process much easier.

Every boat owner gets a little jittery watching his boat lifted out of the water and over concrete! But LIB was carefully tended and the survey went well, so our girl was only out of the water for about an hour.

At the end of a fairly long day, Deneen, Robert, Frank and I went to dinner at Kome in Willemstad. The dinner was excellent and the company even better. It was super fun getting to know Deneen and Robert over a relaxed dinner.

Deneen agreed to join us the following day for a stroll around the quaint shopping area of Willemstad.  The pictures will do more justice to the walking area than I will….

Willemstad along the canal.

This picture shows a bit of the walking bridge that crosses the canal and is shown above as it opened for LIB to enter.

Frank and Deneen strolling along; probably talking boats.

Pretty examples of the colorful buildings.

Lunch break!

Lucky for us, Deneen had been to Curacao and remembered this cute restaurant from her previous visit. She didn’t get a chance to try Mundo Bizarro on her last visit so we agreed we had to make it happen this time.  Great choice as the food was excellent. I should have taken a picture of the bar inside. It is worth a look if you are ever nearby!

Aren’t these great?

I have no idea what this building actually is, but I loved the artwork and had to capture it.

“Lock your love on the Punda Love Heart.”

Although I do not know how effective it is to lock you love on the “Punda Love Heart,” it seems to be a popular thing to do. What happened to setting your love free and if it comes back to you it is yours forever? Different cultures or do we live in a possessive era? Just kidding ~ that is way too deep for my frivolous blog! 😉

Just a little wave action in the harbor.

The first 10 days in Curacao, the wind just howled! The water was kicking up so I thought I would try to show the power demonstrated in these waves.

But really, a still shot doesn’t capture the strength of the water and wind.

After Deneen flew back to Texas and the survey was completed, we had a few days to chill and drive around Curacao.  Frank and I find it interesting that in the two weeks we have been on Curacao, we have rented a car perhaps six days.  During our whole stay in Bonaire we only rented a car four days.  This alone demonstrates how different each island is for a cruiser!

Eveline sent this pic of Cap searching the tall grass in the yard.

Captain went to stay with Eveline of Yuka’s Dog Services & Training because we didn’t want her wandering around, untended during the haul out and sea trial. Eveline is fabulous and I strongly recommend her for boarding your dog and for training or agility classes.  Cappy had a great time and came home happy and tired.

We wanted to take Captain with us while we explored the islands since she had been away for a couple of days. Unfortunately all of the beaches and the national park we saw prohibited dogs!

This made for an abbreviated day but we did get a chance to see the island, take a few pictures and have lunch.

Fishing boats at anchor.

Although here at Curacao Marine the water is not pretty, Curacao does have some beautiful beaches.

A perfectly protected bay for swimming.

The sand was fine and white and the water crystal clear, but very few people were swimming. Instead they were stretched out on lounge chairs or hiding from the sun in the shade, enjoying a good read.

If Cappy had been allowed on the beach we would definitely have been in that water!

One last fun sight we found was a darling kids’ playground where the nature had been decorated or painted to make it look like a sea-scape.  Look how clever this artist is!!

What a creative and happy place to play!

Currently we are waiting for our new IridiumGo to be released from customs so we can begin our journey back to Texas.  Unfortunately, between eZone and Customs, our package has been seriously delayed! We await the release of our new IridiumGo and we won’t leave Curacao without it. Two thumbs down on this delayed delivery!

For those who don’t know, IridiumGo is a satellite communication system that allows us to access weather and send limited e-mails while in the middle of the ocean. A very important safety measure that we want to have working for our passage from Curacao to Belize since it is about 1,200 nautical miles! We will be at sea for approximately seven nights and we want to use the IridiumGo to update the weather.

Until the IridiumGo is up and running, we will simply wait in Curacao and enjoy our surroundings.

 

~HH CATAMARAN~

Now that Let It Be is sold, we will be even more anxious to take delivery of our new catamaran. We are working very closely with HH to set up our boat so it will work well on long passages with only Frank and me on board and for continuing our lives as sailboat cruisers.

I absolutely cannot stress enough how important it has been to have Morrelli and Melvin working with us on the purchase of this boat. Gino Morrelli has been an amazing resource and we are thankful beyond words for his guidance and help! (And patience!)

On his recent visit to China, Gino sent us a couple of picture of our HH55 in construction, including this one of the master cabin bed area. I really like the large window at the head of the bed and along the outboard side in our master cabin.

Here is our aft, port stateroom area under construction.

The completed room looks a lot prettier as seen here on Hai Feng, HH55-02.

When we visited HH55-01, Minnehaha, in Ft. Lauderdale a year ago, owners Deb and Doug were very generous in allowing us to poke around their beautiful boat.  While Frank was opening every engine and electrical compartment, I took myself off to the master hull to check out a few of my own “wanted” items. Sitting up in bed and reading is a luxury I have missed, so I was delighted to see there is a generous headboard/backrest on the HH55 ~ perfect for reading.  And I love that I will be able to see outside while reading in bed!

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