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Making Winlink Friends - Curacao, the Big IslandFrom Klein Curacao we set sail for the main island. The seas were lively. In interesting aspect of sailing in this area is the influence of the southeast trade winds. Day and night the winds blow from that direction at between 15 to 25 knots with an occasional wind gust of 30 knots. (That's about the same wind force the author experienced when he and his wife cruised for eight months on a trip that took them to the Bahamas Islands. (See: www.van-vugt.com/ourcruise.) The ABC Islands are located south of the prime hurricane area but far away weather disturbances can set up a long and rolling swell. We saw no other sailboats but several oil tankers and container ships plying their routes between the islands and Venezuela and distant ports in the northern Caribbean. Flying fish skimmed very low over the water. We trailed a fishing line most of the time but as far as we know we never got a bite. Despite the benevolent weather in that area, the first thing every morning was to switch on the SSB radio to call via Winlink for the local weather and the Atlantic Ocean Hurricane forecasts. Fortunately, the weather remained ideal for the whole cruise from beginning to end. Arrival at our next destinations was normally planned for midday so that, on approaching, the lookout could watch for reefs. With the generally deep waters, right up to shore, coral heads and sandbanks would normally be only close to entrances to bays and other inland waters. Accordingly we approached the entrance to Spaanse (Spanish) Waters at midday. Curacao has a number of these inlets. One is Schotte Gat, the main commercial harbor. It is now totally surrounded by Willemstad the capital of Curacao. Spaanse Waters has a narrow but fairly deepwater entrance. To starboard, going in, is the Santa Barbara Beach Resort with a beautiful stretch of beach. This well protected inland water area has a number of arms several of which are designated as official anchorages. We dropped our hook fairly close to the cruisers' favorite hangout, Sarifundies, that is popular for its happy hour, good food and, of course, cold Dutch beer. There were about two dozen boats anchored in that part of Spaanse Waters. Mostly these are cruisers waiting for the right time of the year to go to the Panama Canal to transit to the South Pacific. Others would head for Colombia or the fabulous San Blas Islands. In addition to two German-flagged boats, there were many Dutch boats, some Canadians and a Danish boat. There were few US-flagged boats, although the locals claimed that boats without national flags (a breach of flag protocol) were probably from the US.
We went by dinghy to the small and secure fishing harbor and from there took the bus to Willemstad. That capital city of Curacao has a lot of appeal to me because it took me back to my Dutch roots. There is still a lot of the old Dutch architecture to see and, unfortunately, some bad imitations. The water front on the entrance leading to the Schotte Gat is particularly attractive with a number of terraces for dining and drinking. The food, I think, is quite good. There’s a lot of influence from Venezuela. The “floating market” offers a large range of fruits and vegetables and fresh fish. Small fishing and supply boats with Venezuelan registration line the quay in Waai Gat and directly unload onto the myriad of stalls lined-up in the street. I much enjoyed the traditional Dutch and Indonesian snacks like “bitter ballen”, croquettes, smoked sausage and Gouda cheese. We visited an old fort and the deserted leprosy hospital on Caracas Bay. An oil drilling rig was berthed there waiting for its next job as was a Scandinavian cable-laying boat. At night the drilling rig was fully lit-up as a pre-season Christmas tree.
After several days, we reluctantly left Spaanse Waters. It's bad for cruisers to be bound by timetables but we had to be in Aruba in time for me to fly back to the States. We sailed to what is nearly the northernmost part of Curacao. We anchored off Knip Baai. It’s but a small indentation in the coastline and has a pretty little beach that was crammed with bathers. To the left and right of the beach, within perhaps 300 feet were forbidding looking rock walls along the coast. The wind was blowing strongly from the east and the downdraft over the hills accelerated the wind to up to 30 knots or more. We were anchored in 15 feet of water with the boat facing east towards the shore. But for the fact that the wind nearly always blows from the east, anchoring there would otherwise be perilous. Very seldom there is what is called a wind reversal, that is, when some distant major weather disturbance upsets the regular easterly wind flow. When that happens, all sorts of vessels would head into hurricane holes, where available, or sail to the other side of islands to get some protection. Walter, my host, would without fail every morning logon to request Winlink for the weather reports. During that first session we would also collect any email that had arrived for us. We would immediately prepare our brief replies. We would then logon to Winlink once more to collect the weather reports and send our email. We were very successful logging on to the new Winlink ground station in Panama. When that was busy we would access the Winlink station in Melbourne, Florida. Transmission rates were quite respectable. Steel boats, like Atlantis, always provide a good counterpoise platform for efficient High Frequency radio communications. I think that my hosts were greatly amused with the volume of email that I processed every day as they referred to me in German as the "Schreiber", that is, "The Writer." However, one of the purposes of Winlink is to stay in touch with family and friends and for me, of course, the keep serving the many visitors to www.aussiewinlink.org and answer urgent questions.
It was now time to start on the final leg that would take us to Aruba. To meet my airplane schedule without risk, it would be necessary to arrive a few days early in Oranje Stad, the capital city of Aruba. Accordingly, we made preparations for our departure from Knip Baai.
To read about the final chapter - Aruba - click on that link. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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