58. Ship Shape

Being in the marina turned in to a mini refit. My sails and dodger are back up. I’ve replaced the block and tackle for my main sheet, fitted a new stove (stoked about that), replaced the zinc anode under the boat (after 3 attempts), put new depth markers on my anchor chain and made a new flag pole (in Budget Marine they were $40 – typically overpriced, so I bought a broom handle for two bucks and screwed on a couple of mini cleats). I still need to fix my depth gauge (reconnecting the cables didn’t work, so I think I need to replace the transducer that goes through the hull). My dinghy is cleaned, patched (again) but I still need an outboard.

Sailing along Curacao's west coast

Curacao was fun; I met some very interesting people here. One of my neighbors at Kima Kalki used to be a guitarist with Golden Earing (they toured with The Who in the 1970s).  And once while sailing across the Atlantic in his Contessa 32, he bumped into Tom McClean, who was rowing across, and gave him some water. My other neighbor recently had an accident at sea and tragically lost his partner. Very sad.

On Sunday I went with Harry, my new German friend off S/Y Leonotis, to Santa Barbara, which has a beautiful beach and a swimming pool. We had a good swim and cold beers on the beach. Like me, he decided to go sailing single handed after being heartbroken over a lost fiancée. He’s off now delivering a yacht to Maine.

Santa Cruz Bay

The wind is supposed to die down tomorrow, so today I checked out of Curacao. I’ll sail to Santa Cruz bay for a night before sailing to Aruba. It’s 70 miles, so should take about 10 hours to get there. The anchorages in Aruba are tricky with lots of shoals and reefs. I will set off very early so I can anchor with plenty of light, although apparently I may have to spend the first night on the customs dock.