51. At World's End

I had an OK sail to Curacao. Somehow I didn’t really enjoy it, I hope it wasn’t my last. In the morning I saw s/v Ouma reefing sail and looking ready to go. I asked if they were going to Curacao, and they were. ‘I’ll follow you I shouted’, thinking this would make life much easier. However, twenty minutes later I was racing past them and they were following me.

Spanish Waters, Curacao

A huge rainstorm was also behind me. I used its winds to keep ahead of it, and then headed south a bit to let it past. I got one or two sprinkles, but nothing much. S/v Ouma disappeared behind a grey block of rain. I was doing about 7 knots and managed to keep ahead all the way, but all the time I could see this wall of rain a few hundred yards behind chasing me, so it was a fairly tense sail. S/v Ouma on the other hand, looked like they got sucked in and spent most of their day getting rained on.

Arriving in Spanish Waters with my main sail in tatters felt a bit like the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean, where Captain Sparrow arrives at Port Royal, climbing his mast as his boat sinks, eventually casually stepping off onto the dock. My boat’s got no sails, my dinghy’s only got one oar, and I’m down to my last $150.

50. Carry On Sailing

This is my fiftieth post; another milestone. I'm on my way to customs immigration to check out.

Kalendijk waterfront

Despite the high winds, and the state of my sails, there’s a small weather window on Friday that I’m going to take. I’ll try going the 40 or so miles to Curacao with a reefed in main. Because that’s all I’ve got really. It should be a fast sail.

P&O cruise ship leaving Bonaire

49. Double Dutch

Happy New Year !

s/v Cheers lit a giant sparkler

I’m still in Bonaire waiting for some lighter winds. 30 knot winds, gusting at over 40 knots, are forecast for the whole week, which I don’t really fancy in my condition. I love it here, but the $10 per day mooring fees are killing my budget.

I’ve been thinking about Tristan Jones, and how he always managed to get out of trouble. When my main sail ripped, I remembered he wrote how his mast broke one time, which is much worse. He made it to shore, and in the night cut down a telegraph pole and used that. Although I also remember in St. Martin, Jock said he was full of crap; spent his life in a bar collecting stories from real pirates – like Jock.

On Friday I took the minibus from Harbor Village Marina to the Van den Tweel supermarket to get groceries. Usually there are shuttles like this for cruisers – the bus drivers charge a lot and make good money. Here though it was free. The supermarket paid the driver. It should be like that everywhere. The supermarket was awesome, a clean, air-conditioned paradise, it was like being back in Europe. I went straight to the olives and sun dried tomatoes counter, asked for a cocktail stick, and started to sample all the different types of olives, while I watched a bunch of cruisers wander round the supermarket in a kind of daze. Partly because of all the amazing food – fresh fruit and veg, bread and pastries, coffee and chocolate from Holland, but mainly because all the labels were in Dutch so apart from the obvious, no one knew what anything was.

I asked a member of staff for stroopwaffels, one of the only Dutch words I know, but she was local so she didn’t know what anything was either. ‘It’s a kind of cookie, big and round’, I explained. She tried to help. ‘No that’s a cheese cracker.’ ‘No those are Orios.’ ‘Now you’re just picking up round things.’ Eventually I found them and bought a packet. ‘Did you get some good stuff?’ I asked James and Patti from s/v La Aventura, ‘Yes we think so, we’ll find out later.’