Spanish Waters, Curacao

November 24 - Spanish Waters, Curacao

The sail from Bonaire to Curacao was all too familiar to us - it entailed  motoring. But it’s somewhat understandable in that October and November are months of transition with weak or non-existent trade winds and squirly currents.

From Bonaire to Curacao is about 35 miles - an easy day sail. By mid-afternoon, we rounded the southern tip of Curacao and spotted the low-lying island of Little Curacao to our south. We headed up the western coast of Curacao to Spanish Waters, a well protected anchorage south of the capital city of Willemstadt.

With a tight and narrow entrance, Spanish Waters is easily navigable during daylight hours but certainly not at night. We located a spot among other vessels and dropped the hook. With a backdrop of a steep rocky hill, it was a very tropical setting. Time to have a beer and relax.

The following day we took the bus into Willemstadt. We found the customs building quite easily. But finding the immigration office seemed more like one of those rally games where you get little hints that get you closer to your objective. It took us nearly two hours to find immigration with lots of help from a friendly staff at a law office. But once there, our luck improved. We met a British fellow, Peter, who offered us a ride back to our anchorage and offered us lots of local tips. We finished up the day with a round of Heinekens at Mermaid’s.

While anchored in Spanish Waters we’ve had a number of rainy days. The squalls come and go quickly, sometimes raining so hard that we’ve had opportunities to go on deck and take showers. We’ve also had time to see a bit of Curacao. Willemstadt is a picturesque city made up of an older part, Punda, and the newer district across the Anna Bay known as Otrobanda. Connecting the two districts are two bridges - the Queen Emma Bridge, a pontoon pedestrian bridge that opens for shipping traffic, and the impressively high Queen Juliana Bridge for car traffic.

Queen Emma pontoon bridge

Small draw bridge

Although Punda’s architecture is quite fascinating being distinctly Dutch and unusual  here in the Caribbean, the stores are touristy and mundane. Gucci, Benetton, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein are some of the headliners. But we did find a nice little bar that served very cold beer and Dutch crockets.

There’s a colorful street along one of the quays that’s home to the Floating market. Made up of Venezuelan fruit, vegetable and fish vendors, on one side they sell their goods while on the sea side, lie the small wooden boats that they live on. We also dropped in to visit the Maritime Museum, housed in an old 18th century building. But we decided to leave it for another day.

Otrobanda (which literally means “on the other side”), does indeed lie on the other side of the Punda neighborhood. We walked across the pontoon bridge and followed a walking path tour described in one of the guides. We walked through twisting little alleyways and passages and found interesting old structures, many in a decrepit state.

We ended up walking to another touristy area in Otrobanda that had a hotel-resort,  more high-end retail stores, bars and a quay for a cruise ship. While there, we watched hundreds of pink tanned tourists pour off the ship for their two hours of shore leave. Didn’t look real fun to us. We had lunch at a local corner dive that had an unusual menu - you could order many of the dishes in several sizes, each with it’s own price. We ordered a plate of stew, salad and fried potatoes. Tasty.

One afternoon, we took the dinghy into a small bay near us to check out a snorkeling spot we had heard about. We walked across a narrow path to the ocean side and found a beach with some shacks next to a huge,  anchored oil drilling platform. We found out from some people there that the snorkeling area we were looking for was just a hundred yards off shore.

It turned out to be a great spot with a sunken tugboat in shallow waters and many types of fish and coral, including bright yellow trumpet fish, Christmas Tree worms, soft tubular coral and much more sea life. We really enjoyed the snorkeling. On our return there were small sabots with young kids in them racing around the anchorage. It was a lot of fun watching the kids sail.

Grocery shopping is easy here. The grocery store sends a free bus to the dinghy dock at ten each morning. It waits for an hour at the store and brings you back. The store is a typical grocery store and has lots of local, American, Dutch and Indonesian foods.

Our current plan is to check out in the next day or so, head up the coast to Santa Cruz Bay and anchor there for a couple of days. From Santa Cruz we’ll head for Aruba and pick up Marty for our sail to Cartagena, four hundred miles away.

View of Punda from Otrobanda

Dock tied to boat?

Barry enjoying a cold beer and a Dutch crocket

Bonaire, Dutch Antilles

November 15 - Kralendijk, Bonaire

After staying on the mooring, we moved to the Harbor Village Marina in Kralendijk. We decided to get a slip because it was going to be easier to make the necessary repairs. I think it was the right move. To repair the refrigeration, we ended up taking the entire unit out of the engine room (no menial task), and having a local repairman take it to his shop to solder the leaky pipe. Barry spent a number of hot and sticky hours in the engine room diagnosing the problem before the repairman came to get it. In the mean time, Dave replaced the entire battery charging system. Everything is now working beautifully.

Bonaire is a relatively tranquil island. Of the three ABC’s, it is the most environmental conscious island, having its entire surrounding waters designated as a marine park. I found it surprising to see (and hear) so much Dutch - but after all, it does have strong Dutch roots that persist even today.

Lots of people here speak four languages - Dutch, Spanish, English and Papiamento, the local Creole dialect that is a blend of Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Arawak Indian. The history of Bonaire is pretty typical Caribbean. Settled by the Arawak Indians, the Spanish came along and promptly exterminated most of them. The Spanish were then in turn driven off (in this case by the Dutch) in the 1630’s. For a time, the slave trade prevailed as an integral part of commerce. But other forms of trade also grew in and around Fort Oranje, in Kralendijk. 

Today, Bonaire has developed a strong eco-tourism industry, mostly attracting diving,  fishing and bird-watching enthusiasts. It has over 200 bird species, 80 of which are  indigenous, such as the flamingo and a yellow headed parakeet. 

On one of the days here, we rented a four-wheel Suzuki jeep and ventured out to the Washington Slagbaai National Park in the northern part of the island. The park is home to flamingos, lizards, iguanas, goats, wild boar, donkeys. There are limestone caves and a number of dive spots that are accessible from the beach. The most fun we had was hand-feeding bread to groups of large lizards. From the car, we also hand-fed a friendly donkey who just walked straight up to us. We stopped at a dive spot to snorkel. But it wasn’t anything to write home about - some elk-horned coral, and typical tropical fish. As always, though, the water is warm and easy to get in to.

We’ve now fixed everything, are provisioned and ready for the next island - Curacao. Plans are to check out  tomorrow and leave on Tuesday morning. Curacao is only 30 miles west of Bonaire, so it will be a short day sail. Stay tuned.

The rugged limestone shoreline of Washington Park.

Hee-Haw!!! A very friendly donkey that came up to the jeep to greet us and get a snack.

                                                          One of the many varieties of lizards.

A peak at the ocean the  from the door of a restaurant at Washington Park.

Slave huts along the water. These are probably 5'x8', though I don't know how many slaves each would hold.

The crew at the Buenos Aires Restaurant with a cruise ship in the background.

Grenada to Bonaire

November 6 - Prickly Bay, Grenada to Bonaire, Dutch Antilles

After the preparation for getting the boat back into the water was complete, the boat yard crew expertly moved us back in to Prickly Bay. It was good to be afloat in the bay again, feeling the gentle rocking motion of the sea instead of being high up in the air on the hard. Now all that was left to do was refueling and food provisioning.

Early Saturday morning, under a clear blue sky, Lahaina Roads was ready for a sail. We pulled up anchor and proceeded out of Prickly Bay into the Caribbean Sea. Soon we were under sail with a full mizzen and genoa, heading due west. Isla Blanquilla was about 160 miles west of us. If everything went as planned, we'd be there the following day before sunset.

The sail began as a classic downwind run, the boat yawing a little to port, then to starboard, while the autopilot worked feverishly to correct and keep the boat on a fairly straight course. We relaxed, popped a can of beer and enjoyed the ride. What could go wrong.

By the afternoon we first noticed that the refrigeration system was running unusually warm. After checking it out, it appeared that the compressor was malfunction. There went the cold beer!

As the evening drew near we had a cocktail, followed by a steak dinner with a small glass of Cabernet. As Barry put it, "We were living large."

One hour long watches started at 9pm, which gave each of us a two hour cat nap. We encountered some ship traffic throughout the evening, with one ship passing off our bow by just a half mile. A little too close for comfort. But the rest of the night was uneventful and warm with a starlit sky and a new moon. 

Sunday morning, our second day out of Grenada, we decided to hoist the main. The Honda generator was busily topping off the ship's batteries, when it revved up and slowed down in an unusual manner. A burning odor began to come from below, soon followed by dense black smoke belching from the portside cockpit locker. Not a good sign!

Barry immediately went down below to check the engine room. After determining it was safe to open the engine room door, he discharged the fire extinguisher in the engine room, which fortunately contained the smoldering fire.

After the smoke cleared, it appeared that the battery charger had shorted out causing it to overheat, burning its plastic casing and the wood panel. We were lucky - any fire aboard is not a trivial matter. And fortunately, the rest of the afternoon didn't provide for any more adrenalin-filled events.

In the evening, we sat down to dinner and had pork chops, salad, mashed potatoes and gravy with a half bottle of Cabernet. Good food, good company and a spectacular setting. All in all, not a bad ending to an exciting day.

On the second night out, we decided to switch to 1 1/2 hour shifts, giving each of us three hours of sleep. By morning we all agreed that this was a better way to go - we were all well rested.

An occasional squall now was passing through. During one of the more intense squalls, we got out the soap and took a shower on deck. Needless to say, timing is everything - you don't want to be caught fully lathered and have the squall pass you by.

For once, fishing was good - that is to say, the fish were biting, for nothing came to the table. Dave was trolling with two lines, when suddenly one of the reels screamed in a high pitch alerting us of a hefty strike. Soon we spotted a big marlin jumping out of the water. It was not happy! Wow, that was something else! The marlin acrobatically jumped out of the water once more to fight for its release. It succeeded. I think we were all a bit relieved because it was too much fish for us to bring aboard; too much fish to try to eat. So it was best left in the ocean to have a chance to fight another day. And for us we'll leave it as the big one that got away. Pheewww!!!

We passed several island groups that would have been worth a stop. But with the problems we had encountered, we decided to forgo the stops and continue onward to Bonaire. By mid-day on Monday, we had passed the Los Roques group, while sometime at night we were along side of Aves de Barlovento and Aves de Sotavento. These would have been outstanding places to observe birds and hang out on the white sandy beaches. Our guidebook wrote of those islands having over 200 species of birds.

In the morning, Bonaire was off our starboard bow. When we approached the southern end, we were greeted by a large flock of flamingos flying by - strange seeing them over the ocean. They were very sleek looking birds, intent on finding something out there or so it seemed.

We rounded the southern end of Bonaire and motored to Kralendijk, the main town on Bonaire. There is no anchoring allowed in Bonaire since the entire island is a marine park. So we picked up one of the many available park moorings. We had arrived.  

Caribbean Adventure - Part II

Caribbean Adventure - Part II

November 2

Dave and I left Lahaina Roads in April of this year on the hard at the southern end of Grenada at the Spice Island Marina. The plan for the sequel to our Caribbean adventure is to sail westward to the Dutch Antilles, Colombia, the San Blas Islands, Panama (and through the Canal) and up the west coast of Costa Rica to Golfito. Barry, a friend of Dave’s from South Carolina, also is joining us.

The flight from LA to Miami went without a hitch. But as soon as I landed, I noticed that my flight from Miami to Grenada (via Barbados) had been cancelled. Not good, I thought. I went a couple of rounds with American Airlines agents, stood in various lines for long times and finally got some results They re-routed me through Puerto Rico to get to Grenada at about my original time and on the same flight as Dave and Barry. Nice.

The flights went as planned and all three of us arrived in Grenada on time. Even my bag was waiting for me - in spite of all the re-routing it went through. I deemed it a miracle.

By the time we got to the boatyard from the airport it was dark and nearly 10pm. After getting past the guard at the gate we started to look for the boat. It was an odd sensation meandering around all these boats sitting up high out of the water. When we had left Lahaina Roads there only had been a few boats. Now it seemed crowded.

Finally, we found the boat, climbed up the ladder and opened the hatch. A musty, damp and earthy smell permeated throughout the boat. Some things in the aft cabin were thoroughly wet. But for the rest of it, the boat looked pretty much as we had left her. We crashed and all had a good, yet steamy-hot, night’s rest.

In the morning, after coffee, we got to work drying the gear and clothes and got the sails out on deck. The rest of the day was spent getting the main and the sail bag on the boom, the same process with the mizzen, and getting the dodger in place. We called it a day and went for a beer at the conveniently located marina bar.  

The next couple of days were spent on more tasks in preparation for being put back in the water. The boatyard was a beehive of activity, with owners arriving daily, preparing their boats, boatyard crews doing last minute repairs and painting the bottoms of boats and the sound of the tractor as it maneuvers the boats towards the crane, where the boat is placed in the water.  

On Monday, since Barry had not been to Grenada, we decided to go to St. George, the capital of Grenada.. To get there, we made use of Grenada’s handy bus system. Comprised of nine-passenger vans, it’s efficient, inexpensive and frequent. The mini-buses have a driver and a helper, who’s job it is to locate possible riders and to take the money (although once he gets the money, he passes it on to the driver). The drawback to the mini-buses is the loud rap-reggae music that one must endure and the risky NASCAR driving techniques that are often employed by the drivers as they try to maneuver through the hectic traffic.  

Be that as it may, we’ve used the services every day and found the mini-buses a great way to get around. St. George was far better than the first time Dave and I visited it (a Sunday - when nearly everything had been closed). On this day, it was bustling with people and activity. The adventure culminated with a large Carib draft beer at one of the local joints along the waterfront.

Tomorrow morning we're scheduled to be put back in the water. Another day of excitement.

To The Netherlands and Home

July 11 - To The Hague, Netherlands then Home

I couldn’t leave the blog unfinished. So here’s the last installment….for now.

Very early in the morning we left for the airport to get on our (Easyjet) flight to Amsterdam. Everything went like clockwork until we got in the air and the pilot announced that a cockpit warning light detected a problem with one of the rear doors. We would have to return to Madrid and have it checked out. Darn.

We landed safely without any incidence. The door problem was corrected but some other issue surfaced preventing us from taking off. It too was resolved. But then the pilot reported that he was having problems getting another flight plan approved and it would be a little longer before we took off.

About two hours after returning to the Madrid we finally got back in the air. This time everything went smoothly. We arrived in Amsterdam an hour later. Schiphol is truly a world class airport. It has lots of good shops, restaurants, hotels and great ground connections by train and bus right at the airport.

We got train tickets and made it to The Hague in no time. We had reservations at a small hotel in Scheveningen, Hotel Corel. It was a big, stark change from the Hilton in Madrid. Small, two old twin mattresses, shag carpeting, a broken toilet seat and an (intrusive) view of apartments next door (and they to us, of course). This was a three star hotel? However, the breakfast next morning was superb and its proximity to the boardwalk area of Schevenigen was excellent.

Holland was getting ready for an epic World Cup soccer championship game against Spain. Fountains were spewing orange water and lots of people were walking around with orange clothes. Excitement was building. Incidentally, orange is the color of the Dutch royal family - the House of Oranje. But today, the color orange mostly symbolizes being Dutch.

We ended up just walking around visiting familiar spots, sipping coffee or beer at cafes and enjoying the sights for two days. After that we took the train to our friends Maarten and Maria in Amstelveen (near Amsterdam).




We stayed with them for another two days. We ate a special dish Maarten cooked up - pulpo (octopus). They had brought back from Spain after their son had spearfished it. Very tasty. We helped M&M plan their upcoming trip to California and went out to eat at the Blauw Indonesian restaurant in Amsterdam to have rijstavel, a very typical Indonesian dinner consisting of about twenty separately prepared dishes. Delicious.

In the morning, M&M took us to the airport to catch a KLM flight back to LAX. Vacation was over. 

Aranda de Duero and back to Madrid

Aranda de Duero and back to Madrid

We drove south to Aranda de Duero and checked into Hotel Julia, in the center of town. Aranda is not known for anything particular, though tourists do come here for the lamb roast, reportedly the best in Spain. Also, like Laguardia, it too had underground wine caves, of which we visited one. We just came here as a pit stop between Rioja and Madrid. But surprisingly, we liked the town. 

Aranda has a nice river running through it and a city park abuts it. We settled into a spot in the park near the bar (which is right next to the kiddy playground). Young mothers can have a glass of wine while they watch their toddlers play. Very cultured.

The park truly exemplified Spanish family life. Families, eating, playing, fishing and otherwise enjoying the park. Several dads were walking around with their young toddlers. Diane spotted some young parents smoking around their babies at times blowing smoke near their faces. That kicked in Diane’s anti-smoking campaign. She marched over to the young parents and gently scolded them in Spanglish. They all reacted with surprise as if they hadn’t thought about the impact of the smoke to their babies. I think she did some good, at least making those parents think twice before blowing smoke into the faces of babies.     

We drove back to Madrid the following day with a detour to a city that was at the center of Islam in medieval days - Guadalajara. We visited the Gothic Palacio del Infantado, a relatively plane looking palace from the outside with a beautiful façade courtyard. We had lunch near the palace, on a park bench, munching on a bagget, cheese, ham and fruit. 

Later that afternoon we arrived back at Gys and Paloma’s pink villa in Madrid. Of the three kids, only Diego was left home - and he was off to the north of Spain in the morning for surf camp, Marina and Julia already were at their activity camps.

In the evening the five of us set off to a nearby Peruvian restaurant. We started off with a strong Peruvian drink, a Pisco Sour, made of egg white, limes, sugar and Pisco. That was followed by several exotic appetizers ranging from a ceviche, to a baked dish with potato and octopus. I was about full from the appetizers, when dinner arrived - for me, a lightly cooked fish with yet another type of potato (Peruvians have over a hundred types of potatoes). Luckily, a couple of good bottles of Rioja wine enabled me to consume the dinner too. It was  a scrumptious meal. No room for dessert, though.

On our last day in Spain we stayed at the Madrid Airport Hilton, since our Easyjet flight to Amsterdam was an early one. The hotel décor was ultra-modern, nothing like the hotels we’d been staying at. But our room was roomy and comfortable, the pool, nice. In the evening at dinner, we watched Germany beat Uruguay 3-2, in what was a fun and exciting game to watch.    

The Rioja Wine Region

July 7 -  Wine Tours in Rioja

On Wednesday, after a superb breakfast at our inn, we drove to the nearby town of Briones where the bodega Dinastia Vivanco has a wine museum.  It’s an amazing museum, in that it details the entire history of wine, the process of wine making and all its related functions, such as the making of barrels, bottles, corks and even cork screws. It took us a full two hours to get through it (at a quick pace). Afterwards, we took a tour of the Vivanco Winery, which was good yet disappointing, in that it was all in Spanish.

When we got back to our winery/hotel, Jesus Puelles, the owner, was ready to give us a personal tour of the winery - in English. The Puelles winery dates back to the early 1800’s and, though not nearly as big as Vivanco, it’s impressive. They follow organic vineyard practices in growing their (mostly Tempranillo) grapes. They only use estate grown grapes in their wines and produce about 200,000 bottles a year.

Jesus told us that in Rioja, wineries typically produce a crianza, a reserve and grand reserve. Mostly all are made of Tempranillo. Other red varietals grown in Rioja are Grenache, Mazuela and Graciano. White varietals are Viura and Xarello.The Rioja DOC controls these types of wines by mandating them to be aged as follows: a crianza must be aged in oak for one year; a reserve must be aged in oak for two years and bottle aged for one year; and the grand reserve must be aged in oak for three years and bottle aged for an additional two years. A little different from what we do in California where the winery may tell the prospective buyer to age the wine for a year or two before opening the wine.

One of the ways Jesus sells his wine is through his wine club. Members pay as the wine is made. First they pay up front for the cost of a barrel, then pay for the grapes, lastly for the bottles. In the end, a member gets 300 bottles of wine for about $3 per bottle. Not a bad deal for a good quality wine. But you have to like Tempranillo.

Later that evening, we watched more world football (soccer) action - Spain against Germany. To us it seemed like a pretty even game, not many fouls, played in a very gentlemanly manner. In the second half, Spain got a break and from a corner kick, headed the ball in for a goal to win the game. It will now be Spain and the Netherlands - and we’ll be in the Netherlands for the title game!!!          

After our two-day stay at Bodega Puelles, we reluctantly packed our suitcases and hit the road. We visited, Laguardia, an ancient walled city known for its many underground (cave) bodegas and spectacular views of the area and the Pyrenees. We only stayed for a short time.