The Godess of the seas, our experiences, opinions and lessons learned
We took Ah Ma out on a couple of day trips to Fuik bay. On these trips we had crew in the form of curious friends and related people that just came along to enjoy a day at the bay. A day on the Bay usually constitutes a big cooler full of wine and beer and some light snacks. Many (motor) boats pull in to Fuik every weekend, tying the back to the gravel beach, blaring loud music, relaxing, enjoying the island life…
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Next hurdle would be finding a place to register and insure our soon to be yacht. Not as easy as it sounds, when approaching the larger insurance companies like Pantaenius they right out refused insurance because the boat is lying in Curacao which in their mind is in the very dangerous Caribbean. Even though Curacao is well removed from the hurricane belt and Spanish Waters is probably one of the safest spots to moor your boat in the region.
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The first sea trial was a success, so after a couple of days of deliberation we asked our broker, to arrange for an outhaul and survey. This was quickly arranged at the Curacao Marine wharf at Schottegat. I contacted Ed Versteeg, a local surveyor and yacht designer to do the honors of the survey. I also arranged for Gijs Sijbranda of Curacao Rigging to climb the towering mast to do a close up inspection of the rigging.
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After our trip through the harbours of Florida, we went to the Island of Curacao, where I was summoned to do some work for an old client. Linda came along for a week to accompany me before she had to return home to Macau to celebrate the Chinese new year with her family. We were still in the habit of checking the yachtworld website every other day to see if something interesting pops up…
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I come out of a ‘sailing’ family, born in the north of Holland on the shores of the ijsselmeer boats were part of everyday life. My father build his first boat from scratch, and has been refurbishing boats ever since. There was always a project boat in the marina and he built everything himself, from engine parts to the entire interior. This constant state of construction also meant that sailing was not always the first priority.
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