The Godess of the seas, our experiences, opinions and lessons learned
What an eventful couple of weeks it has been. We haven’t left the marina for a single day, as our engine doesn’t have an exhaust elbow at the moment. This is a piece of metal tubing to guide the black clouds out to the hole in the stern. Our pristine[…]
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The first couple of weeks back on the island of Curacao were full of chaos and to-do’s. When I arrived I took a couple of days at the hotel near the marina to give me some time to prepare the boat for living aboard. As I saw her there lying[…]
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Only a couple of days more before I once again undertake the 30 hours journey from Macau to the place once I called home, Curacao. It has been about three months ago that we left our lady at the docks of the Santa Barbara Marina. My friend, Willo, has been[…]
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The crisp and clean morning air was invigorating. And just bobbing around there on the calm waters in front of your private island was simply amazing. I took my morning shower by jumping off the transom into the crystal clear waters, lapping the boat to inspect the mooring and rinsing[…]
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As we planned our approach we found that we couldn’t find a boat hook to grab the mooring line on the buoy. This put a bit of a dent in our mooring plans as there was no easy pickup from the front. We figured that if I would lead a long line from the front of the boat to the back, and lower the transom. We could just back into the buoy we could easily grab the line from the transom and hook on. The wind would then swing us around and we could pull in the line to an acceptable length from the bow. Sounds perfectly alright on paper, but it turned out to quite an exercise.
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It was time for our first duo trip. Linda was a bit nervous as it would be the first time out for her alone with me on the boat. We planned to head out to the nearby island of Klein Curacao, a small uninhabited island/sand bar, a popular destination for[…]
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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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