Spaanse Waters, Curacao

Four, yes, count them, four times to anchor. The last time I wasn't sure if we really had a hook or Dennis was just tired from lifting the anchor chain back up! The first two times it was amazing the amount of seaweed we brought up. (You have to keep in mind that we usually get it right the first time since we have a manual windlass - which means Dennis does a lot of work!) Left the anchor alarm on overnight and, a week later, we're still in the same place. I do not like this anchorage at all. It's hard to get a hook and you can't swim off the boat. Well, some people do, but we aren't.

Took the 9 a.m. bus into Punda to check in to Customs and Immigration and then walked over to Curacao Marina to say hi to Mark and Deb on Sea Cycle and Murray and Nadine on Squiz. Haven't seen either couple since the summer of 2008 in Venezuela. We all walked over to the Chicken Shack for lunch and, for what reason we're not sure, except being friendly, one of the local workers bought us a round of drinks! Got lucky when we walked back into town and caught the bus before we had to walk all the way downtown.

It's nice knowing where to go and the routine, so we've been to Vreugenhill on the shopping shuttle; over to Jan Thiel Beach for a lazy Sunday afternoon and to see Sully, the baby whale; swimming at the new dock put in by the Santa Barbara Resort at the entrance to Spaanse Waters; and shopping downtown. Picked up our new anchor chain and bottom paint from Marine Warehouse, but can't put the new anchor chain on till we're ready to go, because I am not doing the anchoring dance again!! We thought about hauling out here to do the bottom, but after visiting the office at Curacao Marina, they told us it would be much better if we just emailed, and still haven't heard back from them. Oh well, at least we have the paint when we're ready.

When we were over to visit Sea Cycle and Squiz on Wednesday, we forgot to bring the flares from Bonaire for Sea Cycle, so that meant another trip. Walked over again Monday and left poor Murray working hard while Mark, Deb and Nadine drove us downtown and we had lunch. That was the good part of the day, since the rest was so frustrating. We had a package we wanted to send home and DHL and UPS were supposed to be downtown. I wish the people here would just admit they don't know where things are instead of trying to be helpful and sending us on a wild goose chase. Hmmm, that happened to us last time when we were looking for Curacao Marina! After walking in the heat of the day for over an hour we discovered that UPS had moved and DHL was now Western Union, sending money only , so decided to go to the post office and send it express. Oh, their computer system is down, come back tomorrow. Just missed the bus back and had to wait another hour. Yep, that kind of day!!!

Lucky day Tuesday when heading back to send our package. Took one of the mini buses at 8:40 (since the regular bus gets to the stop anywhere between 8:50 and 9:20), and he took a more direct route down to Punda, driving right by the UPS! Finally!! Had him drop us off, and then it was only a 20 minute walk downtown and caught the return bus - back to the boat by 10:10. Did laundry by hand, took inventory so we can shop tomorrow, had lunch, and off to the beach to swim. Hoping to check out Thursday, head up to Santa Cruz for a day or two and then head to Aruba.

Stay tuned. ~~~_/)~~~