We have now spent six days at the end of the pontoon at Curacao Marine boatyard in the very industrial heart of Williamstad. However we will be clearing Customs and Immigration this morning and will sail 18 miles northwards up the coast and overnight in Cruz Bay which will give us a good departure point to Aruba tomorrow morning.


View in the boatyard

There is an excellent marine engineering shop in the boatyard and when working on the alternator discovered a leak in the seawater pump. The upshot was this had to be replaced and a new pump flown in from the States. So we have had an enforced stay but did rent a car for a few days and also completed some modifications on the boom under instruction from KZ Marine in Auckland. The boom work we did ourselves and very successful it was.

Despite our rather unattractive location in the boatyard we have enjoyed the architecture and downtown area of Willemstad which reminds us very much of Copenhagen.


Some great buildings in Willemstad


Canal front, Willemstad


Canal side again

The town is split into two parts separated by a canal that leads to the inner harbour area. The striking feature of the canal is a substantial floating bridge for pedestrians- on entering or exiting you just hang around and eventually the operator starts up two motors, much like big outboards and literally motors the bridge out of the way - It pivots off one end. We had a beer at one of the canal side cafes and watched a huge car carrier ship exit the canal with little space on either side. We were sitting probably only 20 metres away as it glided past - would be huge damage if they got it wrong.


Floating bridge with road bridge in background, Willemstad


Keith on the floating bridge

We did drive around the southern part of the island and looked over Spanish Waters which is a large harbour, again accessed via a small canal, and where the cruising community seem to hang out swinging at anchor. The substantial housing development in an adjoining area is testament to the wealth that exists at least in this part of Curacao.


View over Spanish Waters, Curacao

The island is self-ruling with an elected government and a Governor appointed by the King (or is it Queen?) of Holland. We were told that there are quite a number of Dutch immigrants on the island, Dutch is the language and the currency is gilders (plus florins). These are not used on Aruba so we will need to get rid of all coin and cash before we leave as we cannot see any banks in NZ changing gilders into kiwi dollars for us.


Oil platform in from Venezuela

The other by product of life in the tropics is battling mosquitos. Ordinarily we pull over the netting shutters at night and leave it at that knowing the occasional mossie will give you a tickle. However in several of the Caribbean islands (particularly Grenada) the daytime mossie bite has led to a bout of chikungunya, an old North African disease. This affects the joints (apparently like arthritis) and can last for several years particularly in woman. Earlier this week we found Klaus the engineer working on the engine has had it and he is still affected. This had led to a renewed campaign on board to ensure we are mossie free - as it takes 12 days for the symptom's to show


Cheers for now
Pam & Keith