I'm doing this post a bit out of order. It's now Monday at 1800. Once I'm through with this rant, it will begin talking all about us checking in.
Why can't Mother Nature cut us some slack? After buying Zephyr in Seattle, we took her down the Newport, Oregon for her first winter. What happens then? They get smashed by hurricane force winds. Up to 93 knots causing lots of damage. When we moved back to Seattle for her refit, Seattle has the third worst Winter on record. In Tonga, we had earthquakes. In Tuvalu, we just managed to miss a cyclone that trashed poor Fiji. We'd originally planned on being there but had changed out mind at the last moment. In Richards Bay, South Africa, they had a hurricane come through(always at night of course) with winds over 80 knots again. Last year, when we were in Grenada, a tropical cyclone started up so we took off for Trinidad. After passed just north of Trinidad, it became Hurricane Matthew. This year, when we were in Bonaire, another tropical storm(Bret) came through and now we've learned that we have another tropical storm coming our way--DON! Where we are, Curacao has been pretty much exempt from these types of storms for centuries!! Now this is coming our way!! I hate to say it but it's just NOT FAIR!! What the heck did we do to upset the weather gods? It's just not normal. OK, the rant is over.


Now that we are in Curacao, we had to head to town and get checked in. We're anchored in Spanish Harbor a bit farther down the coast. Yesterday morning, we gave a lift to Roy and Ann from Serenity as their outboard had decided to pack it in. We made a bridal and with them behind us, we headed in to catch the 6A bus for town. Cost was just about $1.00. Once into town, we marveled at the wonderful architecture that is everywhere. Bight colored buildings all over town. I'll get some pictures later(forgot our camera)and post them.
Once off the bus, the four of us made our way to Customs. They have a big sign up at the top of the building but nothing down low where you walk so we just tried to keep the high sign in sight. Tracy had down the preliminaries of our checking in with a website called "SailClear". It's a multi national site that once you find the country you are going to, you can enter all the data required so once there, all they have to do is print it out and voila, you're done. Only problem was that the agent we got had not really been trained on how to pull up the data from the program. He had to get assistance from another agent but once he had it, all we had to do was sign the bottom and we were done with Customs. Roy and Ann hadn't done it so they had to fill in the necessary forms before they were done. Off to find an ATM so we could get Guilders. They will take US money but any change you get is in guilders. No Euros either. With money in hand, we had to make our way to Immigrations. Their office is no where near Customs. It across the river. So we walked about a half mile down one side of the river, over a bridge that swings open to let boats in and out and then up the left side of the river to a security booth where we had to sign in for clearance to get to go to the Immigration office.
With that done, we took off again for Immigration. Again, a quick and easy sign in and all four of us headed up stairs(same building) for the "Anchoring Permit Office". There are a few different places on Curacao where boat can anchor. If you want to move, you have to go back to the "Anchor Permit Office" and get a new permit. Cost $10US. Every time you move, you have to tell them when you are moving, where you are moving too and how long you are going to be there and where you are going when you leave there. This "office" is more like a window in a hallway. No chairs or seats, you just stand and wait your turn. At one time there were 8 of us waiting in the hall and more outside. It took a while for everyone to get their permits but once done, it was time for lunch so we walked back down to the security gate and returned out permits to walk to Immigration and then down the river side and over the bridge where we found a nice restaurant. Tracy and I each had a sandwich and a coke. Cost $19.00. Cokes run $3.00 for a can!!!

Once done with lunch, we needed to find Digicel. Well it was back on the far side of the river and the bridge was closed and swung away so a tug boat leading a car carrier could get through. No knowing how long it was going to take, we opted for the free ferry across the river. We knew about where Digicel was and we got a far better deal for internet here than in Bonaire. 18 gigs for $79. We paid $56 for just 8 gigs in Bonaire.

With that done, we headed for the bridge only to find it was just opening for another boat coming through but we waited till it was back open as it was to be a fast opening. We headed for the bus stop to catch the 6A bus back. As we neared the main terminal, we watched as the 6A bus pulled away. We'd just missed it and the next one wasn't for another 90 minutes. We asked around and found that there were smaller buses(mini vans) that would take you for $3.70 guilders(about $2.15) but would get us back much sooner than waiting for the bus to return. The four of us piled in and off we went getting back to the dock shortly there after. Roy hadn't found the spark plug he thought he needed to fix his outboard(got water in his gas) so we made plans to go in today and find it and scope out the local large grocery store. ( wrote all this a couple of days ago and will post again probably tomorrow morning on what we have done since)