The last few days here in Curacao.
09 August 2017 | Spanish Waters, Curacao
Bill/Partly cloudy
We just got back from a trip around Curacao. We needed a few things around the island so we grabbed the 0900 bus to Willemstad and climbed on the 2A bus that was to leave at 1015 and began the tour. We were in town in plenty of time to catch the 2B bus I took the other day to the chiropractor but I guess it got canceled as we never saw it. We sat back and let the driver take us around the island clear out to the airport on the north side of the island. We needed to go to Building Depot and Kooymans, both hardware stores looking for some new plugs 110 volt plugs for the electrical wires from the Yamaha to the connection on Zephyrs deck. It's been getting hot recently and there seems to be a bit of the plastic melting near one of the prongs. So it was off to town for us. We hit Kooymans first and looked to see what they had. Yes they had plugs but we wanted to see what Building Depot had as well. Kooyman even had a place to get lunch but what we wanted(Philly steak sandwich)they were out of. Off for Building Depot, right around the block. We found some plugs there and picked up a couple as well as some more ant killer and a plastic pad to put on one of the seat cushions in the cockpit so we don't get them so dirty coming in and out. We didn't like what their "restaurant" had so it was off to Van DenTweel after buying what we needed. As it was close to 1300, we stopped that their "restaurant" and had lunch. I had the Roti Rol(curry inside a Roti) while Tracy had a chicken, cheese, and onion on a panini roll. Both were quite good and I know I felt better after eating. It was a long time since my 7 crackers with jam breakfast.
We toured the store picking up a few items we couldn't find elsewhere in the other stores we have shopped at before and since we had to carry everything, we didn't get a lot. Off for the bus stop and back to the main station for the trip back to the "round about" outside the fisherman's dock where everyone puts their dinghies and then back to Zephyr but 1515. It's still blowing so the DuoGen is spinning nicely on the stern. Making some but not enough power to keep the batteries full but enough to let us get through the rest of the day. It was fun seeing the sights around the island and I figure we will do it again, maybe on the same route and maybe on a different one. They have a movie theatre in town so we might be heading in on Monday to see a movie. At just $5 guilders($2.79US) how can we go wrong.
It's now Monday and Sunday was a day we spent on board, never leaving the boat. It sprinkled off and on much of the day with the winds still staying in the high teens spinning our DuoGen on the stern. One neighbor, Serenity(Ann and Roy)came over and dropped off a bok for us to read. We'd discussed our book collection a few days ago when they were here for "sundowner" drinks. Tracy spent a great deal of yesterday reading it as I read an other book or surfed on the internet. She's been using a Kindle for quite some time and finds that she's having to get used to holding an actual book again. Much thicker than her Kindle. The rains came and left throughout the day so not much happened. One thing I did do was take a picture of the bow on Puff. We had her upside down a few days ago and found that the Hypalon is coming loose right at the bow on a small flat area. I sent an email to Highfield about it and they want us to take a picture of it and send it to them. Seemed quite concerned as they called it "dangerous" in their response. I got the pictures taken and sent so maybe we will hear from them today. We've had a problem with the paint on it peeling and they are sending us a complete set of anti skid treads to glue to the bottom once we strip it of it's bad paint. For a dinghy thats just over three years old(I think--got it in Thailand) the paint sure isn't holding up well. Guess we will see what their response is.
Ran the generator again this morning and I'll be taking apart the plug that goes into it and brings the volts to our deck plug for charging the batteries. It's been getting a bit hot of recent so I want to see if something is wrong. We bought replacement plugs on Saturday when we were touring the island. I'll let you know how that goes as well. Other than that, it's still blowing and we've had a half dozen little squall come through with more on the horizon. Should keep the deck nice and clean.
It's now Wednesday early morning and I'm sitting in the cockpit with Snowshoe(trying to get back to sleep again)as I sit here typing. Yesterday was a busy day with us heading for the free bus to do a bit of grocery shopping. Didn't really need much but it gets us off the boat. Back by 1030 and we ran the generator. I was going to do the change out of the plug when it was done. It ran till lunch(had tuna melts-yum) and then onto the plug. As you can see from the set of pictures, it was pretty well fried so it was a good thing to get it changed. Here's the new plug.
About 1600, there was a meeting of some of the cruisers that planned on heading for Panama given by another cruiser that has done the try several times. Probably close to 35 people showed up. We were split into two groups--foreigners-those that speak English and non-foreigners--those that speak Dutch. The presenter even came with some memory sticks with info to put in our computers(better charts and his tracks of where he has been). Talk lasted till about 1730 when we returned to Zephyr and stowed Puff on deck. Many of the group headed to one of the local restaurants down the street. We opted out.
Today? Not sure yet.