Bonaire to Curacao

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we day-sailed the 36nm from Bonaire to Curacao.  It was a great downwind sail with everything from lightning storm to sunny skies, and winds from 8-18 knots.

Curacao Sunset

The passage started quietly at 0700 with a light ESE wind.  A thunderstorm was on our port beam and should have passed quietly by.  However over the next few hours it continued downwind very slowly but grew rapidly.  We ended up with lightning both to port and ahead and increasing rain so we gybed away to the NW.  sv Cerulean departed an hour after us and did the same.

When on a good angle to lay the SW cape of Curacao we gybed back on the port.  We passed 1/4 mile ahead of Cerulean and we passed some time trying out VHF DSC messaging.  They gradually overtook us as the wind built to 15G22.

Our route was 36nm, our track 43nm and 46nm on the log.  A good average boat speed of 5.7 knots.  Here are the usual pictures.

Track

Arrival Track

Graphs

The entrance into Spanish Waters is narrow and in places shallow.  There's a Sandals Resort on the southern side of the channel which makes identifying it easy - look for the orange-roofed buildings.  Once through the entrance channel the Waters open up into an array of inlets and open areas.  We anchored in Anchorage A which is closest to the dinghy dock.

Sailin' in the Rain

Curaco Ahoy!

In the Spanish Waters entry channel

Sandals resort

Inside Spanish Waters

Zen Again and Cerulean in Anchorage A

We dinghied ashore intending to go into town to clear in.  Ashore we met the crew of JoJo who we met in Grenada.  They told us everything is shut for a public holiday.  And it was getting late in the afternoon so the Port Office would probably have been shut anyway.  So we deferred overnight.

We had a lazy night aboard Zen Again with a sundowner visitor from Cerulean.  Later in the evening we continued uploading a year's worth of raw video to Dropbox via Starlink.  Many tens of GB.  Even uploading is blazingly fast compared to mobile, and it isn't using a bandwidth allowance.

Starlink Stats while uploading

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We're looking forward to exploring Curacao.

Trust all's well where you are!