Sunriser

It is almost Christmas and we finally make preparations for sailing to the Dominican Republic. What was planned as a couple of days for cleaning and shopping and clearing out customs and immigration has turned into an unplanned holiday of 20 days in Curaçao. Not the worst place to be stuck waiting for weather though.

After completing the administrative duties at customs and immigration we moved out of the marina pretty soon with the honest intention of immediately setting sail to the North. We would be followed soon by Happinez so we made a ‘short’ stop at Santa Cruz beach to give them some time to catch up…. And then the weather gods decided that we had not properly appreciated the beauty of Curaçao and blew storm winds for 2weeks to force us to stay.

Santa Cruz is a very quiet anchorage with just the restaurant of Captain Good Life, a local celebrity, with whom we got acquainted during our stay. He looked after Sunriser while we were away and bought our bikes for his wife and daughter.

Max and Anne-Marie live around the corner from Santa Cruz beach and they kindly lend us their car (and opened their home for us, fed us and took us to a most amusing Karaoke Christmas party) so we could explore Curaçao while waiting for a favorable sign from the weather gods.
We did some hikes and walked to the caves in the North and explored the beaches around Santa Cruz; the west coast of Curaçao has beautiful bays and coves tugged among the cliffs and the cruising potential of the area has not yet been exploited, so we remained alone in our private paradise for almost two weeks.

Diving and snorkeling in Curaçao is also excellent with some spectacular spots as the sunken tugboat right under an oil platform.

Sometimes you don’t need to look very far away for a good snorkeling spot; this was at the beach of the Avila beach resort!

Finally there is a weather window to cross to the Dominican Republic; however, the strong east winds have been replaced by a very weak breeze which will probably force us to motor part of the way and lengthen the passage. The silver lining is that we can continue to the Samaná peninsula and pass the very much feared Mona passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic in calm conditions.
We will also have company during the crossing of Happinez and Stone Free who will be leaving simultaneously with us but taking the east route while we will round Curaçao from the west. May the fastest win!