September 5,2020
It is always good to have a plan but one must be “agile”, ready to make changes. And even more so in this pandemic times.
Our next destination was going to be Aruba. We have planned this at the end of May when we left Dominica. We even paid a deposit to go into the marina in Aruba to make some works on Happy Days. Unfortunately (or fortunately ?) Aruba’s entry procedures were not clear for boats. And over the last couple of weeks, their COVID-19 spread rate has been growing rapidly.
On the other hand, Curacao is now open. They have a system in place that regulates the entrance of visitors depending on where they have spent their last couple of weeks. People is then classify in low, medium or high risk countries of origin.For us as we have been in Antigua and Martinique in the last couple of months we were classified as Low risk, which means no quarantine and no COVID test is required to enter. So, we decided to get the papers ready to go, take a couple of days to prepare the boat and say good bye to a couple of friends.
Last breakfast, swim, we have all the parts now… ready to go
We started our journey to Curacao which was estimated to last 4 or 5 days on Thursday September 3 at midday, after having our last breakfast on land and a last swim in Martinique’s waters. It will be only until French Polynesia when we can get another French “pain au chocolat”!. I’m sure we will find some other goodies on the way.
The first sailing day is always a bit hard, getting used to the rhythm of the waves is always complicated for me. So normally what I do is to prepare a couple of meals before and like this we don’t have to worry about cooking. Just trying to relax, sleep and sail nicely. And then the captain can concentrate on sailing, sailing, sailing …
Happy Days is a very marine boat so it has a nice sailing rhythm. The problem we had is that we were sailing in very unsettle conditions. It is the hurricane season, the trade-winds are not establish, we had wind but not exactly as forecasted and not in the right direction. The waves came from different directions and made a messy and uncomfortable sea. Not to mentioned the squalls that come and go completely unannounced. We were not supposed to be sailing in this part of the world at this time of the year. It is all consequence from COVID again!!
The first couple of days and nights went by, with this inexplicable patterns of winds and swells. The forecasted wind didn’t show up. The waves which to me looked like 3m tall, were in reality only half that height. We did not crossed any single sailboat only a couple of big 30 mts yachts and another couple of big containerships.
The nights were very clear with almost full moon. It had already started to decreased and show up later and later everyday. It is funny how much you notice this things when sailing.
We had a couple of friends joining us one night!!!
On the third night we had a horrible squall that came without any warning. I was in the back cabin sleeping and Cedric was on deck. Rafa (the autopilot) was helming, he normally helms all night without major problems, but this was different. I heard a very strong noise that woke me up. I stood up and went outside to see if I could help. Cedric had taken control over the helm as Rafa gybed… that was not good. Cedric continued helming during the squall and reduce the sails, everything was back to normal sailing. The rain stopped just a little after and we kept going 6 to 7 knots average speed. It was only until next morning with daylight that we assessed all the damages. So what really happened is when Rafa gibe, it broke the boom vang and it felt on top of one of the hatches and broke it. Not a huge problem as Cedric manage to tie the boom with a safety line to replace the function of the boom wang.
We kept going with the main sail and gib. But …there is always a but… as the sun started to come up higher there was a ray of sunshine coming thru the mainsail. Once again that wasn’t good. What happened was when the boom wang broke, the main sailed got shot upwards against the spreader and scratch through a small hole. As we kept sailing, stretch and extra friction made the hole wider and visible. That was the end of this trip for the mainsail. We decided it was better to sailed only with the gib. That meant lower speed and extending the navigation one extra night. Not my preference but anyway we have to take care of the boat and one extra night is not a big deal.
We had a nice current on our direction and with the help of the engine we were looking at the entrance of Curacao in Spanish Waters around noon on Monday. Excellent!!! We were happy to since we started seeing Curacao and more excited when we got closer to the entrance. It is always very exciting to arrive to a new place.
All was good and happy, almost close enough to land so we could get some signal for the phone. We have a plan now that covers the Caribbean, very convenient on these pandemic days to be communicated with the rest of the world. As we got closer, the coast guard came on high speed with their boat just to kill all our excitement. They told us we were not allowed to enter. He said our papers were not received. Apparently, the official site from the government to where we sent our papers was incorrect. The correct address is only know to them. How on earth were we supposed to know that before arriving? No way.
Our phone didn’t work, their radio didn’t work either so they took copies of our passports and boat papers and told us to wait. We were asked to stay 2 to 3 miles from shore. You can just tell a boat stay here don’t move when is 15knots of wind. We did a U turn and started going the other way. Against the wind.
About 30 min later, they told us we would have to wait for 2 to 3 days for papers to be processed. I was worried because we couldn’t just stay there for three days, floating around and bubbling up and down waiting for their bureaucracy. Finally a couple of hours later, they authorised us to anchored in Klein Curacao.
Little we knew about that tiny island, so a quick look at the map showed Klein Curacao is only 12 nautical miles away. But remember we were without a working main sail and going against the wind, very disappointed we were not allowed to enter and also worried they could decide to put us in 14 day quarantine. You never know these days.
3 hours later we were in Klein Curacao which means Little Curacao. It is a very small almost inhabited island. We were pleasantly surprise as the Island is beautiful. There was only one fishing boat, we took a mooring to the south side and just after we were all set, the boat left. So there we were alone in a deserted island. Not to worry, we had enough water and food for several days. So after 4 days sailing being refused entrance and all, we ended up in a little paradise!!! Ready for a nice plunge in a crystalline water good shower and amazing sunset!!
We will get to Curacao… when? we will see!!
Happy Days 