kwilenacat

Oct 514 min read

Always an ocean view - ABC's and Colombia

Following on from our previous blog about Bonaire and Curaçao.... we have spent a bit more time in these two places and added a few more photos and stories. You can also see what we have been up to in Klein Curaçao, Aruba and Colombia.

Bonaire

It is incredible to be in such a magical place during the hurricane season.

Surprisingly, there are not that many boats staying here (more boats seem to stay in Spanish waters / Curaçao).

Kwilena on "our" long-term buoy managed by the Marina.

I did promise you an update on Sven's kiting progress. He is now staying up and getting the hang of it.

In this short video you can see Sven kiting (he in the back, so don't get distracted by the girls in the front😊)

"Have a good day" coffee cup from the Bonaire kiting school

And here some more beautiful flamingos.

and a short video which I was unable to load on our last blog.

We went to a corner of Bonaire island, which we had not previously visited. This time to orange and not pink salt lakes !

Sven was investigating the white foam ... going in ankle-deep.

This is not just hard white salt, it is like natural, bubbly, slimy water and Sven had sticky hands and feet after touching it

We parked our scooter in front of mountains of old Conch shells. You can see the beautiful quiet lagoon at the back.

A quick walk through some mangroves to reach a lovely quiet lagoon.

This picture was taken back at the Salt Pier. There is always free salt for all.

Our boat in front of a small fisherman shack. The hooks on the left are for catching Tuna. On the right you can see Sven bringing back a fresh tuna for lunch (check out the front of Paddle board) .

This is normally a quiet place, but the locals had a competition that day. We had great views from our boat.

Check out these two short clips

Always different sunsets at night. Here again a few.

Sadly, it is time for us to say Goodbye to PARADISE (see sign below)

But after 10 weeks in Bonaire (we planned to stay only one week), we need to continue our journey towards Curaçao, Aruba and Columbia.

Klein Curaçao

It was a pleasant 25 NM sail from Bonaire to Klein Curaçao, a small uninhabited island.

The only structures on the island are some ruins of slave huts (small, single-room structures dating to the region's period of slavery, a lighthouse, a small open shelter and some sun shaded areas for the day tours.

The island also has many shipwrecks and a dark history (it was used as a quarantine island for sick slaves brought to Curacao from Africa). In the worst of times, from around 1640 to 1740, more than 300 ships were in service sailing from the west coast of Africa to the Caribbean – each with up to 600 slaves on board. Sick slaves could not be sold and in order to stop the spread of diseases in Curaçao, they were placed in quarantine at Klein Curaçao. The first quarantine building can still be found in the northwest of the island. The slaves, and other passengers who did not survive the voyage, were buried on the island.

We tried to set anchor 3 times, but it kept slipping on the crusty surface. Went onto a buoy for the first night. We got lucky the second night, with the anchor finally holding.

On a mooring buoy, with a beautiful view onto the white sand.

Our view. is always an ocean view 😊

Only two boats stayed overnight (Boat of an Austrian couple who joined us for a drink and us).

When all the tourist boats left, we walked around the island and it felt really special to have this beautiful island all to ourselves.

We saw many fresh turtle tracks and sand craters where the turtle eggs were buried .

Another end of the day.

Our footprints can be seen along the water edge.

As mentioned earlier, there are many ship wrecks on the windward side of the island. It is very sad to see these boats and we really felt for the crew. The 1st picture is of a boat that got stranded on the day that we arrived in Bonaire (our buddy boat Anastacia sailed past them when a helicopter and coast guard were already assisting the boat in need). The boat content was still scattered on the beach 😥 including the toilet seat. The boat on the right has been stranded for much longer..

In 1982, the oil tanker, Maria Bianca Guidesman, ran aground. It looks so impressive to see this boat still standing there somehow.

There are other boat wrecks and boat parts visible on the island.

This beautiful stormed-weathered lighthouse was built in 1850 (and rebuilt twice after being destroyed by storms), it can be found in the center of this small uninhabited island.

Curaçao

I visited the C island with my sister a few weeks earlier (details are in our last blog),

Entering with our own boat was a new experience. The Queen Emma bridge in Willemstad is hinged and opens regularly to enable the passage of oceangoing vessels. On the opposite end from the hinge is a small shelter where an operator controls two diesel engines turning propellers. The propellers are mounted perpendicular to the length of the bridge and allow it to swing parallel to the shore. The process only takes a few minutes to complete.

We had to call the bridge operator over the allocated radio channel and asked for the bridge to be opened.

We walked across the same bridge for our check-in at customs and immigration.

We hired a car, drove to the national park and visited a cave.

Goodbye Willemstad- it was a short 2 nights visit only.

Called the bridge again and waited for it to open to let us pass.

Back in the ocean, passing a Seadrill ship.

Our next leg was a 5 hours trip to our anchorage in San Pedro (north of Curaçao).

We were the only boat in the bay.

Our boating map showed that we were allowed to anchor here (which is not always correct). From the restaurant, where this picture was taken, we could see a Coast Guard boat circling ours .. We watched them and were about the cut our lunch short, but luckily for us they gave up and continued.

San Pedro bay restaurant at night.

Aruba

We sailed 11 hours from Curaçao to Aruba (the A island of the ABC's) and anchored in the Port for the night.

Whilst it was interesting to watch the container ships being loaded and unloaded, it was not the idyllic spot to stay. We left at first light and went to the customs dock which was only around the corner.

The customs dock had many markers and shallow waters. We squeezed our boat between two boats from Venezuela which were unloading their fresh fruit. They kindly helped us with our lines.

After we finished with immigration and customs, we had 3 officials asking to board. They wore heavy boots and we were first hesitant to ask them if they could please remove them. They said they couldn't' but were happy to put some plastic bags over them (luckily we still had some old Duty free bags from Dubai). They left once they were happy that we did not have too much alcohol, no weapons or any other illegal items on board.

We left the Port and sailed around the corner. There are only 2 official bays where boats are allowed to anchor. We chose Surfside beach which is close to the Aruba airport. Noise was okay, even though the planes frequently flew quite low over the bay.

Oranjestad is the capital of Aruba. There is a commercial complex (see below) which looks interesting from far away, however when in front of it, you can see that the building is in desperate need of renovation.

We left the dinghy at the Marina. There are many high class fashion brands everywhere.

A free electric tram offers hop on / hop off stops along the way.

This fisherman sent the Moray Eel back into the water.

This was our anchor spot in Aruba. There is a convenient dinghy place in front of the restaurant.

A restaurant with a difference. The entire place is full of personalised 1 dollar notes.

Well, Sven has tried many of the locals beers and really likes the Magic Mango.

I liked the sign on the door "SORRY..WE ARE OPEN!

Beautiful Fofoti and Divi-Divi trees, can be found on Aruba island. Fofoti trees often grow on the coastline

The trees provide perfect shade. Check out the people behind Sven, they just moved their chairs into the water and socialised.

We checked out this mini island which was just behind our boat. There are lots of sand banks and rocks/reefs which were not indicated on our boating map. You really do not want to enter this bay at night. Second picture shows Sven getting ready to pull the dinghy back up (we never leave it out overnight).

Aruba is very different from the B and C islands. Lots of Tourists, many large hotels and lots of white sand. But other than that there is not a lot here. Sven and I walked along the beach (24'000 steps there and back) to check out the Supermarket. It was 30 degrees in the shade, so quite a hot beach walk .

Hired another small car for a day. First stop was the Museum of Industry which is situated in an old Water Tower in San Nicolas. It narrates Aruba's industrial history which began in the 19th century and documents gold mining, aloe cultivation, phosphate processing, and the oil industry. While some of these businesses are no longer viable, they are pillars shaping Aruba's socio-economic landscape. There was also a video room where different Aruba people were telling their story about the different industries (picture 2).

We visited the murals in San Nicolas. Aruba has become more colourful thanks to a local foundation and art gallery, along with the contributions of numerous local and international artists

This was our favourite mural art.

Drove past some rock formations along our way back.

We stayed in Aruba longer than planned, as we had to wait for a good weather window.

It is a 2 days, 2 nights trip to Santa Marta, Colombia and the passage is considered to be one of the most unpredictable and potentially a difficult sail The weather forecast is only considered a prediction and things are known to change very quickly The high mountains on the headland close to Santa Marta (5710m) often cause winds which accelerate down the steep slopes and sailing can be treacherous, or at best, uncomfortable with high winds and high rolling waves. We read that many sailors (who did not get sea sick previously) got sick on this route. I put the seasickness tablets out (just in case), prepared every meal ahead of time and just hoped to be lucky.

You know what they say, “if there’s anything worse than knowing too little, it’s knowing too much”… and I read all I could and subsequently got a bit tense before we left. There was potential lightening forecasted (which is normal for this time and this area).

We wanted to make sure that we arrived in Colombia early morning. This meant that we had to leave Aruba at 5.15 am. We were very pleased that we could leave the sails up for 70 percent of the trip (the forecast was that we had to motor most of the way),

The conditions were perfect. Just before our 2nd night Sven said: "You see, they forecasted lightening for the entire journey and we had none so far"..... (Man soll den Tag nicht vor dem Abend loben / Don't count your chickens before they hatch)..,.

We saw some development around us and took the sails down. Two birds settled in on our solar panel (they seem to know when there is a storm approaching). It was pitch dark, we could not see a thing. We split the plotter screen so we could see the other boats and the radar image (picture 1). We tried to motor away from the approaching storm (still looking out for several cargo ships). This worked well initially, however, the lightening was suddenly all around us (many did not show up on the radar). So we looked at each other knowing, that there nothing more which could be done than hope for the best. Picture 2 shows a squall. (sudden wind speed increase and from different wind direction).True Wind speed (gusts) were briefly increasing from 9 to 58 than 60 knots (picture 3).

I was busy putting ipad, mobile phones, laptops into the oven, as we read that this could help to protect the items from a potential lightening strike. I was also bringing the grab bag closer, just in case if we had to leave the boat in a rush...

As mentioned, it was pitch dark - we could only see something for a few seconds when there was a lightening. I could not take pictures when it was really bad (as mentioned my phone was in the oven for protection) but I was also too scared to look at the lightening hitting the water close to the boat (we have sailing friends whose boats got hit by lightening, for one boat all the food tins exploded and damaged equipment and the other one got damaged so badly that nothing worked anymore and they had to wait until someone pulled their boat to safety). Of course we have a lot of respect for lightening storms.

Below pictures were taken when the storm moved away from us

Santa Marta, Colombia

We were not able to sleep outside during our second night shift (the cockpit was too wet). The inside of the boat was really humid with little air due to the closed door and hatches.

I was relieved when the sun came up (we could not see the moon all night) and we were happy to see land. Lush green trees, bushes and mountains greeted us. We will like it here. The birds looked really drenched and exhausted in the morning and only left when we were close to land.

The custom clearance was done via an agent.

Our slip at Santa Marta Marina.

How lovely to experience a new culture. We felt immediately at home. Santa Marta is a very vibrant place. We love the music, the street vendors and the atmosphere. Nobody speaks English here. We went for lunch and tried to work out the currency with its many zeros. So, Colombian Pesos or COP 1'000'000 are AUD 352.-

Sailing boat lamps

We bought a Pina Colada from one of the beach stands, however an artwork was given to us instead 🤣. It took the seller 30 minutes to make it. First he needed to go and buy the alcohol and then he disappeared again with the blender to find some electricity somewhere.... He vas visible exhausted and sweating profoundly when he passed us the drink.

They have many shops, all selling the same bags. But it is so nice to see these colourful handmade goods.

We explored the streets and visited the museum, Casa de la Aduana which is housed in a colonial building in the city centre of Santa Marta, Magdalena. It is the regional headquarters of the Gold Museum, which is part of the Bank of the Republic of Colombia. Of course there was not just gold to see.

Always interesting to see the communication cables in the street.

There are many people selling cigars and cigarettes "the old fashion way" (pic 1) but. some of them are also trying to sell you white powder bags Scary.

Do you think these look like lovely flowers? So did we... but we were warned by several locals to be very careful. Scopolamine is used to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by motion sickness and for some other conditions. In higher doses, Scopolamine is used for criminal activities. It can cause a person to become so confused, disoriented, and easily manipulated that they may not remember what has happened to them. Just a small amount can knock someone out in seconds when dropped in their drink, or used in a spray bottle or some say even when blown into their face. This way of using it may also be the origin of its nickname, “Devil's Breath".

The flowers on the first picture below grow in the wild.

Another popular way to get around (in many parts of Colombia) is to hire a bike ride (they stand around like Taxis)

We decided to explore Minca, a small village which is perched on top of a mountain in the Colombian Sierra Nevadas and is overlooking Santa Marta and the Caribbean Sea. Once you are there, you can either rent a dirt bike, a Quad bike or get a 4 wheel drive with a driver. This was a spur of the moment thing and we really were not prepared. We were just about to hire a Quad bike but luckily were not dressed accordingly.

I am so glad we didn't. The roads were really bad and slippery (it rains around 1 pm nearly every day up here).

We hired a Jeep with a driver for 6 hours. We saw a lot of areas which we may have otherwise missed.

We even had some company from school kids saying hello and hanging on at the back of the jeep.

We loved the visit to a local coffee plantation "La Victoria", where we could see how some of the world’s highest quality coffee beans are grown. We learned about the process of picking, aging and roasting the coffee beans. We had a new respect for the manual labour of picking the fruits and how the pickers carry 14 kilos in each bucket to the collection points. But most of all, they have to watch out for poisonous snakes at all times before sticking their hands into the coffee plants. Some still get bitten.

Coffee plant "cherries"

The different stages of the fruit (the ripe ones are red) and processing/roasting of the "cherries".

This factory had machinery from all over the world. The workshop is on the right.

There is a beer factory next to the coffee factory. It is housed in an old church.

We had lunch at a small lodge where guests can stay in bush huts (instead of a balcony there is a net overhanging a deep drop...). The owner obviously had a vision with lots of items hanging or swinging over a canyon.. Certainly not for everyone. The sign read no jumping, take shoes off and no sex (really?)

We also visited rivers and waterfalls.

Diaethria phlogea, is an interesting butterfly which is found in Colombia, It has been given the nickname "89/98" because of the markings on its wings resembling an 89 and 98. We tried our best to get a photo with our iphone (photo 1)... but for illustration purposes we acknowledge Wikipedia for the photo on the right,

Sven drove me from Santa Marta to Baranquilla (2 hours by car), since my plane to Australia departed from there. We got stuck in a protest for about 40 minutes. It was in a very poor area and we had time to take it all in. Some people were looking through ripped garbage bags with its contents scattered all around. Animals roamed the streets and people sat outside their self-built huts. A teenager knocked on our window and asked us to put the window down and when we didn't, hand signed that we should follow him...which we also kindly declined.

Many people do it so tuff in Colombia.

After visiting the Central Plaza in Baranquilla and a church, we went on to see the Shakira statue. Shakira was born February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, she is a Colombian singer, songwriter, musician, and dancer who built a successful career in both Spanish- and English-speaking markets and is one of the most popular Latin American recording artists of the early 21st century. The Barefoot Foundation (Spanish: Fundacion Pies Descalzos is a Colombian charity founded by Shakira in 1997 with the aim to help poor and impoverished children. She is very popular and there were many people wanting to take a picture with her statue.

It was a long trip to Australia. The flight departed from Barranquilla with stop over in Bogota for 1.5 hour and a stop over in Santiago the Chile for 10 hours)

Look at that incredible view over the Chilean mountains!