Pitufa.at

We’ve spent the last “florines” in Willemstad, tidied the boat, said good-bye to our friends (that’s the sad side of the cruising life: many of the friends we make sail into other directions…) and will get up the anchor in one hour. The weather forecast looks ok, if it gets too rough we can still anchor in some safe spots along the way

We spent the last 3 weeks in a little side bay of Spanish waters that is quite protected from wind and swell, but experiences gusts from unpredictable directions, so most boats have either a stern anchor, or a line ashore to keep them from swinging against each other or the shore. While our engine didn’t work we had 3 anchors out which kept us in a stable position.
On Friday we took the mechanics for a test run around the bay (with the turbo now running again Pitufa does well over 8 eight knots ) and anchored then with just one anchor (free swinging in order to be able to leave anytime without a big hassle towards Columbia). That worked well on Saturday (unusually calm conditions), but this morning, right when we were about to go out hiking with friends, everything packed and ready to go we had the feeling that Pitufa was blown too close to the shore.

Safety must always come first, so we dropped the rucksack and the hiking sandals, got up the anchor and dropped it a bit further away from shore. Waited for the next gust–shit. Again too close to shore. Got up the anchor again, dropped it a bit further out. Shit. Too close to the neighbouring boat. Got up the anchor again and dropped it at the entrance of the bay. We’re safe now, but no longer very comfortable in the howling wind and waves building up across Spanish Waters. Doesn’t matter–we’re leaving on Tuesday anyway, the grib files predict fair winds for Wednesday and Thursday. Got under deck, looked at the new grib file. Shit. They’ve changed the forecast to strong winds throughout next week.

Incredible, but we’re still in Curacao. The expected 2 weeks have already turned into 5, but at least we’ve finished all repairs and maintenance jobs on the engine. We’re theoretically ready to leave, as soon as the weather allows it. Sailing down to Cartagena is a bit tricky, because the cape in the north of Columbia (Cabo de Vela) is infamous for strong winds and high steep waves, while the coast on the way south to Cartagena is often completely becalmed, or too windy as well. We’re now checking the grib files (wind and weather forecast) each day, waiting for the “magic moment” when there’s not too much wind to get safely around the cape, but enough wind to carry us down to Cartagena…
The anchorage in Spanish Waters seems to be full of people who’ve already spent months (or years ) waiting for that weather window and have grown roots here in the meantime. There’s a cruiser who offers internet connection, another one delivers water to the anchoring boats, mechanics offer their services, watermakers are on sale–anchoring in this bay feels like living in a small town. Free shuttles from two supermarkets pick up cruisers each day to encourage them to spend money
Of course there’s also some social life going on: there’s a happy hour for cruisers in the bar twice a week, people visit each other on their boats, exchange info, charts and books. We’ve enjoyed living in this community for a while, got lots of work done, but now we’re eager to get on and explore a new country.

After getting all the love and attention it had obviously missed, our Yanmar is now happily purring again (even the turbo works…). We’re now finishing some minor works, waiting for fair winds and getting in touch with “agentes” in Colombia (that sounds more exciting than it is. These agents don’t have the licence to kill, but the licence to speak to the harbour master to settle check in procedures and bureaucracy).

We’re still in Spanish waters, but now without a working engine (vital parts of it are at the mechanic being cleaned etc.). The little bay we’re in is fairly protected from the wind that constantly howls over Curacao, but we still get unpredictable, strong gusts from different directions, so we’ve brought out 3 anchors to be on the safe side…

Another disadvantage of our little corner here is that the dinghy ride to the jetty takes longer and is even splashier than before. In the beginning we got back to the boat with soaking wet clothes, and shopping bags filled up with saltwater, but now we strip to our underwear before getting into the dinghy (we’ve spotted streakers as well and put everything into dry bags.

While we’re waiting for the mechanics to come back and finish the job we do some maintenance work on the engine ourselves (change diesel filter, impeller, etc.) and additional jobs (laundry, translations, articles, blogs!!)–the days never seem long enough to get everything finished….

The mixing elbow on our engine has been leaking for a while, so we seized a chance to get it repaired here in Spanish Waters on Curacao. Additionally, since it may become more difficult at our next, more remote stops, we even organized to get a proper engine overhaul. Unfortunately the mechanics are busy until mid of next week, so we have to stay in Curacao longer than planned. To have it more comfortable, we moved to another anchorage where it is not that windy, splashy and busy with speed boats, jet skis, surfers, sailing dinghies that race regattas in-between the anchoring yachts… Particularly Leeloo likes the new place.

Today, June 11th, is an anniversary for us. Exactly one year ago we set sail towards the horizon. Browsing through our log book of this first year reveals some interesting numbers:

6746 nautical miles.
120 days at sea, of which
49 daysails.
9 countries.
65 anchorages.
36 islands.
15 days in a marina.
21 days on the hard.
406 engine hours.
638 litres of diesel.
23 litres of kerosene.
18 jars of Nutella.
15 bags of kitty litter.
24000 euros, of which
13000 euros for boat repairs and new equipment.

During the last few days we fell into a nice routine: I worked on my translations in the morning, while Christian did maintenance jobs on Pitufa. In the afternoon we packed our dive gear into the dinghi and explored the dive sites in the vicinity. With the wind blowing between 20 and 25 knots (gusting up to 30) we didn’t dare taking our small dinghi with its 3.5 hp outboard too far out
Today we’ll clear out, do another dive and then get Pitufa into “passage mode” (with everything stowed away safely + declattered). Tomorrow we’ll hop over 35 nm to the next island of the ABC: Curacao.

I wasn’t really in the mood for writing any posts last week, because I damaged my ears on our second dive, got a “don’t stick your head under the water for 1 week” from the doctor and had to watch from the surface while everybody else had a good time in Bonaire’s underwater wonderland… Yesterday I tried going down for the first time again and everything went right–I’m so relieved… We dived right underneath the boat and discovered that we have a new pet–there’s a giant moray leel living right between our mooring blocks Our cruiser friends left this morning for Curacao but we’ll stay a few days longer and do some more diving.

We hired a car (or rather something in-between an SUV and a truck) yesterday and visited the Washington-Slagbaai National Park in the Northwest of Bonaire. We didn’t expect too much at first since the island is rather dry and barren. Then we were surprised how stunning, bizarre, almost overwhelming the landscape of this island can be. Pics will come soon so you can see for yourself. We encountered colourful lizards, iguanas, as-pink-as-it-gets flamingos, parrots, pelicans, wild donkeys and goats, …