Our Fishy Tales : Curacao 2007

CURACAO, Netherlands Antilles, Southern Caribbean
(Sarah & Shanice come to visit and Andy skedadells to the BVI's..)

March/April 2007:
(Andy)
My mobile rings one Saturday evening......Unknown Number......Hmmm, strange must be overseas, and not any of our friends or family. Curious. 'Andy!, hey dude how's it going? It's Jesper!'. With those few words began what turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime. First let me fill in some of the background......

Jesper, our Danish friend, also known as " Ragin' ", was here on Curacao when we first arrived in May 2006. Jesper, totally mad but in a good way, had become a good friend as soon as we settled into the island. He left later in the year to pursue a dream......

Ah, the dream, sell everything you have, go to Florida to buy a yacht, and then sail around the Caribbean and eventually off though the Panama canal and west to the Far East. Straight forward really, except for one thing, he'd never sailed a day in his life and didn't know too much about buying a sail boat. A bit like buying an expensive car before you know how to drive...."Jump on the grenade", quote unquote. :-)

In early December Jesper and his pal Joos, a Dutch guy who was living on Curacao and who does have a fair bit of sailing experience and knows about boats, jetted of to Florida to buy a boat. The stories that followed are many, involving many dead ends and false trails, bum deals and never ending frustrations...and more than I can do justice to as part of my story.....but to cut a long story short on Christmas Day 2006, an important and emotional day for Jesper in the memory of the tragic Tsunami two years earlier, they find a boat, a 42ft sail boat called 'Solitude'. One careful owner now retired, many open ocean nautical miles in its wake, including trans-Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean sailing, and pretty much in a sail away condition. Jesper and Joos spend until the end of January preparing the boat and getting ready to sail Solitude down from Florida to Curacao.

They sail down through the Florida Keys, into and past the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and eventually into St Criox in the US Virgin Islands. Jesper and Joos had sailed more than half of the journey to Curacao, with a number of great experiences behind them as well as a few more forgettable ones, including running the boat aground in the Bahamas on one of the shifting reefs!!! Ouch.

'Andy!, hey dude how's it going? It's Jesper!'......The conversation that followed went something like.....hey good to hear from you, where are you?, St Criox, how's the trip?, not so good, Joos has gone off to Dominican, long story, but we've parted ways, I'm stuck, I need someone help me sail the boat down to Curacao, what are you doing next week? SHIT!

The temptation to take up the offer was naturally significant, heart ruling the head and all that. One side of me saying 'what a great opportunity, once in a lifetime, you'll regret it if you don't do it etc., etc.'.....while the other side, as well as our friends and understandably Sadie, were saying 'are you mad, you hardly know how to sail, no blue water experience, Jesper can only just sail, what about this, what about that etc., etc.........'.

A genuine dilemma.

To add to the complication our friends from home Sarah and her daughter Shanice were coming out to visit us for the next two weeks and the trip to sail the boat back to Curacao was smack bang in the middle. Not good timing.

More phone calls with Jesper ensued to get a better idea on the condition of the boat, provision levels, contingencies, safety devices, navigation equipment, auto pilots, harnesses, diesel and water capacity, how long the trip would take, intended route and worst case scenarios.

After much deliberation and being torn between and rock and an even harder place, a deal was struck. I was to meet Jesper in the British Virgin Islands just to the North of St Criox and to then head south for Curacao. A 490 mile journey which at an average of 6-7 knots would take us the best part of 4 days to sail, assuming we sailed round the clock. That seemed a good idea at the time.

There's another dimension to the story here too. In the preceding few weeks Sadie and I had decided that it was time to leave Curacao and to look for a new challenge in the diving world. By some strange bizarre coincidence we'd been in touch with a dive centre in the British Virgin Islands (BVIs), called Dive BVI, and we'd been short listed for a couples position, managing one of their centres. The timing couldn't be better. Having got through the 'phone interview stages what better opportunity than to fly up to meet Jeff and Casey the General Managers of Dive BVI to hopefully complete the final formalities and to seal the deal. Bingo. (More on this BVI thing later......)

So flights were booked to BVI from Curacao via St Maarten, and by another strange coincidence Graham and Hella our good friends from Curacao were to be in BVI at the same time, on a week's break. Too many coincidences here........

Anyway I meet up with Graham and Hella in St Maarten airport and we set off in the twin prop to Beef Island in Tortola the biggest island in the BVIs. We were met at the airport by a very happy Jesper who had moored 'Solitude' in Trellis Bay a stone's throw from the airport.

My time in BVI was tight. Having got there just after lunch time, I had to meet up with the BVI Crew and then steam over to Virgin Gorda for meet Jeff and Casey the General Manager's of Dive BVI and also Joe the joint owner who started up the business some 30 years ago. The interview went well and all the crew I met while there were really nice people....I do hope that we get the job!!!!!! We had time for a spot of lunch at the local bar the Bath and Turtle, and also time to check out some potential accommodation - Get this.....a one bedroom house, set in private grounds with two other houses and, wait for it, a swimming pool. Someone is smiling on us.......

Time was running short as we had to get back over to Tortola and Trellis Bay to get back to Solitude to meet up with Graham and Hez. So back on the dive boat and enough time for a wee tickey tour around Marina Cay......the location of the small but intimate high end dive centre that we hope to manage should we get the job. Cool little island, 3 bungalows, a restaurant and a bar. That's it.....oh and an old red British phone box next to Pusser's Store. We then settled into the evening for some dinner with G&H and Jesper, and a few Red Stripes....Oh it is good to be able to drink beer which isn't Polar, Heineken or Amstel....and not a Dutchman or Antillean in sight. Life is starting to be good again.

The next morning Jesper and I woke to a light drizzle and grey skies, and wasted no time getting a list of stores ready for the trip. We had to head for Road Town anyway, the biggest town in the BVIs, to clear ourselves and Solitude out of Immigration before we could leave. Road Town is a pretty small place, lots of yachts and Gin Palaces, and a few shops. It was also Cruise Ship day so the place was full of tourists in yellow Rain Macs...nice. With all the formalities done and stores in order we headed to Pusser's Bar for a well earned beer. Having spent the last year in the vicinity of bars that only sell Polar etc., is was good to see Guinness and Kronenbourg on draft, and Newcastle Brown Ale.......I know Brit abroad......but it had to be done.

The whole trip to the BVIs was exciting....the potential job, Virgin Gorda, the people (both locals and expats) and it had a good feel to it. Was this going to be our next destination???

Anyway back to the sailing.

We hauled anchor at about 3 in the afternoon, giving us enough daylight to get clear on the BVI archipelago and to head for the west side of St Criox in the US Virgin Islands. The trip was estimated at around 490 miles according to the GPS, and averaging 7/8 knots should see us getting into Spanish Water in Curacao late afternoon on Saturday.

It felt really good to eventually get to go sailing. It is a bit of a step to go from training in a 22 footer in sheltered water, to a 42 foot ocean going yacht, especially when the number sea hours between us could be measured in tens rather than hundreds. Nevertheless, the principles are pretty much the same, there's more contingency, charts, 2 GPS, 2 Auto Pilots etc., etc. Within a few hours we made it safely out of the BVIs and on a heading towards St Criox, the wind was with us and good enough to get up both the main sail and the Genoa. Down the west side of St Criox the wind was picking up and were the knots. We were forever conscious of not heeling the boat too much and staying safe, all in the knowledge that we knew what evasive action we had to take if the situation got a bit too for our bottles to take! As it turned out that moment wasn't too far away as the starboard rail started to dip into the water and the boat became too heavy to hold on the wheel....we were doing 10+ knots, the fastest Jesper had had the boat to to date. The trill and exhilaration was intense, blue water sailing was ahead of us for the next 3 or so days, and the night and the moon was beginning to rise.

We'd agreed that we would do 4 hour shifts are the wheel, while the other could take some rest and sleep down below during the night watch. Jesper took first watch and I headed below for a sleep. At about 3am Jesper woke me to tell me that it was time for my watch, but also to say that we needed to start up the engine. Not a good sign...ever since St Criox the wind had steadily dropped and now we were doing an unimpressive 3 knots, not even enough wind to keep the sails filled. So the motor was started and the sails dropped and we continued on our journey at a comfortable 7 knots. Goodbye peacefulness.

They say that the Windward Islands where the BVIs are and the broader Caribbean is the 'Wind Capitol of the World' especially during March to May when the winds are generally easterly. The time of year when everyone heads West and the same time of year when Columbus came over from Europe. Well for the next 48 hours we sat in flat calm, the sea was like a giant mirror all around us, without even a ripple to break the shine. Thank God we had enough diesel to allow us steam for 17 days non-stop, all we had to do was to hang tight and steer the boat in a straight line, preferably while awake :-).

The next two days passed slowly, interspersed by our daily ration of beer, food, visual inspections of the boat, the horizon, the compass and the GPS. Jesper also introduced me to a Danish dice game called Balut. It's a bit like Yahtzee (sp?) but with more structure to it. Really cool, check it out if you get a chance. We swapped watches as needed and kept our course. I think it was on the third day when our day was brightened up by a pod of around 150 spinner dolphins which decided to pay us a visit. They stayed around the boat for only 10 or so minutes but it was amazing to see them playing and jumping out of the sea all around us. Cameras were grabbed and we put the boat into neutral so as not to frighten them off. Then amazingly, about 150 yards off to starboard, a whale surfaced and blew, to then disappear back into the depths never to be seen by us again. A completely unforgettable experience.

Watches were resumed as night fell. Hopefully our last night as tomorrow we should catch sight of land, Bonaire, if our course was good, and then West to Curacao. It was my watch. Jesper was below catching up on sleep. Although I didn't know it at the time, it was around 03:30am. The next thing I know is that I hear, way, way in the distance, "Andy, Andy, are you OK?", the sound slowly surfaced out of my sub conscious and into reality. The next thing I hear is Jesper laughing out loud. A lot! Apparently, I'd fallen asleep while on watch, still steering the boat (both auto pilots had busted in the preceding two days!!). A Cardinal Sin I know. Despite the lapse of concentration we were still bang on course. Quite an achievement I think! Jesper then took over the watch and I headed off for sleep.

As our final day progressed, the sight of Bonaire emerging in the distance was a relief to us both, as was the freshening wind which was coming in from the East. At last we could haul sail and turn off the continual mechanical drone of the engine. We sailed past Klein Curacao off to the East side of it's parent island, and then round East Point and towards Spanish Water. the timing of our arrival was perfect, enough spare daylight to navigate our way into Spanish Water, safely past all the moored boats and to find one for ourselves to finally drop anchor and to bring an end to our adventure. We did it - 490 miles, 4 days, no accidents, no men over board, no fuel or water shortages or any fall outs. It felt good. It was also almost time for happy hour in Sarifundi's, now just a short dingy ride from the boat. We closed down the boat, packed my back pack and headed for the bar, and a phone so that I could call Sadie to let her know that we were safely back. It was great to speak to her and to hear our collective relief that we had made it back safely in one piece. Good to be home :-).

An adventure of a lifetime? Absolutely!!! Cheers Jesper...happy sailing....maybe we'll see you up in the BVIs in the future. By the way you can keep up with Jesper's travels and stories on www.calbo.dk .........RAGIN'!!!!!!

NEXT UP........Sarah and Shanice come to visit.....