{"id":2395,"date":"2019-02-22T19:03:10","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T19:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/?p=2395"},"modified":"2019-02-23T13:39:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T13:39:04","slug":"curacao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/2019\/02\/curacao\/","title":{"rendered":"Cura\u00e7ao"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We’ve done this business of sailing from one country to the next a dozen times. Entry requirements and procedures vary widely: some countries will want only the captain with the crew’s passports, others want to see every crew in person. Some will happily accept pets—no questions asked—others will make it so complicated with requirements impossible to fulfill that you’d think twice before bringing Garfield. Some charge a cruising permit, some don’t. Some want to see your clearance papers from the previous port, some couldn’t care less. By far the easiest ones are the French islands: you fill in a form in a computer terminal that’s hosted at a souvenir shop, and voil\u00e0, you’re done. The more complicated ones require you to stop at three places: customs, immigration and ports authority, but even with the more complicated ones we never had a problem\u2026 until Cura\u00e7ao. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It felt as if they didn’t want us here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Thankfully, the quarantine hospital has been out of commission for a while<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The problem actually brew in Bonaire. When we arrived in Bonaire it was three of us, so our inbound clearance form lists three people. Paula joined us there, and when we all went to immigration before leaving, they just put a departure stamp in the inbound form to convert it into the outbound document. No one noticed the discrepancy: we handed four passports, but the form listed three people. Cura\u00e7ao is among the countries that want to see your exit papers from the previous country. I was already concerned that the timestamps would make it fairly obvious that we made an unauthorized stop in Klein Cura\u00e7ao, because it doesn’t take you two days to sail from Bonaire, and there aren’t any other places to stop in between. I was prepared to say that my kids wanted to have the experience of sailing overnight under a full moon, or some such. Instead, what the officer saw was that our exit papers listed three people leaving Bonaire, and four of us trying to enter Cura\u00e7ao. We became instant suspects of human trafficking! Paula’s passport had the proper exit stamp, but no amount of explaining made the officer bulge. “It’s not that I don’t believe you”, she said, “but I just can’t let you in.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Human trafficking suspects visiting the museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was a bit Kafkaesque. We were already anchored in Cura\u00e7ao. We took a taxi across a quarter of the island to the capital. We walked to customs and then across the bridge and through the entire town to immigration. You don’t get much more “in” than that, yet she wasn’t allowing us “in”. Having the extra passenger fly to Bonaire to sort things out wasn’t an option either: she wasn’t letting any of us, not even the boat, stay in Cura\u00e7ao. She said our only option was to sail back to Bonaire. I was making plans to sabotage my own boat to disable it, because there was no way I was putting my boat and family through the ordeal of sailing straight against those strong trade winds only to resolve a bureaucratic detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But… we just want to enjoy your beautiful beaches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She had us waiting for one hour. Then she said she was trying to contact authorities in Bonaire. It was Sunday. Not just any Sunday, but Sunday December 23rd. Late in the evening. I had no hopes, yet she came back a long while later to say that all is good, and welcome to Cura\u00e7ao. Did she really talk to somebody in Bonaire? And if so, what did they say? “Oh, Paula, yeah, she’s alright”, perhaps?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Welcome to Cura\u00e7ao (finally!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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No, wait… first you have to draw your boat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

We were still not done, though, since we needed anchoring permits from Ports Authority. So, the next day we went there to fill in more forms, this time with the strangest questions we’ve ever been officially asked. They wanted to know what anchorages we were going to be in, and exactly which dates in each (we’re cruisers\u2026 we have no idea where we’re going to be the day after tomorrow, let alone a month from now!). They wanted to know how much diesel, water and food we had. We asked for clarifications, which only made things worse: it wasn’t how much we had, but how much we were going to have when leaving the country. The agent seemed sympathetic: “what happens is that you cruisers do things differently”. Clearly! The icing on the cake was on the last page, which was blank except for the prompt “draw a picture of your boat”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, yeah, our initial impression of Cura\u00e7ao wasn’t very positive. The contrast between the crystal-clear waters of Bonaire and the murky waters of our anchorage didn’t help. When Kathy “volunteered” to dive in order to check if the anchor was well set, she simply couldn’t find the anchor. I had to apply reverse with the engines in order to get the chain taught above the sea bottom, so that she could visually follow the chain to the anchor, and even then it wasn’t easy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our certainly murky and seemingly peaceful anchorage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then, the fireworks. Oh my gosh, the fireworks! What is it with Cura\u00e7aoans and fireworks? Yes, it was the end of the year, but a constant barrage every night for weeks, at any time and from every corner, was a bit too much. For new year’s eve it was Armageddon: an almost 360-degree spectacle from our boat that started hours before midnight and continued well into the new year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cura\u00e7ao is geographically very similar to Bonaire, but it has more than 5 times the population density. That shows in way too many cars and too many Burger Kings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spent six weeks in the island. It took a little while, but ultimately Cura\u00e7ao grew on us. We just had to overcome the shock of leaving Bonaire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spanish Water<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Spanish Water is the only anchorage where you are allowed to stay for more than three days, so that’s where we established our base. It’s a large bay with a very narrow entrance which makes it very sheltered. We chose a small, isolated nook, dropped the anchor, and never saw anybody else anchor in the same area during the whole month we spent there. Perhaps people knew something we didn’t?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The eastern end of Spanish Water
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Don’t litter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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SUPing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Historic Willemstad<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The St. Anna Bay bisects the capital Willemstad. The two sides are connected by the Queen Emma Bridge, built in 1888, a pedestrian floating bridge that opens up to boat traffic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n