Wrapping Up Chapter One

We have now been in Curacao for over three months and the time has come to move on. The situation with us, however, is very different now than it was when we entered the island. My parents, Michael and Donna, have decided to return to the States where they will pursue a whole new adventure and life on the mainland. The reason we are even in Curacao right now is due to their one comment over ten months ago. “If you are looking at having an adventure or going off sailing, why don’t you come with us for a while and see if you really like this life style.” The rest, as they say, is history. We sailed and lived aboard their 36’ steel sailboat, Quercus, for over five months and have sailed across the Caribbean together. John and I not only had a blast but we were able to learn a lot in a short time that other wise would have taken us years and far more painful mistakes to get. Thank you Mom and Dad. P.S. My Mom is a photographer and she took some amazing photos from our trip and also from around the Caribbean, go check out her site at djkphotos.

My parents left roughly a month ago and since then John and I have been onboard alone. Quercus has been sold to a nice young Australian couple. They could not get to the boat for a month and so we agreed to watch over her and take care of her while we lived here. It has worked out great, not only did we have a nice safe place to stay but we got to truly experience what living on a boat on your own is like. We were expecting this period to be rather quiet and maybe we would even get a lot of personal projects done, such as updating this blog more! But as it turned out this month has been the busiest we’ve had in some time. We started our design “business” and have bartered free windsurfing lessons for some graphic design work. (p.s. From now on just click on photos in blog to view larger or for slideshow!)

Curacao Windsurf Diploma

I also designed a website for an amazing luxury yacht, named Astahaya. If you ever want to ACTUALLY sip on a cocktail while watching the sunset in paradise on a boat this is the way to do it. John worked on setting up and teaching a couple of close friends how to use and manage a blog. When we were not doing “office” work we (and I mean mostly John) also stumbled upon a thriving business, cleaning bottoms….boat bottoms that is. The water in Spanish Waters is like a warm lake, it is not the prettiest waters in the world. In these warm waters thing grow incredibly fast. A sailboat, in order to operate efficiently, needs to have a clean hull and prop. While we had no scuba gear, during this trip we have discovered that John is a good free-diver. So off he went diving under boats with nothing but a mask and a scraper.

One of the most pleasant aspects of these past months in Curacao is that we have met a ton of amazing people and have become close friends with many. Due to the people we have met we have also been able to take part in and enjoy a lot of new experiences. Here’s a short re-cap of the past few weeks.

We met Tom and Christian in Curacao, but they had actually been family friends for a while. Over the past few months we have become close friends and have spent a great deal of time together. When they found out that not only was Curacao hosting a gay pride week “Get Wet” but that we have never been to one before they insisted that we go along for the ride. Luckily for us, the event was advertised as “straight friendly!” It turned out to be a great weekend between having dinners in swanky restaurants, watching a movie by the beach in a designer bar, and several surprises along the way as well.

Tom & Christian

Tom is a kitchen wiz, and so is Christian, so when we invited them over to dinner I was a little nervous about their reactions. They are sweet but I can imagine they would be brutally honest as well! I cooked a few Japanese home style dishes since I figured it would be new for them. After some juicy Kara-age (fired chicken)

Kara-Age, Ummm Yummy

and Hiyashi-Chiyuka (summer noodles). It was a big hit if I may say so myself. I gave Tom the recipe and he has even cooked it for his guest…not bad for a girl who still can’t make white sauce. The first night’s reception was held in the historic and beautiful Hotel Kulanda.

Kulanda

The hotel is more like a miniature city preserved since the colony began as you wonder around the cobble stone streets.

Hotel Kulanda BuildingHotel Kulanda

Hotel Kulanda

Dance

Africa Shaped Statue

Night Out With Tom & Christian

Rainbow

Reception Night

Pride Week

The second day was a movie night at the designer bar and club, The Moon, where we lounges on sofas watching a movie outdoors. By good timing the full moon was actually out as well. The Moon is a must see for those interested in good design and cool spots while on Curacao.

The Moon The Moon Pool

The Moon Private Dining

The Moon BarMovie Night by the Beach

Night Out

The last night was a beach party. It was to be held right by where we were anchored. We just took the dingy over and watched a live DJ spin tunes in front of the beach while people danced or got thrown into the kiddy pool. Alot of the people we had met in the island over the last few months showed up, and we all talked danced, and sometimes swam until late at night.

On the 29th of September John turned 27. That morning, as we talked about in this post, we baby sat Sully, the pilot whale. What we had to do afterwards with barely any sleep was to head downtown to the immigrations office. We were in the process of requesting an extension to our visas so that we could sail out in a safe weather window. So we spent several hours in the office to find we had not only gotten nowhere but that the Coast Guard had been trying to find our boat for a week and had not been able to. I figured this was due to the fact that a U.S. Diplomat for Curacao had mysteriously gone missing near Spanish Waters just that week. I am guessing the C.G. had bigger issues to work on than finding our boat for a paperwork related matter. After a quick lunch in town we got back on the bus going home and wearily made our way back to our safe heaven, good ol’ Quercus. For this special occasion we had stopped at the grocery store on the way home and had bought cake mix, whip cream, and fresh cold milk! A rare treat in our current life. Unfortunately getting off the bus means you have to wait an hour for the same bus to make his lope and get back to you. The poor milk.

Safely back on board and after a nice nap I woke up and began cooking a sponge cake for John. Since we had no candles I had gotten some red plums and sliced them to spell 27…somewhat.

John turns 27

Happy Birthday!

27th Cake

We sat on the cockpit and enjoyed our cake and milk in the first moment of calm since leaving for town hours earlier. Not three bites into our second piece did we spy the giant inflatable Coast Guard boat coming up beside us. So much for a break! We then spent the next hour going through paperwork, and looking over the boat before they wished John a happy birthday and left us in their wake. We had originally planned on taking the extra cake up to the cruiser’s social to share and have a drink to celebrate. But after the ordeal of the day we just turned off all the lights and radios, plugged in the computer and settled into for a movie night. We found out days later that several good friends of ours, Tom, Christian, Otto, and Lilly had planned on a surprise birthday party and had even baked a beautiful cake for us but couldn’t get a hold of us! Don’t worry though, Tom & Christian have a big fridge and the cake was much appreciated a few days later. Thanks again everyone!

In the last weeks we managed to wrap up our windsurfing lessons, and are now ready to surf! For his birthday, and with his bottom cleaning money John was able to get his diver’s certification through another friend we had made on the island, Andy the Divemaster. In three short days John was able to get his certification, on his last day Andy even gave us a free tank so that we could go dive together alone. The water was crystal clean and as we descended downward near 60ft. we were in a dreamlike world of colors. While I was lost in the dreamlike world floating around I saw John’s eye’s pop out and he started pointing at something right behind my shoulder. Half hoping he was playing another one of his hilarious pranks on me I turned around to face a White Spotted Eagle Ray swimming right behind me! The Ray glided through the water and with it’s unique beak-like mouth and soaring motions there is no other description than to say it was flying. It circled around us several times and we watched in awe. As it slowly disappeared into greater deaths we turned back towards the shore and began swimming up. On the way back we did get to see a giant green Eel hiss at us from it’s hole. Those things really are as evil and mean looking as the Little Mermaid led me to believe years before.

These last few days we have truly began to feel like traveling nomads for the first time. The new owner came to pick up Quercus a few days ago and since then we have been bouncing around from friends to friend’s couches. However, since everyone has been so fun to be with it has helped ease the tension of being slightly homeless. Giancarlo and Luisa let us stay onboard their boat and we spent the next day running around town getting boats sorted out. We ended up on the breath taking coast line. Joost, even though he had a huge deadline that night let us stay at his place for a few days. Thank you everyone again!

Cliff Hugger

Coast Line John

Cliff Walkers

Windy Day By The Ocean

Resort Juust

Tomorrow we move aboard s/y Sunrunner with Captain Paul to begin our journey westward to Colombia. We will be sailing along the coast and having heard such great things about it we are excited to get started. Fair seas to all.