Curacau ( the Island not the booze )

Of course there's supposed to be a little squiggly thing under the second c but my 'friend' only speaks English , or the American version of that particular language......never mind. The booze , or to put it nicely the liqueur , comes from here too.
Of historical interest ......we were here in 1975,probably around Augustish ,when on our honeymoon 'cruise' from New Zealand to Italy. The cruise ship was docked just to left of this big boy , before the bridge .This time it was in September (2012) for time orientation after the that little trip into the future /present. We stayed about 2 months this time,mainly because it was a pleasant place and also we'd caught up with a few friends so were having a some nice little 'socials' and even found time to install our solar panel to help the old wind generator supply us with electricity. Add to that a very fancy resort with a great beach just round the corner from the anchorage and an American embassy where we could apply for (and did ) (and got ) another 5 year visa.

These are our friends  that we caught up with. A delightful bunch of 'kids'. They thought we were weird calling them kids but they were all younger than ours !

From the left...'er indoors..Dianna and Jerry ,Netherlanders who skipper and hostess cruise boats in Dutch St Maarten in the sailing season.......Bob....Heather ( Yank ) who is the wife of the English lad we went to the cricket with in Dominica. He was back in the USA getting his green card/citizenship whatever. Lucky bastard. Just after this Heather got an offer from UNICEF to get back to her old job "saving the world " instead sailing round it. So she is now based in Bankok looking out for kids all over SE Asia. On the right of the pic is Peter (pronounced Paiter in Clog ) and his lady Florence from France (Flo from France is less confusing ). They met when they were both working in ........you guessed it..........Singapore . Oh and barely visible is Arvid . Jerry's mate from Holland.

 

Anyway, Willemstad ,the big smoke on Curacao , is very Dutch......but still a whole lot Caribbean. 

 

Looks good in the day.

And at night

That's a full moon up there.

 

Cosmopolitan

 

Giving a damaged tree back its............dignity

The bridge is famous , the big attraction really. It's a line of pontoons on a hinge, basically. The whole thing is swung round by the pontoon on the end which has a motor.

 

That's the basic idea. Real one on the right.

 

You've got beaches here there and everywhere . You've got a fairly scrubby landscape but things like Flamingos are about

 

And there's always a guitar player to annoy.

 

 

And then you realize .....it's all a dream.

 

We set sail for the Island of Aruba at 1535 on the 17th of October 2012 and got there at 0800 on the 18th. We looked around for a couple of days.......bars, restaurants an' everything.

Anchor weighed at 2230 on 20th Oct 2012. Destination Santa Marta...COLOMBIA

 

Back to the Future

While in the process of catching up,which I don't seem to able to do the short way , I've decided to update to last weekend cos......I dunno. We decided to take a drive up to the Smokey Mountains to see the Fall colours and visit some friends while there. We took off with Perry and Susan and Holly on Friday and headed up to Ashville ,about a 6 hour drive, tostart our lil ol' trip.Ashville is a very pretty and cool town. It's a university town and very arty/hippie sorta place.Would really have liked to spend more time as it's full of art and craft galleries and music venues and the whole street scene is lots of fun with buskers and mimes and even a regular Friday drum "fest " in the central park. I'm not a fan of large gatherings of  "drummers " belting it out but these people had a huge variety of drums from bass to bongo and it was very atmospheric ........ .and stuff. Of course I left the camera back at the motel. Never the less it was a great afternoon and night and the next morning ,in the car park ,Perry recognized this guy he'd met a few years ago at his studio and called me over to meet him .His name had come up a few days before when we were jammin'/singalongin'  so we had to get a photo and he gave us a couple of CD's .   Cool.

 

                                             Perry  LEON REDBONE and me
Anyway we took off along the beautiful Blueridge Parkway ,a specially built scenic roadway ,and stopped at numerous lookouts or overlooks as they call them round here and went for a couple of little hikes...............not forgetting scenic lunch.

 

I dunno ,maybe 100 miles or so north up the Parkway ,we got to the Jefferson area where our friends Richard and Jina have got a beautiful house nestled in the trees.Had a great night at their place and the next day we hiked around the area. Guess we were a few days early for the full  "leaf show" but it sure is beautiful. It was a dogathon too and Holly had a ball running around with R and J's 3.

Group shot.That's Holly on the left then Perry ,Richard holding Mike ,Murphy almost hidden behind him then Jina ,Gail and Susan and Maurice tucked under my arm.

 

We all went over to visit Roger and Evans , who live a little further over towards the Tennessee border,and have just about finished their new house. Of course I forgot my camera but this is them when we were cruising with them in the Bahamas

And this is their pit bull Chester who we baby sat a couple of years ago.

When I say baby sat ...I mean it.You have to hold his hand/paw to keep him happy/secure.

And that's the house they built themselves..now finished.

We had another night at Richard and Jina's place and did some more hiking in the woods .

 

 

 

Then we left 'em on the front porch and headed back down the coast.

 

 Gotta say Jina's much prettier than the last chic he was hangin' out with.

 

The Photo Album

I think the description was originally about war or the life of a soldier at war but it's also used in cruising circles.
                        Hours of boredom with moments of terror.
Terror might be a bit much.....maybe very busy and worrying periods,charged with adrenaline and salt water.....but I'll go along with the boring bit.I've been looking through photographs and realize that we haven't got a lot of scenery .The first time we came back from a cruise...the Bahamas...we realized that we had so many sunsets and sunrises that most of them had to go. All very pretty but of course it's not just the colours (hmm  my American spell check doesn't like that u in colours ...whoops I mean colors...that's better ) What it is is the size of them...same as landscapes etc..
 

I mean,if you've seen one island covered in coconut palms you've pretty much seen 'em all..

Really though, arriving in a new place is exciting, interesting and what it's all about.

I've been surprised by the number of aircraft pilots that we've met along the way who go cruising . I don't know how many times I've looked up at a plane flying over and thought..'now that's the way to go'...It's hard to imagine that they look down at this little spec in the ocean and think..'gee...I wish I was travelling at 5mph '!

I think I'm getting off the track.

So....we arrived at Bonaire after about 76 hours of boredom....that is 3 or 4 hours of elation at being on our way then 70 hours of boredom followed by 2 or 3 hours of eager anticipation.. and picked up a mooring ball. That's Jabiru behind us on the left , and that's where you have to moor in Bonaire.

Her bow (sharp end ) is in about 20 ft and her stern in about 100 ft. That's why you can't anchor here as well as the fact anchors destroy coral and there's lots of it here with lots of colourful fish swimming about.

Still tired the next day but got an (oxymoronical )(spellcheck didn't like that either )energy drink.

Gotta love the Dutch.

 

Biggest difference from the eastern Caribbean islands........Really good food/groceries like lots of great cheeses and (how did I live without it since we were in Holland ? ) all sorts of licourice, particularly salted...Mmmm. Not the tropical lushness of the eastern Caribbean but yez can't have everything.   There was also this quirky museum/art gallery a local couple had put together.A little flock of pet flamingos and a yard and house full of all sorts of weird sculptures and .....................stuff.

These are the  "crazy" people who created the place.

And this is some more of their art.

 

Well I'm not getting any briefer but at least I'm not getting bored or frustrated.

(although I did call my 'friend' a little name before)

That's about it with Bonaire. Lots of snorkeling and eating and as we had to tie up our dinghy at the bar ,if we didn't feel like swimming (to the bar that is ) we felt obliged to partake of their products.

It's only fair.

Speaking of which......it's beer o'clock.

To Trinidad then Tobago and Back to Grenada

Just a quickie here.  Looks like we were so busy we didn't take many photos. We left Grenada, with  Bob, for an overnighter to Trinidad and after dodging round an oil rig, that some fool had decided to stick right in the middle of our rhumb line, we slipped in to Chaguaramas in a thrashing squall and against an amazing current, which actually had Bob going backwards for a bit.
We were there to work. We got hauled and painted Jabirus bottom and varnished her interior and oh yes, layed a little teak decking at the companionway.Now try and tell me that's not interesting

Then we put her back in the water and had a look around Trini.

How's that for excitement.

Gail, and her friends, were photographed doing water aerobics for a cruising publication and later published book.

You're on the edge of your seat now aren't you?

Don't get me wrong...we loved Trinidad.

Just can't remember many details and like I said..the camera seemed to be having a rest.

Might have been something in the water

Or was it......

Never mind........We took off to anchor overnight in a bay on the north coast . Bob called us up about two suspicious looking guys lurking around in a Panga. Turned out one of them was fishing and the other one was an outboard motor..........but ya can't be too careful!

 Next day we sailed over to Tobago.

Anchored at Charlottville up on the north coast. Cute place and pretty anchorage. Got there late ,so cleared in the next day on ..Gails birthday....whoopee.

Here's downtown Charlottville with the anchorage in the background. Note chicken crossing the road. I do actually know why......but I'm not tellin'.

Cute native on the beach.

The bus stop.

We explored the island by public transport.

And forgot the camera again.

Gails restaurant.

Bobs dilemma.

10 days or so saw us doing another overnighter back to Grenada to get a good shot going west to the ABC's.The Dutch islands.....Actually it's B C A heading west but after another week or so in good ol' Grenada we took off west in good winds and not bad waves.We weren't really interested in calling in anywhere in Venezuela as the elections were coming up and (the now 'late' ) Senor Chavez seemed to be encouraging violence especially towards us "filthy rich" gringos.

Anyway 3 days and 3 nights later we pulled up in Bonaire..picked up a mooring ball....and I'll tell yez about all that later.

Moving On

Well,it's still today but my friend was getting in a bit of  'mood ' so thought I'd just start a new post.
Where was I............aha.....yes ....things to do in (or on )Grenada.

Every Sunday at Whisper Cove Marina there's the cruisers 'Jam". Not a 'jam' as such but everyone who can play something sits in a circle ........drinks...... and takes turns in singin' a song. Always fun ,although I sometimes got a bit of resentment when I wanted to do a song that didn't necessarily include the chords G C and D .
More of a musical highlight for me was the monthly,or sometimes fortnightly jazzy concert in the big smoke...the lively little city of St Georges.There , a band led by a local soprano sax player by the name of Algy .Short for Algenon I think but nothing short about this guy!Anyway he runs the gig at the city museum and with various locals taking part always gets a "kickass" afternoon going.

Algy and myself always 'connected' so I was always welcome to sit in for the afternoon.Started to feel like a muso again!
Another band I'd sit in with did the barbeque (BBQ ...a word from the Carib Indian language) at Clarks Court Bay.
No photos from there except the night that the singer dragged Gail up on the dance floor for an impromptu 'show'

Ahem........See below

Anyway apart from more photos of beaches,palm trees,boats and cruisers sittin' round drinkin' t,that's pretty much Grenada...............

..Except for the cricket match...nearly forgot.So we took a bunch of American cricket virgins to  a one dayer at St Georges between India A and West Indies A.That's Bob down the front although he considers himself nearly an authority.Up the back in the blue shirt is Jack.He was asleep by the 3rd over but rallied later to enjoy the day out.Over to the left ,in front of Gail,is Lee.He was reasonably intrigued and as soon as the match was over ,ran on the field and grabbed a bat off some kids who were playing and hit a ball ( bowled by an 8 yr old )for 6.Came back to the stands thinking he could play for Australia if the offer came through.The rest enjoyed making a connection with a West Indies religion that hadn't been mentioned in the guide books. Under 'religion 'that is.

Grenada

We stayed here a little while as it's a popular hang out for cruisers avoiding hurricanes in the summer.Everything is pretty spaced out so the local guys with minibuses have lots of tours going and there's always something going on.One thing is Friday night fish fry or something like that at a place called Gouyave ,a fishing village on the west coast..Basically ,all sorts of food on offer in a street fair sortathing..Lucky for us,the night we went a local Rockstar was filming a video so the place was jumping . Gonna try uploading a short vid.
Other cool stuff was watching Leather back turtles digging "nests" in the beach and laying their eggs and also hatchlings making their dash to the surf before most of them get eaten by various hatchling gobblers.
How about a 'dinghy concert'? We all tie our dinghys up together and listen to a concert......and drink.That's below.

Things are moving around .......not exactly where I intended but I respect the decisions that my friend makes. After all, he/she is on my side.
We a team man.

 
That'll do ....uh oh I've gone yellow again...better move on.

 

Here We Go Again

I would imagine that everyone has given up on us by now....but wait....our old mate Russ from England was looking for us the other day and during our .....what!....9 months absence.....a few friends have tried to convince me that computers (those funny old things that everyone had before 'smart ' phones and Ipads etc ) are actually our friends. ......er....OK 'friend ' lets go.
We got back to Oriental on the 30th June after a 3 day and 3 hr ride up the Gulf Stream from Lake Worth Florida . As usual Oriental is "home base" which means lots of work on our lovely little home and lots of drinking with all our friends which helps them appreciate our constant playing/jamming etc. while they are trying to talk ....etc.

Looking back I see that my last posting was Christmas day 2012 where I said we were off to the 'Froggy' isles.We had just left a 'Froggy' isle ie: Martinique so I'm a little confused but I'm guessing that I thought St Lucia was French. It's all a bit strange down the Eastern Caribbean .These islands have been squabbled over by so many European nations over the years that  you'd expect the Caribs would be a little confused.  But not to worry......our glorious euro-ancestors just killed them or moved 'em somewhere else and then imported a bunch of African slaves to do all the hard work until they weren't allowed to do that anymore and now we have a string of islands that are 'owned' by the French and Poms and Yanks (sorry southerners ) and Dutch who have all put their little national stamp on it but none of them enough to extinguish the predominant African cultures.You know.....  music ,laughter,dancing,drinking and colourful clothes and houses and stuff.

Where was I.

Ah yes. So from St Lucia down past St Vincent to Bequia  then Canouan and on to Union Island and the cool little town of Clifton .Highlight , a visit to Happy Island on the reef surrounding Clifton.

This island was built by Jonti , over a period of ten years ,out of conch shells.Every island has tons of them lying around somewhere but Jonti decided to pile 'em up on the reef and build a bar on 'em.

 

Here's Happy Island and my "friend" has decided to write in blue which will come out in yellow on the blog..hmm

Oh ....and that's Jonti and my "friend " has decided to use black ink again .None of us remember leaving Happy Isle not even our unscheduled swims whilst trying to get in the dinghys.

What a mess

Anyway....gotta keep this brieferer!

Next,back up 5 miles to Tobago Keys.Just what yerd expect .Clear water ,turtles swimming around..more bloody palm trees...games of bolle on the beach...Bob hiking in his speedos .

 

Hope you ain't bored yet .....we gotta get to Grenada.

Right then....quick trip to Carriacou and into trouble with customs cos we anchored in the wrong bay ...but never fear...Bob is very quick to start talking cricket at which point I take over (cos he doesn't really know that the 'pitcher' is actually called the 'bowler')and before ya know it the customs frown has turned upside down and we talkin' cricket mon and int dat what lifes all about ?!

So we go on sout' to Grenada mon.

More rainforests and waterfalls and rock pools .

And different hats.

Not going as quick as planned but you can always turn off as my 'friend' and I are about to do.

Thanks for the nudge Russ and Grenada to Panama is next.