Our Last Days in Curacao

When we sailed to Spanish Waters it was our intention to clear out of Curacao on Sunday and then leave on Monday for Antigua. However, when we got up on Sunday we decided we all (Rob included) need a day of rest and relaxation so except for a couple of boat chores that's what we did.
Unfortunately the anchorage in Santa Martha was very muddy and our anchor chain came up "wrapped" in mud. Griff tried to rinse or brush it off while bringing up the anchor, but a lot of the mud went down the windlass channel into the chain locker. Needless to say when Griff let out the anchor in Spanish Waters the dry mud came up too and was all over the bow deck. I decided to clean it up before it rained and the dirt reverted back to mud. I was successful. Then we took our gerry cans to the
yacht club and topped up the diesel, gasoline and water tanks.
After that and a quick shower Rob took us out for dinner to The Boathouse, a restaurant overlooking one arm of Spanish Waters. The food tasted great and could easily have been served in any five star restaurant back home. Rob got a cab from the restaurant to the airport for his flight back to cold Toronto.
Bright and early Monday morning we headed into Willemstadt to clear Customs and Immigration. When we got back to the boat Griff snorkeled down to clean the prop of all the barnacles that had collected since Grenada. He discovered there was still some rope from when we backed over the mooring line in Bonaire. We then decided to check the foresail. The rope ends looked frayed and in order to fix those we had to pull out the sail totally. We discovered the stitching on a couple of seams had come
undone so that meant a repair job before we put the sail back up. Unfortunately the wind kept us from taking the sail down until Monday evening s0 I worked on it then and Tuesday morning. Finally we were ready to head out to Antigua.
Leaving Curacao I got to thinking about what was most memorable about our stay there. Of course there was Christmas with the family - watching everyone opening their presents. Amelia with wild exuberance, Alex more subdued and the adults acting like adults. The final memory of Lucy's Place occurred while we were bringing up the anchor. We heard a shout and looked up. There on the patio of Lucy's Place stood Ricarda (Rica) Jason. Rica was the housekeeper for the rental agency, but she looked
after us way beyond what I'm sure her job required she do. She lent us her wireless modem and TV until the ones we had previously that didn't work were replaced. She was there every day including Christmas acting as a supervisor of the workers and providing us with information. This even though she spoke little English and we spoke no Spanish or Papiamentu - her native tongues. She is a beautiful person and helped make our stay at Lucy's Place tolerable.
The last occurrence, although memorable was not pleasant, while it was going on in Spanish Waters. It seems that fireworks play a large part in the island's holiday celebrations. However, they are not like the fireworks at home. Here they have a lot of noise, but little display. Unfortunately to us they sounded very similar to the sound we heard when the boat in Bonaire burned. Like I said - memorable but not pleasant.
Well that's it for Curacao. Next blog will be about our trip across the Venezuelan Basin of the Caribbean Sea on our way to Antigua.