After 66 days in Curacao, we decided to leave and head back to Bonaire.  We rented a car and did a huge provision run stopping at Best Buy, Cost U Less, Van Den Tweel, Vruegdenhil, Scuba Shop, Luna Market, Kooyman, Building Depot, electrical shop, and a few other places.  Somehow, I managed to get over 28k steps!!!  Needless to say, our little picante car and our dinghy were full to capacity on the way back.

Yes, we use a lot of flour (new 20lb), found some Sprite Zero, Special K bars and lots more!

The shopping and transporting seem easy compared to the storage prep on some occasions. Once we unpack the food we use a sharpie to write the contents and expiration date on the top of every can and bottle. We then rip the label and glue off and out blue tape on the bottom rim for storage. The removal of the label and glue prevent weebles and roaches from  coming onto the boat and thriving and the blue tape prevents the cans from rusting and leaving a ring on our cabinet shelves. Then all cardboard is removed from the boat so anything in cardboard is put in zip locks or Tupperware (avoiding weebles). I know plastic—eek!  But you can’t have glass on a boat and we do reuse as much as possible.

We make a lot of pizza from scratch. Soon we will start making our own sauce too.

It took us several hours to prepare to depart, as Matt wanted to clean, for the 3rd time, the 2^nd anchor line, the bridle, and the main anchor chain before bringing them onto the boat – at least try to get another layer of hair, grime, and growth off before stowing everything in the lockers.  As you know from previous blogs, we experienced a lot of growth on everything that was underwater.

Once we were free, several hours later, we swung by the Curacao Yacht Club with the big boat which is next to a small reef and rocks.  Luckily, it was a low wind day and Matt was able to expertly “cat walk” the boat into the dock which is well protected with large A3 fenders.  We needed to get diesel ($0.61/liter) for the big boat, gas ($0.91/liter) for the dinghy, and water ($0.15/liter) for the humans.  We got about 390 liters of diesel, 50 liters of gas, and 388 liters of water all for under $400!  Excellent prices and a super nice attendant too boot!

Curacao Yacht Club before we arrived.

We then had to make a choice, where do we want to stay – Fuik Bay (1 mile away) or Klein Curacao (13 miles away)?  The decision was made to head to Klein Curacao to knock miles off toward Bonaire.  It was only about 13 miles away, but it was a bit into the wind and seas.  We made it with no issues and enjoyed one of the 6 moorings available for visiting yachts.  Luckily, we came at the end of the day so the day charter boats had already left or were in the process of leaving.

Arriving at Klein Curacao with the lighthouse and ship wreck in view.

Klein Curacao is a 1.2 square mile uninhabited island with a lighthouse, several ship wrecks, and some thatch roofed complexes that the day charter boats use to entertain and feed their guests.  This little island used to be very fertile until mainland farmers decided to use it as goat grazing land which turned it barren.  Then from 1871 to 1886 the island was mined for phosphate until it was mined out which caused the level of the island and seabird population to plummet.  The island then played its part in the slave trade as a quarantine location for sick slaves and resting place for those who died.  Then in 1888, the German Navy descended on the island intent on building a naval shipyard until the tropical storms washed it away.  They ran out of money to fund its reconstruction and abandoned the entire idea.  Now, it is a great day stop for avid swimmers, snorkelers, and divers to enjoy pristine, white beaches and beautiful sea life.

Arriving at Klein Curacao. The tall thatch hut is a day stop for the Mermaid Tours.

With a quiet beach, nice calm seas, and a beautiful sunset, we settled into our evening with a pork chop dinner and a cocktail on the lido deck in our bean bag chairs.

There are a few things we have to plan our life around while living on a boat: water, food, fuel, electricity, and data.

We get water delivered every two weeks from the “water boat” even though we have a water maker on board.  Since the water is so dirty at this anchorage we determined it was about the same price to buy the water (which is really good quality) than it was to replace our water maker filters.

We are pretty stocked on food, but will need to do a large provision run before we leave for Bonaire (which will require a car).

We have not refueled Sugar Shack since we left St. Maarten so we will need to do that before we leave as well (need a fairly low wind day). We can buy fuel from the Curacao Yacht Club but docking poses a challenge on windy days.

Our solar panels charge our batteries and if necessary we run our small Honda generator to give it a boost when we are running the inverter or have lots of electrical draw.

We have several sources for data.  Currently, we are lucky enough to get data on the boat from a place on shore, for free, but it fluctuates based on the number of users and the weather.  So, when the weather is bad, or there are lots of users or when we are on shore we don’t have internet access.  So, we purchased a Digicel plan (which is a local provider frequently used on many Caribbean islands).  We purchased a 30-day plan for $50 which gives you 15 gigs.  Normally we run through 15 gigs in about 8-10 days (Blog, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc…), but with the free access on the boat we have been able to roll over our unused data each month for the past few months so that we can use it in Bonaire where there is no “free wifi.”  Our plan was set to expire on a Sunday.  Unfortunately, Digicel is closed on Sunday’s and typically you have to go into the Digicel store to top up.

On Saturday, we set off to town to see a man about some data.  We took the dinghy to the dock, hopped on the big city bus, arrived into Punda and headed over to Otrobonda where the Digicel store is located. As we headed toward Otrobonda, we noticed the Queen Emma Floating Pontoon bridge was on the other side and not allowing pedestrian access so we hopped on the free ferry.  It is a super short ride, but as we crossed over, we noticed why the bridge was open, a giant container ship and two tugs were waiting at the mouth of waterway to come through – cool.  We hopped off the ferry and discovered dozens of tents being set up in the Ortobonda center – a street fair, yeah!  We walked through the maze of booths of clothing, shoes, jewelry, artistry, plants, and food.

Street fair in Otrobanda. These booths are selling wooden signs and clothing.

These booths are selling local food and beverages.

They say, that you can use the Digicel app to top up or renew your plan, but when you do that you tend to lose your unused data.  So, we head into the store each month.  They are extremely nice, very helpful, and have always made sure we left as satisfied customers (you don’t say that very often about a cellular company, do you?).

At Digicel, one of the helpful workers started working on activating our new plan when their computer system decided to reboot.  Lucky for us, she was 90% done and just had to call a technician to finish it all up.  We headed out in search of the bus depot with the hopes of finding the bus route map, but they were closed.  Maybe next time.  Now it was time for a late breakfast, so we headed to our favorite place Plaza Bieu for some pumpkin pancakes.  (3) large pancakes and a lemonade for 8.25 naf (or $4.71).

Pumpkin pancakes at Plaza Bieu

With full bellies, we headed to the floating veggie market (Venezuela barko’s) to pick up some fruits and vegetables.  We bought a huge papaya, bunch of bananas, 5-mandarin oranges, 4-green peppers for 8 naf ($4), such a bargain.

Back in Spaanse Waters, before we headed to the boat, Iwe swung by a small church that we walked past last week.  It always looked abandoned to me, but when we walked by last Sunday, they were holding service with about 6 people in attendance (one woman on the floor praising God).  So, I was hoping to see what time service started this week.  Unfortunately, the service is in Papiamento and it lasts over 2 hours. I could handle service in a different language, or a service in English for 2 hours, but with a small crowd, foreign language, and long service it didn’t bode well for me.  Next, we headed over to Tugboat beach to gather some additional photos for one of our blog posts and then back to the boat.

Matt had noticed that there was a Reggae band playing at a Zanzibar located at Jan Thiel Beach which was walking distance from the dinghy dock.  It was Saturday night so we decided to get a little jiggy and head to the bar.

Happy hour started at 5p and we arrived around 545p with the bar in full swing. I’m sure most of the people were left over from the beach as it was a gorgeous day.  We arrived in time to snag a spot on one of their recently vacated bed platforms to watch the sunset.

Jan Thiel beach is covered with pretty palm trees.

Attempt at a selfie with the sunset in the background..

Pretty sunset, but not many colors and no green flash due to cloud coverage.

During HH they had a DJ in the house playing all sorts of thumping dance music.  Not many people were dancing or paying attention until the band started which was around 630p. The Reggae band proved to be quite the show.  The singer was pretty good, when she sang but she tended to pass the mic to the crowd a lot and that was not always pretty or pleasant.  But the evening was a lot of fun, dancing in the sand, under the full moon, and swaying palm trees.

And that is how I got my 18,000 steps in today!

Quick video at Zanzibar happy hour.

Perfect combination. Sunset + Palm Tree = beautiful!

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Super cute little girl enjoying a coke and a smile.