Greetings from the capitol of the Dutch Antilles. Spanish Waters is a totally protected harbor filled with cruising boats from all over the world – many here for months now, and most headed eventually for Panama or back to Florida via the “northern” route.

A couple of the local restaurants have dinghy docks, e-mail connections (a must if you want the yachty trade!), and a close-by bus stop.

The trip into Curacao’s capitol, Williamsted, is a 20-minute bus ride. Williamsted looks like a Disneyland version of Dutch architecture – lots of color, steeply pitched roofs (for the snow load), and tourist-oriented shops everywhere you look. There are also museums, forts, and Venezuelan “traders” bringing fresh produce over from South America.

This afternoon one of our new friends is taking us to a hardware store to pick up some hose. Tomorrow, another is taking us to the big market. Very friendly island!

BEOWULF is clean inside and out. We’ve gone through the engine room looking for problems. Checked bolt tension on all the brackets, shaft coupling, steering quadrant, and steering rams. Got 1/16th of a turn on two of the four quadrant bolts. Found a broken wire crimp fitting on one of the engine alternators. Not much of a job, except you need to hold the stud with two 1/2″ wrenches (otherwise you will rotate it and break the internal wires). The crimps were in the way of the 1/2″ wrench which necessitated grinding the open end of the wrench down 50% so it would slip into place. A simple job, except for the mess from all of the grinding residue – of course this took place after the engine room had been thoroughly cleaned!

The median size of cruising yachts is definitely getting bigger. Most of the boats here are in the 40′ to 50′ range – very few smaller boats. There are certainly lots of good cruising yachts in the 30′ range – wonder where they are all hanging out.

The trades are blowing briskly, which is great for ventilation. In fact, we need to throttle the wind flow into the boat at night as it gets…cold! Even had a light blanket on for a while last night. Remember, it is winter down here too. We are also getting squalls a couple of times a day. BEOWULF has had her first real freshwater bath since leaving California as a result, and the deck drains are now open to fill the tanks.

What we find most interesting about cruising are the people we meet, and of course, the boats we see. We’ll bring you up to date with some examples next week.