Sunday morning stroll through the 'Yard'
It's time to put new anti-fouling paint on Perigee, so we arranged to be hauled out of the water at Curacao Marine. The process will take about a week. Out on Monday morning and 'splash' back on Friday afternoon. We've arrived early and are having a couple of days on the dock for some minor boat projects - like fixing the air-conditioning.
Here is the view from the cockpit. Our water hose runs all the way to the pedestal circled in red. Approximately 20 meters to the bow of the boat and the power cable runs to the pedestal circled in yellow to the stern of the boat. We feed the water hose in through the galley porthole (kitchen window) and use the sun heated water for our dishes. This saves us from having to run the water-maker in the marina. Generally the sea water quality is pretty poor in marinas and Curacao Marine is no different.
Being in a Marina means not facing into the wind and not having those lovely over the water cooling breezes, however it does mean that we can be 'plugged in' (electricity from the dock). This means we can run the air-conditioning. Yeah! It's currently 35 degrees in the cockpit so coming into the air-con is very welcomed after working outside for a while. I am pretty happy that the a/c was able to be easily fixed. A simple mater of a blown fuse. It only took 20 minutes to fix but a day to diagnose.
You can tell the boats on the dock that have a/c as all their hatches are closed and there is a tell tale water flow from the boat where the cooling water exits the through-hull
We don't use the head (marine toilet) while we are on the dock which is a little inconvenient. The distance to the WC from Perigee is about the same distance as our Swiss apartment to the train station. Here's what the walk to the WC looks like.
We are amongst friends here, well some friends but mostly amongst friends' boats.
Here is Chapter Two (2001 Island Packet), Karen and Mike. They splashed back a couple of days ago after doing their 'bottom job' (putting on new anti-fouling paint) and giving her a wax and polish. She looks fab, sparkly and new. And she's available for sale. We first met Karen and Mike in St Maarten when they had just finished their circumnavigation. Now Chapter Two is up for sale and they're ready to move on to Chapter Three. They plan to buy a boat suitable for sailing in the Med (Mediterranean sea) and no longer need the ocean going capability of Chapter Two.
This is Supertramp of London high and dry 'on the hard' (on land). Her owners, Fiona & Steve are back home in the UK for the summer. Their first grandchild was born a few weeks ago so they are getting as much baby time as possible before coming back to join the Suzie Too rally with us.
Supertramp used to be blue and the blue was all chalky and patchy so they had a special kind of plastic film put on and now she looks a million bucks. They chose a colour called 'Champagne' but it was not available so they went with a darker shade. Our Aussie mates on Askari were the first to see her new colour and nick named her SuperPooper - queue ABBA music - Super Trouper.
We first met Supertramp when we where on the OCC Maine mini cruise where we rafted up with them and Grace for a party for all the rally goers. We also spent some time with them over the winter season. We saw them in St Maarten where they pick up their new centre console dingy which I called 'Lady'. So it's now Lady and the Tramp. Ha Ha.
This sweet thing is Honey Ryder. We do not really know these folks but we seemed to be in the same anchorage at the same time in the 2017 season so we are very familiar with their voices from hearing them on the VHF radio. We did meet them one night in Portsmouth, Dominica. The swell that night in the harbour was high as was the wind, a boat broke its mooring and Honey Ryder were first to call it on the radio. Dave and I grabbed the handheld VHF, some rope & torches and jumped in the dinghy leaving our guest, Paul to take care of Perigee. There were other cruisers out there too in the pitch black when we heard Honey Rider again on the VHF, "We've been hit". Another boat had broken its mooring and careened into Honey Riders bow, OUCH. After the first boat was secured we went over to see if Honey Ryder where OK and that's the only time we have met them. They are also on the rally so I'm looking forward to meeting then again, finding out how they came up with the name Honey Ryder and what their tender is called.
Then there is Sweet Dreams they are OCC members aka friends we haven't met yet. We know they're OCC members because they have the OCC burgee (flag) decal on the side of their hard dodger (like a windshield on a car). This is pretty hard core. Like having a tattoo on your forehead! They come from Pulpit Harbor, Maine where we spent 4 days on a weather hold waiting for the remnants of Hurricane Harvey to blow through back in September 2017. I wonder what their tender (Dinghy) is called, Pillow Talk?
Look at this tiny boat, can you see it in front of the catarmaran? This is TARKA she is a 27 foot (just over 8 metres) Swedish built boat and her owner, Bryan intends to circumnavigate. He's on a pretty tight budget so is doing all the work on his boat himself (with the help of his girlfriend). He's currently scraping the hull back to the gel coat and will then prime and paint it. Really hard work in this weather.
You can watch Bryans videos 'Adventures of Tarka' on You Tube and support him on Patreon.
They really need a new dinghy as their inflatable bottom dingy now takes on water.
OOPs, what happened to your rudder Moondancer? We travelled down from Hampton, VA to Antigua with these two New Yorkers in the Salty Dog Rally. We heard on the grape vine that they lost their rudder on route to Curacao and had to be towed in. They obviously made it safely in and out of the water. I'm sure to hear the story over a couple of beers when they're back.
This is the tractor and hydraulic lift that pulls all the boats out of the water. It is operated by two guys who really know how to reverse park a trailer. Just look how close the boats are stacked together. Now that's precision driving.
You probably can't make out the name on the boom of this boat - it is 'Break of Dawn'. I know nothing about this boat but wonder whether their tender is called 'Break In Wind'?
Ice Ice Baby
Many of the boats on the hard have refrigerators that are cooled by sea water. This obviously doesn't work so well on land. So the yard sells ice so cruisers can keep their beer cool. Perigee has air cooled refrigeration. Thank you Mr Amel for designing our boat like this.
The yard also has a cute little gazebo with a roof made from palm fronds. Inside this open structure is a large chest freezer for cruisers to store their frozen goods. Bryan has his stracciatella ice cream stored here. There is a bar in the gazebo and last Friday we came down to meet other cruisers and found the management had put on free beers. I guess they can afford to after charging $0.04 per litre for water.
This blog entry inspired by Jill who was interested to learn more about other cruisers. Well they have mostly gone home for the summer and will start returning in about a month. In the meantime, it's just us die hards living the dream in the yard.
by Lenny
Here is the view from the cockpit. Our water hose runs all the way to the pedestal circled in red. Approximately 20 meters to the bow of the boat and the power cable runs to the pedestal circled in yellow to the stern of the boat. We feed the water hose in through the galley porthole (kitchen window) and use the sun heated water for our dishes. This saves us from having to run the water-maker in the marina. Generally the sea water quality is pretty poor in marinas and Curacao Marine is no different.
Being in a Marina means not facing into the wind and not having those lovely over the water cooling breezes, however it does mean that we can be 'plugged in' (electricity from the dock). This means we can run the air-conditioning. Yeah! It's currently 35 degrees in the cockpit so coming into the air-con is very welcomed after working outside for a while. I am pretty happy that the a/c was able to be easily fixed. A simple mater of a blown fuse. It only took 20 minutes to fix but a day to diagnose.
You can tell the boats on the dock that have a/c as all their hatches are closed and there is a tell tale water flow from the boat where the cooling water exits the through-hull
 |
| Perigee with her hatches closed |
 |
| Tell tale water flow - a/c cooling water |
We don't use the head (marine toilet) while we are on the dock which is a little inconvenient. The distance to the WC from Perigee is about the same distance as our Swiss apartment to the train station. Here's what the walk to the WC looks like.
We are amongst friends here, well some friends but mostly amongst friends' boats.
Here is Chapter Two (2001 Island Packet), Karen and Mike. They splashed back a couple of days ago after doing their 'bottom job' (putting on new anti-fouling paint) and giving her a wax and polish. She looks fab, sparkly and new. And she's available for sale. We first met Karen and Mike in St Maarten when they had just finished their circumnavigation. Now Chapter Two is up for sale and they're ready to move on to Chapter Three. They plan to buy a boat suitable for sailing in the Med (Mediterranean sea) and no longer need the ocean going capability of Chapter Two.
 |
| Chapter Two |
 |
| Supertramp of London |
Supertramp used to be blue and the blue was all chalky and patchy so they had a special kind of plastic film put on and now she looks a million bucks. They chose a colour called 'Champagne' but it was not available so they went with a darker shade. Our Aussie mates on Askari were the first to see her new colour and nick named her SuperPooper - queue ABBA music - Super Trouper.
We first met Supertramp when we where on the OCC Maine mini cruise where we rafted up with them and Grace for a party for all the rally goers. We also spent some time with them over the winter season. We saw them in St Maarten where they pick up their new centre console dingy which I called 'Lady'. So it's now Lady and the Tramp. Ha Ha.
 |
| Honey Ryder |
Then there is Sweet Dreams they are OCC members aka friends we haven't met yet. We know they're OCC members because they have the OCC burgee (flag) decal on the side of their hard dodger (like a windshield on a car). This is pretty hard core. Like having a tattoo on your forehead! They come from Pulpit Harbor, Maine where we spent 4 days on a weather hold waiting for the remnants of Hurricane Harvey to blow through back in September 2017. I wonder what their tender (Dinghy) is called, Pillow Talk?
Look at this tiny boat, can you see it in front of the catarmaran? This is TARKA she is a 27 foot (just over 8 metres) Swedish built boat and her owner, Bryan intends to circumnavigate. He's on a pretty tight budget so is doing all the work on his boat himself (with the help of his girlfriend). He's currently scraping the hull back to the gel coat and will then prime and paint it. Really hard work in this weather. 
You can watch Bryans videos 'Adventures of Tarka' on You Tube and support him on Patreon.
They really need a new dinghy as their inflatable bottom dingy now takes on water.
 |
| OOPS, what happened to your rudder, Moondancer |
OOPs, what happened to your rudder Moondancer? We travelled down from Hampton, VA to Antigua with these two New Yorkers in the Salty Dog Rally. We heard on the grape vine that they lost their rudder on route to Curacao and had to be towed in. They obviously made it safely in and out of the water. I'm sure to hear the story over a couple of beers when they're back.
 |
| Tractor and hydraulic lift |
This is the tractor and hydraulic lift that pulls all the boats out of the water. It is operated by two guys who really know how to reverse park a trailer. Just look how close the boats are stacked together. Now that's precision driving.
 |
| Break of Dawn |
You probably can't make out the name on the boom of this boat - it is 'Break of Dawn'. I know nothing about this boat but wonder whether their tender is called 'Break In Wind'?
 | ||||||||||||||||
| Ice Ice Baby |
Many of the boats on the hard have refrigerators that are cooled by sea water. This obviously doesn't work so well on land. So the yard sells ice so cruisers can keep their beer cool. Perigee has air cooled refrigeration. Thank you Mr Amel for designing our boat like this.
The yard also has a cute little gazebo with a roof made from palm fronds. Inside this open structure is a large chest freezer for cruisers to store their frozen goods. Bryan has his stracciatella ice cream stored here. There is a bar in the gazebo and last Friday we came down to meet other cruisers and found the management had put on free beers. I guess they can afford to after charging $0.04 per litre for water.
This blog entry inspired by Jill who was interested to learn more about other cruisers. Well they have mostly gone home for the summer and will start returning in about a month. In the meantime, it's just us die hards living the dream in the yard.
by Lenny
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