Pictures from Klein Curacao and Curacao.

The tour boats flock to Klein (little) Curacao during the day but depart by 4pm at the latest. We had the place to ourselves for a couple of afternoons.

Beautiful beach:

Dea Latis at Klein Curacao, storm raging in the distance. One of those squalls eventually came up and smacked the tar out of us for a solid hour…not fun:

Working lighthouse:

Dea Latis anchored in the distance:

Mechanical or electrical conduit at one time. The light is automated LED now.

Of course, Verboden Toegang:

Ship wreck on the east shore:

…back down…

…and across the lunar surface to check out the wrecks:

Nice big sailboat. The thought of this gives me a chill:

Shipwreck from the early 80’s:

Back across to Tranquility Base:

Tranquility Base

Dea Latis patiently waiting:

We spent a few days at Klein and moved on to the main island of Curacao. Santa Barbara Golf Resort at the inlet to Spanish Water:

Santa Barbara Resort

Inlet to the main anchorage of Spanish Water:

The hotel’s small marina…$3 per foot per night…too rich for us!

Marinas

So we anchored in Spanish Water, we’ll not tell that story or the story of getting to Willemstad to check in…to boring, yes that’s it. Now we’re downtown checking in. Once we checked in with customs we had to cross this pontoon bridge to get to another part of town to finish the process.

Queen Emma Bridge

Looking north to the vehicle bridge that links the city together:

Queen Juliana Bridge

Punda, which is the East side of Willemstad:

Customs building in Punda on the far left in that row:

Then into Otrobanda which is the West side of Willemstad, to find Immigration. Big commercial dredge pierside:

Go US Coast Guard! Stopped in Curacao…must be tough…

Walking under the bridge looking for our next stop:

…found it, buried down in the commercial port, Maritime Immigration Office:

Back across the pontoon bridge and home for some rest. The bridge has a big diesel engine with propellers on both sides to move the span open and closed. The bridge opened just after we crossed:

We had a long busy day so we just snapped a few pictures along the way to check in. We went back to Willemstad a couple of times so we do have better pictures and will put them up soon.

We are anchored at Klein Curacao a few miles southeast of Curacao. It is so nice to be back at anchor in a new place!

Klein Curacao is a flat scrub island but the water and the beach are beautiful. The tour boats flock in during the day but it’s almost 4pm and the last boat is leaving.

There are half a dozen moorings but we decided to practice anchoring again, glad we did:

How long does it take to wear down chain this thick?

We went snorkeling and this little turtle showed up:

I was trying to get a picture of the boat above and below the water but I kept getting splashed. I think it’s a neat picture anyway:

Anchored just off this wonderful beach. The anchor is in 10 feet of water, the stern is in 40 feet:

Thought I would free dive for some lobster:

Too deep for me:

Klein Curacao, we will go exploring today or tomorrow:

Update again soon!