Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, Friday 6. April 2007
Andy, my good friend from Scotland that took over my job at The Dive Bus, came to the British Virgin Islands to help me out sailing Solitude to Curacao.
Divemaster Graham and his Danish wife Helle travelled on the same plane and I briefly saw them in the airport. Off course it took forever for them to get through immigration but meanwhile I talked to a girl from Holland, Charlotte who was a team member for the Volvo Ocean Race and could tell stories from around the world. We actually talked for half an hour when a world famous sailor she had to pick up, came.
Andy was applying for a dive job in the British Virgin Islands so we hooked up with the guys from Dive BVI and went on their diveboat to Virgin Gorda to have a look at the dive shop. That night Divemaster Graham and Helle came out to see Solitude and we had dinner on the beach.
After a couple of wet night with beers we cleared immigration fairly easy in Roadtown on Tortola and got the boat ready for the crossing of The Caribbean Sea.
At 4 pm we pulled the anchors up and zigzagged through the 50 sailboats in Trellis Bay, went to deeper water and took the sails up. The wind was really good and for the first time in a long time, came from the right direction. The British Virgin Islands disappeared slowly behind us and the sun went down in west. The dark came creeping around us and St. Croix came closer and closer while the wind picked up a little bit. The sea was pretty calm and we couldn’t wait to see it when we rounded St. Croix.
It was midnight when we passed St. Croix, Andy was sleeping and all of a sudden I could smell gas. I tied a rope to the steering wheel and ran down to lock off the gas on the stove but the smell stayed. I got really worried and checked the gas tank in the aft of Solitude but couldn’t figure it out, the smell was still there.
My brain was working hard to find the problem when the gas smell slowly disappeared again and then it hit me, the smell came from the oil refinery. I laughed out loud and thought I was the dumbest person within 100 miles. It was properly Malcolm, a really interesting American guy I meet in St. Croix who worked for the refinery, that made a joke…
The wind picked up when Andy woke up and we were racing. At one moment we were going 10 knot which is my record on Solitude and we started to take in the genoa a little bit. As soon we took it in the wind died down and was completely gone at 1 am. At 2 am we started to motor, there was no reason to sail with 2 knots if we wanted to get back to Curacao this year.
We took 4 hours shift at the helm and waited for the wind but nothing happened. The moon went down, the stars became brighter until the sun sent its rays up in east. Breakfast was eaten, the motor was still running but absolutely no wind. How was this possible? We were in the wind capitol of the world where the tradewinds always blow. I heard so many times and from so many people that the wind is always good in the Caribbean. Off course when we sailed there were none.
It was hot, actually it was really hot during the day so to cool down a little bit we threw a bucket with a line attached in the water and poured it over the head. Still no wind, in every direction you looked there was sea but no wind. Laughing about it, we said it would be better tomorrow.
The sun went down, the moon came up, the moon went down, the stars got brighter and still no wind. We took turns at the helm for 4 hours each and waking up to a “nothing has happened” from either Andy or me because nothing happened.
The sun was up and I was in down below checking charts and GPS when Andy yelled, SHIP! I ran up the steps and like two kids we looked at this big tanker that passed us 5 miles out. Within a half hour it was gone again and we were back to the very big nothing and no wind.
Some seabirds were cruising around us and at 2 am one landed on the lifesling to take a rest. At 4 am I took over the steering of Solitude with the bird still being there. I don’t know if it was Andy that the bird didn’t like, but Andy said he wasn’t saying much. The bird was just sitting there, I tried to give a piece of apple to it and even a can of tuna, but it just shook it head and said no thanks. Maybe it didn’t say anything but I was very tired and any company was worth some thing at this hour. I told it a story about how I got the boat but it didn’t seem very impressed.
Again the burning sun came up to paint a beautiful sunrise and the bird started saying some birdsounds and flew off.
At around 2 pm we saw another big tanker pass by and half hour later a big group of spinner dolphins and a whale was 1 mile out. We turned Solitude to have a closer look and the dolphins came closer jumping out of the water, while doing 360 turns. It was really cool to see so many of them and we hoped that the whale was long gone.
For 20 minutes they were all around us checking us out and we used the shutter button on the cameras every time they came up. With an instant they were 1 mile away and we went back to our course to Curacao still with no wind.
We ate dinner and sat and talked for a while when all of a sudden we felt something. What was that? Something we didn’t have for 41 hours…. It was the wind that came back. It wasn’t much but it was wind and it picked up a bit after a couple of hours. The genoa was pulled out again and the engine was turned off. Finally silence, what a feeling to be sailing again. I looked at the fridge that was getting warmer and warmer again and that means The Beast aka the generator had to be turned on, so much for the silence.
Bonaire became visible with a “LAND AHOY!” from Andy. The last bit to Curacao was not fast but at least we had the sail up.
After 460 miles, 96 hours, 24 beers and a half bottle of whisky, we anchored in Spanish Water in Curacao and went to Sarifundy’s, the local sailor bar.
After lots of beers and dinner with Sadie, Andys girlfriend, Sara and Janice and my new guest Kristine from Copenhagen, I went very tired to bed and slept like a baby.
Two days after Kristine and I sailed over to Klein Curacao and spent two days there, diving, eating, drinking and walking on the very tiny island. On the second day it was my birthday and both my parents called me.
A weird but really nice feeling to sit in turquoise water with a white sand beach in the background, talking to my mom on the other side of the world.
The trip from Klein Curacao to Diver’s Paradise, Bonaire took 7 hours but it is really worth it. We are moored up in front of Kralendijk, the capitol of Bonaire. A beautiful reef is right under Solitude so the diving is of off the boat, life is good!
Around the 9. or 10. of April we gonna sail back to Curacao, Kristine is flying home to Denmark on the 14. April and it would be nice to do some more diving in Curacao.
