Farewell Heat Wave

7 years, 3 months and 3 weeks, after moving onto Heat Wave, back in Florida, before Charlotte was born, we said good bye to Heat Wave in a boat yard in Curacao. Our original plan was to have the boat for 5-8 years. We’ve had some great times on the boat and it’s now time to move on to other things. The boat will be continuing on with its new owner to Australia. We are now back enjoying the summer in Bermuda.

Below are some photos of some good memories over the last few years:

Curacao July 1st-8th

We had a great downwind spinnaker sail from Bonaire to Curacao, arriving late in the afternoon. This was the first time we had arrived at an island with no cruising guide and it felt very strange!! We had downloaded some information from the internet regarding clearing in, anchoring proceedures and had emailed with some friends already there.

Curacao, part of the Netherland Antilles, is 171 square miles and has a population of 142,000 - the largest of the ABC islands. In addition to Dutch, there is a big Spanish influence (due to proximity of south America in particular Venezuela). The "local" language is Papiamento. We found the ABC islands to be very different to the Eastern Caribbean Islands - more organized, better infrastructure, better roads.

Most of the cruisers anchor in Spanish Waters, a very large lagoon type area. Its about 20 minutes from the capital Willemstad, where we had to go to clear in. We anchored up in “the kids bay” by Pacific Bliss (with Zinnia and Cosmo) and 3 other kids boats – Blue Sky, Bonaire and Jonathon A. It was nice for Charlotte to get a chance to play with some other kids for a while, although unfortunately not for long enough as we were soon due to be hauled.

We arrived Thursday afternoon. Friday night we went to a bonfire with some other kids on a nearby island.

Saturday Steve and Cathy rented a car and we all toured the island, first stop the capital Willemstad. Once again the boat "A" was following us:

The island is about 30 miles long and 5 miles wide. The north east coast was quite rugged. We visited the “Natural Bridge" and the "Blow Hole" – a bit similar to the east coast of Antigua.

Sunday was July 4^th (when the Brits allowed the Americans to try it alone!!) and some cruisers arranged a pot luck party on the beach.

Steve and Cathy headed up to Willemstad to check into a hotel while while we were getting the boat sorted. Charlotte stayed with Blue Sky for a sleepover with Pheby that night.

Monday morning we set off from the anchorage, first dropping Charlotte off on Pacific Bliss, who were going to look after her til the next afternoon while we got the boat hauled and sorted.

A 6 mile motor up to Willemstad and into the harbour. We had to request an opening on the footbridge and then on to the industrial bay to Curacao Marine.

Steve and Cathy came over to help us with a few bits and we anchored out that night. Early Tuesday morning took the boat into the dock – we were scheduled to be the first boat hauled at 9am. We were finally hauled at 11.30am …..

In actual fact we were lucky we were hauled at all, as that afternoon Holland played in the semi-final of the world cup and the whole yard shut down!! Tuesday was a late night working on the boat.

We checked into a hotel near the boat yard for Tuesday and Wednesday night, as staying on the boat while it is out of the water is not so comfortable. (no breeze, can't use the toilets, have to climb up and down ladders, etc ….)

Wednesday, Liz, on Pacific Bliss, very kindly look after Charlotte again, at the hotel, while Jimmy and I slogged on – preparing a boat for long term storage is a lot of work, not to mention all the packing of all of our possessions! By Wednesday evening the boat was all sorted for long term storage - we left the boat yard exhausted, with little time for emotional farewells to a boat we’ve been on for over 7 years!

We headed to the hotel, looking forward to a nice long shower and aircon. The water was scheduled to be off in the day and back on at 6pm – it finally came back on at 10.30pm!!

Early alarm call the next morning, and we headed to the airport with our full baggage allowance, packed to every last allowable pound. We had to change the rental car on the last day in order to accommodate all our luggage!!

Bonaire - 27th June - 1st July

Bonaire is part of Netherlands Antilles, with its sister islands Curacao and Aruba a little to the west (often known as the ABC islands). It is located north of the Venezuelan mainland. It is a charming quiet and extremely clean island with a population of around 11,000. The main town is attractive, with pastel coloured buildings and red tiled roofs. One of the main attractions is that it has some of the Caribbean’s clearest water and best diving.

Bonaire’s two main industries are salt and tourism, especially diving and eco-tourism. The attractions for tourists are snorkeling, scuba diving, windsurfing and bird watching. It was interesting now seeing the Dutch and Spanish influence.

There is a no-anchoring policy on the whole island. To protect its fringing coral reefs there are about 40 moorings set up by the National Marine Park along the waterfront of the capital Kralendijk. There is reef right along the coast – so the front of the boat is in say 20 feet and the back in 60 feet! – there is great snorkeling right off the boat, where we saw massive parrotfish and angelfish the size of a dinner plate!

Jimmy, Steve and I went scuba diving. We took the dive boat out to Klein Bonaire, although a lot of the diving can be done direct from the shore. The whole coast is a line of dive sites! Although we never could figure where one ended and the next began!

One day we rented a car and explored the island. It was amazing how different the other side of the island was, with many cactus trees - you could have thought you were in Arizona. Charlotte loved the donkey sanctuary, especially when the donkeys put their head through the car window. At one stage there were 3 donkey heads in the same car window, looking at Charlotte:

We also saw pink flamingos,

the slave huts

and the massive saltpans.

We caught up with some other cruiser friends in Bonaire – Steve, Kim, Mike and Tim on North Star, who are now staying in Bonaire for 4 months, and Jackie and Adrian on Oceans Dreams. We celebrated our wedding anniversary at a Pizza Place with a romantic dinner for 9!

Bonaire was a very pleasant dry island. Since leaving wet Grenada, we have still not had a drop of rain! The decks are dusty!! We could have stayed a lot longer but all too soon we had to leave to head to Curacao. Time is running out on us – the boat is being hauled this coming Tuesday 6^th July, so on Thursday 1^st July we dropped the mooring, turned the boat, raised the spinnaker and set sail the 35 miles to Curacao. Again a great downwind spinnaker sail. Our last long sail before we say good bye to Heat Wave…..

Heat Wave under spinnaker sail courtesy of North Star who followed us out on their dingy to take pictures:

On the cruise to Curacao, Charlotte painted her nails red, white and blue in preparation for the July 4^th party this Sunday! A few cruisers we know are already in Curacao and so we already have the social calendar arranged! Charlotte is looking forward to play dates with Zinnia on Pacific Bliss again.