Spanish Water lagoon, the number one mangrove hurricane hole in the South of the Caribbean Sea, is perfectly protected from waves and has only one narrow entrance to the open ocean. Hurricanes as Dorian (in August 2019) tend to stay north of Curacao. Thus, more than 100 sailing boats hide there in the summertime. Many of them leave in November, at the end of the hurricane season, then sailing west to Columbia and Panama Channel on their way to the Pacific Ocean and Polynesia. Some of the boats, however, abandoned and sunk, stay in Spanish Lagoon forever…
Four friends that met in Spanish Water in August 2019: Maurizio (SY Brendan’s Isle), Christian (SY Gabian), Nick (SY Fleur) and Uwe (SY Orinoco).
Tugboat is a wonderful snorkel spot on Curacao, despite the fact that it in an industrial area, right next to a dock and a huge gas exploration ship. This location is famous for the Tugboat wreck and has a snorkling shop and a small café.
Kayaking in one of the largest protected mangrove swamps in the south of Bonaire and snorkelling through channels. We saw upside down Jellyfish (Quallen), attached to the bottom, and a lot of fish. Mangroves are breeding places for fish, that are well protected from predators (Verfolgern) here.
For many birds in Northern Curaao, it seems to be much easier do feed on sugar in Jaanchies Restaurant – even if there is a fierce competion – than to search for fruits in the dry wilderness.
Green birds with yellow masks on their head fly with loud screams from one tree to another. The Caribbean brown throated parakeet is searching for fruit. It is a own subspecies of Bonaire.
Flying a drone from a saling yacht under sails is always a risk – especially if high waves and high winds may make it impossible to grab the drone when landing it at the back of the ship. Therfore, we choose a protected spot behind Klein Curacao for the first Orinoco under sails drone video. Thank you, Sascha, for catching the drone and thank you, Nick, for sailing the boat.
I will never forget this sound: thousands of Hermit Crabs (Einsiedlerkrebse) that bump into each other when walking around, thus producing a crackling sound. They arrive in the afternoon after tourists have left this remote island two hours away from Curacao – and eat everything one hundred visitors have left over after their rib and hamburger lunch.
Klein Curacao is a small uninhibited island between Curacao and Bonaire. It has some huts for daytime visitors from Curacao and a “new” lighthouse, after the old one was destroyed by the last recorded hurricane in that area in the late ninetieth century. But as often in the Caribbean sea, lighthouses are not always lighted. A lot of ships have been wrecked on the rough east coast. The sailing boat skipper supposedly had bad marine charts, not showing Klein Curacao. The two nights we stayed at the west coast, we were one of only two sailing yachts mooring there. Thank you, Tjacco, for your hospitality.
As Bonaire is very dry, the very few fresh water wells had been very important for inhabitands in former time. The people in Bonaire now produce desalinated water, but the Bronswinkel’s Fresh Water Well is still important nowadays for a lot of animals, including birds, iguanas, lizards and goats.
The grey feathers of flamingos turn pink in the wild because of a natural pink dye they obtain when feeding on shrimp and blue-green algae. The wetlands and lagoons in Bonaire provide a rich amount of food for these animals.
In the bird rehab in the South of Bonaire we saw the younger flamingos kept there to have grey feathers. The Mangrove Info Center opened the Wild Bird Rehab as a bird sanctuatry to provide a home for the island’s sick or injured birds.
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