At the Tug Boat Beach, near a big jetty (Dock) and industrial garbage, the Coral Restoration Foundation Curacao maintains coral supporting trees. These trees hold coral fragments, providing them with perfect growing conditions. The Foundation helps rebuilding reefs by outplanting clusters of corals on structures all along the coast of Curacao. The corals will in time overgrow their structure and form a new, independent coral colony to house many types of fish and marine species.
In the North of Curacao, Watamula is a windblown wasteland of rough volcanic rocks. The Eye of Curaçao is an enormous round sinkhole through which you can see the ocean swirling around.
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.
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.
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.
I have never seen so many squids. At the Tugboat Beach in Curacao there seemed to be several families with adult animals and children that were swimming in the shallow water.
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