Wind, Wind, and More Wind

Our little corner of the dock

Debonair

As we work on our to-do list to button up the boat for the summer, we are struck by the intensity of the wind.  Here in the boatyard and marina docks, the wind moans and whistles and rattles through the rigging of all of the boats all day and most of the night. We are reassured that we really  made the right decision, as the wind is a steady 25 mph, lashing through with gusts up to 35 mph. The seas are high, too - 8 to 11 feet right now. Much too high for a 30-foot boat.

A normal pattern in Curacao, as with most islands in the tropical trade-wind belt, the wind will die down close to sunset, known as a katabatic wind. "Katabatic" has a Greek origin, meaning to "flow downhill". As the land cools down at sunset, the heat given off rises and counteracts the steady trade winds coming out of the east. The stronger the trade wind, the less effect the land will have. Right now, our wind has a lull right at sunset and then starts up again a half-hour later, keeping up a fresh breeze until almost midnight. Then it starts up again at 4 a.m., lasting all day long.

What's with such stronger than normal wind? No one seems to know, but as I look at the weather forecasting tools, no let-up is in sight. It's not just here, in the south-central Caribbean, but the entire route we plan to take across the Caribbean Sea. So we did make the right decision - coupled with the first tropical storm of the season forming off the coast of Florida and the Carolinas last week, a full three weeks earlier than the "official" start of the hurricane season.

Today we finished the last big project to secure the boat - Larry went diving on the hull. We needed to have the boat's hull clean, bag up the propeller to keep marine growth off of it, and check the sacrificial zincs on the hull. Everything we do is made harder by the relentless lash of wind all day long. We have to pace ourselves for outdoor work, taking refuge below decks. Even there, the whistling of the wind is almost constant, at times moaning like a ghost. Our boat's cabin feels like a cozy sanctuary from the wind.

Dutch Word of the Day:

Poespas

 

A Dutch word we really like for a boat name is pictured above - Poespas, seen on the boom. The owner told us that this means "a collection of small problems". What a great name for a boat! Every boat owner knows that to have a boat means to always be working on one thing or another. We meet interesting people every week here.

Reluctant Decision

Based on the weather forecasts in the Caribbean (wind, wind, and yet more wind), we have reluctantly decided to put the Debonair up for yet another season here in Curacao and fly home to Minnesota for the summer. We'll come back in the fall and look for a better weather window.

Here in the boatyard, the wind has been almost relentless. We fight our way upwind just to get to the boat store or shower 100 yards from the dock, and everyone we see is commenting on the high winds.

We now have a whole new to-do list to button up the boat before we leave on May 20. Sigh.

One of our many tasks is to eat down all of the food that we bought for the passage, which means we will not be going to our favorite supermarket very often. A suitably almost-unpronounceable Dutch name, Vreugdenhil Supermarket sends a van to pick up any shoppers from the boatyard six days a week, a wonderful service for those of us without a car.

Stepping into Vreugdenhil is like going into a time warp. It reminds me of the store where our family shopped when I was a girl, Country Club Markets in St. Paul. The signage has not been changed in decades.

It does have almost everything we need - including fresh produce, a bakery, a meat and deli section, canned goods, and is very large by Caribbean island standards.

The time warp occurs from the feel and look of the place, and also the piped-in music. Suddenly, Karen Carpenter is alive and well and wanting to be "Close to You". Starship will "never find another girl like you" in "Sara". Loverboy is still "Workin for the Weekend". I am a Wayward Son that Kansas wants to Carry On. Van Halen is still encouraging me to "Jump!". Rush wants me to get back into the "Limelight".

It is very hard for me not to smile at the music whenever I step into Vreugdenhil. The images of the 1970s and 1980s in my life come flooding back to me as I stop to compare this product to that, sussing out the Dutch on packaging to figure out the ingredient list. Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" came on two weeks ago, and suddenly I was back in time, writing a political science term paper to his music.

There is a little cafe onsite that offers free coffee and tea for shoppers. This area looks like it has not been updated since 1970 also, but it's nice to be able to stop and drink a coffee.

Pretty ordinary, but an essential part of our lives here on Curacao. Driving to an impersonal supermarket in the Twin Cities is just not the same as an experience at Vreugdenhil, where nothing much changes.