Tag Archives: spaanse waters

Hike to the Top

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In an effort to get a little exercise, we decided to hike to the top of the mountain overlooking Spaanse Waters.  We had already hiked to the Indian which was almost to the top, but couldn’t find a trail from the Indian to the tippy top.

This is a shot of the mountain we hiked.  I took this from shore, just West of the Beekenburg Fort.  We were already a bit higher than the water, as you can see we are overlooking one of the anchorages.

Mountain overlooking Spaanse Waters.

Mountain overlooking Spaanse Waters.

The initial trail is pretty easy as it is on roads that lead to a dirt path.  You just have to watch for prickles (bushes with prickles), cacti, and other sharp, pointy plants.

Road leads to dirt trail just prior to the lava rock path.

The cacti are pretty easy to avoid, as you can walk around or over them, but the prickly plants that cover the path make it hard to pass without getting stuck.

Mean prickles that like to reach out and touch you.

As we continued to climb, our nice dirt path turned into a lava rock (or fire rock) path. As you might remember, I have a history with lava rock as they left a pretty memorable scar on my leg when we encountered each other last.  Besides being challenging to hike on in flip flops, the lava rock has catci growing in the crevices making it hard to avoid.

Lava rock with hidden cacti.

No stabbing today!

Matt forges ahead, attempting to find the best path while avoiding the pointy tips of the plants.

Matt searching for solid footing around the cacti.

Half way to the top, I stop to take a photo of Santa Barbara Beach Resort.

View of Santa Barbara Resort: half way to the top

We eventually made it to the top, after a round about way up and it was worth it!  The view takes your breath away.

“King of the World”

Panorama of Spaanse Waters.

After a short rest, we head back down – this is trickier for me than going up as my body protests.  But, we took it slow and made it down without incident.

 

The Guardian Indian

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During one of our fabulous pizza parties at Thom and Bianca’s house, one of their (and our new) friends, Ingmar mentioned an Indian statue up on the mountain protecting and overlooking Spaanse Waters.

As the story goes, Spaanse Waters was underseige with the enemy hunkered at the top of the mountain shooting down.  The Indian showed the locals a protected way to get close to the top, under a huge rock overhang to take back their territory.  And now the Indian lives there watching over the bay.

Sounds fascinating, so we wanted to meet this Indian.  We had a general idea of where he was located which meant we knew which mountain he was on, and which approximate overlook.  We did not know how tall he was, what he looked like, what he was made of or how big he would be – just that there was an Indian protecting the bay.

The first time we went searching for the Indian, we were in our standard shoe attire – flip flops.  We made it 3/4 up the hill when we realized we were either on the wrong path or wearing the wrong shoes so we turned back.

On a different day, we wore tennis shoes.  Let me tell you that it felt incredibly weird to wear enclosed canvas over my feet – they felt cramped, hot, and miserable – why do we wear shoes?   At least they gave a little more protection against the prickly thorns, cacti and plants.  We followed the same trail and got to the part in the path where we are had to shimmy sideways between a large boulder and cliff to continue forward.

We were able to finally spot the Indian from the trail – follow the pink arrow and zoom in.

Pink arrow pointing to the Indian. View from 1/2 way up the mountain.

Up, up, and up we climbed until we were finally rewarded with the site of our elusive Indian.  He sure does have majestic views from his perch high up on the mountain.

Guardian Indian over Spaanse Waters

Panorama view – so pretty

The Indian’s view of Curacao Yacht Club

The Indian’s view of the channel (to the right of the bay)

Matt meets the Indian

Sharing a reflective moment.

We didn’t just do that, did we?

Accomplishments:

  • Great hike
  • New discovery
  • Awesome views

Bushy Bridle & Shaggy Shackles

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After sitting in the same spot in Spaanse Waters for 6 weeks we have unwillingly acquired new sea life on everything that is below water.  That would include, the props, zincs, freezer plates, bridle, shackles, anchor chain, and hulls.  Luckily our bottom paint is holding up “pretty” good. We had it painted with Sea Hawk red in December at Grenada Marine so it is holding its own against the freeloaders who want to claim the bottom of our boat as their new home.  However, the other items are suffering immensely.  Since we are in pretty deep  (@ 8 meters), silty, unclear water with a decent current and lots of wind, we have not had many opportunities to clean the bottom.  Matt made a few attempts and came back up covered in tons of little tiny shrimp crawling in places that you don’t want critters.

On of our folding props completely covered in hairy growth.

We recently purchased a new power washer, as the motor on the old one decided to stop working – no telling how old it was but it served us well.  Matt decided to try a different approach to cleaning the bridle, shackles, and anchor chain.  He lugged the power washer to the bow, attached the hose and started attacking the chain with vigor!  It was a slow process that he had to repeat on each side of the chain, for every link of the chain.  As the chain cleaned up, he slower raised the chain to access the next several links.

Matt cleaning our anchor chain.

Attacking the growth with the power washer.

Cleaning the anchor chain to get to the bridle.

One link and one side at a time.

Partially cleaned anchor chain.

As you can see, the hair is so bushy thick is about 5-6″ in each direction making the circumference about 1′ all around.  You cannot even see the shackles in the center (they are attaching the bridle to the anchor chain)

Our bridle is attached to the anchor chain with stainless steel shackles, but you can’t even see them.

Unfortunately, the rest will have to wait until we get to cleaner, clearer, shallower water – hopefully within the next week as we plan to move Sugar Shack to Fuik (pronounced Fowk with a heavy “O”) Bay or Klein Curacao.

What’s Worse?

  • Cleaning the bridle daily or weekly?
  • Cleaning the bridle when you’re ready to leave?