On Monday, November 6, we flew out of Atlanta and on to Curacao via Miami. Bill met us at the airport; he was already there getting his boat Dolce Vita ready for sale. The boat was in Bristol condition and passed the subsequent survey with flying colors. But to no avail. At the last minute the prospective buyer got cold feet. The would-be buyer had absolutely no complaint about the price or the boat or Bill’s conduct; he simply realized rather late in the game that he didn’t want to be a blue-water sailor. Bill subsequently took the boat up to the BVIs where he left it under the care of a broker in Trellis Bay.
Our stay in Curacao was relatively brief and relatively busy, but we did have some pleasant outings with Bill before his departure, including some memorable orders of ribs at the nearby Rodeo Restaurant.
We took delivery of our newly upholstered settee cushions (manufactured during our summer absence). We got help from Curacao Marine to install two new 8D batteries for the bow thruster. We had the bottom painted with antifouling. I cleaned off the huge propellor and rudder, opting to leave it bare this time as an experiment, given that Prop Speed is expensive and keeps peeling off, and given that the Sergeant Majors in Bonaire do a creditable job of keeping the hull and running gear remarkably clean.
We splashed on November 14 and departed for Bonaire on November 16. Along the way, as we passed through calm seas, we caught a small Mahi-mahi. Yummy! (When we got the fish aboard we discovered that our container of “fish pacifier” had evaporated, so we pressed into service some under-utilized Sambvca. I think the fish died happy.)