Beer festivals, Barbeques, happy hours, scuba diving, sundowners, sight seeing - Life avoiding hurricanes in Curaçao

Who'd have thought hiding out from hurricanes would entail having so much fun. The boat is in fine condition, all the important jobs done so we spend our days socializing, shopping for Mandy's vegetables and trying to keep cool. It is so hot especially at night and the wind stops. Mandy has made some shades which make such a difference to the temperature, we couldn't go out on deck during the day without them as it's so hot.

Did my first dive in 25 years with Rasmus, Chris, Amy and Anne. It was warm, great visibilty, zillions of fish, a wreck and sooooo many different types of coral.

A little different to my first dive when I was 19 where we broke the ice in Stoney Cove, UK to get in the water and couldn't see a thing.

After the dive we went for a meal to celebrate Chris's birthday and finished off with the best margaritas in the Caribbean. So we had two. And we'll be going back for more.

Went to a beer festival in Willenstead. Not quite the crazy affairs back in Port Sunlight but the beers were good and they had a great band and some really silly bar games.

Lots of BBQs on the beach with so many good people and new friends.

Many happy hours in the local bars which are great as you get to know all the other yotties.

Not all fun though, we'd been stationary for 2 months and the growth on the hull was gross. Particularly bad this year due to the higher water temperature. It took me  4 days, 2 hours under the boat each time. Oh my god the life. I got stung to death on my arms and around my lips. So I wore my full wetsuit for the last 3 days. Getting all my gear clean and beastie free also took a long time. Mandy was no help as she is a little squeamish about the creatures. Cleaning your hull is definitely NOT like mowing your lawn.

Mandy did her diving course with our sailing mate Rasmun, who is a diving instructor, and she is now a Padi diver so we can start diving together. I am very proud of her a great achievement and useful skill. She can now help me clean the hull and untangle fishing lines from the rudder. :-) We are now one step closer to one of my dreams of diving the wrecks in the Chuuk lagoon. In the short term I am particularly looking forward to showing her The Wall in The Cayman islands. A vertical drop off that goes from 10 metres to 3 miles.

So we are now ready to leave Curacao for Cartagena, Columbia for a month in a marina. But we have to wait until this big storm passes. Oh well party on Garth.....