Thursday, September 28, 1995 - Klein Curaco

Hooray, hooray! We're in Klein Cura‡ao! Got up at five a.m., ate breakfast, pulled up the remaining anchor, cleaned the chain, and took off. Got to the little island of Klein Cura‡ao at ten a.m. and dropped anchor in twenty feet of beautiful, clear blue water. This island is a little over a mile long and about half a mile wide. It is totally flat and barren. Three men live here in small, crude houses, without electricity, running water, or other luxuries. There is a fairly decent dock. Directly in front of the Jofian is an old, abandoned palapa. There are picnic tables and a large barbecue pit. In the center of the island stands an old lighthouse that is still in quite good condition. It is no longer manned, but the light is powered by a solar generator. Surprisingly, the buildings aren't boarded up. We were able to go in and look around. Climbed the spiral staircase and the ladders to the very top of the lighthouse. Could see the entire island and the water beyond. Could see Bonaire to the east and Cura‡ao five miles to the west. An old tanker was wrecked years ago on the windward side. The remains of its rusted hulk are still sitting there. The three men who live here were walking along the shore, gathering snails. We spoke to them briefly, but they knew about as much English as we do Papiamento. While we were walking around, a high-speed, thirty-foot powerboat, with four 225 HP motors, tied to the mooring buoy not far from Jofian. There were six scruffy looking men on it. One was transferring fuel from a large tank to the outboards. Roy said he saw one of them cleaning a rifle. He figured they had some sort of contraband on the boat. While we were eating lunch on Jofian, a helicopter flew over and began circling around. It came closer and closer, hovering right over the powerboat. Apparently, the people in the helicopter ordered the guys on the boat to go in to the shore. They took their boat up to the beach and waited. The helicopter landed a short distance away, and four policemen armed with automatic rifles jumped out. They rounded up the six men from the powerboat and searched them. Had them pull down their pants and lift up their shirts. Then they had them all sit on the beach. One officer went on the boat and searched. Apparently, he found something. The helicopter flew back to Cura‡ao and soon returned with four more police officers. Shortly afterwards, we saw a police boat approaching ninety-to-nothing. The six men made no move to resist. After about an hour, the officers moved them to the shade of the palapa. The police boat tied to the dock, and several more officers got off it. They searched some of the buildings, including the lighthouse. One officer carried a white package to the helicopter, and the helicopter took off. Two men and three officers got on the powerboat, and the other men pushed it off. Then the four on the beach were taken to the police boat, shackled together at their wrists. The police boat and the powerboat took off for Cura‡ao. We had a grandstand seat for the entire show. It was better than watching television. Roy took a bunch of pictures, which he hopes to sell to a newspaper. We napped for an hour or so and then went snorkeling and swimming. Saw thousands of fish. The water here is a little cooler than at Spanish Water. The air is delightful. And there aren't any mosquitoes! What a relief! They devoured us last night.