Now for a brief run-through of what had to be one of the longest 2 1/2 month stretches of my life. I say longest merely because so much happened during that time that I can't believe we were in Curacao for such a short time.

First, this was our real introduction to the cruising community. When we left Connecticut I had no idea that people lived on their boats and traveled on them all over the world. I also had no idea that cruisers would turn out to be some of the most interesting, courageous and warm-hearted people I have ever met.

They came from all walks of life: one couple was in banking; Fred, the singlehander on the catamaran was in construction; the husband of another couple had been an oil company executive; the wife of another couple was a chemist; another singlehander was a retired commercial pilot. We also met Jerry and Linda, who are now here with us in Green Cove Springs. He's a retired Navy Seabee and mechanic; she's a nurse - two valuable skills for cruising.

In addition to the endless round of potluck dinners and happy hours, we toured the Westpundt area looking for good dive sites; we rented an old beat-up car that was cheap but took us on our many errands; we discovered Mambo beach where on Tuesday nights you can lie in lounge chairs on the beach and watch a free movie on a big screen; we took our dog Star to the vet and finally got his paw straightened out; we went to the movies in Willemstad several times; we had the boat taken out of the water for a week to repair the damaged keel; we had several business meetings; we took the boat sailing twice with our new friends aboard; and finally, we started the lengthy residency process (you'll recall our objective was still to set up a dive charter business).

We also rented a house, an event in itself. Ideally, we wanted a house either with a dock for the boat or located somewhere in view of the boat. There was no Multiple Listing Service on the island so we had to go to several different agents to see what they had available. Finally we settled on a large house with several fruit trees in the backyard but no view of the boat. The entrance door was a split door that opened individually on the top and the bottom, so you could close the bottom portion, leaving the top open. Like many houses, this one had bars on the outside of all the windows and outdoor florescent lights that went on automatically at night to deter thieves. Our yard was completely enclosed with an electric gate at the end of the driveway. The windows all had different key locks on them; the house came with a set of 10 keys. The first night in the house, the 5 dogs next door barked so we couldn't sleep much; the second night was better but the 5 dogs at the house in back of us now barked a little; finally, after we spoke to the neighbors who had the first group of 5 dogs, they removed the female dog which was in heat, and the barking ceased. Charlie never did get used to the cold showers, though; very few houses in Curacao have hot water heaters.

On 9/11 our lives changed forever. That morning we were standing in line at the phone company in our 3rd attempt to get phone service to the house (we had the retired pilot, a local resident, with us this time and were successful) when I heard people saying the Papiamentu (the official spoken language here) equivalent of "Oh no!". I turned to look at the TV monitor which was tuned to CNN and saw smoke coming from the first tower. As I watched the live broadcast, to my horror the second tower was hit and then both towers came down one by one. Remember I was born and raised in NYC, and this to me was an unconscionable act of destruction to my home town on a scale I could never have imagined. All I remember of the remainder of the day was going to the marina and Linda asking me if I wanted to watch more of the broadcast on their TV, which I did gratefully. I was depressed for days. In a marvelous show of solidarity our neighbors at the house flew a U.S. flag at half mast.

Naturally this event affected tourism and the possibilities for our business. Charlie suggested that we go cruising instead of trying to start the business and I agreed heartily. The next day I made the necessary phone calls to get the 40' container full of our household belongings off the dock in New Jersey (it was set to sail to Curacao the next day) and back into storage and to complete several financial transactions.

We had to take the boat out of the water again to repair a bilge leak and have the prop on the port engine balanced. Next we moved out of the house back onto the boat. This time the cats were allowed the run of the boat since it was just going to be the two of us. The cats were much happier even though it meant they had to deal with Star. Before we left, Charlie, a PADI licensed Scuba instructor, taught the husband of one couple we knew how to dive so I got in a few dives along the way at a site commonly known as The Tugboat (yes, there's a tugboat sunk there) - the fish and coral were magnificent. We also had a barbecue for 20 people on our boat and discovered that while our cockpit really held 12 people comfortably, 20 was too many.

Next - the joys of cruising.