Destination Guide · Curaçao
Klein Curaçao
A flat white-sand island in the open sea — the old lighthouse, sea turtles in the shallows, and the signature day sail from the base.
From Spanish Water
16 nautical miles · 2-3 hour open-water sail (offshore SE)
Best time to sail
Year-round, on the morning trades. The open-channel crossing is best left early to sail back on the afternoon wind; we read the forecast and pick a settled day for the calmest sea.
Klein Curaçao — 'Little Curaçao' — is a small, low, uninhabited island lying about sixteen miles off the south-east coast, out in the open sea. It is the signature day sail of any charter: a flat disc of brilliant white sand ringed by turquoise water, with nothing on it but a weathered old lighthouse, a few simple beach shelters, and the bleached timbers of shipwrecks driven onto its windward shore. There is no village, no road, no development — just the island, the sea, and the colour of the water.
We sail out across the open channel on the morning trades — a fast, exhilarating reach with the wind on the beam — and anchor off the sheltered leeward beach in clear, shallow water. The snorkelling is the draw: green sea turtles graze the seagrass in the shallows and surface to breathe right beside the boat, and the reef along the island's edges is alive with fish. The west-side beach is the calm, swimmable one; the windward east side is wild, strewn with wreck timbers and pounded by the open Atlantic.
Ashore, the old lighthouse stands above the sand, faded coral-pink, with the long view back across the channel to Curaçao. A walk to the windward shore reaches the shipwrecks and the raw, empty beauty of an island with nothing on it. Klein Curaçao is the great day out of the charter — out early on the trades, a day on the whitest sand and clearest water in the region, and the sail home on the afternoon wind.
Anchorages
Leeward beach
The sheltered west-side anchorage — clear, shallow turquoise water over white sand, calm behind the island. Green turtles graze the seagrass and surface beside the boat; the snorkel is straight off the deck.
Turtle shallows
The seagrass flats off the leeward beach — the best turtle snorkelling of the charter, green turtles feeding in waist-deep clear water a short swim from the anchor.
Windward shore (walk, not anchor)
The wild east side, pounded by the open Atlantic and strewn with bleached shipwreck timbers — reached on foot across the island, not by boat. The raw counterpoint to the calm leeward sand.
Ashore
The old lighthouse
The weathered, coral-pink lighthouse above the sand — the island's one landmark, with the long view back across the channel to Curaçao. A short walk up from the leeward beach.
The shipwrecks
The bleached timbers and rusting hulls driven onto the windward shore over the years — a walk across the island to the wild east side and the empty beauty of the open Atlantic beach.
Turtle snorkelling
Mask and fins straight off the boat — green turtles grazing the seagrass in the shallows, reef fish along the island's edges. Best in the calm of the morning before any other boats arrive.
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RexSailing · Spanish Water · Curaçao