End of Curacao then Aruba

Kathy decided to air the bedding one windy day. The quilt remained on the line, but the quilt cover went flying, which she discovered later. We snorkelled and Jeremy dived. After an hour the quilt was discovered by Jeremy in 7.2 metres. Our friends, Frans and Lucia on “Dalwhinnie” left for Cartegena. We walked to the deserted, but impessive fever hospital, the fort; went by bus to the Vergdenhill supermarket and nearby laundrette (to wash the salty quilt cover); and most nights fought a battle with increasingly swift footed cockroaches (Where the H do they live?).

On St Valentine’s Day we arranged to pick up a special bus to take us to the CARNIVAL. We waited at 1050. We continued to wait until 1130. We decided we would go with the 1200 special bus. We waited until 1215. The organiser (once removed… don’t ask) phoned the bus man and he said he would come straight away. By 1300 we were milling with the friendly, dense crowds along the Carnival route. The magnificent Carnival came through. It was intensely colourful, joyous and at times ear splittingly deafening – the sort of sound that gives you a pain in the chest. After an hour it ground to a halt and, as Kathy and I had to catch the bus back at 1600, we walked towards the tail end of the procession. We did not get anywhere near it after 15 mins so turned back for the bus which was only 25 mins late.

On Tuesday 16 February(Happy Birthday DoDo), we caught the bus to Willemstad to clear Customs, Immigration and to obtain a pass to anchor the night in Santa Cruz Bay, making the passage to Aruba a day’s sail. All went well. We popped into St Martha Lagoon, where we had previously received excellent WiFi reception, but the holiday makers had left their rented accommodation and WiFi was off the menu. At Santa Cruz, in 25 to 30 knots of wind we went ashore twice to get 37 gallons of water free from the shower there! On our crossing, the next morning, we were joined by a crowd of dolphins all keen to show off under Sal Darago’s bow wave. After rocking and rolling for 11 hours we anchored in the delightful St Nicholas Bay. This was slightly illegal as you are always supposed to clear Customs and Immigration, before anchoring. Our excuse was that we did not want to arrive in Oranjestad in the dark. We became a little nervous when the Coastguard Helicopter flew over us; however, nothing was ever said. At one end of the bay was the enormous Valero oil refinery, but it was downwind and very quiet – perhaps not in use any more.

The following morning in strong winds from behind, we quickly sailed on genoa only to Oranjestad. The Harbour Authority told us to go back to Barcadera, where all yachts now clear Customs etc. Turning round and returning the two and a half miles was hard work, reminiscent of crossing to the Isle of Man. All cleared, we went to the Oranjestad anchorage which is directly under the flight path for the international airport. Aren’t planes noisy when they land and take off?

Aruba is a holiday island. The planes come in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday every few minutes. Fortunately most of these Adventure seeking beings go to The High Rise resort, several miles north of Oranjestad. The cruise liners, three on average per day, come to Oranjestad. It really does not seem to rain on Aruba and the dust and sand get everywhere. We have tried to swim every day, but the two foot waves in the anchorage make it less than peasant. Dinghy rides ashore are wet. Everyone we have spoken to has been very pleasant indeed. We are allowed to use the local Dive Shop jetty for free and they sell us their water at a modest price. Unfortunately, Jeremy had to have a tooth removed almost as soon as we arrived. Later he picked up something akin to flu and this interfered with the two days on which we hired a car to tour the island. There are surprisingly few places of interest on the island and finding them is difficult for two reasons. First they are not signposted. Second the beautiful, tarmac road suddenly changes into a dirt track version of the test-track at MIRA which is designed to shake cars to pieces (Please email Ritchie for further explanation). We plan to leave Aruba on Friday 5 March, if Jeremy is well enough. Our next anchorage will be in another kind of “Paradise” (hopefully no aeroplanes), 579 miles away in the San Blas Islands of Panama. If we get decent WiFi, we hope to post some photos!