Bonaire to Aruba and Panama

Anchorage at Klein Curacao

We arrived in Aruba on Monday 20^th March after an overnight passage from Bonaire. Bravely, we sailed off our Kralendijk mooring forgetting about the current and narrowly missed the yacht moored nearby. The next hazard was a drifting ship. We have learned that it is quite common for big ships waiting to enter a port to turn off their engines and drift at 0.5-0.9 knots. Naturally, they drift backwards, which makes it very difficult for a small yacht under sail to pass their stern. One ship off Bonaire kindly started their engines and moved away, but the process took 10-15 minutes.

Almost a Green Flash

We had a lunch stop at Klein Curacao, a walk round most of the small island, a swim from the boat and a sleep until 2215. This time we motored away from the anchorage, but were soon sailing gently towards Curacao. Here we encountered more drifting ships as we navigated our way through. Curacao did a good job of blocking the wind and the swell, so we were soon motoring again until we had cleared the shelter of the island.

Cruise ships at Aruba

We tied to the Customs dock at Oranjestaad, Aruba at 1540. The Port Authority, Customs and Immigration came to see us and we filled in all the usual paperwork. By 1700 we were anchored next to Canadian friends, Ann and Barry on Cat’s Paw IV. We had been in contact by email and it was good to see them again. One hour later, we were on board Cat’s Paw IV enjoying sundowners with them and Barry’s cousin, Lucy and husband, Mark.

Keeping cool on passage

The next day, we dropped off our 3 empty cooking gas bottles at Renaissance Marina and left them to be filled. This was done by the following day for a charge of 10USD for the service and 26USD for the gas. Excellent service. I continue to be impressed by the Renaissance complex of hotel, resort, mall, casino, private island and marina. Water taxis take guests to Reception and tie up inside the hotel or they can choose to arrive by car. The Marina Office manager is friendly and helpful and we are not charged for tying the dinghy at their dock.

Surfside Marina, Aruba

Another friendly hotel/marina, called Surfside, located near the anchorage, let us fill our water containers and dispose of our rubbish for no charge.

Lucy, Mark and Ann on SD

We stayed in Aruba for 3 nights and enjoyed having all the crew from Cat’s Paw IV aboard Sal Darago for another sundowner session.

Two kippers

The next day, Thursday 23^rd March, we prepared SD for a 5-6 day passage to Panama and asked permission to go to the Customs dock to clear out. One hour and ten minutes later all the paperwork was done, our passports were stamped and we were free to leave. Soon we had twin poles up flying the full genoa on one side and the no.2 jib on the other. As it went dark, lightning lit up the sky on and off until 0100. It was very hot and muggy but there was no rain and little wind. The rest of the passage was a mix of sail changes, sometimes flying our ghoster and sometimes motoring in fairly calm seas and light winds. Dolphins came by, stars shone as the clouds cleared and most ships passed a safe distance away.

Big genoa and bigger ghoster

There were a few scares such as the ship with no name that set off our CPA (Closest Point of Approach) alarm giving me only 17 minutes before it would be very close as it was dead ahead and doing 21knots. Fortunately, the person on watch answered my call on VHF 16 and the ship passed 1.3 miles away. This might sound like a long way but in the middle of the night, it looks close.

One day the wind unexpectedly blew a bit stronger and we left the ghoster up a bit too long. As we started to take it down a shackle connecting the pole to a downhaul line snapped, the pole swung about madly and the line dropped half on the deck and half in the water. We retrieved the line and Jeremy restrained the pole. As we lowered the ghoster the wind caught it and lifted Jeremy off the deck. Sensibly, he let it go but he had rope burns on his arm and ribs. We struggled once more to haul in the ghoster and finally lowered it under the genoa to the deck and bagged it up.

Ouch!

The weather was hot. Naked sailing was one way of keeping cool. Sleeping on top of sheets with a fan going was another. Motoring only added to the heat, so we tried to avoid it by sailing very slowly at less than 2 knots sometimes.

Aaaahh

The final scare was arriving at the start of the Panama Canal, off Cristobal Harbour in the dark and navigating through the many anchored and moving ships. It’s hard to believe that sometimes you don’t see a huge bulk carrier moving towards you against the lights of anchored ships and the port. As dawn broke, we got permission from Cristobal Signal Station to enter the vast harbour and turn for Shelter Bay Marina. We tied up to berth D29 at 0710 on Wednesday 29^th March. It was our 42^nd Wedding Anniversary, so in the evening we ate out in the cool marina restaurant.

Cheers everyone.