51 NAUTICAL MILES TO ARUBA

We managed to get up real early( 0515 hours) however decided to wait for a bit more light.
By 0625 we’ve got the main up and then the anchor.

We’ve enjoyed 9 or 10 Bluenose Dolphins playing off our bow. They are breaching, slapping their tails. A fabulous one hour show. We in fact took a couple of short movies with the camera but I have not had any success uploading.

By early afternoon the winds are too light. Now we have an ETA of 1700 hours so we decide to put the motor on as we do not want to arrive at dark.

Off the southern coast of Aruba.

Aruba’s protocol is very different from all the other islands we have visited. We had to hail the Port Authority on channel 11 requesting permission to enter Bacadera Harbour to check in with Customs and Immigration.

By the time we tie to the dock, with only a couple of feet under our keel, complete all the paper work, it is almost dark and we have to move to an anchorage off Oranjestad a number of miles to the north. So I asked the Port Authority if we could possibly stay at the dock overnight and was pleasantly surprised when they said yes.

This dock is full of Venezuelan fish boats. As we’re enjoying a well deserved sun downer two young Venezuelans come over and we all try to communicate. They are eyeing Randy’s beer so we offer them each one. They continue to sit and one points at his knock-off Crocs that are in bad shape all the while eyeing Randy’s Crocs. They just won’t leave, so we decide to get busy, clear the deck and cockpit of everything not “nailed down” for the night and head down below.

Early next morning we moved to the anchorage off the northern end of the airport in Oranjestad. The approach is straight forward and we started to anchor in 8.8 feet of water. Unfortunately the holding is not great. We dragged back some 50 feet ending up in 36 feet under the keel.

We were happy to meet up again with friends Linda and Hans off Baros. They showed us around town. Almost every street corner has a casino.
A bus ride up to the NW end of the Island where all the Hotels are situated with pristine beaches was worth while, however the Island is so commercialized we won't be staying too long.

We've also caught up to Avalanche a Danish boat with four children on board.. Nikki & Marcus came over to borrow our water jugs.

Nov. 27th. We are trying to finalize additional insurance coverage so we can travel to Colombia. We told Linda and Hans not to wait for us so we've said Adios to them this morning.