Aruba!!

 After 10 days in Curacao we started looking at the weather as it was about time to move on.  The weather show the winds to be getting much stronger in a couple of days so we decided to clear out the next day.  Nov 9 Saturday we took the bus into Willemstad to clear out with immigration and then customs with the plan of leaving Sunday morning.  After talking to other people who have done this trip before, we decided to just go up to and anchorage near end of island the first day and then do the last 50 miles in one long day which saves doing an over night passage.

   

    Sunday morning we left about 7am for the 25 miles up to our anchorage.  We got a radio call from the Mojombo's as we cleared the harbour.  They had gone for a early morning walk to the top of a local hill past the old fort and could see us coming out.  They were just tiny specs on the hill top, but with the binoculars could see them waving, a great send off.  The wind picked up an hour later and we had a fast sail up the coast with the wind behind us.  We sailed around the last headland and the seas flattened out into a beautiful anchorage.  We dropped the hook in a bout 19 feet around 1pm and now could relax.  We did some snorkeling along the South shore cliffs and it was pretty good. Lots of different fish.  We did not go ashore as we were cleared out of the country.  The only other yacht in here came over and said hello, he said occasionally the coast guard was coming into the bay to check boat papers, but we never saw them.

   

      The next morning we were up at 02:15am and under way a few minutes later.  The wind was up and we started sailing soon as we cleared the harbour.   The 50 miles went quickly as the winds built up to 20 plus knots.  The seas got fairly rough as we neared the half way mark of passage and I closed the cabin door for awhile.  The seas eased a bit a couple hours later.   About 8 miles out we could see Aruba through the haze and also see 10 huge wind turbines at the end of the island.

   As we rounded the South end of island and started up the West coast the swells got smaller but the wind picked up and soon I put a third reef in main and had almost no head sail and we still went along at 6 knots.  The wind was gusting to over 25 knots at times and occasionally over 30 knots.   The entrance to Baradera soon came up and we motored through the pass to head for the dock to clear customs, right about noon time.  Now we were going straight into the blasting wind and we suddenly going less than 2 knots. I increased throttle to keep us moving, there may have been some current as well.

      It is mandatory to bring you boat into this harbour to clear in and we heard you may have to tie to a fish boat.   Up ahead to the South we could see several hundred feet of empty wall ahead and headed for this.  As we came closer we could see it was a cement wall lined with tires and about the height of our decks.   The wind was blowing at an angle of the land but still heading us.   We came along side slowly, heading for a large bollard we chose, and could see a man running up to take our lines.   We should have had some big loops pre tied in our lines then we could have just thrown this over and quickly cleated line off.   But instead we threw the line to the helper but by the time he tied the rope around the huge bollard, the wind had blow us off and we were 15 feet off the dock.  We then threw the helper our stern line and he tied it to a tire chain, but the bow line was taking most of the force because of wind.  Now we had both lines to shore but the boat was still 10 feet off the dock.  The poor helper was trying to pull us in but it was almost impossible.  Finally using the engine a bit and pulling we got close enough that I could jump of and go to customs.

       I left Dorothy on the boat, but it turned out they wanted her there as well.  But since she wasn't, they actually sent someone all the way down to our boat to get here to sign one of the forms and then return with it, very nice of them.

     Forty five minutes later we left the wall and headed for the anchorage  called the "Airport anchorage".  It is a couple of miles further up the coast.  We went back out the pass and let the wind blow us up to the entrance to the main town of Oranjestad.   We motored inside and found only two other yachts here, great.  We dropped anchor at a likely spot but moved a couple of hours later as we decided we were too close to the main channel and all the speed boats going by, so upped  anchor and moved over a few hundred meters and re anchored. The whole time the wind is blowing 20 plus knots.  But the holding is good and lots of room to move around.

     The next morning a couple from the yacht in front of us came over to our boat and offered to take us into town shopping, as they had a hire car.  We said sure as this looked like a good opportunity to learn a bit about the island and meet some nice people.   As they headed back to their boat the motor died on their dinghy and in the strong wind they could not paddle to their boat, suddenly the man jumped in the water and was pulling his dinghy but not making much headway, then the lady dived in and they were both swimming, and not making much headway. Mean while we were frantically putting our dinghy together  so we could go help them.  Before we could get it into the water a dinghy from the only other yacht here, came over and helped them out.  An hour later we had a nice little tour of the island and got some groceries at a large supermarket we stopped at.
  There are lots of tourists around here, the most we have seen since Thailand.
We took a walk up to the Renassance marina area and looked at all the shops and generally explored.  There is two cruise ships in and jumbo jets flying in every day.

INFO

 -Entrance waypoint to Barcadera harbour for customs.  12 28.84N    70 00.62W  and waypoint at dock is 12 28.77N   69 59.84W  Read above writeup about entering Barcadera harbour.

-Entrance Waypoint for Airport anchorage and the town of Oranjestad and also Renassance Marina is 12 30.48N   70 02.28W   We anchored in 13 feet at 12 30. 53N   70 01.99W    early we had anchored a few hundred feet over in 19 feet.  But like this spot better. 

-When going up from Barcadera and customs to Airport anchorage, people and some guide books say you can go inside the reef  rather than go outside.  The latest we got from the yacht who drove us around the island and they have been here several months. Is go up the outside, sands have been shifting and the bit just after Bacadera is very shallow and need local knowledge. After that the channel is okay. They said all the yachts go up the outside now.

     The sands have been shifting a bit in the Airport anchorage as well so move about carefully as some parts are too shallow now for a 7ft draft.

- For a dinghy dock we have been using the small dive boats dinghy dock  just across from us.  We heard you can use Renaissance marina but they charge??  We found a medium size grocery store a 25 minute walk up from our dinghy dock it is in the main town near the waterfront mall.  The bigger ones you can take a bus to.

-Customs and Immigration is open 7 days a week  6am to 6pm and customs 24 hours.  They told us you do not need to take your boat back up to Barcadera to clear out, you can dinghy up or take bus and walk.  But after going to clear out we were told by another official that we must bring our boat up to clear out??  He let it go this time he said  but next time must bring boat up, so I guess it depends who you talk to. I would skip Aruba if I knew I had to bring my boat back against the wind we had, just to check out.

-There is a small fairly well stocked chandlry which is also the Renassance marina office just South of the marina, the other side of a plaza along with a strip of small stores.

-We found free wifi in the plaza between the marina office and the marina along with some seating. Its called "Plaza free Wifi".

   Is beside the Dutch Panacake cafe.