Can’t anchor, no problem…Aruba!

Go west young man

So the kids left us in Curacao and Thanksgiving was over. Our trip wasn’t! We had to haul the boat to fix a problem with the saildrive and then make it to Aruba for a day of R&R and then on to Colombia if the weather was good. “Slow down, you’re moving too fast!” is what we hear a lot from our YouTube followers and they are right. We move because we are on a schedule “sort of” but also we plan on making all these stops again and again. We plan on cruising for a long time and maybe on a variety of boats but the biggest factor this time is our (my) fascination with Colombia. When we first left Florida and headed east for 1500 miles to get to the Caribbean I was already thinking about a Colombian tour on the South American continent. I even bought a Colombian textbook with a 200-year history of economics and government. What was I thinking?

Beach Boys every where …… no, actual Beach Boys

Most islands have many anchorages for all sorts of weather conditions. Not this one….We headed up to the end of the island and the only anchorage there was exposed to open ocean and the waves were roiling in. We tried anchoring but the boat was rolling on its side which is hard to do for a catamaran! So after being forced to leave Curacao we headed to Aruba. After a beautiful night sail we arrived and dropped the hook for some much needed sleep at 3 am. In the morning we awoke in a beautiful bay looking at a beautiful island with blue water and a nice marina waiting for us. Suddenly the Kokomo song came into my head. I couldn’t stop it. It was perfect for the setting. In fact my whole life has been one big boating extravaganza and that song has always been an escape theme that applies to many anchorages and sunset moments but here it applied the best. Why did they use Aruba as their first island in the song? Come visit and you decide.

Sick and tired

After a day in Aruba we rushed around getting ready to leave for Colombia and the forecast was good. This is a notoriously tough passage, which I will explain later, but I was still fighting a cold and this trip was going to be just the two of us. Lennie and I discussed in detail how we would get to Colombia and rush around preparing to leave the boat and we looked at each other and said “why” It was a good call. We slowed down and took a breath. I went to the doctor for some mental cure pills (antibiotics) and we now had 4 days to take our time and explore Aruba.

 On the beaten path

Aruba is not like the other islands. It’s a tourist trap with all the trimmings (read Senor Frogs) and for this reason most cruisers bypass it. We aren’t most cruisers. After all the small islands and palm-fringed beaches with coconut stands it was time for a change and this was it. It’s a small island but we filled the days with sightseeing above and below the water. We ate at great restaurants, wandered shopping malls and tried our hand with lady luck. South America can wait.

Enjoy the video! And a near misshap at the haul out.