GHOST

It's been an interesting couple of weeks and quite awhile since I gave my perspective on our happenings. So we left Antigua, a simple passage marred a) by some dodgy Venezuelan navy vessel with broken English and no radio etiquette that prompted a quick call to Falmouth coastguard to report the incident, thankfully nothing developed and b) by the discovery that the rudder stock bearing had in fact split again less than 12 months after the last one was replaced. After another expensive sat phone call to Hanse and umpteen emails to Jefa (the bearing manufacturer) we believe it was a function of installation. The guys in Turkey were simply too rough when installing it causing a hair line fracture that has taken this long to develop into something meaningful. So it was now a question of where we could get the boat lifted.

There was nowhere on Bonaire so instead we relaxed for a few days and dived as much as possible. What a fabulous place that has embraced diving like a religion. All dive sites are marked both on land and in the water and it only costs $US25 for a park pass to contribute to the up keep of this fabulous infrastructure. Bonaire was also the site of our second ever boarding by customs. We were once boarded a few years back as we crossed the finishing line of the 2007 Fastnet, this time we were moored on a buoy in front of the town and on they came, straight off their high powered rib with big dirty boots. Never quite get why Coastguards have to have such big boots and more over why they are always dirty! Alas it wasn't soo bad, they were polite and we had a good chat while they checked our documents.

So we left Bonaire for an unplanned stop at Curacao. We had planned to head straight for Cartagena until our bearing exposed its ugly insides. But what a surprise, the town looked great from the sea, very cosmopolitan and every bit a little Amsterdam in the Caribbean. We arrived at the marina mid afternoon on Sunday so helped ourselves to a berth and prepared for the lift and bearing replacement come Monday. The yard was very helpful and we lifted over lunch. The bearing went if fairly smoothly, all things considered and I can now say I have two new skills for the CV, rudder bearing replacement and thru hull fittings, as we added another one as a dedicated intake for the watermaker. Success earned us a beer or three that night. We had planned to leave first thing the follow morning, bound for Cartagena (you'll hear that objective a few more times yet!!) but a quick visit to the larger chandlery in town was required and the courtesy bus was running an hour late so come 1130 we thought better of leaving and settled in for another night in the marina but not before heading into town for a look-see and Kat and my first introduction to Geo-caching.

So what is Geo-caching I hear you say. Chris (our resident geek!!) introduced us to it and actually it is kinda fun and a great way to see a new town. So I'd describe it as a modern day orienteering "thing", the web site eloquently says "Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment." Anyhow, we set off to find our first cache wandering around the old fort. Ironically there seems to be a huge following of geo-cachers on cruise ships and as we closed in on the first one there was another couple trying to look inconspicuous (so as to protect the cache's location from "muggles") with GPS in hand! Yes they were looking for the same cache! It was magnetised to the underside of a stair case, so we "signed" in and went for a beer.

So back to sea on Wednesday morning, we set a course for the channel between Aruba and Venezuela and then on to Cartagena. Good day sailing, wind 20kns over the port quarter , 8 kns of boat speed and a fishing line out the back. We were settled in for a 3 night passage to Cartagena. About 4pm we landed a 4-5kg yellow-fin tuna (significantly bigger than our previous tuna hauls) which was quickly turned into sushi for sundowners with three massive fillets for the following night's dinner. I had dinner duty under control and by 1830 dishes were done, I was showered and settling in for a night watch when Kat came up on deck with more pain in her eyes than I'd ever seen. She had a root canal back in Palma Mallorca, but there was difficulty at the time in assessing which tooth it was. It had started being a bit of a problem over the last month so we had been looking for dental options in Panama or Cartagena, but it was clearly not something to be endured any longer and needed immediate attention so we diverted Aruba. We hardened up on the wind and were speedily heading for Oranjestad when we heard a motor boat behind us closing fast. No sooner had we got the mega big spot light on the scene there was a coastguard RIB on our port quarter. Prepare for another boarding!! So we furled the headsail, turned on the engine and on they came, 2 girls and a bloke, big boots and all. In actual fact this was a blessing and of great help. They were very very polite (one quite cute actually!) and very helpful. Customs and immigration (which is notoriously difficult in Aruba), was actually south of Oranjestad, down a channel, behind a dog leg around shallow water and was due to shut at 2100 so they radioed ahead, let us speed up, and guided us in. The boarding officers stayed on board and we had a great chat!

So here we are, in Oranjestad, Aruba, another unplanned stop. Kat is booked into the dentist in 30 mins. Poor old Jay will be in Cartagena a few days before us now and a good week later than when we had planned to get there. But that's cruising I guess. Aruba looks like a really nice place. So we'll have a couple of days here before heading off again...bound for Cartagena once more.