We are headed up to Santa Cruz Bay on the NW corner of Curacao to position ourselves for the crossing to Aruba. It is a small pretty bay just made for short stays. We tried to anchor outside twice, but too much coral so we headed in to shallow water and a sand bottom. Ok, that's better and also prettier. We will be leaving at o'dark thirty so I'm taking a close look at our position and the route out of here. It looks like all I need to do is aim for Mermaids' anchor light and then go around her as we clear the bay and all will be well. It was New Years eve and the fireworks went on all night, even here. At 4:30am we pulled the hook and hauled ass to Aruba. It was a good downwind sail and the seas were moderate as promised. We made good time and arrived in Barcadero to check in at about 12:30. We eased her up to the dock with lots of fenders out to keep us off the big ugly black tires. A couple of Venezuelan crewmen from one of the vegetable boats came over and caught lines for us. The wind was off shore so it helped to hold us off the dock and the tires. Check in was smooth and easy and took all of about 30 minutes, as we had to wait for immigration to return from another job. We then headed up to the anchorage just north of the airport. There were about 5 other boats there and we slid past them to the shallow water closer in and dropped the hook. She bit on the first try and we were in Aruba. Good sand bottom that held us well, even when it blew hard. Aruba reminds me of Ft Lauderdale. High rise hotels, IGA supermarkets and US restuarant chains to include Hooters. The best part for us was the supermarkets where we could get things we hadn't seen in four years. Of course we paid a commensurate price, but hell, no one put a gun to our heads. Our sole purpose here was to be 55 miles closer to Columbia when a window opened for the trip. In the meantime we did some sightseeing with our new friends on Conari, Mike and Ineka. It doesn't take long to see the whole island and we did. Then we did some more provisioning as we intended to be out in the San Blas for several months and there are things you can't get in Cartagena. There is almost nothing available in the San blas. Therefor we spent a small fortune trying to get it all before we left Aruba. Ah well, we'll eat good while we're out there. Now all we need is a wx window!