Saraoni anchored at the airport anchorage in Aruba

After spending two full days cleaning green goop off the boat at Royal Marine, we decided to slosh some antifouling on the hull asap and get away from the refinery area on Curacao before we got coated again.

The last week has been a great weather window for sailing westwards towards Panama and as we had two days of it left, we got up at the crack of dawn to slip out of the Piscadera's narrow entrance as soon as we had enough light and time to get to the OLD refinery anchorage on the SE side of Aruba, nearly 60 miles away.

Once we had left Curacao far behind the old refinery structure on Aruba came into sight. We peered earnestly through the binoculars in the hope that we were right that it had closed. No nasty, yellowy-green smoke could be spotted and it made a good landmark to head for!

The weather wasn't as forecast and there was barely enough wind to sail, but we still managed the distance motor sailing in calm seas and arrived well before dusk right in front of the refinery at Roger's beach. We spotted Venezuela's mainland in the Maracaibo headland region 15 miles away and thunderstorms were starting to develop but no where near us. Funnily enough we experienced a light headwind for an hour just as we sailed under a dark band of cloud - the first westerly we had experienced in the Caribbean.

We are now anchored not far from Aruba's airport at the Surfside anchorage. Clearance into Aruba was the easiest into anywhere we have been and there were no costs involved, despite what it said in the Aruba Cruising Guide and 'Noonsite' which is invariably out of date anyway. We were asked to tie up at a spot in the port with our ropes taken kindly by departing Aussie yacht Pannikin's crew. Immigration and Customs were already here with a couple of forms which were filled in quickly and we were off. The only downside is that the spot for tying up could be a nuisance in stronger winds, but we don't expect the next weather window until at least another week, when we have to repeat the procedure for outbound clearance.

We are now 130 miles from the first Colombian anchorage, 350 miles from Cartagena and about 500 from the San Blas islands in Panama - 4 days sailing if we do the trip in one hit, but we will stop on the way if the weather allows - for the next week or more the wind is going back up to its old ways - 25 -30 knots day and night right around from the ABCs to Cartagena.

We have plenty of time to get to Panama because we won't be passing through the canal until late January or early February next year unless we can see some value in exploring the Pacific coasts of Panama and Costa Rica before that. The passage from Golfito in Costa Rica to the Galapagos actually cuts down some of the mileage, so it is worth thinking about and Golfito is close to the fascinating Corcovado area in Costa Rica.

So far, Aruba seems a nice easy place to hang out for a while and make some money while there are reefs and beaches to explore.

While Curacao has its amazing 'salinas' (aka 'marsas'), Aruba has its stretches of barrier reef with narrow lagoons behind which provide excellent protection. The Surfside anchorage where we are now is close to shore and good holding in sand. Nearby is a park with dozens of iguanas and this area has pelicans, turtles and of course, plenty of tourists!





Life's a beach in Aruba!

Aruba has long parted company from its Netherlands Antillean siblings and is planning to be totally energy sustainable from wind and solar by 2020 - an easy feat given the amount of wind and sun these islands get! The island makes its money from providing lovely, white sand beaches and places to spend money for visitors from North America, Europe and South America, but prices here seem to be higher than either Curacao or Bonaire. The architecture still has picturesque Dutch influence like Willemstad in Curacao, but otherwise there is little Dutch influence and most signs are in English. Papiamento is the local language as in the other ABCs, and Spanish is as widely spoken as English.