This is our first attempt at blogging underway using sailmail. Hope it works out.

We left Aruba at about 10AM today after moving over to the port, with the 800 foot cruise ships, to clear out. The Renaissance Marina folks were great and came out to help. It is a little harsh making yachts dock in that port to enter and exit Aruba; concrete walls with black tires that rub off on your top sides here and there, as well as a handy bollard the size of a VW every 1/4 mile (only a slight exaggeration).

We have had no wind to speak of today seeing mostly 6-8 knots from dead astern with some light and variable thrown in for good measure. We've been doing around 9 knots with one engine at 2400rpm. Sunset was beautiful. We are now in traffic avoidance mode as there seems to be a lot of shipping running up and down the coast here. Lovin' the AIS and radar overlay. Looking forward to more wind as we reel in the Colombian coast.

We planed our crossing to get us by the rocky Monjes islands with some light still in the sky. The Venezuelan Coast Guard was hailing everyone as they passed the Monjes asking vessels to identify themselves. I didn't like the sound of it and fortunately they never hailed our position. I think they were at a land station in the Monjes though because we didn't see any boats.