2-24-2015 Passage to Aruba



We left our mooring at Kralendijk, Bonaire at 1530 to do an overnighter to Aruba. The ABC islands are not in that order—actually they are from west to east; Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. We had decided to skip Curacao as a few cruisers had told us that the check in/check out was a hassle and there was not much to see there. With the wind from the SE our Westerly course put the wind and waves off our port stern—not bad for once. The wind was around 15-20 knots and the seas were only around 5-6 ft—nice for a down wind run. It did get a bit bumpy as we rounded the south end of Curacao, but overall, it was a nice trip—until we got to the south end of Aruba. We had seen a lot of commercial traffic but with radar and AIS we avoided the big boys just fine. Actually, as we went up the west of Curacao a big cruise ship was coming up on our stern in the dark and as he was two miles off I called him and asked him to adjust his course to give us a little more sea room—and he complied. But at around 0400 off the south end of Aruba a BIG Russian tanker was crossing in front of us and he called us by name and asked us to change our course to starboard to give him more sea room. We could have argued the point as we were under sail, but we follow the 'might is right' rule of the road—which means we don't argue with the big boys. We turned into the wind and with our sheets slapping and waves coming over the bow we watched as the big ship passed us in the dark on his way to Venezuela.
As we sailed down the west coast of Aruba the sun was not coming up fast enough which would make it too dark to enter the harbor, so we took in our genoa and continued to motor at low RPMs. We still were doing 6-7 knots so we put the engine in neutral—we still were doing 6-7 knots! The wind/waves and current were pushing us at 6-7 knots—crazy! We arrived at the harbor entrance and called Aruba Port Control for permission to enter the harbor. All boats, big and small, must do this as the main harbor is narrow and if a cruise ship or cargo ship is moving around all other traffic must wait outside. As the two cruise ships that passed us in the early morning were already tied up we were given permission to enter and given instructions to tie up to a commercial dock for clearance.
We approached the commercial dock and saw a concrete dock with big black tires for fenders—yuck! A few of the tires had indoor/outdoor carpet draped over them so we aimed for the one that looked the best. It was a bit tricky as the wind was still gusting at 15-20 knots, but Sherry took a 'leap of faith' and jumped onto the dock and got us tied up. We called port control and told them we were tied up and they called immigration and customs who showed up shortly and after a bit we were cleared into Aruba.
We had made a reservation at the Renaissance Marina and as we motored up the harbor—real close to the cruise ships, we called the marina multiple times with no answer. It was now after 0900 and the marina staff should be there—but no answer. We entered the marina (which is very small and tight) and called and called the marina—no answer. It was not easy to hold our position in the gusty wind. Finally someone answered and asked what we wanted—we told him we had a reservation and wanted our berth. He did not answer again but came down to the docks and spread his hands like 'what do you want?'. We moved close and told him we had a reservation and wanted our berth. He called someone on his cell phone and told us to tie up to the fuel dock which was dicey as the dock was only about 20 feet long, cross wise to the wind, and there was a 90 foot big blue mega yacht at the end of the fuel dock. We did tie up and waited for XJ the marina manager to arrive and show us to our berth. After a lot of effort and bow thrusting we were tied up on the concrete dock with 7 lines. The dock was high and we had to duck and jump under our dinghy to get there—we later lowered our dinghy and it was easier. Wow, what an effort that was!