85) Aruba

Anchorage off Oranjestad, Aruba

12° 30.586 N 70° 02.055 W

After we weighed the anchor we headed back to the commercial harbor to check out.  You must check in and you must check out.  We had several things to take care of this morning and time always gets away from us preparing to depart.  As soon as we were tied to the dock John went to the customs office to check out.  Alan and I started emptying 5-gallon water jugs into the main tanks and then subsequently filled them.  We didn’t set up a hose and I don’t think we had a long enough hose to reach the boat from the faucet and just ferried the jugs across the pavement.  We ended up getting more than 50 gallons but less than 100.  On top of what we already had we should have more than enough to make Cartagena in 3 days, 440 miles.  Since we won’t be showering we won’t run out of fresh water.  There was no fuel available here and we could not get in the small marina due to handling difficulties in the high winds (teens to low twenties).  John estimated we had enough to make Cartagena and we planned to sail.  We still needed to motor about 100 miles to get around a point of land before we could turn and raise the sails.  We aren’t sailing because we are going directly down wind. 

When John came back he said that immigration would come out to the boat at 10am and we had to hustle to get to the grocery store.  The guard up front told us to go that-a-way and it turned out to be a quickie mart. They usually don’t have what we want.  We flagged a cab and went to a large grocery store.  He was kind enough to wait for us.  We ran through that place just grabbing whatever we saw and surprisingly kept it to a minimum.  Beer made it in the cart and so did some pastries!  While we were away Alan overheard that there was a gale warning in effect. 

Offshore Venezuela

Offshore we are motor sailing with the winds in the high 20s and the seas from 6-15’.  We are going with the wind and waves so it is not bad except the rolling back and forth.