Lumpy, bumpy, wet but fast ride to Aruba

Amazing whenever we get ready to leave for the next destination how time just runs away. We did have a fun Pizza night onboard Fine Line and played "Shit Head" a fun card game with Anne, Steve, Christa, Judy and Ed until late. The following day was provisioning day and for dinner we went for a last time to the Portuguese restaurant again where they serve the wonderful skewers. On Friday morning Howard knocked on the door, he just arrived from the States and had our parts well part of it. The lights Sid ordered he placed in his backpack and the NyQuil in his luggage and that did not arrive, How, lucky can we be that he had stuffed our bulbs into his carry on. Then there was the sad "see you later" part to Christa, Ed and Judy. We left the marina around 11 and had a pleasant sail up to Santa Cruz Bay, although the wind was gusting down the different canyons. Seeing Santa Cruz from the water side, is actually a lot prettier than what we had seen by car. There was a swell wrapping around the northern end of Curacao coming into the bay but they were gentle and it was quite comfortable. We enjoyed sitting in an anchorage all by ourselves again even if it was just for one night. We woke up to heavy rain and decided to wait until daylight before heading out. Nothing worse then getting up in the dark and having to stand in the rain to pull anchor (Sid); we finally left at 7:30 still raining. It rained pretty much the whole trip long and as we left the lee of the island the swell grew(6'to8') and the sea became pretty unsettled, that washing machine effect again. We had just the jib out with motor on as the squall were unpredictable and too numerous. Max the Autopilot did a good job steering us on course and Sid had not really much do to with the jib while I laid down not trying to get seasick. The wind was 10to25kts. Didn't get seasick but we did get wet, both of us. It was a lumpy, bumpy, wet but very fast trip. At one point we were going 9.1 knots over ground and maintained between 7 and 8 knots all time, had a current with us that helped, boat did a steady 6.8 to 7 through the water which is above hull speed and it took us only 7 hours to sail the 56 miles to Aruba. A nasty stink from the oil refinery greeted us, not very pleasant, but at least the water was calm again as we were in the lee of the island. It stopped raining as well and when we pulled into Barcadera to check in with the authorities we found a space on the dock and didn't have to tie up to a Venezuelan fishing boat, what a relief. The Venezuelan crew was very friendly and helped us to get on the dock. Checking in is very easy although I had to wait 45 minutes for the Immigration guy to come back (I was hoping for him to come back as I really didn't want to spend the night on this dock because it was full with nasty flies and gnats. Why is it that Immigration employees have an attitude and most are never friendly? With serious face he wanted to know how long we wanted to stay, we knew that they give up to 6 months so I asked for the maximum. "No" was his answer, so I asked him how long the max stay was, he said 30 days. I looked at him and said, "No I don't think so, it's 90 days to 6 months!" He looked back at me and surprise had a huge grin on his face then said we could have 3 months. Customs was a lot easier. For anybody checking into anywhere from the Virgin Islands down to Trinidad to Aruba, they all are on the same system called eSea Clear http://www.eSeaClear.com you can check in online in advance and when you get to the destination clearing in just tell the officer you checked in online. They then print the paper work out and all you have left to do is sign the paper and you're in, no more filling out paper work, as fast and easy as that.
The friendly Veni guys helped us off the dock and we handed them 7 beers for the crew as a thank you and headed 4 miles further north to the north anchorage of the airport where Fine Line anchored a day before us.
Approaching the anchorage the depth sounder did not work, something we knew was on the fritz, so doing a few donuts(that's circles) and Sid hooking up our back up system we dropped the hook in 8 feet of water. I reversed the engine and Paradise started backing up slowly but then when I tried to set the hook there was no reverse or forward gear. Sid found the shaft came out of the coupler and was just at the edge and if it wasn't for the zinc the shaft would have jumped all the way out and prop would have jammed up the rudder, could have been disastrous, yikes!!!! Transmission works just shaft wouldn't work. Cruising after all is finding exotic places to work on your boat. He jumped in the water right away to assess the problem. Early the next morning he jumped in again and pulled the shaft a bit further out to look for the key which luckily didn't fall out. He went back into the water to push shaft back in but that was not possible so he took the coupler off the transmission and of course the key fell out and disappeared into the bilge, oh did I tell you yet that "Murphy" still lives on our boat?!!! After a lot of funny words, Murphy wouldn't even like Sid found the little runaway key and was able to fix the shaft. The engine is purring away and the gears are working, thank you Sid.
Had Limo driver Steve with Anne pick us up at noon and met with Roxanne on Bamboo in town for a wonderful lunch. Bamboo is at the Renessance Marina which is surrounded by wonderful restaurants, expensive stores and casinos, very nice. While having lunch the rain pounded down for what seemed an hour. I've never seen a downpour like that.

The weather has just been horrible with nothing but rain. Venezuela and Colombia are having major flooding, in Colombia alone 1 ½ millions are homeless and many were killed in floods, the rain just won't stop. It looks like we're stuck here in Aruba for at least 2 weeks until the weather clears. Actually it's fine with us as we have to order a new membrane for the water maker anyway. Isn't boating fun???!!!!! Well it's time for some rum, it;s been just another adventure. Bottoms up!!!