Curacao to Aruba

Carolina

The first trip that I’ve done with crew that I met as I sailed along! Drew and Lydia joined after I met them for the first time in Curaçao and my friend Cat flew in to visit us. 5 people on board! A lovely downwind sail, the we lost two rapallas to VERY LARGE fish that we probably wouldn’t On approach to Aruba at 5pm I debated wether to go to customs and sort that out, or to anchor as the sun would set soon and deal with customs the following day. Before I know it I hear the VHF, I see the coast guard on my tail and they asked for all my crew to come on deck & informed me that they would board my vessel while I was under sail. They directed us to customs and we had our entire boat searched, by dogs, machines etc. it was a random stop and search exercise 😅 but very time consuming and did mean that we left the customs dock at dark to anchor which isn’t ideal. The charts aren’t very accurate here, and I also felt Arabesque graze a sandy bottom for the first time, but broke free quite easily 😳 A slightly surreal entry to this island. But we are here and Aruba is treating us well 😊

Boat & Crew

Arabesque

Jeanneau, Sun Odyssey 49

Joana Cartolano Leal

Deckhand

Carolina

Owner