A Few Days in Aruba

ARUBA!

We arrived in Aruba at about 4 PM on New Years Day and dropped anchor in St. Nicholas Bay to clear in the following morning. In the morning as we prepared to raise the anchor we were greeted by the Coast Guard. They boarded the boat and checked our documents before heading over to visit Suzie Too for a visit. They were quite nice and were happy to pose for a photo.

Aruba Welcome Visitors!

Aruba Coat Guard visiting Suzie Too

St. Nicholas Harbor is very industrial

We’ve heard stories of the clear in process to Aruba and were a bit intimidated. Happy to report all went quite well for us.  Aruba is one of few countries who require all entering and departing boats to actually bring the boat to the Customs/Immigration dock.  The main dock in Aruba is concrete with tires spread out along the way for large boats, not much protection for smaller boats.  When we arrived there was a large naval boat on that dock so we went to a secondary location.   Apparently this dock had more tires spaced for protection and was an easier experience in general.  We all ended up with black tire marks on our boats but no real damage.  Echo and Suzie Too were the first to arrive but it got much busier later in the day as several boats arrived at once.  The Customs officer did board and search Echo but not all were searched.

At the dock to clear in

At the dock to clear in

Two boats on the customs dock

At one point there were 22 Rally boats anchored in the harbor.  A few had opted to bypass Aruba and one boat will join us in Panama.  Lots of radio communication, weather watching, exploring, visiting and planning went on during  our stay there.

Of course we did some sight seeing.  Aruba is a very busy place!  There are malls, shops of all kinds, loads of restaurants and even a movie theater which was showing Star Wars.  Several went to see the move, some even more than once.

The public bus system is very nice.  We took a bus as far as we could to the Northwest then explored by foot.  It’s a beautiful area with white sand beaches, huge sand dunes, a light house, great restaurant, refreshment vendors and amazing views.  From there we hopped back on a bus to head back to Eagle Beach which our Lonely Planet Guide reported to be one of the top beaches in the world.  We found it to be quite beautiful and quite crowded.

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Beach party in Aruba

We enjoyed a nice lunch at a hotel along the beach then rode the bus back to Oranjestad.  We zoomed over to Echo to change and pick up a few beers then over to the beach to enjoy the regular “Suzie Too Sunday Beach Party”.

We had received  several suggestions of things to do in Aruba from a Facebook post and are sorry to say we were not able to do much touring while there.  We did wander the streets of Oranjastad, spent time with our fellow rally members, joined a group grocery shopping trip and Jeff hosted a group navigation software class aboard Echo.  We would have liked to have seen more but did enjoy our time there.

Hard at work with Navigation Software

Successful group shopping trip.

Excellent grocery store!

Rally Planning Meeting before a great pizza dinner ashore

Before leaving we had a group meeting ashore then all had dinner at a restaurant near the dinghy dock.  Very nice evening getting to know fellow rally members better.

Our check out process ended up being a bit different from the standard  experience in Aruba since there were so many of us and a busy cruise ship day.  Suzanne worked with Customs and Immigration to arrange a group check out on the beach near our anchorage.  Normally each boat would have to go back to the dock where we cleared in.  This is a somewhat cumbersome process for each of us, pulling out dock lines and fenders, motoring over to the area and communicating by radio to all the necessary authorities, tying to the dock while trying to protect your boat from the large concrete dock, later washing off all the black scuffs from the tires tied to the dock…  It was a much nicer experience to all meet on the beach at 6:30 AM with our documents.  At this point there were 15 rally boats remaining.  The customs and immigration authorities met us there, collected all our necessary documents and processed our exit.  All went amazingly well and we were all off within less than an hour.  Curiously they had informed Suzanne that we must all leave immediately and that they would keep watch to ensure we all left in a timely manner.  Not quite sure why but we were soon all off on our journey to Columbia and it certainly felt like a rally as 15 boats raised anchor and headed off as a group!

35 of us waiting for our clear out documents

15 dinghies ashore for clear out process

Heading back to the boats

 Participation in Suzie Too’s OCC Rally has so far proven to be a great choice!  We have met so many wonderful and interesting people and look forward to exploring this part of the Caribbean with them.  Suzanne’s organization skills are amazing!  She and David have traveled these areas twice before and are great resources for all our needs.  Looking forward to all the adventures ahead!

Next stop Santa Marta Colombia!

~ Jeff and Mary ~