Monday, May 22, 1995 - Aruba

The wind is blowing even harder. I'm getting tired of this incessant wind. I don't want it to stop altogether, because then it would get too hot, but I wish it would calm down a little. In the morning, Roy put on his diving gear, scraped the barnacles off the propeller, and scrubbed most of the underwater portion of the hull. He didn't quite finish, because the water was too bouncy. Roy also fixed the push-button radio. Apparently, the only problem was a loose connection to the speaker. It's perfect now. After lunch, Roy blew into town to see about renting a slip at the marina, but I stayed on the boat. Felt crummy again, and the wind's too strong. Took a nap while he was gone. When Roy got back, he said we were moving to the marina right away. That sounds a lot easier than it actually was. First, we had to raise the two anchors while keeping the boat from blowing away. Roy, of course, had to do most of it. One of the anchors got caught on the other. What a mess. Roy had to lift it up (all 80 pounds of it) and flip it over the other one. I don't know how he does it. The marina itself was the worst we've ever tried to get into. Even in the harbor, there was some wind and occasional gusts. The slip was nothing but a couple of posts and a stubby little dock with no cleats. Roy's plan was to circle in front of the slip, drop the port anchor, and let the boat blow back towards the posts, being kept from going too far by the anchor. Then he'd paddle to the dock with a line, wrap the line around the dock, and pull the boat in stern-first. That way, we wouldn't have a problem getting out against the wind. (There were no upwind slips available.) His plan almost worked. Unfortunately, the anchor float caught on the lifeline, preventing the anchor from going all the way down and taking hold. Roy didn't notice it; he thought the anchor was dragging. With a great deal of difficulty, he finally managed to back the boat between the posts. The dockmaster had come over to help, but he didn't do much. However, he did take our stern line and secure it. Roy had to do everything else. He just had me stand by with the flat fender so we wouldn't bang into the boat next to us. Our stern was right up against the dock, and we heard horrible crunching noises. We thought our Royaks were being crushed, but it turned out a metal plate was being torn off the stern and the wood it was attached to was split open. Somehow, Roy managed to get his Royak into the water by dropping it over the port lifeline. We were too close to the dock to lower the ladder, so Roy had to drop into his Royak from the deck -- something he'd never tried before, but he made it. He paddled to the posts with the bow line, got the boat tied to the posts, and then was able to pull the boat forward, away from the dock. All this took hours, and it was nearly dark by the time we got securely fastened. Our slip is right in front of the Mamma Mia restaurant, so we get to enjoy their live entertainment. They have a great singer, Lloyd Jean-Baptiste. He has a lovely, mellow voice, and most of the songs he sings are ones we like, so it's very pleasant.