Saturday, May 20, 1995 - Aruba

We decided to wait until Sunday to paddle to Eddie's house. Roy went in to town after breakfast to get information from a travel agent. He wants to return to Richmond and work for a couple of months. I told him the travel agencies would be closed for the weekend, but what do I know? The travel agencies were closed for the weekend. So Roy took the bus to the airport and talked with the clerk at the American Airlines counter. He had thought he might have to make reservations a month in advance, but she assured him there were seats available any time. He could leave today if he wanted to, but the fare is $40 less weekdays. Roundtrip to San Francisco is $820, but he's thinking of flying to Miami and going standby from there. The wind was quite strong today. Gusted 25 knots or more, so it's a good thing we didn't try to paddle to Eddie's house. I wasn't feeling so hot, anyway. Felt even more tired than I usually feel, so I just hung around the boat. In the evening, we watched an interesting ceremony. A local cabin cruiser went by with a dozen or so passengers. It headed in toward the shore, and we kept thinking it would go aground, but it didn't. Obviously, the skipper was well acquainted with the area. About 150 more people were standing on the beach. The boat stopped near them. Ashes were poured overboard and a large wreath thrown into the water. Then the boat left the same way it had come.