Wednesday, May 24, 1995 - Aruba

Roy spent the morning hanging the awnings, so we now have shade as well as breeze. An Englishman from another boat came by, wanting to borrow a chart of Colon. At first, I thought he was Dutch or something, and English was a second language for him. As Rick Guido says, England is the only country where you can read the signs but not understand a word anyone is saying. When I finally figured out what he was asking for, I dug up three charts of Panama and the Colon area. He took them someplace and had copies made. When he got back, I asked him where the copy place was, and he told me, but it wasn't self-service, and it wasn't cheap. He also told us where some additional restrooms are in the hotel, but he didn't know of any showers. He has a shower on his boat, so he doesn't have to worry about it. A little later, he left for the San Blas Islands. I went over to the ATM at the mall across the street to see if it would access U.S. banks. It did, as long as you have a Cirrus card, which mine was. It paid me in florins, so now I'm all set; I don't have to pay the local bank to exchange money for me. After lunch, we rode the bus as far towards the northwest point as it went. We ended up at a beach that's very popular for wind-surfing. We watched them for a while and then checked the prices for lessons. Roy and I would both love to learn to wind-surf, but I've had lessons three times without success. I'm sure Roy could learn, though; he's a natural-born athlete. When he gets back from California, maybe he'll take lessons. This is certainly the place to learn, with all this good wind. On the way back, we got off the bus at the Pueblo Supermarket. The dockmaster had told us there was a marine-supply store near there, so we checked it out. The store sold mainly fishing tackle, but it did have a few marine supplies at high prices. We didn't see anything we needed. Then we checked out another supermarket. It was every bit as good as Pueblo, so we bought some groceries there. A young couple stopped by the boat. He's Dutch and she's French. They lived in Brazil for fifteen years, so they speak Portuguese fluently. He was fluent in English and French, too, but she didn't know much English, so he translated for her. They're interested in buying the boat, but don't have enough money. Roy priced her at $50,000. So now we have two couples who want to buy Jofian but don't have the money.