Stuck in neutral as the Queen has a holiday in Aruba

Congratulations!" said Cap'n Max. "You have performed well as crew to date and I am promoting you both from Naval Cadet Second Class to Naval Cadet First Class. Well done!" "Wow thanks" said crewman Phil. "What does that get us?" "More jobs!" said Cap'n Max. The crew was a bit surprised with the promotions, they had already renamed the boat the "Bounty" as there had been a few minor mutinies already.

Crewman Phil was probably the most recalcitrant. After borrowing a tape measure from Cap'n Max crewman Phil had decided that his cabin was actually a storage cupboard or a small sauna, and he had refused to attempt to sleep there any more. He now slept in the saloon on the dining table, which lowered to form a bed. It was very comfortable, except in rough seas when the mattress had a nasty habit of sliding off the table without warning and at high velocity. "What should I do?" he asked. "Hang on!" said Cap'n Max.

We set off from Bonaire on Saturday afternoon and at first it was smooth sailing in the lee of the big island.

"Time for the traveller" said Cap'n Max. "Good idea, who else wants a beer?" said crewman John. "No no, the traveler controls the boom through sheets and blocks" said Cap'n Max. "Here we go again" said crewman John, who know had a reference book to look up all the nautical terms, much the same as translating Hebrew into English. Unfortunately, this did slow his effectiveness as a crewman, as he had to look up each command before acting. This has caused a few problems when Cap'n Max was attempting a rapid maneuvre, such as changing tack. 'Put down that book and pull in the sheets!" said Cap'n Max. "When did we do the washing?" said crewman John, much to Cap'n Max's dismay.

We headed west for Aruba Island. Our course took us north of Curacao then on to Aruba, a distance of about 100 miles. By late in the evening the wind was gusting to nearly 40 knots and the seas had picked up. The increase in wind and seas had become a normal occurrence on crewman John's night watch, so the crew had decided that crewman John had the "sailor's curse" when on deck. This was verified when Cap'n Max conducted a trial by ordering crewman John below. The wind and seas abated whilst he was down below, and then increased again when his head re-emerged into the cockpit. "Bloody cursed!" said Cap'n Max. We soldiered on, after agreeing that crewman John could only keep watch during the day. This slightly annoyed crewman Phil, as he could now never sleep, but it was decided that this was the best way to combat the curse.

The passage to Aruba was by far the roughest so far. The sails were reduced and the engine started to try to minimise the savage rocking and rolling, and this did work to some extent. But crewman John had decided that things weren't exciting enough and the "curse" was about to strike again....

Whilst approaching the northern tip of Curacao crewman John went to take the hourly ship's log reading. Then the instruments went suddenly dead. Alarms sounded as Cap'n Max sprang into the cockpit. 'We've got no GPS to guide the autopilot!" announced Cap'n Max. The autopilot had obviously realized this, got cranky and had immediately gone to bed. Cap'n Max had to steer manually whilst trying to find the problem. "We might have to anchor up for the night until I find the problem" he said. "Check the depth". "Looks pretty deep boss..er.. skipper"said crewman Phil. "Have we got 3280 feet of anchor rope?

As anchoring was not an option, Cap'n Max had to find and fix the problem. After a frantic half hour of searching, he discovered that crewman John had pulled the data cable out of the back of the instrument panel when reaching for the log book. Crewman John was assailed with a long series of words more naughty than nautical, and he got the message that he really should be a bit more careful in future!

We reached Aruba early on Sunday morning, looking forward to some respite from the rough and windy conditions. The long range forecast showed little change till the following weekend, and our planned departure is now tomorrow, Saturday, weather permitting.

Aruba is a highly sophisticated resort island, a stark contrast to some of our earlier stopovers. All the beautiful people holiday here - I fitted in perfectly! There are no anchorages, marina berths are the only option for visiting yachts. After the usual lengthy customs formalities, we berthed amongst a crowd of cats and monohulls, all waiting for the winds to ease. The yachting fraternity is like a having all your cousins living nearby - they come over to help when needed or just be sociable then disappear again for days or weeks. They were all eager to hear our stories of the high seas and strong winds as most boats were in port well ahead of us before conditions worsened.

We found to our delight that all the facilities of this massive resort including pools and private island (reached by a private ferry fleet) are made available to yacht crews in the marina. In amongst radio installations and routine maintenance we have made good use of the facilities, including a day trip to the private island, where we fed flamingoes and iguanas. The ferry trip to the private island is interesting - the ferry leaves from the middle of the hotel foyer via a canal beneath the building, under a footbridge and the esplanade road and out through the marina!

Monday was the (Dutch) Queen's Birthday holiday. Obviously the locals take it very seriously - we were treated to 32-gun salute (three times during the day!) a street parade and guard of honor. After his new promotion crewman Phil was allowed to attend (and even participate) and afterwards swapped tales with the Commander of the Royal Aruba Marines.

The remainder of the week has been a waiting game, with a close eye on the forecast. Tracey left on Wednesday, and Penny leaves tomorrow. This will leave the three of us to face by far the longest passage to date - 650 miles to Panama. Cap'n Max has the course plotted well out to sea to bypass any potential Colombian pirates and steer away from rougher conditions inshore.

There is an interesting mixture of apprehension and anticipation in the crew - we need better weather to tackle this one!!

May 4, 2007

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