Day 14

Saturday, Oct. 8

The time changed overnight to Eastern Time, so we lost an hour of sleep (that is 3 hours in total), but we didn’t have to get up early this morning because we weren’t supposed to arrive in Aruba until 1:00.  I was awake at 7:00, and thought I should get my shower before the coffee was delivered.  I got that out of the way and was shaving when I heard the knock on the door.  My face was covered in shaving cream so I couldn’t go out to answer it.  Dawn was still sleeping and didn’t hear the knock.  I guess he phoned our room and woke her up, but by that time, I was out of the bathroom and able to get the tray.

I poured my coffee, and went out on the deck to look around and read.  I took the camera and the binoculars out on the deck so they could warm up and lose their fog (coming out from a cold room into the hot, humid air).  After a while, Dawn got up and came out.  We went for breakfast at about 10:00.

When we returned, there were a number of ships on the horizon, and passenger planes were flying fairly low, so we knew we were getting close.  Even though it was hazy, we could finally see some buildings off in the distance.  The water was quite rough, similar to the day after we left Vancouver although not as rough as that.  There was a fair wind blowing and the birds flying along with the ship seemed to be enjoying themselves, skimming the water and occasionally diving in to get a meal.

As we got closer, we slowed down, I assume to take on a pilot.  We couldn’t see any boat, but we were on the wind side and I didn’t think they would bring someone onboard on our side.  There were a couple tugboats waiting for us, just outside the beautiful blue water.  Dawn went to take a photo, and the camera wouldn’t start up.  I had forgotten to re-charge the battery, and plugged it in immediately so we could at least have some power to take photos while in Aruba.

A catamaran sailboat passed us as we got close to shore.  It had the name of the company we were going snorkeling with on the side, so we assumed it was our tour guides.  The wind was really blowing, and things got somewhat calmer as we got inside the breakwater, but that didn’t stop it from making our ship difficult to control.  The lane was very narrow where we were to dock, and it looked like it wouldn’t take much for us to run aground.  Both tugs had to push with a lot of power to hold us against the pier while the mooring ropes were being attached (there were lots more than we had seen at other ports).

To disembark from the ship, there wasn’t the usual organization with tours meeting someplace first and then getting off in groups.  Instead, it was meet the tour operators outside of the pier.  Of course, one of the gangways wouldn’t work, so we were down to getting everyone off using one gangway.  What a congestion of people.  We lined up, and walked to one end of the ship and then back to the middle before they informed us that the second gangway was in service.  Due to the lateness of getting off, some of the tours were late getting away.

We finally got off, went outside and met with a fairly large group who were all going snorkelling.  We walked for about 10 minutes to get to where our sailboat was moored in the harbour, and then everyone got on, and we were off.  Lloyd counted 63 people on the tour.  The boat was large enough to handle everyone, with room for more if there had been any.

They took us out of the harbour, raised the sails, and we scooted down the coast across the front of many hotels and all sorts of beautiful white sand beaches.  After about ½ an hour, they took us close to shore, anchored, gave us some instructions, and then let us off to swim with the fishes for about half an hour.  It was great; the water was warm (about 83 degrees), the air temperature was good, the sun was filtered by the clouds.  We had fun.

After that we got back on board and they took us to another spot for another bout of swimming/snorkelling.  Again, a great time was had by all.  Up to that point, there was pop and juices provided.  After we finished there, they opened the rum punch which seemed to be a hit.  Dawn and I sat on the webbing at the bow of the boat on the way back.  It was quiet, windy, cool, and generally very enjoyable.  This boat could really move when the sails were up.

I was able to get a number of nice shots of our ship as we were coming in.  We sailed right by our side of the ship and our cabin was very visible.  At this time, I was also able to get some good shots of the harbour and some of the very expensive looking yachts that were moored there.

There was a series of small shops at the pier so we went in there for a while.  We didn’t have time to go into town as we had to be aboard within half an hour of returning to the ship.  I went and sat while Dawn looked through the stores.

We needed showers to get the salt water off, so we took some time before being ready for dinner.  The ship started moving about 6:50, and we went up for dinner at 7:00.  Everyone was feeling pretty happy with the day, but we were all tired, so we ate and left.  Dawn and I started watching the movie under the stars, but I found it pretty slow and suggested we not stick around.  Dawn agreed and we went back to our cabin.  It is 9:30 now, and Dawn is already in bed watching TV.  I’m heading there in a few minutes.  What a great day.  This is certainly a place to consider coming to for a week.