On the Hard in Aruba

Well, another two weeks gone already. Time flies! Let’s have a look at what’s been quietly going on.

As promised, I treated Brigitte and Abbie to a lovely brunch at the ‘Elements Restaurant at Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort - Adults Only’, which, just like six years ago with SY Pitou and SY Fidelis, was absolutely delicious. For Brigitte the portions were on the large side; even the men couldn’t manage all of Brigitte’s leftovers. You sit outside in the shade looking out over a truly stunning beach. American and (mostly) European hotel guests spend all day lounging under a palapa (one of those giant palm-thatched parasols) working their way through the cocktails. And then, if they feel like it, they shuffle over to the restaurant for lunch. So if you’re ever here, that brunch is highly recommended: for the “modest” sum of US$ 80 per person we got all the courses plus half a bottle of bubbly each, which for the three of us meant two bottles, so that was a nice little bonus.

After that, on Monday, we went to Arikok National Park, although unfortunately Brigitte’s stomach was a bit upset. On Tuesday I waved the family off and now I’m “alone” until the 25th. Alone? Well, not really. Since 2019 we’ve known Ingolf and Enrita here. A super nice couple – she’s “local” and speaks Dutch, English and Papiamento. He’s German and speaks English and German. So together it’s English – quite funny. He has been running the local concrete plant for over twenty years and knows literally everyone who matters. Enrita spent years working as a social worker in the Netherlands, helping young people from the ABC islands get on the right track and stay there. Now she has basically turned her ceramics hobby into her job. She has become a real artist and runs lots of workshops too. Last time, Ingolf even sailed with us from Aruba to Bonaire.

Anyway, with them, Stefan from the catamaran Intrepid Bear and another German couple, it’s been quite a busy scene here. I’m not allowed to name that last couple, because they want to live under the radar. They’ve even had their AIS switched off for years. I find it rather odd, but fine, it’s not illegal. I do think it’s dangerous to be out at sea without AIS, though. I don’t think they sail much anymore, so perhaps it’s not too bad. A pity, because they have a spectacular carbon cat, which they designed themselves and had built in South Africa.

On Wednesday I went straight over to Varadero Aruba, where all the staff (and the boss) welcomed me back like the prodigal son. Nice to be back. I couldn’t find a rental car myself, but Judith at the front desk had one sorted for me within 10 minutes. Very expensive for what it is, though: a rickety old Hyundai that I can barely fit into. US$ 1500 for three weeks is really crazy, but then again, without a car you can’t do much here. It’s peak tourist season right now, so everything is booked up and prices go up accordingly… With Rishi, the yard foreman, the boat was hauled out and on the hard in half an hour. All very relaxed with their lovely new Roodberg trailer. That’s a brilliant system if you don’t want a big gantry crane. Very space-efficient on the hard, but it’s a lot of work, so it only makes sense where labour isn’t too expensive. Which means the Venezuelans, Colombians and Surinamese who do the work here.

Over the past week the antifouling was first sanded and then a fresh coat went on. The rudders had been done in Portugal in October but needed to be completely redone already; stainless steel doesn’t like paint… Tomorrow a quick coat of “Propspeed” on the propeller and then I’m back in the water. High time too: the black water tank is full and I’d like to do a proper bit of washing up and wipe down the inside of the boat. Luckily I have an air-cooled fridge, so that still works on the hard. I can’t use the air conditioning in the forward cabin right now, because I have no water to cool it with!

Besides that, I’m busy with some investments that need attention (unfortunately not suitable for sharing publicly) and with new radar software. Eventually that is meant to become a kind of common layer in the open source world, sitting between the software you use to view charts (and soon radar) and the various types of radar from various brands. I’ve been working on it for ages, but at the end of last year a German suddenly came along to help me. Unfortunately he’d had AI write all the code, as he isn’t a programmer himself. It turns out that what the AI comes up with is fairly nice, but things had got completely out of hand. The AI (Claude) claims that everything it has built is fantastic, but in practice it’s the work of a first-year student. So I threw it all out and started over. I’m now getting help from Claude as well, but I keep it on a very short leash. That way it actually works fine and you can indeed work faster.

Friday and Saturday were very sociable again aboard Intrepid Bear, with up to 8 Germans plus Enrita and me. On Sunday everyone went to Carnival, but they celebrate it here with extreeeeeemely loud music, so I gave it a miss.