December 26, 2023
Merry Christmas again . . . because the last time was more like a ‘Christmas Letter’ reviewing the year, but now Christmas has come and gone and we only talked to a few of our readers.
On Christmas Eve as is the tradition with Jinhee’s family, we enjoyed a nice meal. The only difference is that it was on the boat. Her cooking was still excellent.
We woke up to a pretty relaxing Christmas in Curacao, and enjoyed some pancakes, bacon and Mimosas (well, not for me as I knew I would be driving a boat much of the night!) A (very) few presents were handed round, and a lot of Christmas tunes played on the speakers. It was quite relaxing for a Christmas celebration really.
There were the requisite calls to immediate family, and hellos and goodbyes with new friends on the docks. Then around 4pm, the engines were on and we started toward Aruba.
What a beautiful night on the water.
We enjoyed a quite pleasant run through the night and arrived at the Customs/Immigration dock and tied up around 4 am. Despite a lot of warnings about the difficulty of tying up in this location (something about a shoal in the middle of the harbour?!), slow and steady made it easy and we were tied up without incident in the moonlit night.
In the morning when we completed all of our arrival paperwork, this is what it all looked like.
We are now tied up at the Renaissance Marina in central Oranjestad. The marina knew we were coming, but didn’t tell us they were closed for the holiday. Luckily the fuel dock was available and so we have tied up here.
It is loud and bustling here, a sharp change from Seru Boca marina in Curacao, but with Megan and Emile on their last days of a visit, this will be an excellent opportunity to look around and enjoy the dynamism of a Caribbean nation.
We hope all of your Christmas celebrations were amazing.