Sunday 28^th October 2012

Having spent several days working on the boat, it was a welcome surprise when Doug from Rigel knocked on the boat Sunday morning and offered us his hire car for the day.  We jumped at the chance and within an hour we, along with Mary & Rod from Sheer Tenacity, were sitting comfortably in a little white saloon car deciding where to go.

The north-west coast of the island has some anchorages which we thought we’d explore to see if any were suitable as a staging point for the crossing to Aruba, so we headed in that general direction.  As usual the lack of signage meant we went off-piste a few times, but this always gives an opportunity to see the real communities and people of the island.  We had to ask the way a couple of times, and Rod’s Afrikaans came in handy here as it is very similar to the local language – Papiamento – of the ABC islands, so he was able to converse with the locals.

The interior of the island is dry with low scrubby bush and tall cacti covering large areas.  There is little water on the island, and all drinking water comes from the desalination plant.  The roads were good compared to many we have driven on and we had a comfortable drive around.  We stopped for lunch at a beachside café where chickens roamed freely around our feet hoping for a crumb or two to peck.

Lunch at a beachside café                                                                                            Rather lively surf today!

We stopped at several bays on the west coast and all were looking a little lively as there was a North-Westerly swell coming in, but we felt that West Punt Bay would be a good overnight stop once the swell had gone.