It’s March 31, we are back in Aruba, and I have quite a bit of catching up to do. First let me summarize October through March.

We finished our RV trip in October, returned the RV and went back to my parents house in Illinois.

THE RV TRIP

The trip in the RV was really fun. We all really enjoyed the camping and travelling in the RV was a unique experience. It was a close call before the trip on whether to do the RV or tent camping, but the RV was the best choice since we encountered snow and cold weather. We got a great deal on the RV, the “One Way Deal” and as far as I’m concerned that is the best way to do the rental. The only downside to our trip was the size of the RV. At 31 feet, it was really long, too long for tight maneuvering. I grew really tired of the 24 point turnaround.

“Go forward a foot.”

“Ok, now back 3 inches. Now forward about an inch. Alright, turn the wheels really sharp and back up just a hair.”

We never really got the hang of making the RV “heel proof”. What I mean is on a monohull, before you take off, you have to make sure everything is put away so it doesn’t become air born during your sail. The great thing about a catamaran, you generally don’t have to be that vigilant as it rides fairly level. Well, the RV is no catamaran! No matter how careful we were, cabinets would open, pans would fly out, drinks would roll down the aisle; it wasn’t pretty! One time the coffee maker flew out of a top cabinet and hurled right into a screaming Tristan. The cans of soft drinks and bottles of water never remained in one spot. The joke became, if you want a coke, just wait till Dan steps on the brakes and catch it as it rolls by. But all in all, we had a great time.

We came back to the boat shortly after Halloween, allowing the kids to trick or treat in the States. In 2007 they did Halloween in Dominican Republic, in 2008 Halloween was in Venezuela, so they deserved a good ole USA Halloween. They scored more candy than they could ever possibly eat. I dutifully carried it on the airplane (didn’t want it to melt in the checked bags) and promptly forgot about it and left it on the flight as we departed the plane. I wasn’t the most popular person after that!

We were refreshed to start our long awaited journey to Colombia! I again provisioned, this was my third time I believe and we had a great weather window. We were excited, until Dan changed the saildrive oil and found a leak in the saildrives. Not good news. We couldn’t leave without fixing it. The crew of Alegria was at a low point.

There are very few things that require the boat being hauled to fix, but this was one of them. Unfortunately for catamarans, Aruba is not where you want to be hauled out. After more dramatics than I can honestly relive again, we hired a crane to lift us out. The job required parts from the US and Dan was set to fly to Miami get the parts and bring them back, when we got the news. The crane that we would need to put us back into the water was shutting down in 3 days, for the holidays. If we couldn’t get the job done by then, we had to wait until after the first of the year.

So Christmas in Cartegena Colombia turned into Christmas in Illinois. Colombia seemed very very far away.