Sunset Sail around Aruba on the Palm Pleasure

By Tristan Ralston on 3rd April, 2013

I am fairly new to the social media scene but I recently visited Aruba and I thought that I would write about a few of the things that I did, whilst on Aruba.  I decided that I would take De Palm Tours Sunset Sail around Aruba and see what experience that would offer me.  When in the Caribbean, I think it is always good to sail around the island and experience the beauty of the sea.  I arrived at De Palm Pier just before 7pm and got my wrist band pass.  I was then told to wait in the bar, where I would be called on to the Palm Pleasure, a luxurious  catamaran, to start off the Sunset Sail around Aruba.  I can certainly see why this is very popular, as the Palm Pleasure was built for people to relax and enjoy themselves.  Within  moments, the bar on the pier, where I was waiting to board the Palm Pleasure, was busy with my future shipmates waiting to get on board.  Now, if you  are like me and work in the big smoke, you will fall in love with Aruba and De Palm Tours Sunset Sail will only enhance your feelings towards the aptly named ‘Happy Island’.   Every local that I had the pleasure of meeting, was very happy & friendly and that rubbed off on those of us visiting!  Once on Aruba, I seemed to have more time to spare and that was certainly something that I am certainly not used to, being from a big city!  As soon as I boarded the Palm Pleasure, we were sat down on the main deck and were given the safety demonstration and regulations and where we would be sailing and what to expect.  Now, I am on this trip because I wanted to write about it and I came prepared with my Nikon Coolpix AW100 waterproof digital camera.  I must say that it is a great camera but certainly does not make me look anywhere near as professional as some of my shipmates, displaying camera and equipment, not looking out of place at a fashion photoshoot (check out my camera envy!).   My job was to take photos of people enjoying this amazing sail around Aruba.  Now, I don’t know about you but I rather take the photos, than be in any and if there is somebody just taking photos, it can certainly be rather uncomfortable, certainly in this day and age, where a photo of yourself can appear somewhere, where you did not want it to, instantly! Therefore, I had to be cool and take photos when I thought it was appropriate.  Now it is certainly easier, if you are with a crowd of friends and or family but it certainly isn’t, when you are by yourself.  I also saw a couple of my shipmates wearing “I love Aruba” t-shirts, which I thought would be well suited for this article.  Now, you will see that I was successful in my task of getting the photo of the young man with the “I love Aruba” t-shirt (main photo at the top) but it was certainly not easy!  At first, I tried to take a picture of him (without asking) rather casually but never got a good shot.  I then thought that I should try and take a picture of something else but catching the young man within the photo.  I failed miserably and kept on doing so.  If he is to become a future film star, then he has certainly got the skills to avoid the paperazzi, not that they could be any worse than me, but the fact is that we were in a confined space and I couldn’t get a good photo of him.  I finally got the courage to speak with his father and explain to him why I wanted a photo of his son, without sounding creepy!  As you can see, he took it all very well and allowed me to take, what I believe is a good photo!  When you go on this trip, you will be very well looked after.  On board, you will be well catered for, with snacks and there are all types of drinks to quench any kind of thirst.  The crew are a lot of fun.  The guys behind the bar, ‘Alex’ & ‘Randy’ are real characters and make everyone feel very welcome, as do the rest of the crew.  The music that is played on board, gets everyone in the party mood and some even daring to dance to the likes of ‘YMCA’.  It is a fun and fantastic trip, as you will meet a lot of pleasant and like minded people, there to enjoy their vacation.  You will also be able to take some beautiful and amazing shots of the sunset.   I had a great time and met some really lovely people.  After just over two hours sailing, we returned back to the De Palm Pier.   It was certainly a lot of fun and something that I would recommend to anybody visiting Aruba.   You will certainly meet people and make new friends.  I certainly did and I very much enjoyed myself doing so! And when you are able to take photos like the one below, it is certainly well worth it, especially for an amateur photographer like myself and I stress amateur!  For more details about booking for the Sunset Sail around Aruba and the other great activities that De Palm Tours have on offer, click on www.depalmtours.com/palm-pleasure-sunset-sail