52 Jamaica - Aruba

9. May 2007

Tuesday I hired a car with a driver, and went for a tour of Kingston. Uptown and downtown – and Beverly Hills, the up marked residential area in Kingston. The main attraction in Kingston is Bob Marley’s house – now a museum. I drove past it, but did not go in.

Most of he souvenirs for sale here, has to do with Bob Marley.

I also passed a couple of heavily guarded jails - with armed guards and all. Kingston is renowned for its high crime rate – the Caribbean actually has the highest homicide rate in the world.

I stayed in Port Royal – that used to be base for some of the pirates in the Carribian.

Wednesday I was of to  the airport at 9 am, and after the formalities, I was ready to depart for Aruba, some 4 hours flying away – over water. I removed the a cowling as part of the pre flight check to check for any leaks etc.

After taxiing to to runway 12, I departed IFR, again climbing to 11.000 feet. Because I fly east most of the time, I have a choice of uneven altitudes, and 11000 is the highest altitude I can fly without the need for supplemental oxygen. It is also a consideration to have as much altitude as possible in case of any problems.  Either to be able to reach land – or to prepare for ditching!

If I fly IFR to the west, the choice of altitude would be even levels.

11000 feet normally keep me above the clouds, but after an hous flying I had to pass high level clouds, and it gave me a bumpy ride for about an hour until I had passed.

At the intersection AMBIN I changed frequency from Manley to Curacao. Arrived in Aruba by the ILS to runway 12.