We arrived in San Juan on Monday, March 27 at 2 pm or so, and left in the rental car a little after 3. We made a stop to shop and eat, so we didn't get to Salinas until about 6, dropped off the lobsters at Fred and Mary's, took their dinghy to the boat, and crashed.
Got things started on Tuesday, and made plans to have dinner with them that evening at their house, with their dozen or so dogs. They have been great friends of ours down here, and we hope to talk them into visiting us in Maine.
On Wednesday at noon, the S/V Toda arrived from Ponce with owner Bill Creighton, crew Kevin, and guest crew Carter and Kathy-- anchoring next to us. That night, we supplied a cooked chicken from Jenny's shopping day, she made a cole slaw, and Kevin made mashed potatoes, hosted on Toda. Toda is a 40' Pacific Seacraft formerly owned by Nigel Calder. [For those who know who he is, you can imagine how well the boat is equipped.] Bill takes excellent car of her, too, and he lives in Freeport, along with Carter and Kathy. Kevin has been crewing since Bill left Maine last November, and he has stayed on the boat in Puerto Rico while Bill went back on one or two occasions. Kevin and Jenny played guitar and we all had a lovely time.
On Thursday, Albert discovered a transmission issue, but with Carter's help, devised a good solution. That required some more purchases, and a package had arrived for Bill back in Ponce, so Kevin came with us on our shopping trip to get the package. Kevin is an anasthesiologist or something like that from Oregon who has decided to move to Puerto Rico when the sailing trip is over.
By Friday, Jenny had provisioned Magus with enough food to keep us full for our whole trip to Maine, its seems like.
A list of some of the projects we did are:
Clean, pack, organize, and re-organize.
Replaced the tangs and clevis pins on the main mast lower shrouds. That was a little painful, standing and strapped in on the mast half-way up.
Inflate the dinghy, and repair the outboard.
Check to the engine and everything else
Overall, though, things were in good shape.
Rather than do it ourselves, we hired a guy to clean the bottom, and he did a great job. Now I should be able to keep up with it. Well, through the Bahamas anyway.
Then there was the transmission issue that seemed like a big problem, but it could be fixed. The bigger problem was a complete surprise-- our West Marine deflatable would hold air, but the bottom had detached from the tubes, and it required a major repair. The West Marine store in San Juan was useless. And again, our friend Fred came to the rescue by loaning us a friend's dinghy that is also a West product, but older, and hopefully better.
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| Jury rig |
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| Replaced chainplate/ eye bolt |
On Thursday, we were ready to go, and the winds were supposed to be down, so we headed off early for Boqueron, about 55 miles. It started off easy, but by the afternoon I was happy to have fixed the various rig things, when it was blowing 25 kts or more, with big 10 foot plus seas. With the small jib and reefed main we were going 7 kts, downwind. We got into Boqueron about 5 pm, very relieved.
Boqueron is a funky little local beach town, and we've been able to get a few things, and get some cheap food. Tonight we got together with five other boat people who are all planning to leave for the Turks and Caicos tomorrow am. We'll have a radio check-in schedule. The weather is supposed to be good, but as Hanne said, it always blows harder than the forecast. We'll see.
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| Boqueron |
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| Boqueron |
