Thursday, March 4, 2010

Next Update


March 3, 2010

OK, this could be known as the year of major engine and mechanical problems, but in my overly optimistic style, I'll call it the year of tourist trips and a shorter than planned sailing trip.
After Jenny arrived in Ponce, it took another day to finish up some things, and we left to enjoy Isla Caja de Muertos for a day before going to Salinas. It was there that we discovered that the alternator wasn't working, and the engine water pump had a very bad problem. Back in Salinas, it took over a week to deal with these two things. Eventually we took a trip to Culebra, and it turned out that the water pump “repair” was not complete, so the leaking device will still need to be changed out-- again, but probably next year, if a hurricane doesn't destroy the boat first.
But dealing with the water pump and the alternator was a good Puerto Rico experience, and our friend Fred Long was a big help. He knew a good machine shop, and that guy found some tractor parts, and got it back together in less than a week. During that time, we caught up with both old and new friends in Salinas and around.
While we waited for the pump to be rebuilt at the machine shop, we took a day trip to the rainforest for a hike and zip-line tour. Another classic Puerto Rico experience was getting the rental car to go to the tour. The car company was late picking us up at the marina, and we explained that we were in a hurry to meet a schedule, so Sidney said just take the car and go-- no drivers license copy, or signature, or phone number, or nada, just take the car. So we did, and arrived at the meeting place exactly on time, while we waited for the tour group to get there-- 45 minutes later. But the whole tour was a blast, with a nice group of people, a great couple of guys giving the tour, and an outrageous authentic lunch up at the trail-head.

We finally left Salinas on Sunday, February 21, with a 25 mile trip to Puerto Patillas, an open anchorage that is usable in the prevailing easterlies. We had another Puerto Rico experience at a waterfront bar: Asking if there was a grocery store in town, the waiter said what do you need? Onions, mostly, we said. How many? Maybe four. OK, he asked another employee something in Spanish, and she came back with a bag of onions. We said great, how much? Nothing, no problem, they were in the kitchen. We stayed another day and took a hike through an old coconut forest, and left early on Tuesday, as the winds turned south and then southwest, which is unusual, but helped us going east.

Tuesday night we got to Isla Pineros, about 45 miles, and spent the night at a nice spot, but not very good snorkelling. Then we left early on Wednesday for Culebra, about 10 miles. We stayed in a few different places around Culebra, and enjoyed the nice clear water and great snorkelling. Had to leave on Sunday morning, though, and we did the whole 72 miles back to Salinas in less than 12 hours, even though the wind was west of south, which was unusual again, and not in our favor. But we were able to get the boat put away a day or so early, and we took a tourist trip to Ponce, which may be in a final blog.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

2010 First Week

This year, the plan was for me to go to Magus in Puerto Rico a week before Jenny, so that I could get some work done before she arrived.  Like all plans, it hasn't gone perfectly, but quite a lot has been done.   Magus was made seaworthy enough to move her from Salinas to the boatyard in Ponce, and she was hauled, and they started to paint the bottom. A few other projects have also been started, and she might get back in the water on Monday or maybe Tuesday.  Jenny arrives on Tuesday at 5:00 am at the Ponce airport, so that will be good. And then there are a couple of other boat things that might take a day or two, and of course there's the whole provisioning thing.

The best news is that the termites seem to have been eliminated by our massive treatment effort last year-- that's an article that I haven't seen in Cruising World, yet. I still seem to have plenty of other projects to get all hot and sweaty, over, though. I realize that I really like coming up with plans and improvements for the boat, especially while I'm in the comfort of home. Actually doing them, however, is real work, and it's not exactly fun-- until it's over. Here are some photos of the nastiest dirty job I did so far, installing a “fuel polishing” system, with two filters, plenty of valves, and a little high-tech pump.


This is the work in progress, and the finished set-up, down below the floor of the pilot house.  The new filter unit is obvious, but they are both Racor's that take the same replacement filters.

The next somewhat nasty job will be changing the engine oil, but now that I know the “system,” it won't be too bad. The boatyard crew is supposed to clean the bilge, and that will be money well spent, if it happens.

When I first got to Salinas, things went slow, partly because I wanted to deal with the Puerto Rico registration renewal, and that is an all day job, as it turns out-- I won't bother with all the details. And not knowing Spanish hardly at all doesn't help either.

As I did all the little preparation things that I needed to do, I found that the two forward turnbuckles for the mizzen mast had serious stress cracks-- one all the way around the fitting. It was lucky that the little marine store near the marina had the parts, so they got changed out. When I showed the old fittings to Boyd on Elusive Dream moored next to Magus, his reaction was “You need to put in a temporary parallel connection until you can get new parts, those are ready to fail.” I could say, done.

The daytime temperatures are really not that bad, like low 90's, but it's not comfortable if you're doing anything. This photo shows is a cute little meter on Magus; that's humidity on the right, not the temp of 90 F on the left.


Besides doing boat work, it feels a little like vacation.  I'm having fresh squeezed orange juice from Puerto Rico oranges every morning, and I fond the time to write this.  Here's the view from the club patio:


OK, so where are we going this year? Well, we didn't get anywhere close to my grandiose plans for last year, and it was completely a good time, so we'll probably just do about the same. I'd like to visit with Erol on Jost Van Dyke, and there's a lot more of the BVI's that we didn't see. I also would like to stop at Coral Bay on St. John. Just that itinerary could fill up the two full weeks that is about all we will have, after provisioning and getting back to Salinas in time to make plans to leave. Life is good.