Contrary to our last post on leaving the dock within a few days of the last shake down cruise we are still at the Marina de Salinas! No worries though...we just had to adjust plans, as we will have to do plenty of times in the future living the full time cruiser life. Nothing is ever chiseled in stone when traveling on the high seas! Most importantly everything is weather dependent...everything! In our case it is check dependent though...we are waiting for a check in the mail...no kidding! I guess there are worse reasons to be delayed, so I will spare you the ranting and raving. The delay should take around 2-4 weeks (!), but we are making the best of it :)
Things happen for reasons...when we heard that we were stuck here for another few weeks tropical storm Sandy was forming in the Caribbean, making this a time of staying in the area anyways! So we went to the supermarket and did more provisioning, de-cluttered the salon and aft cabin, re-arranged the whole hanging closet in the aft cabin and turned it into a non-hanging closet where we can now store all sorts of equipment from wet/dry vac to electric sander and polisher to ice boxes to parts for our Walker Bay dinghy that turn it into a little sailing dinghy to spare outdoor solar lights used when at anchor...and so on! In order to keep track of things I labeled the shelves with blue tape and permanent marker, not pretty but effective and since the sliding door will stay closed 99% of the time...who cares? Ahhhh...at last we are getting organized :) Of course I should have posted pictures of the whole "schmier" right here...but...ehem...I think pictures of Sweetie One and Sweetie Two are more appropriate...after all it is us who did all the work (!)
All this work and no play? Not really, because when we were finished
we sailed to Boca de Infierno again, where we had a great time! Whilst anchored there our new found cruiser friends Bob and Judy and their little dog Leo aboard SV Adastra, their Morgan 41 Classic sailboat came to visit for two days. We had such fun together exploring Cajo Caribe (where there is a hiking trail), snorkeling, and inviting each other for dinner on our boats! When they sailed on to Coffin Island sweetie one and sweetie two had Boca de Infierno for themselves again...we love you Bob and Judy :)
It rained quite a bit, which gave us a good reason to test our rain catching system in action...it passed the test with flying colors! Since the last post we made some improvements...purchased the proper length wooden dowel and inserted it to the outer edge...added corresponding snaps to the bimini top seam to accommodate the placement of the system on top of the sun shade, so that we don't have to take down the sun shade when it rains.
The latter is important: Keeping the sun shade in place when it rains keeps the rain out of the cockpit and it also helps holding the rain gutter nice and straight...we just feed the drain hose from the outside of the sun shade into the water tank hole! Not to mention that we don't have to snap and unsnap said sun shade all the time...It really worked very well...so now we have proof that we can catch the rain and fill out water tanks "out there" :)
On our way back to Salinas the weather was just perfect for sailing...we enjoyed being under full sails and spend almost three hours tacking back and forth on the ocean...just like little kids having fun with a favorite toy...oh the blessings of sailing...we never get tired of it :)
In the meantime there was trouble developing in the Caribbean...tropical storm Sandy had turned into a Category 1 hurricane forecasted to directly hit Jamaica and Cuba and adversely affecting Haiti and the Dominican Republic with torrential rain falls!
I do not know how we got spared here in Puerto Rico...we are counting our blessings!
Hurricane Sandy left death and devastation in Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, and the DR...and then developed into a monster storm off the coast of the Eastern USA when it combined with two storm systems, creating havoc and resulting in unprecedented destruction in many states along the coast line as well as further inland!
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| rainbow at boca de infierno |
Mother Nature is unpredictable and not to be taken for granted...our prayers continue for everybody in the after-mass of this terrible storm just as they were with everybody at its beginning and duration!
Like the rainbow forms after the storm there will be light again at the end of the tunnel...God bless!
