The good, the bad, and the ugly!

Okay, now that we are living the full time cruiser life we should be "out-a-here" already, so what's up with that? Like many of our friends have told us "being a cruiser means to repair your boat in tropical places"...we are finding out that this is true! Being a cruiser also means to be flexible, because everything is weather dependent and of course boat dependent...in other words "no schedule is the best schedule". Luckily we have adapted very nicely already :) That is the good news!

The bad news is that we are stuck in Salinas for a few weeks to get Orion ready for full time cruising. It could be worse though, because Salinas is a pretty nice place to be stuck :) Our plans have changed accordingly...we will most probably not sail to Grenada for the hurricane season...it's already June, which marks the beginning of h-season and we don't want to race south! We will stick around Puerto Rico...sail to Vieques, Culebra, and maybe St. Thomas...if and when a storm will threaten we will come back to Salinas to hide in the mangroves...we have done this for the past two h-seasons, so we kind of know the drill...The main thing for us is to be "out there", away from the dock, pursuing our happiness...and happiness we have on the water whether that is in Grenada or in Culebra does not matter too much!

Now to the ugly news...we have to replace the chainplates on Orion...two of them had hairline cracks, so we decided to replace all seven of them...three on each side and one on the back! WTF... What on earth does that mean?...I can hear our non-sailing friends exclaim with a deep inward bound breath! What it means is major repair stuff, but it has to be done and here is why: The chainplates on a sail boat are stainless steel plates situated on the hull...on some boats they are imbedded in the fiberglas and on others they are mounted on the outside of the hull. Orion, like most Morgans, has the chainplates on the outside of the hull...thank God, because it is a lot easier to replace them that way. So there is always some good news in the ugly news, yeah to that :) Of course to reach the bolts from the inside is not quite so easy...Orion has been lovingly outfitted with teak panel strips and handcrafted interior cabinetry by her previous owners for which we are eternally grateful! However in order to reach the bolts that hold the chainplates from the inside we had to dismantle all the cabinetry and then unscrew most of the teak panel strips...a time consuming task, but alas a rewarding one...the cabinetry was fitted with big screw type anchors, which could be detached with an Allen Key! Joy over joy, because now we know that we can fit them back in again easily...uff...and here we thought we might have to use a hammer or similar vulgar instrument and start pounding (!). Well I say easily but I know my captain is rolling his eyes towards the ceiling...you have to be kind of a contortionist to reach some of those screwy thingies. Suffice it to say that I am very proud of my captain, who stretched his arms and his body in all kinds of distorted poses...and he got it done in the end...hurray. (Hah...Sometimes it pays off to have short arms like mine that cannot possibly reach the target.)

In all fairness though we can not complain too much...Orion's chainplates are 39 years old...yes, thirty-nine years...so there is no question that they need replacing, and once they are replaced they should outlive us! The good news is that we have the best rigger working on the job...Efrain Lugo (nicknamed Fraito) of Ponce Sailing Center! Stay tuned for the continuing saga of our life as full time cruisers :)

 

 

Time to celebrate...Rick's Retirement...Our New Life as Full Time Cruisers...

April 30th, 2012 is a date we will easily remember...it's the last day of Rick's employment and the first day of our full time cruiser life on Orion! We have been looking forward to this day for a long time...and now that it has come and gone we are still pinching ourselves :) I just realized that it was exactly one month ago!

We had a small gathering of friends at our new favorite hang-out in Salinas called "Sal Pa' Dentro"...thank you all for coming and making this an evening to remember! Many thanks to Jonzo and Anna for accommodating us on short notice and many thanks to Linda, the cook, for preparing the appetizers and to all of them for being our friends and cheering with us the whole evening!

Another big thank you goes to Vicente and David...Rick's former co-workers...without whom the celebration would not have been the same!


Oh and last but not least many thanks to everybody for their wonderful presents...something we did not ask for but got anyways, hahahaha. A special mention of Mercedes and Richard, who had the "retirement" T-shirts made for us that we were wearing most of the evening...what a riot :)

And of course Lou and Deb who made the evening extra special...Lou's blessing of our new rings was the highlight of the evening! The pictures that follow are self explanatory...suffice it to say that we had fun...all of us...and now a new chapter has begun for Rick and me in our wonderful life together on Orion :) Stay tuned...

 

The ring ceremony

We thank our friend Lou, who is an ordained minister, for blessing our new rings and us in a small ceremony at Rick's retirement gathering! More on that soon :)

We made it!

Today is a very special day for us...Rick's last day of employment and the start of our life as full time cruisers! It is exciting and we both have butterflies :) Today is the day we have been dreaming of and preparing for...as much as that is possible. We feel blessed and fortunate to embark on our new adventures on Orion...also a little bit unsure of how things will go...but hey...such is life and we love it :).

Just in time to celebrate our next chapter in life our new wedding rings arrived! They were lovingly handcrafted by Shawn and Leigh of Maple Bear Jewelry in California...titanium...crater hammered...they are wonderful and remind us of the moon glimmering on the open sea!

The countdown is on...

Perhaps this is an easy excuse for not having posted lately? It is also a nice one! We bought an ipad2 :) Mainly for the great navigational programs or apps as they are called and also for the ease of internet access on a monthly basis (we do not want to get locked into another 2 year plan, because if we sail down island we will no longer have ATT coverage). Of course with continued use of the ipad's integrated keyboard (I thought my fingers would never get used to the somewhat cramped space when compared to my netbook) I now thank our son Michael for encouraging me to not give up, because "you will get used to it Mom"...and yes...those words spoken from a guy who is generations younger than we are, but generations wiser when it comes to modern technology...eventually came true :)...so thank you son! Now I need to find out why I cannot add a picture in my post...arrgghh...hang in there just a little bit longer until I find the best app for managing this blog on our ipad2. The next post will have some pics again :)

In the meantime the countdown to Rick's early retirement and our full time cruising life is on...woohoo...just 13 more days to go :)


Update: Purchased "Blogsy" (very inexpensive) from the Apple Store for managing our blog on Blogger...seems to work well, as you can see from the inserted picture of the two men in my life :)

Welcome 2012...

Welcome 2012!One thing is for sure my friends: I will never make another new year's resolution...ever! That way I can't break it :o) Despite my best intentions I did not update our blog at least monthly...I will try to do better from now on...In retrospect the Atlantic hurricane season 2011 was mostly uneventful for us...we were extremely lucky and only had to move to the mangroves one time for hurricane Irene (thank God)...many boats came to Salinas harbor to "wait out the season" and we made many friends who have since moved on...we shall meet them again "out there" soon :o)So now we are two months away from the Atlantic hurricane season 2012 and things are going to change drastically for us this year! Rick is approaching early retirement within 39 days...yes...39 days :o) The count-down has begun...we are going to be full time cruisers at last!! It's a little bit frightening, but mostly exciting...we have been preparing for quite some time and are anxious to get the show on the road the boat off the dock :o)We need to get Orion outfitted with solar panels and a wind generator and also expand our battery bank...all of the above a job mainly for the captain when he is fully retired in...yes...39 days :o). If everything goes according to plan (which it never does, because it's a boat!) we are hoping to leave Salinas by June and sail to Grenada for the hurricane season. If things don't go according to plan (which is likely, because it's a boat) we are hoping to leave Salinas for Culebra (part of the Spanish Virgin Islands) and enjoy ourselves there until bad weather may force us to hide out in the mangroves of Salinas area again. Either way...we'll cut the dock lines and sail off into the unknown, well, at least the unknown for us! Freedom here we come :o)We are looking forward to catching up with old friends and making new friends "out there"...in the meantime we are busy preparing. Thanks for following our adventures so far...stay tuned for more to come...it's only the beginning...ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...we are still pinching ourselves :o)I just realized that Blogger has improved the publishing procedures considerably...hah...there is a chance that I'll actually enjoy writing again on a regular basis! And maybe and hopefully you'll stick around to see how we are progressing...Happy Sailing for now _/)...  

June-July 2011...Coffin Island Fun

Doesn't time fly?...It is already August and here I am writing an update for June-July!! What was that New Year's Resolution again??? Ah well...so sorry...sometimes the monthly update is a few weeks late...I know you all understand...and hey...better a little late than never...Right?...Right! Our favorite Coffin Island takes the spotlight again for June and July...here is a picture taken from the deck of Orion after we anchored...It is amazing how beautiful "our" island looks every time we sail there.

In June we had visitors from far away...tiny ones with wings...SWALLOWS...can you believe it? They chirped and sang for us and showed off their acrobatic abilities in the air...and when they thought they had totally mesmerized us with their spiel they tried to make a nest in Orion's sailpack (the place where the sails fall into when we are not sailing)! We had to laugh and felt a little bit sorry for them when we attached a make-shift "curtain" at the end of the boom, so that they could not make a house there...I mean...enough is enough and we certainly did not want the little fellows to get too comfortable in a place where they could not stay long enough to have a family. So they continued to sing and chirp and then gave up their quest and flew away into the trees on the island. So long little swallows...we do love you...thanks for visiting!










A yummy salad and a beautiful sunset...life is good!

Coffin Island main tourist beach...ferry dock

In July we were invited to the Ponce Sail and Power Squadron's get together at Coffin Island's main tourist beach. Of course we set sail from Salinas as usual, staid overnight on our favorite anchorage and then sailed to the main beach the next day. Anchoring at the main beach was exciting in its own way, because we had to take a mooring ball. Mooring balls are at a few places around Coffin Island to save the coral reefs...instead of dropping an anchor you attach your boat via a line to the mooring ball. The captain and I had never anchored on a mooring ball before...there is always a first time for everything...I proudly admit that we both managed very well and got that line through the loop on the mooring ball without too much of a hassle. And we didn't even shout at each other, hahahaha. We met our friends from the PonceSPS and had a great time partying. A special thank you to Ediberto and Jose Luis...it was a fun event and we enjoyed it tremendously. We took off again in the afternoon...back to our usual anchorage...spent the night there and had a great sail back to Salinas the next day.

Orion on mooring ball...our first time...and it went great!

Ferry arrives with Ponce Sail and Power Squadron

Leaving Coffin Island early in the morning...

Orion tugged into her dock at the marina :o)

So here we are back on the dock at Marina de Salinas...now it is August and we are in full swing of the dreaded unmentionable season (= hurricane season)...hopefully there will not be much to report at the end of this month and the months to follow until December! Stay tuned and God bless!