Last week was a very busy week. Our boxes started arriving last Tuesday. First, I have to give a big shout out to the postal workers at the Fajardo Post Office, what a great group of people -- happy, friendly and very helpful! I am so totally in love with Fajardo and the people of Puerto Rico!

We spent the week meeting with several different people regarding different aspects of work or upgrades we have planned for Smart Move. The first was Quino from the Rigging Shop, he will be replacing all of our standing rigging, which will require removing Smart Move's mast. Quino will also help us sort out the best sail configurations for the types of situations we will most likely find ourselves in. Quino has provided invaluable assistance by introducing us to people and shops that have made our life much easier. Quino is also helping us navigate the social side of Fajardo, giving us restaurant and entertainment suggestions. This has made me even more motivated to learn Spanish, Quino speaks perfect English, but I feel I am being disrespectful when I encounter someone that does not speak much English and I cannot speak Spanish. Thank goodness for Rosetta Stone! I am starting to understand more when someone talks to me, but don't have enough confidence to try to speak. In short, Quino would make an awesome ambassador for Fajardo and Puerto Rico -- at least on the boating side of things. Thanks Quino!

One of our concerns about Smart Move was the integrity of all of the thru-hulls. Quino put us in touch with Ken from Island Marine. Ken is a great guy, who before he gave us his opinion of what we should do, asked what our sailing plans were. Ken will be evaluating the condition of our thru-hulls when we haul Smart Move out of the water. He will also help us simplify our current plumbing as we replace two of the manual toilets with new electric toilets. Other than the obvious benefit of simplifying the plumbing, it will also reduce the number of thru-hulls. At that time we will also clean and polish the hull and re-do our bottom paint. Ken will also be an invaluable resource when we install our new solar panels, he had a number of great ideas and suggestions!

We met with Carol from Atlantic Canvas (again through Quino). Carol is going to help us re-design our bimini to give us more protection from the late afternoon sun (by closing in the back of the cockpit) and help keep the cockpit dryer while underway (by closing in the front). Carol spent a morning driving us up and down the docks in a golf cart to look at different configurations of bimini/dodger combos. Carol will also be making new seating cushions for the cockpit. I spent an afternoon looking at fabric swatches, I want to brighten things up and make it look more fun -- having softer cushions is also really important for my tailbone!

Finally, we met with Carlos Diaz a stainless steel fabricator and Josue Colon a Garmin Radar rep (more contacts from Quino). Carlos will be helping us design and fabricate an arch for the back of Smart Move. The arch will give us the ability to hoist the dingy out of the water (and protect it from theft). It will also be used to mount the radar dome, all of the various antennas we have, solar panels, and wind generator.

Back to the boxes, we shipped a total of 38 boxes the combined weight was somewhere around 760 pounds of stuff. I know that people that have seen Smart Move and saw the pile of boxes thought no way! In the end, at the post office in Cheyenne, surrounded by the boxes, even I was forming a back-up plan to send stuff back to Sherri in Cheyenne for storage! Amazingly enough, I have unpacked all but two boxes and everything has fit! Although, I will probably reorganized everything at least three more times before I am happy. However, we may have an issue with the books, everything we could get digitally we got, the books we brought were not available in digital copies. If Barry will put in a shelf for me (and I have the perfect spot), they will not be a problem either. He will have an issue altering the original design of Smart Move, I just need to convince him that Smart Move is no longer a boat, she is our Home!

The crew are settling in nicely. Barry and I are not missing work and the hustle and bustle of the average workday. However, it is taking us awhile to adjust to (I don't know) 'Island Time'? Everything in Puerto Rico moves at a slower pace (and that is not a bad thing) we just have to catch up and slow down! Life is good!