Deborah/ Sunny and Hot!
11/05/2009, Isleta Marina, Puerto Rico

Well it's week three of a two-week haulout, and most likely another week to go! But the bottom is clean and sanded, the hulls are sanded and painted, and now just a few projects and bottom paint left to complete. The sweltering heat, minimal breeze, and abundance of flies are making this particular haulout seem to drag on. Of course the fact that we are living on the boat during the haulout makes it extra fun, but we are getting excellent thigh muscle workouts from our numerous trips up and down the ladder, so there are health benefits as well!

Isleta Marina and boatyard where we are has a terrific little bar/restaurant here on site called Mango's, run by a beautiful repatriated Puerto Rican woman named Sonja. As is typical of many locals we have met, she spent 30 years in the states and has now returned to her native Puerto Rico to retire. It has been nice for us to have the restaurant so near, as it cuts down on the dish duty in a bucket. Another wonderful aspect of being in a marina facility rather than out at anchor is access to a Laundromat and hot showers with unlimited amounts of water. The simple pleasures keep us going, as does a lot of cold beer.

Our painting crew of Jose Carlos and the boss Francisco Garcia finished up today, both always with a ready smile and amiably following the directions of the jefe Don. Jose Carlos especially has been studious and hard-working and loves it when I crank up the tunes. He prefers reggaeton, a mix of reggae and Latin beats, but smiles big when I play JayZ and Bob Marley.

The plan is to splash on Monday, Tuesday, or sometime next week. Don and I are keeping our fingers crossed, as on a boat all plans are etched in sand and the only thing concrete is the dock!

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Deborah/ Sunny
10/17/2009, Isleta Marina

clean, sand, paint, clean, sand, paint...................

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Deborah/ Sunny
10/17/2009, Isleta Marina

After three weeks in Isla Vieques and relative isolation Don decided it was time to head to our haul out appointment. We can't put it off any longer! Between the picturesque town of Esperanza and the deserted beach of Sun Bay, Isla Vieques is a hard place to leave. On our last day, we finally took the bioluminescent nighttime kayak trip into Mosquito Bay. It is an almost completely enclosed mangrove bay on the south shore where tiny dynoflagellates give off phosphorescent light when disturbed, and on a moonless night we had twinkling lights above us and below us, with glowing water dripping off our paddles and eerily lit fish and rays swimming under us. We had experienced this beautiful phosphorescence on many offshore night passages in the Pacific, but never so close to shore. This is one of three such bays in Puerto Rico, all currently being actively protected and preserved, this one by the Vieques Conservation and Historic Trust. Eco tours are prevalent and diesel engines forbidden so you can take a guided kayak tour or a glass-bottomed electric boat.

So now after a fantastic three hour sail we are in Islet Marina on a small islet on the east coast of Puerto Rico, accessible only by ferry. Hauled out by a synchro-lift that was once part of an extensive rail system, now only the lift is operational. We waited two days for the actual hauling out as the lift is operated and overseen by only one man, Felix, who has been doing this for forty-five years. Felix has difficulty getting around now and brought his own wheelchair to supervise from, a deserved king on his throne with all the other workers doing his bidding unquestioned. All throughout the hauling, many people came to see Felix and say hello, I got the impression he only comes when there is a synchro-lift haul out to be done, and all were very glad to see him.

This is our new home for the next two or three weeks, a bottom job, sanding and painting the sides of the hulls, and whatever other projects Don can squeeze into our time here. My jobs? Multiple trips to Wal-Mart and Home Depot for supplies, cleaning, mold duty, and getting rid of all the extra weight on the boat, gotta bring that water-line up!

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Deborah/ Sunny and Hot!
10/05/2009, Vieques, Puerto Rico

After five blissful days in Sun Bay, Vieques we were running low on fresh fruit and vegetables, a dangerous thing for vegetarians and counter productive to our anti-inflammation diet. Don starts to get cranky if there is not enough beta-carotene on board! The town of Esperanza is four miles away by foot, but only 1.5 by boat, so we hoisted anchor and made the long, arduous trip to anchor in front of town.

A quiet beach village during the week, Esperanza comes alive on the weekend. Island locals, visitors from the mainland who came by ferry, and New Yorkers on a weekend special make-up most of the weekend crowd. There are kayaks and jet skis for rent, island tours to the bio-luminescent bay, and taxis to the secluded beaches in the once restricted military area. The malacon is lined with small restaurants and guest houses catering to the gringo visitor with only one restaurant serving local Puerto Rican food, the rest specializing in back-packer fare, pizza, Philly Cheese steaks, and wings. Going to town is a big event for us so we are always on the look out for a good meal out. The best bets are usually the roadside stands. Here you can get a pincho, BBQ chicken shish- kabob and bread for two dollars. We always stop and pick one up for Daisy, after we each sneak a bite of course. The local store here in Esperanza is similar to a 7-11, with only a few groceries, beer, and ice cream. Everyone on the island shops in the town of Isabel Segunda, also known as Isabel 2, located on the north shore where the ferry dock is, a mere five miles away.

We located some shade by the side of the road leading to the north shore awaiting a publico, at ten in the morning the temperature is already above 95 degrees. After a few minutes a friendly local pulled over and offered us a ride into town. Jose was also headed to market, has three daughters, and one granddaughter, a casa full of hembras he jokes. As he speaks no English it was nice for us to be able to keep up on our Spanish. One thing we have found here in Puerto Rico is that the majority of the population also speaks English, so if your attempt at conversing in Spanish is too arduous, they quickly switch to English to save time. Rather frustrating if you want to practice and learn the local dialect, as every country's Spanish is different. Isabel Segunda is the main town on the island, a typical Spanish town, complete with a plaza and the last fort built in Spanish America circa 1840. As Jose was going to give us a ride back to the playa after shopping we were unable to explore town, and quickly completed our purchases.

Now freshly restocked with fruitas and verdures, we spent a few days enjoying Esperanza, cold beer, ice cream and a dinner out for Don's birthday. Yesterday we headed back to our secluded anchorage in Sun Bay, again we are the only boat and the beach is deserted now that the weekend is over. Tonight we will have our sundowners with a fresh lime, and celebrate, as Don says, "one year closer to Medicare!"

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Deborah/ Sunny and Hot!
09/28/2009, Vieques, Puerto Rico

We have been hanging out in Salinas on the south shore of Puerto Rico for the last 2 months, close to a safe hurricane hole, an easy place to provision from and rent a car for some inland travel. But now we are getting restless to move on, somewhere. As we are hauling out in November at Isleta Marina off the east coast of the mainland we need to stay relatively close, as well as within a day's sail of Salinas....just in case. After all it is only September and hurricane season is far from over. So we decided to head to Isla Vieques, an island ten miles off the south east coast. Twenty-one miles long, the entire south shore is dotted with pristine white beaches, coastal lagoons, mangroves and low cacti forests.

At 2am after some coffee and weather checking we left from Bocas Inferno on a predicted ten knots out of the east and 1-2 foot seas. That sounded great to us as we would be heading dead east, right into the prevailing trades. A motorboat trip most likely. It was a perfect night passage, motor sailing as predicted, a beautiful, clear star-filled sky direct on our course, until sunrise. In the distance a squall line was heading our way, so off went the engine and we headed out to sea. After tacking and dodging squalls for five hours and not making much headway to our destination, the captain finally threw up his hands and cranked the engine, took down the sails and motored direct. Purists we are not, that's why we have a new engine!

We are anchored in Sun Bay on the south coast, right off a mile long public beach so pristine and deserted that even if five hundred people were to arrive it would still look deserted. The US Navy occupied most of the island until 2003, and used more than two-thirds of the island for military target practice. When the military finally left, instead of large developers moving in and resorts taking over this picture perfect spot, 70% of the island was declared a US Fish and Wildlife Refuge. Although some ammunitions clean-up is still going on, most of the island is open to the public.

After a couple of days of relaxing and swimming, a few boat projects completed, we ventured to shore and a four mile walk to town. Don dug out our dingy wheels that we haven't needed since the Pacific and found a secure tree to lock up the dingy. The park guards at the gate weren't too happy when we came through on the way to town with a dog, but Daisy with her usual charm had them eating out of her paw. The nearest town is Esperanza, a beach town complete with malacon, jet ski rentals, and cheap Medalla beer, ice cold. That alone was worth the four mile trek in the blistering tropical heat! A stop at the local corner "store" was able to provide us with only a few tomatoes and apples from Washington. We sat and chatted with a few locals, also enjoying cold beer only they went for the Coors Lite, all ex military employees now involved in the fledgling tourist trade. It is a very laid back place, with friendly locals, the friendliest in Puerto Rico they proudly boasted. And as we left there with numerous phone numbers for "taxi rides" and island tours, emails for keeping in touch, and even personal post office boxes in case we needed to have any mail sent, I have to say they lived up to their claims!

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Deborah/ Sunny!
09/25/2009, Vieques, Puerto Rico

Ok, what is blogging? A personal journal, a political commentary, a shopping how to ...what? As I am not sure you will just have to be patient and bear with me as I figure it out! After all these years that we have been "gone" from society, sans cable tv, tevo, flush toliets, and hot water, I finally decided to reconnect in some way other than email and an occasional jpeg. My college age daughter even recently talked me into joining Facebook, something that was designed for students but of course is now used more by the 35+ age group. But even FB isn't what I was looking for, and some of my more computer challenged family and friends aren't "connected". So blogging????

As you know Don and I have been out and about sailing, traveling, living the dream since 2000. We had our kids with us for most of the time, exploring new countries and cultures, home schooling adolecents and teenagers, and trying to live simply, cheaply, happily. Other than a brief land lockage in Beaufort, South Carolina for 2 years we have been full-time liveaboarders on our 50ft. Piver Trimaran that my DIY husband built.

So now we are kid free and roaming the Caribbean, argh!!!! Last night we arrived in Vieques, Puerto Rico jumped in the water and swam with two five foot eagle rays. We are the only boat here.....happiness.

Now that I am an official "blogger" I will post more on the beautiful island of Vieques!

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