.....Future Coqui joins future Boriken to our fleet (of future boats, in the future)
08 June 2015
So as work progresses on the Boriken, (we are set to take delivery on June 15th....) we decided to go ahead and buy a dinghy so we headed to the adult playground that is West Marine in Dania and took all of my newly acquired knowledge (about dinghies and motors and propane and the like) and had a few tough questions to ask the West Marine staff....anyways the "boy" that was working and had approached me had no clue about any of that (but was willing to help, so thanks to him for that). Anyways I was shocked that West Marine really has no inventory of those sorts of things. We decided to go with the WEST MARINE AL-290 Heavy Duty Inflatable Sportboat—White/Gray Hypalon boat. It was chosen because the price was "decent" but also because it can fold up into a non inflated mass of around 3'2" or so and is made of what appears to be the most durable inflatable material Hypalon. We will likely keep it covered or off the boat in down times anyways so we hope to get many years of life. "HE" will be named "Coqui" which of course plays right along with our Puerto Rican themed "Boriken" design. The Coqui is a cute little frog that chirps and is only present in a few places. In Puerto Rico they are considered adorable and are treasured, ask any Puerto Rican and then will immediately imitate the sound of the Coqui. One funny note, when we went to Hawaii in 2008 we found out that they had somehow managed to make it over there and were HATED and DESPISED and in fact the tour guide said that by throwing coffee on them it can kill them....my lovely Puerto Rican wife was not amused and we hold the little coqui dear in our heart. Just as we will our dinghy! (see what we did there!). Anyways for the MOTOR we decided to go with the Lehr 9.9HP Outboard Electronic Start / Short shaft. I decided to go that way because I like the clean nature of propane gas and also with the large propane tank we are buying it gives hours and hours of runtime on a single tank. The Lehr is either the greatest thing ever OR the most despised motor ever produced. Reviews run only to the extremes. I could have gone with a gas powered Mercury engine but Coqui wants to take risks! :) AnyHoo - the only thing keeping us from high seas adventures with Boriken OR Coqui is that we have paid fully for both but have neither.....West Marine is shipping Coqui and motor (and tank) down from North Carolina so we will MAYBE get it later this week or so. So I am now a proud owner of 2 fully paid off boats that I don't have yet....how many of YOU can say THAT! :) My brother and my daughter are both coming down this week and will get their first glimpse of our Boriken if they let us look under the curtains that are shielding us from the dust and disarray....they are doing MAJOR projects on the Boriken to finish her off for us. adding in the forward head, generator, airconditioning, dinghy davits, nav unit.....the works. All of this apparently will conclude this week in time for a MONDAY (1 week from today as I write this!) delivery to us! We are really, really eager......
So Boriken is nearing completion and Coqui is packed on a West Marine truck for delivery....Christmas will be coming early for us :)