31st December

17 58 N
66 55 W

Weather hot and sunny, wind n/a, waves n/a

GOODBYE 2019

A HUGE BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO OLIVER WHO IS TURNING 4 YEARS OLD TOMORROW, ENJOY YOUR LAST DAY OF BEING 3!

Our last day of the year started with a bang - literally. There was a very loud bang at 7am that had us leaping around outside to see if we could identify where it came from. Nothing seemed amiss with the boat or the surroundings so we settled down to finish our breakfast and coffee whilst wondering aloud what the bang could have been, 2 thoughts sprung to mind, the first that it was an earth quake but there was no shaking or movement of water in the harbor so we almost discounted that thought, the second thought was that there must be a quarry nearby that was blasting - seemed pretty likely as we are surrounded by hills plus the bang occurred at exactly 7am - the perfect time for a blast. Anyway we put it out of our minds and prepared for today's short trip, we were going to go to Ponce which is about 16NM further along the coast. It is the second biggest city in Puerto Rico so we plan to stock up there with all the things we are running low on, though I'm not sure where we will buy patience! We had agreed with Marina and Haydn to take off at 8am so bang on the appointed hour we hauled in our anchor, covered in sticky mud but at least it held well, and began motoring out of the harbor. We followed Passage out of the anchorage as they were nearer the channel than we were but once we cleared the harbor entrance we took a slightly different route, cutting out of the channel early and heading towards our destination whilst Passage continued to follow the channel markers all the way out. We weren't quite sure why they had chosen to go so far out but thought they might be chasing the 3 knots of wind that hadn't woken up yet. We took bets on which of us would get a sail up first, my money was on Gerry as he can't leave any breath of wind alone however before either of us got that far. We were less than 1NM from the anchorage when we had a call from Passage, they were in trouble, their engine belt had made a strange noise followed by the engine vibrating and finally stopping. We offered to turn back to see if we could help which they gratefully agreed to. When we got to them they were rolling and wallowing with no engine, it was a good job that the wind was still safely tucked up in bed or it would have been so much worse. We had a quick discussion about how to proceed and it was decided that we would tow them back into the safety of the harbor we had just left to have a look and see what was going on with their engine. We secured 2 tow line between the boats and towed them back into the harbor very slowly. It was quite daunting having a disabled sailing boat following at such close quarters but we kept everything slow and under control, dropping the tow lines when they were in a good place to anchor then picking up a stern line from them to assist them with their anchoring by backing both boats down on their anchor. Once they were set we dropped our anchor, making sure we weren't going anywhere and switched off everything. Haydn collected Gerry in their dinghy, the engineer was going to see if he could help out with whatever the problem was. Haydn told us that was indeed an earthquake that caused the bang at 7am as he had checked on the internet and I almost forgot there was a second one just as we were reentering the harbor but this one wasn't so loud, definitely an after-shock! I remained on our boat and spent the next few hours cooking a few meals up and generally enjoying the peace and quiet!
Gerry returned to our boat a couple of time for tools and said that the problem was their alternator had died and their spare one didn't fit! I'm waiting for the next update at the moment so I thought I'd just get ahead with a start on the blog, back when I know more!
So Gerry is now back having helped to fix the problem, it turned out that the alternator bearing seized causing the screeching noise and vibration. The old alternator was taken apart and repaired with bits off of the new alternator which as a whole unit had an incompatible mounting. It took them the best part of 4 hours to get it back in working order but at least it is now IN working order, let's just hope that it is good enough to get them the 16NM to Ponce tomorrow where they will be able to go into the marina and get a new compatible spare alternator!
So New Year's Eve for us is going to be spent in this quiet, calm and peaceful anchorage. We have no idea if there will be any fireworks around here but there is a good chance that there will be, not that we intend staying up to see the New Year in as the plan is now to leave for Ponce at 6am ( what sort of time is that for New Year's Day - cruel I call it.)
A bit more info on the earth quake from this morning, the biggest earthquake this week in Puerto Rico was at - you guessed it, Guanica right where we are staying! It measured 3.5 on the rectum scale (sorry that should read Richter scale) and was centered at sea just outside the harbor entrance - yes, we like living dangerously, it seems to follow us wherever we go! I am only surprised that we didn't get any wave action from it but I'm also very glad that we didn't.
And now for a bit of history, Guanica was the first place that the Americans came to when they claimed Puerto Rico as an American territory. There is a large dock where apparently fertilizer is unloaded periodically - I don't fancy being around when that happens as I'm sure the smell is horrendous, especially as the wind is bound to get up at the same time as they unload. The small bay off of Guanica near the town of Ensenada, where we are actually anchored, was originally a sugar mill town and there is evidence of the old mill still on the shore, sugar is no longer grown here so I've no idea what industry keeps the town alive.
I'm going to cut today's blog short as I feel the need to get into the New Year spirit ( another rummy thing?) and relax. I've added a few more photos to the gallery for your amusement, check them out.
I hope you all have a great New Year celebration however you chose to spend it, be safe, look after one another and start the New Year off in the way you want it to continue.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERONE, WE WISH YOU ALL WHATEVER YOU WISH FOR YOURSELVES PLUS HEALTH, WEALTH AND HAPPINESS FOR THE YEAR AHEAD.

SEE YOU ALL IN 2020!