March 12 Farjardo, Puerto Rico

First, some shout outs.
My baby sister turned 40 on March 11. How, I ask you , how did THAT happen?? Love you!
My parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary March 13. You are the best! Love you!

We stayed in Esperanza until Monday March 8. It seemed the weather would never break so we decided to make a try for the eastern Puerto Rico mainland. It was a brisk sail over the 25 miles. We anchored at Cayo Obispo, a small resort island just a mile off the town of Fajardo. It had a weird feel…a decent resort right there but the anchorage and associated marina are both full of bombed out boats in various states of disrepair. The windlass also had a weird feel, as in step on the deck button and nothing happens weird feel. Uh-oh. Already in a funk and ready to blow out of here due to the weather, the OK but less than desirable surroundings, nothing really available by foot and no taxis in sight, we start chewing on this new problem as windlass repairs require a marina if you like having 10 fingers. We scouted marinas in Farjardo by dinghy on Tuesday. Did I mention it is still raining?? Fajardo is a big town with Kmarts, grocery stores and everything imaginable by car. We had planned a brief marina stay to pick up Mike Nauman and to heavily provision the boat for the next two months. We had gotten a good tip on Sun Bay Marina from new friends Will and Anne on S/V Como No. We talked to them in St Lucia by radio and met only very briefly in Martinique. They are from Fort Worth and having cruised the entire world over the last 12 years, are heading to Kemah, Texas. They tell great stories.
On the 10th, Craig breathed enough life into the windlass to get the anchor up. If at first you don’t succeed, hit it harder. Sun Bay Marina is quite a place. Big new docks. Only $1/foot/day and that includes water, electricity (we power junkies have paid $25/day just for that in the past), internet (with dual sign in…both laptops fired up) and cable TV. We are happier now. Several boats from Texas are here. A catamaran from Ft Worth pulled in yesterday. They braved the weather to get here to meet a repairman, who called upon their arrival to inform them he couldn’t come until Monday. Life in the islands. Their problem sounds hard to isolate and expensive to fix…we are not alone. Our slip assignment turned out to be right beside Como No. They already had a car and offered to take us with them on errands. Away we went to West Marine (feels like home), a grocery store and Kmart. I thought my brain would explode but it was great fun. Tuesday was more running around to refill propane tanks while Craig got busy taking out the windlass motor. As it turns out, Will has the same one and has replaced brushes several times. He is a pro and Anne let us hijack him for the better part of the day.
The windlass motor looks clean but the brushes are completely shot from corrosion due to salt water intrusion…one of the caps broke since the last time we had it out. Did I mention it is still raining? The situation looks grim but Will helps keep our spirits up lest this turn into a “sell the boat” day. It is also great that we are here in Puerto Rico where alternator and motor shops abound in San Juan that hopefully can help us.
Today we rented a car and drove to Puerto Nuevo, outside of San Juan. Crazy traffic…it took 2hours. For you Dallas types, imagine 35 miles of Northwest Highway. For the Memphis connection, imagine 35 miles of Poplar Avenue. No luck at the first shop but the second is a go. Not only do they have the correct brushes but the tech has rebuilt these types before and can have it done by Monday. Hopefully it will be as sweet as all that.


I am sick to death of looking at this:










Posha of S/V Como No. This kitty has an enviable collection of toys:












Check this out. Evn in the marina, today I noticed that the water around the boat had changed color. Note the dramatic color change in the water. These are views from the top of the hill at Sun Bay Marina. The ocean water has been the pristine blue one expects in this part of the world and this effect is due to run off from all the rain.

Tomorrow, Old San Juan and the fort. Did I mention that it might have stopped raining?