March 17 Leaving Fajardo

Happy St Patricks Day!
It has been a busy few days. We are in Puerto Rico and enjoying US prices. In preparation for travel up to the Turks and Caicos and Bahamas which are crazy expensive, we have provisioned this boat to the hilt. Just to give you an idea, I have been paying $7 for a roll of paper towels and here they are only $2.59 for a roll of Bounty. Sweet! And Charmin? Forget it! So now there are toilet paper and paper towels squirreled away all over the boat. They are a precious commodity. I don’t care who you are or how many sham-wows you have (Candy—they are the best ever!!), you use a lot of paper towels on a boat. Anyhoo, paper products abound and the freezer is crammed full of meat. Tired of chicken and pork, we have also taken advantage of US beef prices…lean cuts for my post-CABG man, but a few rib eyes also tucked away. Because sometimes you just need a Craig perfect-grilled steak.
We drove back to San Juan yesterday to pick up our windlass motor. OMG. Puerto Rican drivers. And road-kill iguanas. I can not understand how a populace that typically walks so slowly can drive so fast. And you thought Central was bad. Dang. You see, Craig drove the last time, I drove this time, in our sexy Toyota Yaris. A lawn mower motor with wheels. Manual windows. What? The power surging through the accelerator and steering wheel was intoxicating but then again, the game down here is not so much how fast one can go 0-50mph, but how fast one can go 50-0mph because they love to pull out in front of other cars down here. It was a harrowing adventure. Long story short, we got back to the boat, parts in hand. Craig re-installed and it works like a charm. Whew.

This afternoon we picked up Mike Nauman from San Juan International Airport and dropped off the rental car. We enjoyed happy hour on the dock with new friends and are having a quiet night before the big passage tomorrow. The trip is 350ish miles which we anticipate will take us 72 hours at sea. Mike is a guest tonight. Starting 0700, he is crew.

A picture of Craig with his new do. Mike wanted to post pictures how how the blog really gets made.
















Mike in the red cap with Andy and Lisa of S/V Zingaro, a 47' Passport. The name means gypsy in Italian. They met in Italy while on active duty (she US Navy and he Royal Air Force) and now own a sailing school/charter business out of Maryland.

Will and Ann of S/V Como No, a 40' Cape Dory. They are leaving next week and heading back to Kemah via Jamaica and Isla Mujueres, Mexico. We have very much enjoyed their company and getting to know them this week, and also look forward to seeing them in Kemah.