Happy New Year to All!

I am still here in Boqueron. I did move closer to town so I don't have to dinghy so far. The picture on the left is the view from Bella Vita of downtown Boqueron. The square is at the far right. The blue-green building is a bar on the second floor and the owner lives on the third. Don't know what is on the first floor. The coral colored house appears to be a private house. The gray and white building to the left is a bar and resturant. The picture on the left was taken from the second floor of the blue-green building. Bell Vita is the boat near the center.

I spent New Years Eve with a couple of cruisers who are heading for Brazil from New Jersey. He has a 55 foot shrimp boat that he has converted to a cruiser. It looks like it would be very comfortable since it has so much space. It carries 3,200 gal of diesel fuel and gets about 1 mile per gallon. Of course that is a nautical mile so it's not as bad as it sounds. I ran into them at customs and then in Mayaquez and then they stopped here in Boqueron for a few days. We toured the town this afternoon and went ashore for dinner at the local steak house.

Not sure what kind of birds these are but they seem to be well organized.






Jan 4, 2006

I left Boqueron early this morning, actually left just as the sun was coming up. I ended up motoring all the way to Gilligan's Island of of Punta Jacinto. It really is called Gilligan's Island, at least on my chart. It seems that someone thought that the island looked like the one they used on the TV show and one of the fisherman who used to work there supposedly looked somewhat like Gilligan so the name stuck. It is now a state park with a ferry running from a big resort in Punta Jacinto to the island several times a day. There wasn't much else of interest on the way other than the lighthouse at Cabo Rojo on the SW corner of PR. It was built by the Spanish a long time ago and it quite pretty.

Jan 5, 2006

I just spent one night at Gilligan's Island and then headed on to Poncee. Poncee is the second largest city in PR, after San Juan, and I had planned to do some reprovisioning there. They have a Sam's Club, Walmart, Sears, etc. I went to a local version of Sam's called Santiago's first because it was close enough to walk to. I got a few things there but most was in way too big a package for the boat. After storing my stuff from Santiago's, I called a taxi and headed for Walmart and Sam's. Luckily they are right next to each other and were pretty much the same as the ones here. I stocked up on a bunch of stuff and then taxied back to the Poncee Yacht Club. The yacht club is an interesting place. You can anchor for free, which is true most anywhere, but if you want to go ashore, the only place to land and secure your dinghy is at the yacht club dinghy dock. To use the dock, they charge $5 a day. The yacht club is nice and the people are friendly and helpful, except for the office staff, but they have one hand hand in your pocket as they are helping you. I'm not sure how long I'll stay here. I need fuel but they closed early today and are closed tomorrow for 3 Kings Day. I had never heard of this holiday before but it is sort of like the Santa Claus portion of Christmas. They didn't want Santa Claus since he is an American icon so they have the three kings. The children go out on the 5th and pick fresh green grass for the 3 King's camels and put it in a box under their beds. The Kings come during the night and take the grass and leave presents for the kids. Anyhow, it is a big holiday and everything is closed for it.

Jan 7, 2005

Well almost everything was closed yesterday. I walked to the mall, about 3 or 4 miles each way, to check out the Penneys and Sears. When I got there, the only things open were the Burger King and the movie theater. Since they were open, I figured I had better have a Whopper but I'm not sure it was worth the walk.

I decided to leave this morning as soon as I fueled and watered up. The diesel was some of the cheapest I have seen so far at $2.75/gal. I filled up with diesel, about 59 gallons, with water, about 200 gallons, and dinghy gas, about 2 gallons, and was off for Salinas. Bruce van Sant says Salinas is the best place in PR to stay and to work on your boat so I decided to give it a try. I had to motor all the way since the wind was right from the east where I needed to go. It was only about 20 miles so it wasn't too bad. I got in here about 4:00 this afternoon and anchored. I haven't really seen much but there are a lot of boats here. I doubt that I will go ashore tonight but will try and get started on some boat projects tomorrow. Hopefully I can find internet access somewhere. I was not able to find any in Poncee which really surprised me since it is such a large city. If I can find it, I will try to get this update loaded.

Since Boqueron, I have traveled about 68 miles and made it about 3 miles further south.

Jan. 12, 2006

Still here in Salinas. It's a nice place to spend some time with a great harbor, good access to most things I need and beautiful rainbows. I have had a problem since I repowered with the wrong propeller. It had too high a pitch and would not allow the engine to reach it's normal operating speed. This actually worked well while motorsailing since the engine was loafing along and burning very little fuel but in adverse conditions, a strong headwind and/or waves straight on the bow, the engine could not get into the power band to keep the speed up. Coming into Salinas I was down to 1.5 knots at times. I decided to have the propeller repitched and pulled it off on Tuesday afternoon. The propeller shop in San Juan picked it up Wed morning and brought it back Wed night. I reinstalled it this morning but have not tested it yet, probably tomorrow.

Today I took the "publico," public transportation, to Guayama to do some shopping. They have K-Mart, Sears, Radio Shack, etc. there so I thought I could find some stuff I neeeded. The stores are there but they are small and didn't have a lot of merchandise. I did find one battery that I needed for a GPS but that's all. At least I got to see some more of Puerto Rico.

There is even a boat from Kentucky here in the harbor. It is anchored right next to the entrance to the marina and judging from the growth on the bottom, it looks like it has been there for some time. It sort of reminds me of some of the more "senic" areas of KY.

I expect to be here until next week since ordered a set of blades for my wind generator. One broke on the way to the Bahamas and I finally got to where I could have them shipped to me. Then I get to go up the mast to install them.

Jan. 24, 2006

The new blades for the wind generator came this afternoon. I had been going to the marina every day for the last week looking for them. They called this afternoon on the VHF and said I had a package. I dinghied into the marina and it was the blades. I had pretty much given up on them after I sent an email last Friday to the wind generator company with no response and then I called them yesterday and they could find no record of them being shipped. Oh well, they finally made it. I planned on going up the mast and installing the blades with the generator still installed. I got my homemade assenders out, gathered all the tools I thought I would need, attached the new blades to the disconnected mizzen topping lift, removed the sail so I could install the assenders (I added slides to the assenders that ride in the sail track to keep them from swinging around.), installed the mizzen halyard to the gooseneck and tightened it so I could climb it, etc., etc. I used my safety harness and ran the tether around the mast to keep me from swinging around too much. Thinking I had everything I needed I climbed up on the mizzen boom and into the assenders, ran the tether around the mast and attached it back to the harness and went up the halyard. Using the assenders is basically like walking up stairs but you have to stop at each step and move the steps up in front of you. They work really well but are pretty slow. Going around the spreaders, the radar attenna and the wind generator mount requires unhooking the tether and moving it around the obstructions. It's a little uncomfortable when doing this since I'm unhooked and just holding on while I moved the tether and it was really windy. But I made it with no problem! The boat stays facing into the wind so it wasn't rocking much but it sure made me want to hang on to something. The only problem was that I was on the back of the mast and the generator was a couple of feet in front of the mast. Not only could I not reach it but I realized that I had to be able to reach it with both hands in order to remove the bolts. I decided to sort of twist around the mast and sit on the generator bracket. The next problem was that the tether was attached to the front of my harness and wasn't long enough to let me sit on the bracket squarely, with my baqck against the mast. I ended up sitting sort of sideways and twisting to reach the generator. This might work! I started taking off the first bolt that used to hold the missing blade when I realized the next problem. If I took off the bolt, I might be able to hold the nut but certainly not the nut and the lock washer. I didn't have enough extra bolts, nuts and washers to replace very many so it time to stop and ponder the situation. I didn't want to take down the generator becasue the wires are run through the mast, soldered and sealed. To take it down, I would have to cut the wires and then resolder and seal them at while up the mast. But, that looked like the only way to handle the situation so I went back down the mast to get the next assortment of tools. Looking through the original installation instructions to determine what I would need, I saw that the blade assembly, the three blades and the hub they mount on, is bolted onto the front of the generator. I should be able to remove one nut and bring down just the blade assembly so I could install the new blades and not have to remove the generator. That didn't sound too bad so I rounded up the new tools for this operation. Just as I was about to start back up, I realized that the socket wrench I was going to use wouldn't work because I had to use an Allen wrench in the end of the shaft to hold it so I could take of the nut. I didn't have a box end big enough, 15/16, to work so I had to use a Cresent. I was afraid the nut would be too tight to get off with the short Allen wrench and my 8" Cresent but back up I went, around the spreaders, brackets, etc. to my perch on the generator bracket and it was still windy up there. This was not a comfortable place to work with the harness twisting me back toward the mast while I sat on a 1/4 inch wide bracket and twisted to the front to the generator. Luckily, the nut wasn't too tight, although that could have contributed to the initial failure, and I was able to remove it and the lock washer without dropping anything. A cable tie around one of the blades was attached to the mizzen topping lift and the blade assembly lowered to the deck. Back down the mast, about 10 inches per step, and I was ready to install the new blades. They went together with no problem and the new blade assembly was soon ready to go back on. By this time it was about 6:00 pm and the sun was getting really close to the tree line. I didn't want to be stuck up the mizzen after dark but I really wanted to get that generator going. We have had really strong winds, frequently 25 Kts or more, here for the last several days and I was loosing all that electricity. So I attached the new blade assembly to the topping lift and started back up the mast. This was the third trip and I was sure I could do it in one. After I got back to my perch, and yes it was still windy, I pulled the blades up and got the assembly on the generator shaft. The lock washer and nut went on next with no problem. This was going too well, I must have forgotten something. Well, I went ahead in my ignorance and got the nut tightened and the nose cone back on the front. Everything looked good so I headed back down. It was almost dark by then so I put away the tools and tuned on the generator. The wind stopped. For the last two hours, there has hardly been a breeze. At least it's done and I can start planning the next leg.

I have been using the time here while I waited to clean up rust spots and touch up the paint. The chainplates seem to have a lot of rust stains on them so I have been taking off the shrouds and stays a couple at a time and cleaning and painting the chainplates and cleaning the turnbuckle assemblies. There are 19 of them so it's taking a while. I hope this is not something I am going to have to do to often. I knew when I bought a steel boat that there would be painting to do. I think that once I get it done properly, it will not need to be repeated too often. I'm also adding plastic washers at the chainplates to help eliminate some of the metal to metal contact. I also found a few places where there was some old rust that had been painted over so I've meen fixing that too.

The other thing I finally got to was a new mount for the high output alternator that was on the old Perkins engine. It would not fit on the Yanmar engine so I get a max output of 50 amps instead of the 150 amps from the Balmar. Not only is the max three times as high but the Balmar regulator is a "smart" regulator that will charge at a much higher level for a longer time than the "dumb" regulator in the Yanmar alternator. I finally designed a bracket to mount the Balmar and have been working on building it. It's a little tough building anything in my on-board "shop" using hand or rechargeable tools. It's mostly done but I still need to figure out what size belt I need and buy it. It sure will be nice to have the higher output.

Depending on the weather, I will probably leave here in a couple of days for Viequez. It's only about 60 miles but into the trade winds so it will be a slow sail. I'll probably leave here in the afternoon and sail overnight to reach an anchorage in Viequez in good light. I can do the painting in another beautiful anchorage as well as I can here.

Jan 31, 2006

Still here in Salinas. The weather looks good for the next couple of days so I may head out in the morning. I have a lot to do before I leave though. I need to stop outside the harbor to at least clean the prop. This is another harbor somewhat like Luperon in that it is a Mangrove harbor and very fertile. I have been here for about 2 1/2 weeks and have lots of barnacles on the bottom. The prop may not be too bad since it was off and cleaned last week.

I thought I might be having a problem with the dingly outboard because it seemed to be losing power. When you only have two horsepower to start with, you can't afford to lose much. Then I noticed a nice growth of seeweed on the transom and decided to pull the dinghy out and check the bottom. I hooked the main sail halyard to the dinghy and winched it up in the air. It was pretty obvious what the problem was. I had a good crop of all kind of misc stuff growing on the bottom. When I took these pictures, I had most of the bottom cleaned with only the aft foot or two to go. I don't know what most of the stuff is. Luckliy, it was pretty easy to remove with a plastic scraper and a scrub brush. It only took about twenty minutes and I had a nice clean bottom again. My dinghy cruise speed also went up considerably.

I have gotten a lot done since I arrived here in Salinas. The wind generator is doing pretty good although there have been some calm periods. The high output alternator puts out about twice what the old one did. It is limited to less than the max output to prevent it from overheating and to protect the drive belts. Generally, I've heard that you should not run over 100 amps on a single belt. The alternator has two groves but the engine only has one. I could buy an adaptor that would give the second grove but they want about $250 for it. It still charges about twice what the old one did so there is a noticable iprovement. But then it would be nice to able to charge at 150 amps. I ran the engine for about 15 minutes today to warm it up to change the oil and got a nice boost to the batteries.