From Porto Real, a small harbor on the west side of PR. I'm on my way north, but I started east. Coupla small difficulties with getting off.- Haul a dinghy (local & heavy) and cover it against the sun, clean up the yard, new locks on the house (my Rosa insists that it be done, says half of PR has keys to these. I doubt) OK, I left with everyone happy. Headed east to try the railways in Fajardo. Left at midnight 4/24/ Seemed pretty slow. It was almost daylight before I got to the longitude of Ponce. All under power too, wind is inclined to be very light these evenings - usually picks up with daylight, gradually working its way to full easterly trades by midmorning. Difficulty I was experiencing was a combination of leftover sea, which takes a long time to die, a knot of adverse current and a million little barnacles that came along for the ride. Making less than two knots would mean something like 80 or 100 hours of traveling, plus some time hunting for holes to bed down in. And no way to even try to breast the full 20 knots of normal afternoon wind. I can do it but not this way. Go west young man.4/27I turned in mid ocean at full daylight, sails up and a gorgeous day to charge west along half of PR, and north around its SW corner to Porto Real. Made it about time for the yard to close. Didn't get ashore for having found a very congenial couple waiting their turn to haul. They did get hauled 4/26 in the pm. I got ashore in the morning of 4/26, and he says it'll be a week. That's bad, but no real disaster. Where else? What else? If I spend two weeks here - quite likely - it will still save time and money over dragging these barnacles all the way to Maine and still having to haul. And of course anything that is not imported is cheaper here. I'm sure I can get the fridge fixed here. So I'm anchored free, waiting for space ashore. Two anchors down in mud after a fine first anchoring under sail that let me bump very gently on mud when low tide did its thing. Not a whole hell of a lot of water in this harbor, but I knew it before I came in. Disasters abound at sea, and even more so at the edge thereof, but the longer I suffer them, the more I realize that I am the perpetrator. It was there, and I misused it. Now that I know all about masts, and I surely learned the hard way, will I be safe from using up another one? This time with a steel mast it may not bust, it may carry the boat over and hold it inverted till whatever air is trapped in the hull gradually leaks out. Glug.
Porto Real. It's really a very pleasant space for a few days. A very worky harbor. Some yachts, even some pretty fancy power yachts, many small and a dozen good-sized fishing boats - all power of course. My yard is a very small one, so small that it HAS to stay neat and clean. It has a small travelift, ample to pick me up, but scant enough water to let me in under the hoist. I got in before once, and decided to try a yard in Fajardo because of the shallow here. OK, I'm in greater need of the cleaning than I am of the deep water. Now it seems that the hoist is kaput - part is easily had and installed, but the Insurance Inspector has to see it done and pass on it before coverage resumes. Banks are involved. Flexibility is gone. Yards get bigger and less profitable, even though the cost to boat owners goes up. Not just PR either, it's the relentless approach of commercial civilization.4/27/91I went ashore mid morning - Hello to my neighbors who are now hauled and busily painting. Walked down the busy main street (read "only" too) bought flashlight batteries and spray grease. Found a carniceria where they cut meat to suit, even bacon; none of the packaged, priced, purified product here. Bought goat meat for stew. $3 per pound, seems high to me, I thought goat would be cheap. (In Bonaire it was known as pore beef.) But not much in the way of green freshies. Fish all over of course. Everyone sells beer and booze - even my yard - this is generally so in PR.
OK I've been back on board long enough to put up poly-scrim covers to bring air in and shield some sun. 1st rough stowage is done, more to do. Inflatable dink has a water leak, not yet found. Holds air OK. Lunch time and I have to eat hot dogs before they spoil.
Repairs & alterations. There's a Sunday party on a great black schooner - I'm invited. Dark again - very peaceful after a blowy PM with a few drops of rain in a boiling mad front that blew NW for a bit - more than an hour from easterly back to easterly with the wind in vicious puffs and sustained 30 to 40 kn for a few minutes, black cloud and all. Threat to the whole world for a few minutes. Tangled my anchors, but not so badly that I couldn't straighten them out alone.4/28
All am on unimportant things that need doing. Smoothed out the fwd corners of the house that are always catching the jib sheets. Rerigged the draft inducer, still needs bigger nubs so it won't slide off. Reinstalled the cleat that pulled out a week ago. All the wood screws in their bags, sorted & labeled. Lunch in now and about to jump overboard in prep for the party on the big black schooner on the wharf.4/291822, same day. Cocktails about the same all over. I enjoyed it but am happy not to be going back tomorrow for another.
Sunday in Porto Real is about as dead as it can be. Panaderia is open, and the bars. Pleasure boats cavorting around the harbor, fishing boats resting. Shifted anchorages just in time to accommodate shift of wind to the W and NW.
Goat stew out of this world. Delicious last night when I spooned a bit of it out and heated it separately while the great pot did its second firing. But tonight, third firing was truly orbital! The gods have nothing better. Browned 3 lbs of goat, mostly bones of course - what else is on a goat? - any number of curly little bones and half a hundred tiny ribs and T bones, all trimmed of meat, but not so close but what a succulent lot of meat was left. Threw in the onions, some water, half a small cabbage, bit of salt and basil. Long hour at low heat, and outside to cool in the evening. Then yesterday, without refrigeration, I brought it to a slow boil, added potatoes and peppers, couple of garlic cloves, only enough heat to cook the potatoes, only enough water to show in the pot, and outdoors again to cool. Today the company didn't come and I ate prodigeously.! I'll never eat any better.4/30
0730. Breakfast in and a lot of cleaning done. Finally took the stove apart and cleaned around the burners. Terrible job, got it all back together to find that I'd forgotten to put the burners together, had to take it all apart again. OK done, and it's not impossible to do, which I wasn't sure of before. Made several changes in the lines above deck. Found and patched umpteenth leak in dinghy. Long splice in a spare jib sheet. Will go in to try to catch the refrigerator man at 4:30.5/1
Cabo Rojo is the name of the thriving little city that I thought was Porto Real proper, 85 cents by publico, half mile walk to the big supermarket where I loaded up on fresh supplies. Back to the publico station via the free trolley, run by the community, delighted to pay the extra 40 cents for door to door service on the publico with my 4 bags of groceries. I'm getting impatient trying to get the refrigerator men here for a first go. No luck at 4:20 pm. No word on when I can get on the railway.5/3
Wonder of wonders the bottom cleaner man showed, paddled out in a heavy dink. Was I still wanting to do it? Of course. Some horsing around that I thought was going to be asking for more money, but no, too much silt in the water, can we go out to clear ocean water? All in pidgeon spanglish. No question of our being able to communicate, but considerable question about how long it takes to get it across. Steamed out of Porto Real, anchored off shore half a mile in 20 feet of clear water. My guy scraped with a wide putty knife (spackle knife?), doing inestimable damage to the copper bottom paint (which was very nearly worn off anyway. Upper part with snorkel, lower with scuba gear - a fat two hours. I went down when he sounded the alarm that "the bottom was all BROKEN". Yup, it was, but it was the surface that was broken, wood showing through, which I knew about and had richly earned in STX and the grounding in PR on the way to Tortola. The boat does leak, a trickle that may amount to 2 quarts a day, enough to keep the cabin sole wet and mucky, slippery too, but more of a nuisance than a danger. Fed my young hero lunch of hot dogs, plaintain and pimientos, and we sailed home in the stiff pm breeze under jib alone, at least as fast as we had powered out. Paid him off $30 and a bargain for both of us. And he paddled off in his wooden dink. In to chase the diaphanous refrigerator man. Coupla beers when I discovered the refrig man was here & gone couple of hours since. Came to a beery deal with a man who works on boats in the yard and has a welder, but doesn't consider himself a very competent operator. OK I can weld it - let me have a few minutes to get my hand in, since I've been out of it for a few years. Sunday we'll set it up and do his and my welding. Very little idea of what I'm letting myself in for. Refridge man still in limbo, been coming tomorrow at 4:30 all week. I've been waiting on shore every day, and it's always tomorrow that he's coming. Venezuela here we are again. OK, I can live without it. The welding is probably more important since I need it to get the luff taut when the whole sail is out. Monday, if all goes well, I'll do a final shopping and take off Tuesday without ever hauling the boat.5/4
Cut the gooseneck off the mast this morning, found parts to the old head basin feed pump, installed the pump on the floor beside the sink. Works fine, eliminating the pissing out of a small stream where the packing was worn. So it looks as if I could get off by Tuesday. Latest disaster is the fathometer, died for no reason. Electric connections secure.5/5
1900. Up against the wharf by 0800, prep for welding complete. Had to move the welder so the cables would reach, and that involved building a cradle under the welder. Cleaned up the wharf. Boat ahead had to move out, so I had to move & come back. Lunched while I waited for them. Finally got the gooseneck welded on, pretty coarse but solid, and the ring rail is on. Intermittent showers and three hard rain showers prevented any welding up on the mast. Still need to get a little ready money, call the customs, try deck lines, clear tools, final shopping. Can it all get done tomorrow?5/6
A beautiful clear day, waiting in line in Banco Popular - my favorite hate. All my beds out to dry from the rains of yesterday and the day before, and I'm in a rush to get them back inside before another storm this afternoon.1700 Back on board, made it ahead of the rain, got everything in but a towel and a jersey before the Heavens let go with a whole flush! Off tomorrow!
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