We managed to also catch up with Carlos & Glory Selles, of the yacht "Glory Days" while in SAN JUAN over some excellent Mexican food, but the dramatic change in Tropical Storm "EARL" and its deviated westward path made us aware that staying at the island of CULEBRA might not be tenable........ Little did we know that within 24 hours it would go from a storm to a category 4 hurricane, and on a path hell-bent for PUERTO RICO ............. Time to 'rock 'n roll', well 6 knots anyway, and head NW to the mangroves at SALINAS on mainland PR..................Secure the stern as close as we dare by tying lines to substantial limbs, (mangroves, not mine) and set the anchors out in deep water................Sorry about that shot, but I'm up to my ass in mangroves, and it's hot-as-hell and bugspray is next-to-useless, and "EARL" keeps moving west instead of north-west, like it-is-not-supposed-to ................
We've taken down the genoa (that huge headsail) from the furler but it is now way too large for the bag..............what a fine time for that to happen..........
Everywhere there are yachts tucked into nooks and crannies in the mangroves........The air is dead still and the sky is clear, but by midnight "EARL will be upon us with a solid whack to the ear.......... The eye-wall will miss us by 100 miles.................Don't laugh till you see that 100 miles is not a drop in the bucket...........100 miles is 12 inches of rain and wind of forty knots....... Anyway, we did just fine, and we emerged two days later out of the swamp, none the worse for wear....................And 'Tormenta EARL' heads NW to the wider Atlantic..................
Time to go back to work and finish off our new self-steering system........... The paddle you see in the water gets rotated ever so slightly from above, which in turn causes it to swing left or right by the pressure of the moving water....... Now by connecting the paddle to the steering wheel with lines (ropes), a tremendous force is exerted which caused the wheel to turn, the course gets adjusted and 'Bob's your Uncle'...........We are back on course...........That shiny SS paddle can lift out of the water when you are not sailing, by the way...............
Oh,.................... And we did get that genoa to finally fit into the sailbag............... Took a bit of language, but we did it............... Now we are back in Salinas, and time to put the shade covers up over the deck............... That drops the temperature below by at least 15 degrees.......................
We are not as smart as some, who even have a shade cover over their dinghy when they move about, but we'll think of something................... For now, we are just glad that Tropical Storm "FIONA" is a non-event, and that the next one "Gaston" is still a 1000 miles away, though it has all the hallmarks of becoming a real _________.......................Like I said, we might not be as smart as some, but we certainly can tell when a bull is wearing sunglasses................
Like I was just saying .................(It used to be "I was just telling Tom")............ We may not be as smart as some, and we may be a little grey around the temples, (actually it's a lot), but there is no need to be behind the times, even if we just came out of the mangroves ...................... For here's what we have used to send you the last few blog updates .............................. A neat little portable wireless router that magically connects to the nearest cell phone tower, and gives us unlimited internet access ....................... Place this credit-card size 'gizmo' on deck, charge it up through our baby inverter stuck in our 12 volt cigarette lighter socket, and down below in the cabin, with all the fans going, both Laurie and I can be on our laptops at the same time, communicating with the whole wide World ................ completely WIRELESSLY....................
It may be as hot as a proverbial 'oven' and the humidity may be worse than a saturating 'steambath', but ISN'T LIFE GRAND......................
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