WE JUST ADDED FIVE YEARS ...................................

And we are not talking about five years in a nursing home at $ 5000 a month .............. No Sir, we are talking about an extra five years cruising added to the present planned five years .....................You see...... Every time we move, we have to hoist the dinghy on deck using the jib halyard and the anchor winch .......... No big deal, even though the Carib dinghy, our 'Beemer' (our BMW) weighs a ton ............. It's the outboard, that is slowly taking its toll on us.............. First, you have to let the life lines loose (see photo above), then undo the motor from the dinghy and hoist it up with the mizzen boom sheet, with Laurie doing the grinding on the winch in the cockpit, while I hoist the 'mother' in the air ........ Then quickly jump on deck (while it hangs suspended over the water) and remove the nuts holding the fin (that black part) and then slowly lower the motor into the lazarette (that's the after hatch) where even HOUDINI would say, "Get someone else" ................ And the reverse of all that, once we have re-anchored somewhere else ..................... Then yesterday a ray of light from some distant galaxy suddenly penetrated................. I'll come back to that piece of brilliance further down.......................



We have had seven good years out of the dinghy and the outboard and we made the decision to change both ................. A new YAMAHA 15HP outboard and a new AB dinghy to see us through the long haul to Australia .............. Now here's the thing ............. The new AB dinghy is 9 ft(2.76m) long, has an aluminum bottom and weighs a mere 64 lbs (30kg) .............. And so our 'pre-loved' CARIB beemer has been cleaned and is ready to be sold ............... The new dinghy is so light we can even hoist it safely out of the water at night to prevent theft ............. Caught the "Queen of Florida" day-dreaming about her new 'luxury car' while priming the new ARITA letters for the bow ................... She can lift it up from the dock by herself.............A sight worth seeing...... Trust me.




There are various forms of security available but 'both of these' seem a little out of place ................ But a speedy little flyer like ours is like the 'Crown Jewels' to the locals............. Laurie can start and run this one ............. complete and utter 'Indepencia' and 'seguro'...............



The bay at Salinas is host to lots of sailing boats during weekends, which gets a little scary like these boys tacking within 3 ft by working the rudder like an oar ............ And the Puerto Rico Sunfish National champion came for a visit ...................



But here's what's given us that extra FIVE YEARS at least, and avoids the 'BIG H' (hernia and heart-attack) ............... In hoisting the Johnson outboard on deck to clean it, we used the jib halyard on the bow together with the anchor winch, and sat it down in front of the mast 'LIKE IT WAS MADE TO GO THERE' .......... What can I say except 'Brilliant' ................not the same as discovering 'Penicillin, but not bad either............. No more HOUDINI, scraped knees, high blood pressure, bikini straps breaking with exertion on the winch handle ................ Sad for me, good for Laurie,.......None of that any more, and to celebrate the potential EXTRA five years, we joined the "MOJITO" party on the catamaran KUHELA next door with Harry, Linda, Luis and 'Mojito' specialist Consuelo............... "Mojitos are a Puerto Rican rum drink with sugar, crushed ice, mint and a dash of soda ..............Better limit that to two,.................

And in the meantime we are surrounded by powerful hurricanes .......................