After my hectic week in Puerto Rico getting the boat commissioned and in the water I have been enjoying the quite and relaxing island of Culebra For the last two weeks.
You see no matter how much time you give people to work on your boat they always seem to want to wait until the last minute. So when my best friend and I arrived in late afternoon on Saturday November 7th to spend the week he was there to get all the yard work done, splash the boat, and install new solar panels I knew it was going to be busy, but I had no idea. Once we got to the boat that first Sunday we were already behind the 8-ball, because the truck with the solar panels broke down and they were not delivered. All I really could do was inspect the work I had commissioned and see what was done and what was not. After that and organizing the boat a little bit there was not much more we could do so I took Joel to El Yunque rainforest. On Monday the panels arrived, so I left Joel working on them as I contacted the five people I contracted to work on the boat to get updates and motivate them to finish the jobs. One was done (not exactly like I wanted, but….), another had some work still to do (but no problem….), the third was waiting on parts that should arrive late afternoon to finished the last little bit, the forth would show up tomorrow to do it (this would be the first time he visited the boat this year…arrggg!), and the last already told me two months ago he did not have the time (I appreciate his honesty). Ok now I have everyone focused, because I was scheduled to splash the next day at 1pm.
Well the next day was a whirlwind of activity to get ready for the boat to go in the water. Joel was working on the solar panels, Ken at Island Marine had his guys finishing the fiberglass projects and installing some hardware, my rigger, Jorge, got the parts and was finishing the lifelines, I was taking care of projects to be ready when they came to pick up the boat, and the mechanic finally showed up to service the sail drives (the device between the prop and engine) only to say it was stuck and he did not want to risk it (maybe if he showed up 2 months ago when I first talked to him he would have been able to take care of the issue!!!!). My dinghy had to be moved before the big boat and I had it ready and waiting by 11am when it was scheduled to be picked up by the yard. I felt bad for Joel working on his own, but I had to get my work down and get everyone else to finish their jobs also. Well at 1pm the Travel Lift rolled up just as the fiberglass guys finished polishing the last bit, the riggers tightened the last lifeline turnbuckle, and the mechanic finished checking the saildrive oil. All I had left to do myself was stow the anchor and chain on the boat (I take it off so it does not rust in the hold while I am gone), but the dinghy is still in the way. The lift operator asked if I was ready and I said no because of the anchor and he seemed a little put off until I explained the dinghy was suppose to be moved two hours ago by his people. Well that got them moving and it was picked up, I loaded the anchor and chain, and up went the boat.
The next two days Joel and I were focused on the solar panels so I could take him out for two days before his flight home. Once he was gone I headed to Culebra and hung out in several coves as I cleaned the interior of the boat and worked on various projects. There are still some more project to do, but I have to get to St Thomas to finish them so I am planning on heading out tomorrow. On Tuesday and Thursday of the next two weeks I will be writing about my new upgrades (solar panels, oven, lifelines, and sails) plus I have finished travel videos of Puerto Rico, Old San Juan, Peru, and Machu Picchu so watch for those (if you subscribe to my YouTube channel you can get a sneak peak at them…..just saying 🙂 ).
