A week in Fajardo, PR

Billy Ruff’n has been at the Puerto del Rey marina in Fajardo, Puerto Rico for a week now and Andrew and I have a short list of what we’ve accomplished and a longer one of what still needs to be done! It’s pretty hot (88+) and we’ve had only enough motivation to get to some of the mundane projects like provisioning, cleaning winches, scrubbing dock lines and washing dirty rags. 

Through our friend Arturo, we met a brilliant rigger named Jorge. A wiry, energetic guy who ostensibly came by to look at our broken winch, but within 5 minutes of being on the boat, found another slightly more ominous problem. A piece of our boom that has a patch on it caught his attention. We weren’t even sure of the story behind the patch but upon further inspection, Jorge found a small crack. Fortunately, it’s forward of the vang connection where the pressure is less (than if it were aft of the vang) and Andrew addressed it temporarily with punch holes. In the meantime, we won’t be strapping down the boom.

After initially suggesting we have the broken plastic part of our winch fabricated on a 3D printer, Jorge confirmed that the part was unobtainable (and probably not reproducible) but he could help us find and install a new one. The next day, Jorge had an almost new Harken winch that he could secure for us for $100 plus shipping. Of course, the next question was, where is it coming from and at what cost? The answer was Florida for probably $75. We couldn’t get our money out fast enough. Hopefully, he doesn’t make up for that deal on the installation!

Other adventures since arriving in PR include driving a lime green Element to the grocery store, where I saw my first elevated guard station in the parking lot; discovering a new favorite rum (Don Q) and beer (Medalla) and enjoying some great food, starting with the octopus salad & fish tacos from the marina restaurant, La Cueva Del Mar; Cuban sandwiches from the local breakfast/lunch shack, Botero’s Galley, and giant mangos, from Arturo’s house.

The boat is clean, stocked up and ready for our friend to arrive for some sailing, snorkeling and visits to the local islands around Puerto Rico for the next few days.