Sunday 4th February

Salinas,
Puerto Rico

17 57.6 N
66 17.6 W

This was a “doing stuff” day. We gathered up all the laundry we could find on the boat and took it in to the marina laundry, hoping that it would be empty. Unfortunately a couple of other people had the same idea and there was a half hour wait for a washing machine good job I had a book with me! Gerry took the dink back out to the boat and he tells me that he spent the next couple of hours productively – changing the gen set oil, emptying the jerry cans into the main fuel tank, taking the bimini cover off and checking the bolts that hold the engine down making sure they were secure. I did the laundry, not terribly exciting but it’s really nice to have some clothes to wear and clean sheets and towels. Gerry came to pick me back up at lunchtime and we had lunch on board, unpacked and stowed the laundry and then it was on to the next job of the day – fixing the bimini. Gerry had removed the bimini and as we began the fixing of it we noticed that the winds had picked up and we were getting gusts of 26 knots plus within the protection of the harbour , this continued for a couple of hours and then began to die back down. The bimini is part of the canvas cover over the cockpit and some of the stitching near one of the zips had rotted away and needed to be re stitched, also where the boom tightens down it had rubbed across the bimini’s supporting arch making a small series of tears which need to be repaired and reinforced. Gerry had set up the sewing machine ready to do the repairs and we had purchased some reinforcing material for the area that covers the support. A very frustrating couple of hours followed with anything that could, did, go wrong – broken thread, empty bobbin, pins stuck in the way, thread tension changed, caught the zip in the stitching, etc. etc. We persevered and eventually had the job finished; we then replaced the canvas and the isinglass windows with a sense of achievement. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the computer as we had managed to pick up a WIFI connection and reading. With diner time approaching we headed into the pizza place as they were one of only 2 places we knew off that was going to be showing the super bowl game on their TV. We were somewhat surprised at the marina not showing it – they could have put on a bar b que, shown the game and made a killing as most of the boats in the harbour are American or Canadian and would want to watch the game ( even if it is only for the adverts and the half time show!) We had diner there and watched the first quarter of the game – that was enough for us, as of this moment we don’t know the outcome of the game but we are hoping the Chicago Bears maintained the lead that they had at the end of the first quarter and went on to win the match. GO BEARS! We left the real football enthusiasts yelling at the TV and headed back to the boat for the night.