We are currently in Puerto Rico. In some ways we have been busy but not much has happened since we left Dominica. So, rather than fill in the details of the past couple of months that would be as interesting as reading the instructions for your food processor, I'll just say why we are in Puerto Rico and not in the Bahamas or Bermuda.

We made a mock land re-entry by visiting friends from Charlottesville vacationing in St Barth's and we had friends from Charlottesville visit us in the  Virgins. Rike's brother and his girl friend also visited. Jan and Esther stayed with us for three weeks. Finally, our social schedule held a healthy pace as we cruised with Double Helix, who we had last seen in the Canaries and met up with Zia and Sky. We last saw Sky three years ago in the Virgins. Their boat back then was named Jamie.

So why are we in Puerto Rico? It is Jan and Esther's fault. They winched me up the mast for a regular rig check and I found that a compression pin holding the forestay to the mast had moved. While the movement was only about one centimeter out of seven, the fact that I could hammer it back in place easily, did not give me great comfort. 

To make a long story short I talked with Quino Sanchez, a rigger in Puerto Rico and decided that he should take a look. By the time we took down the forestay the pin had moved again and was no longer bearing even weight on the toggle that cradled it. A prolonged time in bad weather would have probably resulted in the failure of the toggle and the mast coming down. So, since we had the forestay down and Quino seemed like the right guy to to it, we decided to change forestay and jib furler. Our furler had been an increasing liability and was showing more wear and tear. In sum, we moved up a maintenance item that had been on our list for sometime and that had already held us back in Sicily and the Balearics.

Unfortunately Puerto del Rey, the marina where we are docked, is in the middle of nowhere and staying here, with no public transportation, is a bit of a drag. It is even more of a drag that we had to say good-by to Double Helix and that Sky and ZIa sailed by us on their way to the Bahamas. They are now 500 miles ahead of us and there is no easy wether window for the next week. 

If all goes well we should be sea fit by May 9 and the long range forecast shows that it might be faster for us to go to Bermuda than the Bahamas. Weather, like plans changes however, and so does our mood. It would be nice to catch up to Zia and Sky, but if they have five days of sailing on us, we might as well take the faster route to Bermuda if it is available.

All the best to everyone

Claude, Rike, Anouck and Celine