Sun burnt and dusty green

At the end of the day I felt like a toasted marshmallow, crispy on the outside and hot on the inside. In the morning Richard and I finished sanding the main lower and then started to oil a little until it was time to clean up for tours. Before lunch a bunch of us were over the side scrapping and sanding the green, after lunch we painted. Grant and Laura worked on the tiller rope, Jesse on the supports in the tank room and later the hinges on one of the gimbaled tables in the tweens and Mitch worked on dutchmen’s all day.

Fort walls surrounding the city.

Accordion player.

Church from the 1730's.

Bounty band, Dan, Mike, Barron and Jesse.

Pina Colada

It was a little cloudy and wet this morning but lots of work was still done. Mitch and I sanded the main lower mast, NP1-ed some of the checks and after lunch Mitch removed some rot. On the mizzenmast, Grant, Mike and Rich were ratting up and on the main everyone else was ratting up or servicing. Tenley and Chris got in late last night so they turned to after lunch.

After work we went to a bar where the pina colada was invented.

Day off

Had the day off and I was really glad of it, didn’t get to sleep in to much because I was on duty yesterday and slept in the hammock on the tweens. It was really noisy from the people and the street outside and the rain at 5 am. Jesse and I walked around a lot, went to the beach, discovered some run down allies and went to the fort, San Cristobel. There were a lot of little ice cream carts around, turned out to be more like sorbet, there was an orange colour flavor which ended up being something like passion fruit and guava. The coconut or coco wasn’t very coconut-y a little sweet nothing, but later we found a coconut soda that was about the same. It’s super hot here during the day but the night is beautiful, the perfect temperature, a great breeze and some music drifting from some nearby bar. Richard found the internet a block away from the boat at some little square, free local wifi.

The fort.

Soldier barracks.

Drawing in the dungeon.

Slush, NP1, long day

There were tours today so we didn’t work aloft all day, just the morning. I was going to NP1 some of the check is the foretopmast but Mitch had already slushed it so nothing would stick. I ended up filling the checks in the lower main and then back to the port fore stanchion. After lunch I helped Mike and Rich put some blocks back together, right before we were stood down we had to do some cleaning of the engine room for the coast guard inspection, went over but I’m on duty so it doesn’t really affect me.

Bounty band, Mitch, Nick, Dan, Mike, Rich, Barron and Jesse.

Dan, Mike, Rich, Jesse, Barron and Chris.

Laura dancing with a little girl.

Day aloft

Up and overs this morning were killer, up to the top and down, to the crosstrees and down to the royal and down. We had some kids come on around 9 so we worked quickly in the rig and came down, Rich and I put some bondo on the spot that Brooke had put in the Dutchman yesterday. While waiting for the kids to leave I caulked some of the checks in the port forward fife rail stanchion. After that it was back up to help Brooke put in the jackstay on the main topgallant, port side. First had to drill a pilot hole for an eye bolt, get the eye bolt in all snug, then slide in the stay, while sliding in the stay we attached fair leads. After lunch Mitch helped Brooke and I haul the topgallant sail up and later Jesse joined us to attach the sail. It was really frustrating, the boys were faster then us and had it one, we were almost there but realized that the sail was twisted so we had to undo a lot of stuff and Mitch dropped a shackle, but it landed in the mainsail that was in the processed of being bent on. At the end of today my feet hurt and my calves are sunburned.

Sunshine

So sore, too much sun and not enough water. This morning I was paired up with Brooke and we went to the main topgallant, I sanded at some epoxy while she bond-oed some stuff, she put in a Dutchman in the yard with some epoxy. At the same time Dan and Mitch put the main royal sail back up. Later Jesse and I cleaned and painted our cabin; it was the only one that hadn’t been done yet. In the afternoon I helped tie the fore course to the jackstay with Richard, Mike, Brooke and Grant, then we furled it. A really great day.

Back to the boat

The time has come for the sailor to return to the sea. After spending three months of visiting friends, family, relaxing and taking my BST I’m excited to return to the boat. The boat is currently docked in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico next to the cruise ships. Caleb and Rebecca helped bring the boat down from Maine and are still with her, along with two other people I haven’t met before, Michelle and Baron. Dan, Laura, Brooke, Grant, Mitch, Richard and Jesse are already here, Chris and Tenely will get here in a few days.

Getting back to the boat late at night made things look a lot different, but everything is still the same. The fore and mizzen are down to their topmast and there are no sails up, lots of work ahead of us.