This Blog is our mother's logs from her sails aboard Jofian. Our mother, Clare Holt, wrote a log every day and after her first sail to Mexico, she bought a laptop to write and save her logs. She sailed when the World Wide Web was first created, there was not as much on the Internet back then, no Wi-Fi, Internet access was very limited. I know if she were sailing today that she would be putting her logs in a Blog, so I am doing it for her. Mom’s logs to Alaska are on saillogsalaska.blogspot.com.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Thursday, April 27, 1995 - Boqueron, Puerto Rico
Roy fetched another ten gallons of water. He went to the Post Office and mailed the postcards he wrote last night. Then he gave the spreader another coat of paint.
Janie hasn't brought back the side curtain or picked up the rest of the work, and we haven't heard anything more from Ray about the trip. We tried to contact them on VHF, but no response. Then when I was paddling in to phone Noreen, Janie and Ray were just returning to their boat, so I stopped and talked with them. Janie apologized and said Ray had arthritis in his back and was flat on his back all day yesterday, and she had been taking care of him, but he's okay now, so she'll get the work done tomorrow. She said she'd probably come by the boat this evening to get the rest of the material. (She didn't.) They haven't found anyone else to go to the caves. I suggested she put out a general announcement on the VHF, and she said she would. (She didn't.)
I phoned Noreen at Statpower in Canada. She said she'd look for the inverter and for me to call her back in an hour. Then I phoned the cave park to see if they knew of a bus that went there. They gave me two phone numbers to call. I had told her we were in Boqueron, but the numbers turned out to be in San Juan! Great.
I stopped at the travel agency and found out we could rent a car at Mayaguez Mall for $41.95, including insurance, which isn't too bad, so if Ray doesn't come through, I'll go to Mayaguez Monday and make the arrangements. The park is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Went to the Post Office to mail an overweight letter and see if there was any mail for me. There was a letter from Marilyn, which was a pleasant surprise.
The sky was full of dark clouds, and when I left the Post Office, it started sprinkling. By the time I got to the grocery store, it was raining. Bought chicken, milk, and cookies. Walked to the tiny park where the public phones are and phoned Noreen in a downpour. The inverter hadn't arrived. She's going to try to trace it. I'll call her again tomorrow.
By the time I got back to the boat, I was a drowned rat, but the rain was warm, so it felt good. I had a free shampoo and shower and even got my clothes washed for free in nice soft rainwater. Roy had put the hose in the tank and collected over half a tank of water before the rain quit.
There was a lot of excitement on the VHF today. First, some boats at La Parguera, on the south coast about twenty miles from here, saw what appeared to be a sloop that had gone aground on a reef four or five miles from where they were. The mast was tilted about twenty degrees. One of them called the Coast Guard in San Juan and told them about it. The Coast Guard checked into it, but the people on the boat said they weren't in distress. Strange. If they were waiting for the tide to come in and float them off the reef, they were out of luck; there's almost no tide at all around here.
Later, we heard a guy on a 37-foot catamaran named "Psychic Flight" calling the Mayaguez Harbor Master. He'd hit some rocks in Mayaguez Harbor and was being pounded. He must not have been looking where he was going. There's a clearly marked channel going into Mayaguez, and it was daylight. Somehow, he got on the wrong side of a channel marker. The Harbor Master sent a boat out to pull him off the rocks, but for some reason it didn't tow him to shore, so an hour or two later, he radioed the Coast Guard, saying he had holes in both hulls and was sinking. He said he had 3 feet of water in one hull and 1 1/2 feet in the other. The Coast Guard put out an announcement, asking vessels in the area to assist if possible. A fishing boat towed him to the beach near the fishing dock. Later, a Coast Guard helicopter flew over and asked if he was all right. He said he was.
I put out an announcement to the boats in Boqueron Bay about the cave trip, but no one responded.
Around ten p.m., a police boat came by and told us to turn on our anchor light, so Roy did. They said we'd get a ticket if it weren't on tomorrow night. Few of the other boats here have anchor lights on, but most of them are huddled together in the anchorage, while we're out by ourselves on the fringe. Anyway, we'll turn it on at night from now on.
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