Still here in Puerto Rico

As is always the case, it’s much easier to write an interesting post when we are traveling then not. We’ve been at the dock for several weeks so there’s been little of interest to report.  Last Saturday (now actually a week ago Saturday) I began to compose this entry as Jeff prepared the boat to head out for another visit to the nearby islands.   At various times during our travels I thought I would get this uploaded but that never happened – sorry.  We arrived back at the marina this afternoon and finally have internet so here it is.  We will post the details of our recent travels soon.

With regard to weather, this year was predicted to be an active hurricane season but we have been very fortunate so far with little activity where we are. We did have tropical storm Chantel back in July that gave us a bit of concern but nothing else as yet. There was a rainy period a few weeks ago where we saw about 6 inches in 24 hours. By this point in hurricane season storms that do occur are not expected to impact the area of the Caribbean where we are. While we hope this remains the case, we know anything can happen and continue to check the NOAA Hurricane Center  twice daily just in case. We will remain in Puerto Rico at least until November 1, the date specified by our insurance carrier.

Jeff continues to remain quite busy with boat projects while I have spent many hours working on learning Spanish with Rosetta Stone. While we are under less pressure to speak Spanish here in Puerto Rico, we have made a concerted effort to improve our language skills. We are nearing the half way point in the program which I guess is a good thing since we are a long way from being proficient. We do find our efforts paying off as we understand more when attempting Spanish communication or are eavesdropping on conversations around us. Road signs can be important and were one of the first things we worked on. Driving here in Puerto Rico is challenging enough without the added complication of road signs. We have come so far with language since that first day back in May when we were clearing into the Dominican Republic – feeling a little proud of ourselves.

Jeff’s projects have included a variety of things, many of which he has written about in the “About Echo” section of the blog. One big project was the the sun tarp that he designed and sewed recently. Our being at the marina was quite helpful for for this as we were able to set up shop in an unused area of the yacht club. There is plenty of floor space to spread things out and tables for sewing along with electricity, just no air conditioning. We both had fond memories of working in the “sweat shop” at band camp making flags for Walled Lake Central High School Marching Band when Nate was a member. They were very good memories for which we will be forever thankful. It should be noted that while our view may have been better here in Puerto Rico, the amount of sweat produced per yard sewn was much greater than occurred in flag shop in Northern Michigan. The tarp has proven to be quite effective in reducing the cabin temperature and we expect to use it any time we are sitting in the same spot for a bit. Jeff has really progressed in his sewing skills too and is always on the lookout for more things he can create.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After leaving the marina we stopped off at an island nearby where there’s a large population of monkeys. Apparently there are almost 1000 monkeys in residence and are used for research purposes by a local university along with NIH. While you can’t go ashore we just stopped to see what we could see

 

 

We also saw some dolphins playing around just outside the harbor, haven’t seen dolphins for some time.  We watched them for a bit but they were too sly for us to get good pictures.  We often see turtles also but haven’t been lucky enough yet for pictures of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are heading to Michigan in a few weeks for our nephew Tim Dluzynski’s wedding October 26th. We are looking forward to the wedding and to catching up with friends and family while we’re there. In the mean time we plan to hang out around Culebra and Vieques for a bit.