Alaskan family of five moves to Puerto Rico: December 2013

For the last several weeks we have been driving back and forth between Mayaguez and Farado. It takes about 3.5 hours each way. I still can’t figure out why it takes 3.5 hours to go 113 miles. Whatever right? It’s a beach life now anyway. Farado is located in the northeast corner of Puerto Rico. It has the largest marinas and tremendous selection of boat brokers. We went there with the intention to buy a sailboat. We need something big enough for our Alaskan family of five. These are some of the things we are looking for.

· Walk through transom

· Self-tailing winches

· Lazy Jack for main sail

· Roller furling Jib

· GPS/VHF/Autohelm

· Low hours on the engine

· Three berths

· Center cockpit helm

· Dingy with outboard

· New bottom paint

· New keel bolts

· Holding tanks

· and A/C

We are hoping to use the sailboat to explore the other Caribbean islands. We have looked at over twenty boats now and we still have not found that dream boat for our family of five. On Wednesday I received a call from a yacht broker in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. He claims to have the perfect boat for us. He said his boat has everything on our checklist plus more.

So on Friday we tried to fly over to Tortola, BVI. We actually thought for a moment we were back in Kodiak again. The weather was horrible. The airport had flash flood warnings, overbookings and mechanical issues. Our adventure to Tortola, B.V.I. did not work out for us this time. We ended up spending the next several hours fighting traffic in San Juan in super heavy rain. After about two hours of traffic and only moving ¼ mile. I decided to maneuver to the right lane and get off the highway. I took the first exit and ended up at the Bacardi Rum Distillery. Yep, you read my mind! Mojitos!!! I knew that this would be a GREAT spot for us until traffic died down. We of course did the tour and meet some wonderful people. After the last group of cruise ship tourists left we had the entire distillery to ourselves. We ordered a drink and sat back and said, “Gosh, this is so much better than sitting in traffic. Can it get any better than this?”

Then you would never guess what happened…..

One of the family owners of Bacardi walked up to us and asked us to stay for dinner. He said, he would be honored if we would stay for the VIP party for the European launch of the new Bacardi Oakheart Rum. Hmm, what would you say? We said, “Heck yes!!!” What did you think? We aren’t crazy.

In Puerto Rico It is amazing how a bad day can change in the blink of an eye if you go with the flow.

If you decide to visit Puerto Rico you have to remember one thing. It’s only as good as you let it be.