On Thursday, August 16, Hurricane Dean had just slammed into Martinique and St. Lucia and was headed for the Caribbean Sea. It was predicted to follow a path well to the south of us, but it was growing in intensity, so we decided to play it safe and head for the hurricane hole about 5 miles away from Salinas in Bahia de Jobos. A satellite image of Dean as it passed south of Puerto Rico is pictured here, on Saturday, August 18. Puerto Rico is completely covered by the northern edge of Dean, which stretched for over 400 miles from its northern edge to the Venezuelan coast on its southern edge. We never saw winds over 40 knots, but it rained in sheets all day Saturday off and on. It was a good "dress rehearsal" for what to do.
Here is the boat as we are prepping it. The mainsail got lashed to the boom, and the boom was lashed to its crutch. We also double tied the jib in case the furling line came loose, and stowed the small staysail jib below decks.

Had more wind been predicted, we would have taken down all sails and put them below decks, as well as all canvas. We also would have taken off the wind generator (we did tie it down so it wouldn't rotate during the storm). We also took the motor off the dinghy and put the dinghy on deck and lashed it down. Had more wind been predicted we would have folded the dinghy up and brought it below (where would we have slept, I wonder, with all these things below?).
I think, in hindsight, the biggest safety measure we could have taken but didn't would have been to take down the jib; we heard many stories of loose jibs in storms. My secondary tie would probably not have held, and it was below the jib sheets.
We also put down two anchors, our primary Bruce 33 lb. with 5/16 inch all-chain and a 15 foot, 3/4 inch chafe-guarded snubbing line, and our secondary CQR 25 lb. on 30 feet of 5/16 inch chain and 1/2 inch nylon rode. We also took one line ashore and tied it to a sturdy mangrove, with garden hose chafe guarding the mangrove side and more chafe guard in the anchor chock. For a worse storm we would have used more lines ashore and picked a narrower section of mangrove creek.
Here are our neighbors in the mangrove section we secured ourselves in. Everyone was very friendly and we all helped each other out.

People who don't live aboard boats have often asked us what we do all day long. Maintaining the boat is usually a full-time job. Here's some of our more interesting jobs lately pictured here. Larry climbed the mast recently after we got carpet bombed by frigate birds at night. They were landing on the mast or spreaders and letting loose. It took most of the morning to clean up bird poop. So Larry went aloft and strung fishing line to prevent birds from having a perch to land on. So far it has worked.
Deb is getting ready to varnish (actually we use Cetol Marine Light) the exterior brightwork on the boat. Between the salt water and air, and the UV from the harsh tropical sunlight, wood work always needs a touch up to protect it.
We also have a sewing machine on board. Ours is a new Singer Scholastic machine; it can plow through 13 layers of denim, or several layers of sailcloth. Deb uses it to make curtains, patch canvas and sails, and mend clothes. Here she's making a mosquito door for the companion- way hatch, using stainless bolts for weighting the cloth.

While in Salinas, Deb joins a group of women three times a week to go swimming and snorkeling in a mangrove bay. This area, a short dinghy ride away, has clear water and a small coral reef, with schools of colorful reef fish and other marine life. Here are two squid just above the ocean floor.

It looks like we will be moving over to the hurricane hole about 5 miles away, in Bahia de Jobos, as the first tropical depression is heading our way. So far, every three or four days, a tropical wave goes over our location. This only amounts to a few showers, maybe a bit more wind, or even just more humid air. This depression will be growing into a tropical storm and probably a hurricane in the next few days. We hope it won't go over us directly, but we have a very protected bay to anchor in.

We rented a car on Thursday, July 26 to run errands and also to take another trip up to old San Juan and tour the fort (El Morro). The fort was built by the Spanish to secure their holdings in the Caribbean, starting from the late 1500s. It is a masterpiece in Spanish architecture - with walls fifteen feet thick, on a vantage point protecting all of San Juan's harbor. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour and walked around old San Juan some more. We had lunch at La Bombonera, a popular local spot in old San Juan with great food and service.

The old fort has one of the world's notorious slums right next to it, on the other side of this fifteen foot thick wall. The slum, which we viewed from the other side of the wall, is called La Perla (the pearl), and visitors are warned to stay away from it.
Here is Larry walking down a stairway in old San Juan - some of the streets are built on hillsides that rival San Francisco.