Hasta la vista

As from today the Dawson's are officially en vacance!

We have Saturday to sort ourselves out (washing, getting house ready for the anticipated hurricane on Wednesday 3 August, getting in chicken feed etc) and then we are off to Puerto Rico first thing Sunday morning for some Spanish Tapas and shopping. The large mall, Plaza las Americas has absolutely everything from Gucci to Gap, Macy’s, Sear's, Pottery Barn, Sephora, Zara to keep everyone happy - along with hairdressers, opticians, camping shops and chef supply stores. If we have hurricane curfew in PR (as you can see in the current track below, it is forecasted to go directly through San Juan) we'll just need to make sure we get locked up in the Plaza rather than the hotel. That would truly be a disaster.

We are staying on the Condado, the South Beach of San Juan and have booked to go to Marmalade through Open Table, which has had rave reviews. We'll spend lots of time hanging around Old San Juan and just well, shops, really. Maybe a coffee bar or two. A museum. Kite flying at El Morro. Nothing too demanding (apart from some tennis elbow from swiping the old plastic).

Then we are back briefly on Tortola to pick up our boat and head off to explore the islands around us. The idea is to potter about from cove to cove, staying at little hotels - and some (an ongoing dialogue) camping but no serious sailing anticpated. Well this is the plan, anyway.  After 5 days of that we should feel windswept enough to feel we've had a good break.

Back on dry land again on the 9 August. Until then we'll be watching the tracker rather closely.