Today was a day of adventures, not all of them good.
The day started well. Elaine met Kiki and together they went to Aguada to rescue the horse, which they named Sprocket.
He's a sweet little guy, well mannered, good temperament. At least prior to the hurricane, somebody took pretty good care of him. When Elaine and Kiki got him he was dehydrated and malnourished but not seriously. We (I say "we" like I'm going to have something to do with it) should be able to get him healthy fairly quickly.
After they loaded Sprocket in the trailer, Kiki headed back to Isabela and Elaine headed to Rincon to teach riding. At some point she realized she left a camera back in Aguada after loading Sprocket so she ran back to look for it.
The car stopped. Quit. Dead. She called me. Fortunately I was in the only place on the planet I get phone signal. I was able to call our favorite tow-truck mechanic (it tells you something about our lives that we have a favorite tow-truck mechanic). He said he would go get her.
But - he got delayed and Elaine sat by the side of the road for nearly four hours. One of her students and her mother stopped to make sure Elaine was okay. She also said she'd try to find the camera.
Sitting by the side of the road, Elaine had cell signal so she called several people, including our daughter Amy. Among other things Amy told her that two good friends - our former kite teammates - were in a horrible car accident. Bob was killed and his wife Karen is in critical condition.
Rafy-the-tow-truck-mechanic finally got to Elaine and got her home. But it was a very difficult, very emotional day.
(By the way, the car really is dead = blown head gasket. If we want to fix it, a car worth about $500 needs close to $1500 in repairs. Um-m, probably not.)
Meanwhile, Marie and I had our own much better adventures. After we fed the horses, Marie needed to go to the main Aguadilla post office but didn't know where it was or how to get there. So I took her roaming back roads to get there.
Since Crashboat Beach was (sort of) on the way home and none of us had seen it, we decided to have a look. Off on more back road rambles and OH. MY. GODDESS!
It's not that I didn't believe the people who told us about the damage to Crashboat, but it's one of those things that until you see it, until you experience it yourself, you can't really comprehend it.
All three of the remaining mooring platforms collapse. Half of the long pier broke off and is gone.
Before Maria:
More than 100 feet of the beach has either been washed out to sea or been pushed up on to what use to be the parking lot. All the palm trees are gone. The ocean comes almost to the where the boardwalk used to be at the edge of the parking lot. The boardwalk is gone.
So much beach washed away that the ocean laps at the little bar in front of the fish market.
I hope the fishermen got their yolas moved before the hurricane. There is no beach left where they used to "park" the boats. Before Maria:
I've seen a few photos from other divers of the wreckage under water. It is totally unreal. I really want to dive Crashboat, again to see it for myself. Marie and I talked about it but the visibility has been bad.
One bit of humor and beauty among all the wreckage: Someone collected signs and other useful debris and made a tiki hut.
For now the Crashboat we've known is no more. The area around the piers will be a great dive site - in a couple of years. As for what happens to the rest of Crashboat, like so many things, we'll just have to wait and see.
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