Just killing time in lovely PR

We’ve now been in Puerto Rico for over 2 weeks and we’ve travelled a whopping 70nm. It’s such a switch from the rest of our season where we were determined to get as far as possible as quickly as possible. This relaxed pace definitely has its benefits!

In my last post I said we were anchored at Gilligan’s Island – well it’s actually Guilligan. There was a ferry that took people over to the little islands but they no longer work and are stored on shore. We went for lunch on March 10 at this little beachside place and right in the parking lot was one of the old ferries with the name proudly displayed!! Our lunch spot was really cool – kind of rundown but the food was awesome. Mark and I had lunch with Sharron and John (Sundog) and we were joined by 2 Americans anchored near us. After lunch we took Sharron and John back to their boat and said our goodbyes. Sundog left in the morning (March 11) and we spent 2 more days in our anchorage before we also decided to leave.

It might seem funny to be killing time but that’s exactly what we’re doing now. We’ve booked a slip at the Marina de Salinas for a month starting March 22 so we have a home base when Evelyn and Caroline visit. It was cheaper to get a whole month than to pay by the day for the 5 or 6 days we need when Evelyn and Caroline are with us. We’re also exploring the south area to find good places to visit with the girls. So far we went to Ponce – to do some grocery shopping. We stopped there on March 13 and anchored near the Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club. Ponce is the second largest town in PR (San Juan is the largest) and it was very busy!! From Ponce we crossed over to Isla Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island). This island was a tourist attraction with a hike to a lighthouse, snorkeling, a museum and of course a few beaches. Puerto Rico had an earthquake several years ago and this island has not been maintained since that time. We only stayed one night because the wind direction changed and it became very rolly and bouncy.

On Friday March 14 we pulled up anchor and were headed for Puerto Patillas. Mark decided to try fishing and we had 3 hits on the line – 2 barracuda (unfortunately) and one that didn’t get hooked! We were about 6 – 7 nm away from our destination when the wind picked up to 20kts on the nose (this was not predicted)!! We decided to bail on our Patillas anchorage and instead headed to the islands near Salinas. As we made our u-turn, another fish grabbed our line and man did it hit big. The line went streaming out and Mark had to quickly go out on deck to grab the fishing rod. We were now going downwind in 20kts with no sails up and were still doing almost 4 kts of speed. I had to turn the boat perpendicular to the wind to slow us enough for Mark to reel in this fish (which I was hoping was not another barracuda). After a bit of struggle, this 11 lbs trevally came aboard. Mark subdued the fish while I got us back on course. We deployed our jib and sailed – no motor – for the first time since Feb. 27 when we crossed to the DR!! It was wonderful but short lived because we only had about 4nm to go to our anchorage for the night.

So here we are – anchored in a little bay near a power plant. It’s super peaceful and calm. We’ll be here for at least a day or so. We have a week before we go into the marina so no need to rush off!