Author: crimsonkathyrnandcrew

It’s always nice to have some dock time but it’s just as nice to get off the dock. We took a few days for Evelyn to relax and get into vacation mode before we left the dock. On Wednesday morning (April 9), the three of us threw off our docklines and backed out of the slip. We headed back to the Power Plant lagoon which is about 5nm east of Salinas. It was a lovely day and we had no idea how windy it was until we got into the main channel leading to the anchorage. The wind piped up to over 20 knots on the nose (of course) which made our short journey a little slower. We were anchored before lunch so we went for a dinghy ride through the mangroves.

The best part of being at anchor is that you can swim off the boat. We all went for a dip after lunch on Wednesday. The water was beautifully warm and we splashed around for a while. The stern of the boat had a bit of growth at the waterline (from being stationary for 2 weeks) so Evelyn took a scrapper and cleaned it off for us!! After our swim, we relaxed in the cockpit staying out of the sun as much as possible. We had a lovely dinner at anchor and even sat out on the bow that night to look at the stars and the moon.

On Thursday (April 10) we decided to do another dinghy ride – this time we travelled a little bit south to these islands on the opposite side of the channel. The water around the islands was quite deep and there were little channels that we could scoot through to get to the ocean. It’s very shallow just south of these islands so the waves were breaking. We found a really nice sheltered spot with a tiny beach (one of the few sandy spots in this area). We had a great swim in this spot. After our swim, we headed back to the boat for lunch. We had another relaxing afternoon and a yummy pork tenderloin dinner.

This morning (April 11) we pulled up anchor and headed back to the marina. As usual, the wind started to pick up just as we were getting ready to go into our slip. We called the marina twice to get help with our lines but unfortunately no one came so we did it ourselves! Evelyn jumped off the bow and took care of the 2 bow lines while I tried to get the stern lines around the dock posts. It was very challenging with the wind blowing us around but we managed to get secured back in our little spot. Now we have a bit of cleaning up to do and also some more relaxing before we head to the airport on Sunday to pick up Caroline!

This was a full week of getting lots of work completed on the boat. Mark spent 3 full days working on the aft cabin air conditioning and it’s now finished and working well. I got the V-berth emptied, washed and then set-up for Evelyn’s arrival. We did a good grocery trip with our boat neighbour Michelle (she was kind enough to invite us along on her shopping trip) and even had a lovely happy hour with Michelle and Len on Wednesday night (April 2) before Michelle flew home to Long Island and Len (plus 2 crew) left the dock aboard his 53ft Amel ketch.

We rented a car for 2 days starting Saturday (April 6th) so we could pick Evelyn up at the airport on Sunday. It was great to have wheels! We did laundry and another grocery shopping before lunch and then went for an amazing drive into the mountains in the afternoon. The roads were crazy with some really sharp hairpin turns. They were also quite narrow in spots as we made our way up to the communities at the top. On the way back down, we had some impressive views of the valleys in the area. Everything was very green and lush!!

On Sunday we left around 9am so we could do a bit of shopping in San Juan before Evelyn’s flight arrived. We went to West Marina for some hose clamps and then to Walmart for a few other items. We met up with Sharron and John (Sundog) and had lunch with them. They were also picking up a friend at the airport! We had a short drive from the shopping area to the airport. We had one missed turn (road signage here is terrible!!) but found the parking lot and headed for the terminal. Okay road signage was bad but the airport signage was even worse!! We couldn’t figure out how to get to terminal A arrivals and finally asked for directions! We got inside the terminal just as Evelyn came into the hall!! Perfect timing! We had a great drive back to the marina and our first night was very relaxing.

Today (April 7) we were up fairly early and went for a walk around the neighborhood. Evelyn and I went for a swim at the pool and then headed back to the boat for lunch. We’d just finished lunch when Evelyn realized she’d left her Fitbit at the pool. She quickly went back to look for it but it was gone. I told Evelyn to check at the office and sure enough someone had handed it in!! Evelyn has now put herself on a time ban – no more wearing her Fitbit!!

Time moves quite slowly at the dock. Each day is pretty much like the last – early morning with a great cup of coffee, go for a walk before it gets too hot, and then get some work done for a few hours. I hate to say this but it’s been very hot here and we’re not facing into the wind (which is usually the case when you’re at a dock), so each day around 2pm, we close up the boat and turn on the air-conditioning!! I’m so happy we have the main cabin unit working well because we’ve sure needed it. We usually spend the late afternoon relaxing in the main cabin while we chill in the cool air!!

Work is getting done. I did the semco treatment on the exterior teak so it’s all ready for storage. Floors have been washed and both heads have been cleaned. Mark is working on the aft cabin air conditioning unit installation and it’s over halfway complete. It’s a good thing that we haven’t needed any cooling in the aft cabin. It cools off nicely once the sun has gone down so we haven’t needed it.

Our daily walks (well most days) have taken us all around the marina’s neighbourhood. We’ve discovered that this area has a lot of tourist rental places which kind of explains all the restaurants! Some of the rentals are just trailers on large lots with impressive gates and fences all around them. Puerto Ricans seem to love gates and fences!! Even the smallest places have fairly elaborate fencing. Many of the houses are painted with bright colours and often have 2 floors with a nice balcony.

We’ve spent a bit of time buying flights back to Florida and organizing car rentals for the next month. Only 5 more days before Evelyn arrives and then a week later Caroline flies in!! One month from today (on May 1), the boat will be hauled out and put into the storage yard at Puerto Marina Del Rey. We’ll be busy for the next month and having lots of fun with the girls! Can’t wait.

We had a fabulous downwind sail on March 21st as we moved from Puerto Patillas back to our little anchorage spot near the power plant (and about 4nm away from Marina de Salinas). We hoisted the main sail (which we haven’t seen since the Bahamas) and then got our spinnaker out for the first time this season. There was just enough wind to keep the spinnaker full and to move us along at a decent speed. It was a lovely morning and we arrived at our anchorage before lunch.

In the morning (March 22), we motored the 4nm to the marina. Salinas is a very popular destination for cruisers and the bay is full of permanent and temporary boats. It was a bit challenging to find the path through all the anchored boats but luckily a catamaran went in just before us so we followed it in! The marina was also quite confusing and of course they never answer the radio when you hail them. Mark ended up phoning them to get a slip assignment while I circled the boat in front of the marina. Once we found our slip, we had loads of help getting into it. The wind had picked up a lot (first windy day we’ve had since arriving in PR) and it was pushing us into the slip. The 2 marinas we’ve been to in PR have these fairly narrow slips with very short finger docks. We have to go bow in (because we can’t get off the stern of our boat) so it is a bit of a challenge to get on and off!! The owners of sailboat right next to ours helped us get secured and also gave us a ride up to the grocery store that afternoon. They were super helpful and gave us lots of advice about restaurants and shopping in the area.

The marina is quite nice and very busy. It has an event space that was rented out on March 22 for a wedding. We had dinner that night at the little bar on-site and watched the wedding reception get underway. There is also another restaurant onsite and a little pool. We explored the area on Sunday – walking along the streets near the marina. We found lots of restaurants and a little bakery! It was great to just walk around a bit without having to dinghy ashore first! I have to keep reminding myself that we can just get off the boat whenever we please – don’t have to untie and lower the dinghy and put out the boarding ladder. It’s such a treat and we’re slowly finding our land-legs again!

Our plan for the next 2 weeks is to clean up to v-berth and to get a few jobs done. So far we’ve not done much. The wind has really piped up and my deck work (washing the deck) has been delayed a bit. Mark and I have both been on the mend – my back is acting up and Mark’s just not feeling himself. Today (March 25th) we’re both feeling much better and hopefully when the wind dies down tomorrow, we can start our dock jobs!

8 years ago when we first sailed to the Bahamas, I had this vision of what a Caribbean beach would look like – sandy shore edged by palm trees!! Well that’s not exactly what I found! The Bahamas have beautiful white sandy beaches but the palm trees, if there are any, are about 3 feet tall and scrawny! Today (March 20) we walked on a long beach with so many palm trees – it was crazy!! Nice way to spend our last day at Puerto Patillas.

We arrived at Puerto Patillas on Sunday, March 16 after an easy 16 nm motor. The anchorage was pretty full with about 10 boats anchored close to the town. This area is very picturesque and the bay is fairly well protected from most wind (although we haven’t had much wind in the last couple of weeks). We did some exploring of the area – dinghied over to the reef on Monday and saw a manatee’s nose pop out of the water. We walked the main road of the town on Tuesday. It’s a small town with lots of restaurants but not much else. We did manage to find a little variety store and bought some milk! We went back to town on Wednesday and had lunch out! I’ve discovered this dish called mofongo – basically mashed plantain that’s shaped into a bowl and stuffed with veggies and meat (I like chicken). I first saw it in the DR and tried my first mofongo in Puerto Real. Mark and I both had mofongo for lunch yesterday and it was very good!!

Today was our beach explore day. We watched these 2 men bring in a fishing net onto the beach. They’d managed to catch a few small fish in the net. We also saw lots of crabs on the beach!! Scared quite a few of them back into their holes and into the water. It was great to walk along the beach and it’s the first good beach we’ve found in Peurto Rico. It was a nice way to end our visit to this area!! Tomorrow (March 21) we’ll be sailing (hopefully – good east wind is predicted) back to Salinas. We will be going into the Marina de Salinas on Saturday where we’ll get some work done before Evelyn arrives on April 6. We’re hoping to get some of our storage jobs done during the next 2 weeks.

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!

One of the best parts of cruising is meeting new people and the next best thing is exploring new places with those people!! After a wonderful happy hour (Friday, March 7) aboard Desert Loon (Greta and Brian), we all hopped in our dinghies to explore the Phosphorescent Bay. We were 4 dinghies – us, Greta and Brian (Desert Loon), Matt and Jonathan (Next Chapter), and Sharron and John (Sundog). This bay is special because it is full of bioluminescence (shows up as solid blue light) that reacts to movement. As we dinghied around the little bay in the dark, blue jets streamed from our motor prop wash. Sharron, Matt and Jonathan all went for a swim and made blue light trails – it was super cool!!

On Saturday (March 8), Mark and I decided to go explore the town of La Parguera. We sent out an invite to the 3 other boats and were joined by Matt, Sharron and John. Matt has a large dinghy (with a 25hp motor!!) so we all headed in together in his dinghy. The town was super interesting and really nice. There was a sidewalk art show going on and most of the waterfront area was closed to traffic. We walked around the downtown, did a little bit of grocery shopping and then headed back to the dinghy. We decided to have lunch at a restaurant close to our anchorage and Greta and Brian picked up Jonathan so we were 8 for lunch. We had good food and great conversation and finally headed back to our boats around 2pm. Our anchorage was super busy with loads of small power boats taking people to Cayo Caracoles (which is a very popular weekend spot). Music played and boats zoomed past at high speeds. It was a long afternoon but everyone finally went home for dinner!

It’s now Sunday March 9th and our merry group of 4 boats has finally reached the end of our travel time together. Next Chapter pulled up anchor early – around 7 am. They are headed all the way to Trinidad this season to haul out. Desert Loon left the anchorage just before us at 8:30am. They are headed to Grenada to haulout this season. We have moved a grand total of 12nm today. We’re now anchored in a very peaceful spot with a fun name – Gilligan’s Island!! Sundog has joined us here so we still have their company for a few more days. Sundog is planning to go the BVIs and then they will store their boat at the same yard as us (Marina Puerto Del Rey).

We now have the luxury of moving along the south coast of Puerto Rico at a super slow pace. It’s such a welcome change from what we have been doing as we made our way here. We left Puerto Real on Wednesday March 5 and motored a grand total of 5 nm to Boqueron. We’d read that this town was a must see for the west coast so off we went. We left Next Chapter, Desert Loon and the newly arrived Sundog after a great happy hour aboard our boat on Tuesday night.

As we made our way into the Boqueron anchorage on Wednesday afternoon, we noticed another ketch! As we passed by it, the owners yelled to Mark (who was on the bow getting ready to anchor) “is that a Whitby?” Sure enough the other ketch in the anchorage was a Whitby too!! First thing Thursday morning we dinghied over to the other Whitby and had a nice chat with the owners. Their boat was slightly older then ours and not in the best of shape. They commented on how nice Crimson Kathryn looked (which made us feel pretty good). After our chat we went ashore to explore the town of Boqueron. I can see why it is a place to visit – very quaint with lots of tourist spots. We walking around the downtown area and found the restaurants and bars all closed up (it was too early for them). The downtown was very small and really only had 2 interesting streets. We crossed over a little lift bridge to the beach and walked along there for a bit. By mid morning, we’d seen just about everything and we’d heard from Next Chapter and Sundog. Both boats were heading to La Parguera on the south shore so we decided to pull up anchor and follow them.

We were anchored in a very cool spot just west of La Parguera by about 2pm and had a really nice swim. Next Chapter anchored beside us late that Thursday afternoon and it was a super quiet evening. Today (March 7th) we went for a dinghy ride with Matt and Jonathan (Next Chapter) to explore the mangroves and Isla Guayacan. This island is a wildlife refuge. The mangrove rivers were very interesting and we saw lot of little jellyfish and fish. We were looking for monkeys (they’re supposed to live on this island) but we didn’t see any.

We’ve now moved slightly farther east and have anchored with Sundog at Cayo Caracoles. Next Chapter has joined us here and even Desert Loon has made it from Puerto Real. Looks like another happy hour tonight!!

Puerto Real has proved to be an excellent safe harbour and a great first anchorage to explore the west side of PR. We’ve had some time to relax and recover from all the moving we’ve done this season. Now it’s time to explore!

We are anchored close to the Marina so have access to the dinghy dock and other marina facilities (including laundry!). Our first day here (Feb. 28) we came ashore and walked to the grocery store. It was great to be on land again and to go for a good walk. The grocery store was fairly small with a limited selection of produce but we were able to get enough for a few days and to pick up some snacks for our first happy hour here. Part of the reason we came to Puerto Real was that Matt and Jonathan (Next Chapter) were anchored here. We met them at Ocean World so it was great to join them aboard their catamaran and get caught up. Greta and Brian (Desert Loon) also came to this happy hour!!

On March 1st we decided to walk the other side of town (it’s not very big!). The main road through town is very narrow and the cars park on the sidewalk (I use that term loosely) so it can be a bit dangerous to walk around. We did find a little bakery and picked up some PR desserts that were very yummy. It’s been really hot and humid here so our walk was fairly short. That night Mark and I organized dinner out at the marina restaurant. There were eight of us at dinner – Desert Loon, Next Chapter and EOS. We met EOS (Mattie, Brendan and Mattie’s father whom we haven’t met because he’s been sick with the stomach bug) at the park in DR. It was a fun night with great food, drink and conversation.

We’ve booked a car for March 4th so we can drive up to Mayaguez (a bigger town north of here) so we can do some better shopping there. I think Matt is coming with us. Our other friends on Sundog (Sharron and John) are crossing to PR as I write this so I’m sure there will be another happy hour in the near future. I think Next Chapter and Desert Loon will be leaving on Wednesday – both boats are heading to Grenada so they still have some distance to go.

Here are some of the amazing sights of this beautiful national park on the northeast side of the Dominican Republic.