Puerto Rico

Our expected weather window, fell a little short of the predicted north winds. We expected a shift in winds during our first night out. They didn’t shift. But they were very light and variable and the seas were very calm, to the point of having a glassy surface at times. We are fortunate to have a reliable motor as it ran for 3 days, nonstop. Except for listening to the motor (which I’ll take any day over beating into the wind and waves), our trip went by uneventfully. Uneventful is always a bonus on a crossing or anytime for that matter. We put our trolling lines out during the day and reeled in a small skipjack tuna and our second dorado that measured 37”.

At 1:00pm of our 3^rd day we dropped anchor in the bay at Boqueron, Puerto Rico. Arriving in a new country the first stop is always customs to check in, technically your vessel is only supposed to anchor at a check in port, that would have been Mayaguez. We had heard however that here it was possible to get a cab that would drive you to customs and back and skip the not as pleasant harbor of Mayaguez. We had a little trouble reaching Raul, (the cab driver) on the VHF and for the first time since we left the states started missing having a cell phone. We did finally reach him, and very efficiently got checked in at customs and dropped back in town. Boqueron is known as a local college party town, being the wrong season and not a weekend the town was mostly empty, many places not even opening till evening if at all. I hear in peak season you can barely walk down the street for all the people. We made our way to Galloway’s, recommended as the best restaurant in town. Not only did they have good food and quiet relaxed dining on the water, but also a bustling friendly pub. The owner’s son, Eric, happened to be in town for the St Patrick’s Day festivities and we had an enjoyable time meeting him and his girlfriend.

After St Patrick’s Day, we headed around the corner to La Parquera and had our first encounter of the trade winds. As soon as we rounded the point to the east coast, the winds hit us head on, the seas picked up and we beat into wind and waves for the couple of hours to our destination. At least it wasn’t far. After this day we would learn to leave before dawn to arrive at our destination around 7am, this would allow us to take advantage of the night time lee as the winds coming down off the land would reduce the trade winds, making for a slightly more comfortable trip. It was still rough. La Parquera is a quaint little town, that comes alive after dark on weekends. We were serenaded to a variety of music late into the evening.

And moving on, before dawn, we headed over to Cayos Caña Gorda, locally known as Gilligan’s Island. The island acquired it’s name as someone decided it looked a lot like the set of Gilligan’s Island. Upon visiting the island most of the similarities were lost on me, there was a nice shallow lagoon though. We had heard that it was often crowded on weekend’s as a ferry from the mainland would bring locals over for the afternoon, we went on a Monday not realizing it was a holiday. The place was packed. A large portion of the small island is all mangroves and inaccessible. Near the lagoon is a sandy beach and picnic area. People were everywhere, packed in like sardines, so we went back to the boat. Tuesday had no ferry’s running so we headed back to the island; it was barely recognizable without a single person in sight. Two small rivers flowed through the mangroves and opened into the lagoon; empty of people it was quiet and relaxing just setting in the calm water.

Onto Ponce. Ponce was not particularly special, although the historic downtown is supposed to be nice, we didn’t make it there. We did however rent a car for a day and do some shopping. Wal-Mart, Kmart, groceries and Pizza Hut. It was great to be able to pick up the little things on our shopping list that we had been unable to find for a while, but were easy to locate in Kmart. The following day before returning the car we decided to drive up into the mountains to see the Radio Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory. With what sounded like easy directions, we were glad to have a gps as the roads were a bit hard to follow, winding and curving up through the mountains. The scenery was beautiful, thick tropical foliage everywhere, and steep mountains. We just had enough time at the observatory for a brief look and a few pictures before heading back down the mountain to return the car.

After Ponce all of our other plans fell apart with a break in the trade winds. We ended up with one quick stop overnight and then headed straight to Vieques and the Spanish Virgin Islands. One of Vieques main attractions are the bioluminescent bays. They are said to be a spectacular sight, however to enjoy the underwater light show a dark sky is necessary, since we were here during a full moon and didn’t want to wait a week or more for a bit of dark sky we skipped by this experience. We also found that a couple of the nicer bays on the eastern end of the island were closed to anchoring during the week due to the military performing artillery cleanup form when the US Navy used this as a practice firing area up until 2003. Of course we were here early in the week, oh well, with still having some settled winds we popped up north to Culebra.

Having skipped a large section of Puerto Rico to take advantage of calm winds to get here we decided to take a ferry, costing $2.50 one way back to the mainland. There we rented a car with our friends on Spirare, and drove into Old San Juan for a day. Along the way we stopped at a West Marine and picked up a few much wanted boat items. In Old San Juan we toured the Castillo de San Felipe del Morro. A fort built in 1953 under orders of the King of Spain to defend San Juan from naval attacks. It was a good trip and a long day, having arrived at the ferry dock at 6:00am and not arriving back at the boat until 11:00pm.

Our overall view of Puerto Rico was a very pleasant one. We enjoyed the small towns along the coast, found the people very friendly, and equally enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the coast and mountains. Traveling east along the southern shore in a sailboat…. Not fun at all, every mile was hard won. The water was not very clear at all and snorkeling was a disappointment, but there were some pretty beaches. As for the food: We usually enjoy trying local fare and are drawn to local restaurants, however it did not take long to discover Puerto Rican food = pork. I think they have managed to find a way to put it in everything. Since pork, chicken and beef are not a part of our dietary menu, we quickly shied away from anything advertising “local”. Pizza Hut was a welcome change.