Passages: Week 20 April 28

Well week 19 finished off with us collapsing into our beds after Blue Moon became grounded on hard coral.

Sunday morning started with Blue Moon being towed away to the nearest boat yard - 15nm away in Puerto Real. It was a very sad sight to see and John and Linda were feeling really awful about the whole situation.

Our next “chore” was to check into Puerto Rico. We were flying our yellow quarantine flag and had 24 hours from our time of arrival to check in, so we thought – the first problem was it was Sunday.

Mel prepared to go to what we thought was the Customs and Immigration building where we had anchored off in Mayaguez Harbour. It had all the official signs, flags etc.

The second problem was there was no place for Mel to land the dingy so I had to take him to the beach, let him get off and then motor back to the boat to wait for him to radio me back to collect him.

The “usual” protocol is for the Captain to go ashore and sort out all the Customs and Immigration. It is illegal for the crew to step onto land before you have been given clearance. Of course the Americans have to be different!

Remember Puerto Rico is a US territory.

The following information is taken from DK eyewitness Travel Guide – Caribbean. “Puerto Rio is called Borinquen (Land of the Brave Lord) by the native Tainos. It is exceedingly mountainous inland, has dense forests covering most of the land. The sea is lined with coral reefs and lots of lovely beaches and cays. In the Northeast shore of Puerto Rico lies Vieques and Culebra – the Spanish Virgin Islands. The political and cultural capital, where 2/3 of Puertorriquenos live, is San Juan.

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a self-governing US territory – a controversial status dating back to 1898. Puerto Ricans were given US citizenship in 1917, prompting mass migration to the US mainland. Currently more people of Puerto Rican ancestry live in the US than on the island itself”

The official language is Spanish – many people can speak English, but I am grateful that Mel and I did a few Spanish lessons before we left Perth last year.

Back to our Sunday…..

Mel went to the official looking building only to find out from the security guide that it is closed on Sundays and to phone the official number which we had. Hard to believe Customs and Immigration don’t work on Sundays. We had , the official number because when we were unsure of the visa requirements to entre Puerto Rico, back when we were in George Town, Exumas, the Bahamas, we actually phoned the Puerto Rican Customs and Immigration and they told us to contact them once we arrived in PR.

Mel phoned and was “you know what from a dizzy height “for not contacting them as soon as we arrived. Mel explained that we had had an emergency but they were not interested and told us that we had to wait until Monday morning to clear Customs and Immigrations and to go to another part of Mayaguez. Great – we were stuck in an industrial harbour for the next 24 hours and were not able to go on land.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and catching up with chores. During the afternoon, the wind switched to a north wind – extremely unusual and we started dragging towards the shore so it was a quick scramble to start the engine and reset the anchor. Thank goodness for anchor watch.

We had a good night’s sleep and were up and ready for Mel to go to Customs and Immigrations by 7.30am.

While we were having breakfast a HUGE freighter came into dock. It was amazing to watch! There was NO wake and the way the tug boats manoeuvred this HUGE boat into place was fascinating.

Late Sunday afternoon another yacht anchored close by – they were waiting to check out of Puerto Rico as they were sailing north. They knew where to leave the dingy and where the Immigrations and Customs were so it made life a little easier for Mel.

I waited on the yacht for Mel to arrive back, ready to be given the all clear and to put the Puerto Rican courtesy flag up but….. Mel radioed me to say, they wanted to see me! Only in the USA. I was meant to have gone into Customs and Immigration with Mel.

Mel came all the way back to collect me and we went all the way back to Customs and Immigration.

While walking down the street to the Customs and Immigration building, we saw John and Linda (Blue Moon) drive by. They stopped and gave us a lift to Customs and Immigration as when they phoned to say that they had arrived in Puerto Rico, they were also “you know what from a dizzy height “! US citizens normally just need to phone in but because they needed some other official document which had recently expired, they had to go into the actual Customs and Immigrations Office. They tried to explain that they had had an emergency – like they were grounded and could check with the US Coast Guard, but they were not interested! Frustrating!!!!

L to R - John, Mel and Linda - we were looking for somewhere to eat in Puerto Real.

We were back on the boat, the anchor was up by 11.30am and we headed off to Puerto Real where Linda and John (Blue Moon) were anchored off waiting for their boat to be put on the hard stand and repaired.

Monday evening we went into the “town” of Puerto Real and had dinner with Linda and John.

Puerto Real is predominantly a fishing town and is better known as Cabo Rojo.

Tuesday morning, we had arranged to meet Linda and John at the marina. They had hired a car for a few days so we went off with them to see a few sights around Mayaguez, Puerto Real and Cabo Rojo – all in the SW corner of Puerto Rico.

We visited the Light house at Cabo Rojo – the Morrillos Lighthouse – the country side was full of contrast – from lush dense forest type vegetation to savannah type grasslands in a short distance.

It was interesting to see the Lighthouse, as we knew we would be passing this Light house in the not too distant future. (Mel and I were planning on passing this way within the week).

After the Light house we went to Saint German.

What a quaint and beautiful town with lovely cobbled streets and beautiful colour colonial type houses. The town was founded in 1573 and has many reminders of the wealth generated in the 19^th century coffee boom.

We walked the streets, stopping off at the Iglesia Porta Coeli which stands over Plaza Santo Domingo. Saint German had a lovely relaxing feel about it.

After stopping off for lunch in one of the many restaurants, we started making our way back to Puerto Real BUT not before stopping off at Walmart!! Remember Puerto Rico is American so it has ALL the US shops!

I felt like a country bumpkin going into a HUGE shop – it felt so good to be able to buy a few groceries and items that we were short on. Before leaving Puerto Rico we will be doing another HUGE shop and restocking the boat.

Wednesday morning Mel and I decided it was time to start the “hop skip and a jump” along the south coast of Puerto Rico. Our first stop would be Boqueron - it is where the locals from the Mayageuz flock to over the weekend.

Remember the prevailing winds are easterlies and we are heading east. The best time to sail is before the trade winds start blowing and that is usually before 9.00am. You can actually tell the time of the day by the winds, blow. It is usually very calm and light from 2 – 8.30am and then the wind start picking up.

We also knew from Bruce van Sandt’s book (week 18) that we could only do shortish sails (10 – 20nm) at a time.

A pub in Boqueron

We anchored at Boqueron mid-morning and then it was time to explore. Boqueron had many interesting looking restaurants and bars. There was a side street stall, where a man fabric painted a picture of your boat/yacht and put the name of the boat onto T-shirts. Mel and I had T-shirts done with a painting of Passages. I never thought Mel would want something like this but they do look good.

Thursday, we set off early, 5.30/6.00am, heading for La Parguera.

The Lighthouse from the Ocean

We rounded the Light house at Cabo Rojo – the Morrillos Lighthouse – the lighthouse we visited on Tuesday.

We thought we might be able to sail further to Guanica but as predicted the wind picked up at 8.30am so we kept to our original plan of anchoring and staying a night at La Parguera.

La Parguera

La Parguera is quite a lively place – there was music playing from one of the restaurants until way after 2.00am. While we were walking around La Parguera, we bumped into a couple we met in Nassau in February – Richard and Louise – on the boat Plum – they are French Canadian. It was good to hear their stories of their journey down to Puerto Rico.

Friday morning – once again at 5.30/6.00am we were on our way to Guanica and once again the wind started howling at 8.30am as we anchored at Guanica.

Guanica was once a thriving harbour when the coffee and sugar cane industry were booming. Now it has remnants of all the harbour and dilapidated buildings. We had a lazy day on the boat catching up with the never ending chores on a yacht.

Saturday we knew the wind would be up all day so we decided to sail 2nm further up the coast to a lovely sheltered anchorage off Gilligan’s Island.

We spent most of the morning siting in the cool waters off the Island along with the many families. Gilligan’s Island is a nature reserve and consists mainly of mangroves. It was very shallow around the northern part of the island so people would put their deck chairs in the water and enjoy spending time surrounded by family and friends.

During the afternoon, we dingied around to the Copamarina Beach resort where we enjoyed a drink – Mel had his usual Pina Colada and Puerto Rican French fries – very thin slices of potato dripping of oil. They looked better than they tasted.

Saturday evening we were in bed early as we wanted to make a very early start (3.00am) to Ponce.

So that was the week that was….. more places to visit during Week 21 as we make our way east.

Sending lots of love

Captain Salty Sailor Mel – the Sailing Nut and Admiral Caryn/xx