Puerto Rico…almost like home.

Puerto Rico is, of course, part of America and it feels almost like home. We have provisioned $500 worth of American steaks and other staples at a Sam’s Club getting ready for our trip down the windward and leeward islands. They have Home Depot, K-Mart, West Marine and many of the stores we are used to back on the mainland. Other than food though, we didn’t need too much. We have ordered some specialty replacement items and had them shipped to family members of one of Kim’s co-workers at her dental office who live here and we will be picking them up when we get to the East end of the island.

The south side of Puerto Rico is blessed with several protected anchorages that seem to be placed perfectly to allow us to move 2 to 4 hours from one protected spot to the next. The trade winds die almost completely overnight and then increase steadily in the morning and are in full force (about 20 knots) by noon. We find we can get underway at daybreak and be comfortably anchored in our next spot before the wind machine gets warmed up. This gives us most of the day to explore a new town or secluded spot with the kayaks or dingy.

We heard about a bay near La Parguera where the microscopic organisms give off a phosphorescent light as a defense mechanism when disturbed. Since we had a moonless night forecast, we headed out with the crews of Emily Grace, Bay Pelican and the circumnavigators on Whiskers in two dinghies in the pitch blackness on a two mile trek to the bay. The route was littered with shallow coral that could chew up the outboard motor props so Marty and I had made the trip in my dingy in the daylight and laid GPS breadcrumbs on his portable GPS unit to make the trip fool proof. We did see some sparks in the water when running our hands through the water, but we did not see the phenomenon in its full glory. The guide books are not always up to date but we all had a grand time without any problems.

We spent a night at Gilligan’s Island, took on cheap fuel in Ponce and enjoyed several days anchored in Selinas that had numerous restaurants, stores and a nearby town. We only had one brief view of the Manatees that live in this bay one day while kayaking along the mangroves, but it was good holding for the anchor and very calm in the evenings. The free internet in the harbor was “broken” so Tom biked to the nearby town library to check the internet for news, weather and the status of package shipments.

Our next stop (for Lunch) is planned to be Cayo Santiago on the east end of the island. 700 rhesus monkeys have the run of this small island and have been studied by the Caribbean Primate Research Center since 1939. We are not allowed to go to shore, but hope to see the monkeys who are known to scream and perform for boats anchored offshore.

We’ll see….

Tom