fetchinketch

Today we decided to leave the Ponce Club Nautico and go anchor out. We completed all of our shopping and resupply efforts, returned our rental car, and needed to get away from the crowds coming to the marina for the fishing tournament this weekend. The staff at the club has been delightful, and helped a lot with orienting us to the local area.

We are now anchored off of Isla Caja de Muertos, or Coffin Island. A much prettier location than its name might indicate. The only downside out here is we have a very tenuous internet connection, so our postings will be by satphone, which means without pictures.

Getting out of the harbor gets us a huge benefit: cool breezes! On land it is hot and humid. Out here, only 10 miles away, it is delightfully cool and comfortable. It’s interesting, as we move from place to place we find we are always glad to arrive, and always just as happy to move on. I guess that means we are moving at a comfortable and happy pace!

We’ll be here for a few days, we have one more errand to run in Ponce early next week. Tomorrow I have some projects to do on the boat in the morning, then we’ll be taking the dinghy off to explore the island.

Yesterday we took the chance to explore the island by car.  The highlight of our short trip was a visit to the El Yunque National Forest–the only tropical rainforest run by the US Forest Service.  We were lucky to be there on a day when the wind was blowing mostly from the south, the opposite from the normal trade winds, so even at the higher elevations it was not raining.  Even though it wasn’t actively raining, it was not in any way “dry”!  The area we chose to explore on foot was a palm forest.  It was quite noisy as the huge palm fronds thrashed each other overhead in even the slightest breeze.

Everything was green, if it wasn’t green it was a flower.  Karen would pick out the orchids hanging from the various trees. Unfortunately none were in bloom. Every where you heard the constant call of the coqui, the tiny tree frog with the onomatopoeic name that is native to the island.  Like many rain forests, precipitation levels and temperatures vary greatly with elevation, and exposure direction so that each hill has its own individual eco system.

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The host of the blog system we use supplies a number of metrics that are probably very important to someone doing this as a financial venture, but only of casual interest to us.  Still, it is interesting to see where people are who have read our postings here.  Here is a list of countries from which people have come to our humble blog in the last 30 days:

• United States
• Australia
• Germany
• Sweden
• France
• New Zealand
• United Kingdom
• Canada
• United Arab Emirates
• Austria
• Greece
• Switzerland
• Portugal
• St. Lucia
• Netherlands
• Italy
• Sint Maarten
• Thailand
• Saudi Arabia
• Ireland
• Spain
• Chile
• Martinique
• British Virgin Islands
• Montenegro
• South Africa

In many cases the connections are from other Amel owners who are interested in some of the details about boat projects we have posted, others are from Karen’s worldwide network of orchid friends, others are from friends and acquaintances we have made along the way, oh, and not to forget family!

(Karen says: “Hi Lynn!, Hi Dale!”)

We have now finished our excursion to Florida, and completed successfully everything on our list–with a few bonus items.

We successfully transferred our official residence to Florida, and got our Florida drivers licenses to prove it.  We completed the paperwork for our new mailing address.  We got our doctor appointments complete, and our shopping done.

We got lucky when a rocket launch was rescheduled for the very weekend we were going to be driving up the coast of Florida.  So we arranged a stop in the Cape Canaveral area to see if we could get a closeup view of a Delta IV launch of a military communications satellite.

We spend much of the day at the Kennedy Space Center.  It was very much a mixed bag.  Lots of very interesting stuff to see, and a lot of Disney-like golly-gee-wizz. Unlike a lot of museums and other similar attractions, there was a layer of the information presentation that was actually geared to the educated adult.

We stayed to watch the launch, originally scheduled at twilight, a delay pushed it back to a full darkness.  I learned that photographing a nighttime launch of a large rocket is VERY hard…

The Delta IV is one of the largest rockets currently in use, but it is just a fraction of the size of the Space Launch System that NASA is developing for deep space exploration. Launches of those rockets (beginning next year) should be truly awesome events–literally earthshaking.

Now we are back on Harmonie getting things put back together and stowed.  Some provisioning, and exploring of Puerto Rico and we will be ready to move on again.

We had an uneventful flight back to the Miami area yesterday.  In three hours we covered as much ocean as took us two months by harbor hoping on Harmonie.

While here we are going to handle some doctor checkups, shopping for things that are either hard to find or expensive in the islands, and manage the logistics of getting our official Florida address and drivers licenses.

This is the first time since we bought the boat that we will have left her unattended.  It’s odd that should be stressful, after all most boats spend almost all their lives at the dock with nobody aboard, but somehow it still, just doesn’t seem right to leave her alone!

We arrived yesterday at the Ponce Fishing and Yacht Club where they have dock space available for us while we travel back to Florida to do some logistics.

The fishing and yacht club is an interesting place.  Almost all the boats based here are large sportfisherman, big game fishing is obviously the entertainment of choice.  In two weeks they will be hosting their big event of the year, a fishing tournament targeting marlin and mahi-mahi.  Lots of activity around prepping the grounds and the boats.

Amazingly, in this out of the way harbor where there are a total of maybe two dozen sailboats, including us, yesterday three Amel’s arrived.  Us, plus a newer model out of France, the other an older model out of the USA. While these are popular boats, there aren’t THAT many of them around.  Karen’s theory is probably a good one, that Amels tend to be used for long range cruising in higher percentage than other brands of boats.  They just spend less time sitting at the dock!

We have been anchored off the town of La Parguera for a while now.  The town is small and compact, without a lot of services, but does have a small grocery and some restaurants.  Some times when you are cruising you are active and exploring, other times you are lazy and relaxed.  Recently, we have been lazy and relaxed, hence the lack of dramatic reporting here!

Today we moved the boat a few miles east away from town, and away from the music of the bars at night.  It is now SOOOO quiet.

We have not been totally unproductive, rather we have been trying to setup some logistics unique to the lifestyle we lead. What to do about mail?  And when someone “official” asks “Where do you live?” How are we supposed to answer?

We have not had a single simple answer to those things, but that is about to change.  We are about to be come official residents of the great state of Florida.  Why Florida?  First there is a commercial service near St Augustine that that is set up specifically to help people like us with mail and other such needs.  Florida also has no state income tax, compared to California that is a very good thing.  To implement this, we need to travel to Florida, so we are going to put the boat in a marina, and fly back to handle those mundane details like drivers licenses and such.

So over the next few days we will be working our way another 20 miles further east to get to the Ponce Fishing and Yacht Club where we have reservations for a slip for the boat while we travel.

The town of La Parguera at sunset.

Typical afternoon weather, scattered showers moving past the mangrove cays.

Since leaving Mayaguéz, we spent a couple of days at Boquerón, and now we are settled in at the town of La Payguera on the south coast of Puerto Rico.

Boquerón is nestled at the end of a large bay, a very pretty town.  The waterfront was undergoing the finishing touches to a major facelift to make it more attractive to tourists.  Almost all of the tourists here are locals visiting from other parts of the island.  The town is totally dead during the week, but on the weekends it becomes party central.  It seems every college age person on this half of the island is here.  The music is loud.  And not just loud.  All afternoon the beach featured karaoke–very very loud, and very very bad.  (Is there ever GOOD karaoke??) The local favorite is the old Sinatra standard, “My Way.”  We must have been tortured by at least 6 different renditions of that song, and each of them I am sure set Old Blue Eyes spinning in his grave…

We explored a bit on foot, and Kevan had a local friend who was good enough to drive us around and give us a local’s eye view.

We weighed anchor and sailed south, then east, toward La Parguera.  Another tourist town, but with less of a party-hardy reputation. After arriving here, Kevan felt that he needed to head back to the mainland to take care of some family business.  We were sorry to see him go, he has been the perfect boat guest for several weeks.

The harbor here is a small maze of mangrove islands and shallow reefs that give good protection from waves in all directions.  Every morning about 10AM the wind starts, blowing from the east at 20 to 30 knots.  Shortly after sunset, it dies back to near nothing for the night.

The highlight of our visit here so far was the exploration of the mangrove creek that separates Isla Curvea from the mainland.  A mile long channel about 12 feet wide, with mangrove branches arching over the top.  Birds and fish everywhere.  Supposedly, there are a troop of 400 wild monkeys on the island, but we found no evidence of them.

Seaside towns here feature houses built out over the water. Boqueron is no exception.

The main square in Mayaguéz

The entrance to the mangrove creek

The middle of the creek, a pretty wild place.

When moving through the creek, we paddled to avoid disturbing the wildlife with our engine.

Kevan hard at work on his watch. We wish him luck back in the real world.

Because every travelog has to have a sunset picture…

Sometimes sailing is very hard work. This is not one of those times.

We are safely anchored in Mayaguez Bay on the western shore of Puerto Rico. Our trip was a bit slower than we expected, but wasn’t hard. We picked a great break in the weather that left the tradewinds blowing gently. That made had an easy sail out of one that would have been difficult if we had left during the prevailing winter conditions.

Mayaguez is the largest city on the west side of PR, and is not normally a tourist destination. It is the official Port of Entry for the West Coast of Puerto Rico so boats entering or leaving the USA have to stop here to clear Customs.

Mayaguez is the home to a large tuna cannery, off of which we are currently anchored. One source claims that 60% of the canned tuna in the USA comes from here.  At the moment, you wouldn’t know it, no boat traffic and no real activity.

It has been many years since I have been to Puerto Rico, and then it was quick business travel, so most of my impressions are really first impressions.  The first surprise was right in front of us when we landed the dinghy to go to the Customs House.  A horse.  Tied to a tree.  Just sitting there like a car in a parking lot.  Turns out they are everywhere in town, and not for show.  It is a bit odd to my eyes to see a horse trotting though traffic, but not here.  They are used for routine transport around town.  The ones we saw out and about were ridden bareback, just to get to wherever the rider was going.

The town is not prosperous in growing and vibrant kind of way, but is clean and well cared for despite the structures that have been abandoned as the world passed them by.

The graceful Frigatebirds soared above the bay.

The tuna cannery in Mayaguez. Not the most scenic part of town!

Karen loved some of the beautiful balcony gardens.

Buoy #8 is obviously well loved by the local bird population.

The “Dr. Suess” tree. Almost no leaves of its own, it is covered with the fuzzy little pom-poms of blooming air plants.

Time 20:59 local
Lat N 20° 30.8′
Lon W 68° 49.2′
Nautical mile from Providenciales, TCI: 202.3
Nautical miles to Mayaguez, PR: 164.1

We have now cleared the shallow banks and made our turn toward the Southeast and the Mona Passage that separates the west coast of Puerto Rico from Hispaniola. The wind is well in our favor, finally having clocked around and we are on an easy and fast reach.

It is easy to see why this route would not be a common one for boats in the days before GPS. The Mouchoir, the Silver, and the Navidad banks would be true navigation terrors. The are located in an area famous for strong and unpredictable currents, and in the absence of any dry land, are totally invisible as you approach them.

We sailed past the Silver Bank this afternoon in water over 5000 feet deep. Less than a mile away there was water less than 3 feet deep. Even though we knew it was there, in the calm seas there was no visible evidence of the danger that could tear the bottom out of the unwary–our just unlucky–sailor’s boat.

We were close-by hoping to pull a fish off that steep wall, but such luck was not to be ours today.

If the wind holds this direction and strength, we should be anchored in Puerto Rico tomorrow.