We've been moving along the southern coast of Puerto Rico the past couple of weeks and enjoying some fabulous downwind sails. The anyone not familiar with points of sailing, I submit that downwind in moderate air is one of my favorites. The following seas seem to push you along while the wide spread of your sails keep you moving at a nice clip. We've seen upwards of 9 kts of speed on this leg and generally average around 6-7. SO we've been making good distance in short times. Very pleasant, to be sure.
We left Culebra on the extreme east end end of PR and headed across to Fajardo, a rather lively marina port town. We needed to have an electrical mechanic come aboard to diagnose our charging system as we were not getting to a full battery charge every day. Usually, our solar array (450 watts) alone will top the house batteries off to 100% each day f the sun is out. But we had been experiencing some cloudy days and several on the hook without running the engine which also provide charging power from the alternators. SO our batteries were in need of a good charge so we went to a marina for the first time in many months. We hate marinas as they are usually crowded and noisy and smell of diesel fumes. But we had to get our charge situation figured out or our battery bank would suffer serious damage.
After arriving at Sunbay Marina, we found the place to be quite pleasant although a bit "rolly" from the ocean surge. We plugged the boat into the marina to start charging and found nothing coming into our system. After trying several of my short list of fixes, we knew we needed an expert. The management was very accommodating and helped recommend a mechanic who could help us with the diagnosis. We arranged for his visit and awaited the appointed time. When he arrived 2 hours late, we were less than excited and not very optimistic. However, he was thorough and seemed to know his stuff. The bad news was his diagnosis that we needed a new battery charge system to replace the original one. Not an inexpensive answer. He did some other things which seemed to help for the moment and we paid him and he left. We stayed the night on the dock and anxiously left the next morning, hoping that running our engines for several hours would recharge our system in no time. Unfortunately, it did not do the trick. They slowly began to refill with energy, but never seemed to get back to where they should be. The sun was now shining brightly and our solar power was doing its thing so we motored on for the day letting mother nature fill our batteries.
We rounded the south eastern corner of PR and headed west to our anticipated nightly port, Puerto Patillas. It looked like a nice place to anchor for the night, but when we approached around 3pm, our electronic charts did not afford us a good look at the anchorage. After much discussion, we decided to move further on to a big bay called Jobos. Usually, we like to be settled into an anchorage around 3pm so this was pushing our comfort zone as the next stop would take up to three more hours. Along the way, we motor sailed to make up some time as the wind had died a bit. Motoring along and making good time, I suddenly noticed an anomaly in the ocean ahead. It looked like a reef quite a ways from shore and about a half mile straight ahead. Looking through our binoculars, it certainly appeared to be frothing water, indicating a reef. However, I consulted the chartplotter and nothing showed up as a concern until I zoomed in to a closer range (6nm) from the 12nm range we had been using. There on the zoomed chart, in front of us, was a huge reef, which certainly would have ruined our day, not to mention the bottom of the boat. I made some quick course changes and fortunately avoided the disaster. We learned a good lesson that day about what range to use with our chartplotter as certain magnifications do not show everything one needs to be aware of ahead. We now sail at 6nm (or less) magnification on the plotter to be sure to see everything needed to avoid obstructions ahead.
Jobos--
We arrived at Jobos after the completion of a 50 mile day, in better than we expected time as the wind had stiffened along the way affording us some better speed over water times. We found the bay to be a wonderful experience. It was a huge bay, throughly protected by reefs and mangroves. We dropped our sails and motored around until we found a suitable spot and dropped the hook for the night. That night we enjoyed a very quiet, calm and breezy anchorage and a good nights sleep was had by both of us.
The next morning we "yanked the anck" and headed off to Ponce, our next stop on the bottom of this big island. We had stayed in Ponce in 2008 when we sailed south from Maine on our inaugural trip on A2C. During that trip we got "stuck" there for nearly a month as our boat needed to await a new throttle cable from Volvo to be shipped to us. We were buddy boating with three other boats at the time and each of us had something needed to be done while there so we had lots of time to get acquainted with the place. During that first visit, we found Ponce to be loud, dirty and generally not very likable. It may have been the circumstances of the time or our impatience in being delayed on our trip, but all felt that this place was surely the armpit of PR. This stop, we found Ponce to be much more to our liking. We wound up staying for three days, renting a car one day, and enjoying it much more. I still don't think we'd want to spend another month there, like before, but this visit helped change our overall impressions of PR in general.
While at Ponce, a beautiful 65' Privilege catamaran arrived and was having trouble catching their anchor. I had noticed earlier that the area they were trying caused other similar difficulties and suggested the move over further to the side of the channel which proved successful for them. They stopped by the boat later to thanks us for the assistance. We chatted and found them to be a very nice British couple who own several restaurants all over England. Their boat's name was English Sally and was named after his great-great-great grandmother who evidently was quite a character. We found out they were heading the same direction we were so guessed we'd see them again somewhere down the line, which we did.
English Sally--
We finally left Ponce after filling with fuel and water at their fuel dock and headed off on another fine downwind sail towards our net stop at La Parguera. It turned out to be another big bay/lake anchorage situation which gave us a pleasant night on the hook. We went into the village, seeking a few grocery items, and found the place was celebrating their annual Pineapple Festival. Evidently La Parguera was once the pineapple producing place of Puerto Rico. Not so anymore but the tradition was a good excuse for a festival. Good live salsa band, interesting food booths, lots of happy, celebrating folks but the grocery store was very inadequate. Oh well, nothing was really needed badly so we just joined into the celebration for a couple of hours, even bumping into our new friends from English Sally.
The next morning we pulled anchor and headed out the pass toward our next stop, Boqueron Bay. Again, we had been here the first time around and found the bay to feel much different to us both. ON the sail down, we saw English Sally coming up from behind us flying their beautiful asymetrical sail out front. They came blowing by us at a pretty good clip but not before each boat could capture a couple of shots of the other boat under sail. We then anchored within a couple hundred yards of each other in Boqueron Bay. The bay is a lovely large body of well protected water which serves as a popular resort area for local Puerto Ricans. Evidently it is very busy on the weekends but being here on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, it is very quiet and nice. Tuesday morning I dinghied over to English Sally to provide them with my photos and get theirs and got a quick tour of their yacht. WOW! This is how one should travel. Quite a boat to say the least. Turns out they have a hired crew aboard (A French Captain and English Mate/Chef) to do the "heavy lifting" and to allow the owners to enjoy the luxury of their labors. They are eventually on their way to Newport, RI for the summer and then they may head back south next winter but may return to the Med. Not sure of their travel plans. Anyway, it was nice to make their acquaintances. They pulled out on Tuesday morning, as they need to be back in San Juan by Friday as they fly out leaving the crew to take the boat on to the Turks and Caicos ahead of their arrival there later in the month.
Sunrise over Boqueron Bay --
Soon we will pull out of Boqueron as well. But this has been lovely stop and we agreed we should return when we head back west next fall. On to Marina Pescadaria where we will prepare to leave the boat for summer's hurricane season. More to come... stay tuned.
We left Culebra on the extreme east end end of PR and headed across to Fajardo, a rather lively marina port town. We needed to have an electrical mechanic come aboard to diagnose our charging system as we were not getting to a full battery charge every day. Usually, our solar array (450 watts) alone will top the house batteries off to 100% each day f the sun is out. But we had been experiencing some cloudy days and several on the hook without running the engine which also provide charging power from the alternators. SO our batteries were in need of a good charge so we went to a marina for the first time in many months. We hate marinas as they are usually crowded and noisy and smell of diesel fumes. But we had to get our charge situation figured out or our battery bank would suffer serious damage.
After arriving at Sunbay Marina, we found the place to be quite pleasant although a bit "rolly" from the ocean surge. We plugged the boat into the marina to start charging and found nothing coming into our system. After trying several of my short list of fixes, we knew we needed an expert. The management was very accommodating and helped recommend a mechanic who could help us with the diagnosis. We arranged for his visit and awaited the appointed time. When he arrived 2 hours late, we were less than excited and not very optimistic. However, he was thorough and seemed to know his stuff. The bad news was his diagnosis that we needed a new battery charge system to replace the original one. Not an inexpensive answer. He did some other things which seemed to help for the moment and we paid him and he left. We stayed the night on the dock and anxiously left the next morning, hoping that running our engines for several hours would recharge our system in no time. Unfortunately, it did not do the trick. They slowly began to refill with energy, but never seemed to get back to where they should be. The sun was now shining brightly and our solar power was doing its thing so we motored on for the day letting mother nature fill our batteries.
We rounded the south eastern corner of PR and headed west to our anticipated nightly port, Puerto Patillas. It looked like a nice place to anchor for the night, but when we approached around 3pm, our electronic charts did not afford us a good look at the anchorage. After much discussion, we decided to move further on to a big bay called Jobos. Usually, we like to be settled into an anchorage around 3pm so this was pushing our comfort zone as the next stop would take up to three more hours. Along the way, we motor sailed to make up some time as the wind had died a bit. Motoring along and making good time, I suddenly noticed an anomaly in the ocean ahead. It looked like a reef quite a ways from shore and about a half mile straight ahead. Looking through our binoculars, it certainly appeared to be frothing water, indicating a reef. However, I consulted the chartplotter and nothing showed up as a concern until I zoomed in to a closer range (6nm) from the 12nm range we had been using. There on the zoomed chart, in front of us, was a huge reef, which certainly would have ruined our day, not to mention the bottom of the boat. I made some quick course changes and fortunately avoided the disaster. We learned a good lesson that day about what range to use with our chartplotter as certain magnifications do not show everything one needs to be aware of ahead. We now sail at 6nm (or less) magnification on the plotter to be sure to see everything needed to avoid obstructions ahead.
Jobos--
We arrived at Jobos after the completion of a 50 mile day, in better than we expected time as the wind had stiffened along the way affording us some better speed over water times. We found the bay to be a wonderful experience. It was a huge bay, throughly protected by reefs and mangroves. We dropped our sails and motored around until we found a suitable spot and dropped the hook for the night. That night we enjoyed a very quiet, calm and breezy anchorage and a good nights sleep was had by both of us.
The next morning we "yanked the anck" and headed off to Ponce, our next stop on the bottom of this big island. We had stayed in Ponce in 2008 when we sailed south from Maine on our inaugural trip on A2C. During that trip we got "stuck" there for nearly a month as our boat needed to await a new throttle cable from Volvo to be shipped to us. We were buddy boating with three other boats at the time and each of us had something needed to be done while there so we had lots of time to get acquainted with the place. During that first visit, we found Ponce to be loud, dirty and generally not very likable. It may have been the circumstances of the time or our impatience in being delayed on our trip, but all felt that this place was surely the armpit of PR. This stop, we found Ponce to be much more to our liking. We wound up staying for three days, renting a car one day, and enjoying it much more. I still don't think we'd want to spend another month there, like before, but this visit helped change our overall impressions of PR in general.
While at Ponce, a beautiful 65' Privilege catamaran arrived and was having trouble catching their anchor. I had noticed earlier that the area they were trying caused other similar difficulties and suggested the move over further to the side of the channel which proved successful for them. They stopped by the boat later to thanks us for the assistance. We chatted and found them to be a very nice British couple who own several restaurants all over England. Their boat's name was English Sally and was named after his great-great-great grandmother who evidently was quite a character. We found out they were heading the same direction we were so guessed we'd see them again somewhere down the line, which we did.
English Sally--
We finally left Ponce after filling with fuel and water at their fuel dock and headed off on another fine downwind sail towards our net stop at La Parguera. It turned out to be another big bay/lake anchorage situation which gave us a pleasant night on the hook. We went into the village, seeking a few grocery items, and found the place was celebrating their annual Pineapple Festival. Evidently La Parguera was once the pineapple producing place of Puerto Rico. Not so anymore but the tradition was a good excuse for a festival. Good live salsa band, interesting food booths, lots of happy, celebrating folks but the grocery store was very inadequate. Oh well, nothing was really needed badly so we just joined into the celebration for a couple of hours, even bumping into our new friends from English Sally.
The next morning we pulled anchor and headed out the pass toward our next stop, Boqueron Bay. Again, we had been here the first time around and found the bay to feel much different to us both. ON the sail down, we saw English Sally coming up from behind us flying their beautiful asymetrical sail out front. They came blowing by us at a pretty good clip but not before each boat could capture a couple of shots of the other boat under sail. We then anchored within a couple hundred yards of each other in Boqueron Bay. The bay is a lovely large body of well protected water which serves as a popular resort area for local Puerto Ricans. Evidently it is very busy on the weekends but being here on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, it is very quiet and nice. Tuesday morning I dinghied over to English Sally to provide them with my photos and get theirs and got a quick tour of their yacht. WOW! This is how one should travel. Quite a boat to say the least. Turns out they have a hired crew aboard (A French Captain and English Mate/Chef) to do the "heavy lifting" and to allow the owners to enjoy the luxury of their labors. They are eventually on their way to Newport, RI for the summer and then they may head back south next winter but may return to the Med. Not sure of their travel plans. Anyway, it was nice to make their acquaintances. They pulled out on Tuesday morning, as they need to be back in San Juan by Friday as they fly out leaving the crew to take the boat on to the Turks and Caicos ahead of their arrival there later in the month.
Sunrise over Boqueron Bay --
Soon we will pull out of Boqueron as well. But this has been lovely stop and we agreed we should return when we head back west next fall. On to Marina Pescadaria where we will prepare to leave the boat for summer's hurricane season. More to come... stay tuned.
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