We stayed at the marina in Puerto Real on the west coast of Puerto Rico for a few days getting caught up on boat projects that we needed to be on land for. One of those projects was re-doing the splice between our anchor chain and the rope part of our rode. I had been practicing for a bit and our buddy boat friends Ross and Louise were there helping me figure it out and pull it tight.
The area was very American which meant that we could buy marine supplies and provisions that we really needed after not having access for a long time. We also attended a marina Christmas party while there and had the best fish tacos at the marina restaurant.
On November 25th, we filled up our water and fuel and went back to the anchorage just outside of the marina to prepare for leaving the next morning. We had a peaceful night and pulled anchor at sunrise to travel 32 nautical miles to our next anchorage at a place named Gilligan’s Island. We had a wonderful time there, mostly snorkeling through the mangroves nearby. It was incredible! There were many different types of fish, huge hermit crabs and an iguana.
From there we sailed to the anchorage at Salinas which was a busy little village. At Salinas we rented a car and drove to San Juan – amazing! It is one of our favorite American cities and every visit there we discover more cool places.
While in Salinas we also traveled to a nearby city named Ponce for some sightseeing and a long overdue visit to Chick-Fil-A!!! We also got to watch a really amazing Christmas boat parade. I think there were about 200 boats all decked out in lights that participated.
After a few days in Salinas we sailed down the coast to Patillas. It was a pretty anchorage but it was very rolly where we had the depth to anchor. For days we bounced around and made sure to go for a lot of walks and just spend as much time off the boat as we could. We found a cool little business called Agua Salada, with a restaurant and a well stocked convenience store. The owner was really cool and we spent some time chatting with him over drinks.
On the 7th of December we left Patillas before dawn and motored in calm seas all the way to Culebra. Douglas and I had been here in 2014 with his brother Mattew, who at the time was living there on a 50 foot Beneteau. We got there early and met up with Ross and Louse at the DIngy dock restaurant for drinks that evening. The town was a bit more posh and expensive than we remembered, but still had a low key vibe.
We ended up staying in Culebra for a week because of bad weather. While we were there we rented a golf cart one day and hit up just about every beach on the island. It was spectacular! I think this island has the best beaches in the Caribbean and in fact Flamenco beach is often rated as number one in the area and up there as one of the top beaches in the world. One one beach at the end of the day we were snorkeling when a giant sea turtle was munching grass on the sea bed. They didn’t seem too worried about us and even surfaced for air and then went back down right next to us. It was amazing!!
We had a lot of fun times hanging out with Ross and Louise there, but sadly that is where we parted ways. We had to return to mainland Puerto Rico to fly home to see family for Christmas and they had to continue on to the BVIs to meet up with friends. We grew so close with these guys over our time in DR that it really was a “see you later “,not a goodbye on our last night together!
From Culebra Douglas and I sailed back over to Humaco, finally on a down wind sail! We were leaving the boat at the Yacht club at Las Palmeras for a few weeks to go back home to Washington State and Nova Scotia. The marina is in an area that gets a lot of wave action funneling into the marina bay. The boat rocked like crazy and was at risk of rubbing against the concrete docks. We ended up with a total of about 14 lines on it, some with chains connecting to the cleats, and some on the post between the boats to keep us away from the dock. Better safe than sorry!
