En Route to Vieques

Have just left Ponce bound for Vieques (pronounced Vi-eck-es) Island - one of the what’s called Spanish Virgin Islands.  We will be doing short hops down the coast - 2 to 3 hrs max - and anchoring every night.  Will probably have to motor most of the way as we have easterlies forecast.

Last few days were spent in Ponce.  We are anchored off the yacht club which unfortunately is a bit of a taxi ride into town.  The taxis are not that efficient so it makes it a bit of a time consuming affair going anywhere.  Oh how we long for those Singapore taxis.  

We went ashore on Sunday (Scott’s 49th birthday) to have a look around but the town centre was pretty quiet.  It has a really nice central square with fountains and a huge cathedral and in the streets surrounding the square there are lots of interesting art deco style buildings.  We searched for a market which was supposed to be on but never found it.  Finally we had to retreat to a mall to placate everyone.  The mall is just like any other American mall with a lot of similar or the same shops as you find in the US.  After all Puerto Rico is as near as American as you can get without actually being American.  All the citizens here carry US passports.

In the evening we had a birthday cake for Scott which was a series of cup cakes with candles in them.  Seems to be a bit of a standard onboard now.

Scotts Birthday

Nic and Beth got the next day on their own at the mall while Scott and the kids stayed on the boat.  Scott had the enviable task of fixing the day head which had stopped evacuating.  Scott spent the afternoon on the day head and had pipes ripped out and the bilge full of particularly disgusting water at one point but luckily it was all cleaned up and smelled of bleach by the time Nic got back.  The problem was a build up of calcium in the pipes from the seawater leading to a complete blockage.  The bore of the pipe had been reduced from around 2 inches to about half an inch.  After a quick look at some books and a solid dose of diluted muretic acid it seems to be working again.

Turns out the hassle of getting to and from the shops mean’t we became eager to press on.  We had one more day where we went ashore to Wal-mart and got a few essentials including a couple of belated birthday presents for Sam. We tried to get to the cinema for the evening but when we went to buy the tickets we discovered the film which had been advertised as English was actually in Spanish so that was a bust.

On Wednesday we filled up with fuel and water and headed 6NM off the coast to an island called Isla de la Muretas or Coffin Island.  We anchored off a protected beach and were the only boat there.  This is a favourite day trip from Ponce and it gets busy at the weekends but today was OK.  There is a ferry which brings day trippers out but it and all its passengers had left by 4:00pm and then we had the island to ourselves.  Nic Sam and Scott went ashore and hiked up a trail to a lighthouse to see an amazing view over the island, the sound and to the mainland and the mountains beyond the coastal plains.  

Giant cacti on the hike to the lighthouse

View from the top - Dulcinea anchored in the bay at Coffin Island

We stayed at the island an additional day as it was so peaceful and then headed about 15NM east to the next stop at a place called Salinas.  The anchorage here is beautiful but its very shallow and so we have anchored pretty far out.  We have come to the conclusion that in most instances its better to stay further out as you do not get congestion problems and the motion is only marginally different.  Here though we are anchored amongst mangroves and it is absolutely still, so perfect for exploring with the kayak and paddleboard.  In the morning rays break the surface and jump slapping the surface as they land.  We had just told Calley that there is nothing to be scared of in the water when we herad a huge splash on one side of the boat which was an especially big ray - we think!  This morning we had our first sighting of manatees which graze around the anchorage.  We sat and watched them for about half an hour and Sam paddled over to get a close look.  

The anchorage at Salinas - as you can see we are away from the other boats

Had an issue with the freezer.  We went to defrost it but to cut a long story short ended up with a puncture in the freezer coils and lost all the gas.    There is a second compressor on the freezer but it is not sufficient to drag the temperature down to the required level.  So we now have no freezer but a decent sized fridge.  Luckily we will be in a place called Fajardo in about a week and we should be able to get it fixed there.  In addition there should be some shops where we can stock up en-route.  We had a bit of food in the freezer which will be lost but not too much.

We are into a bit of a groove with the school at the moment and are almost halfway through the syllabus.  Think it is a wee bit easier but still a bit of a slog.  I think one of the problems is the inability to get a routine going as we are constantly on the move.  Even if we do stop for a few days any routine would be ruined once we start sailing again or come to a place which we want to spend a few days visiting.  We do not seem to be able to get any school done during the sailing legs.  We will just hammer on.

The difference between travelling the southern Bahamas and the north coast of the DR to the south coast of PR is amazing.  Here we can sail short hops as there are lots of places to duck in for shelter.  In addition we are not exposed to the Atlantic swells.  As such we can take off any time during the day and only sail for a couple of hrs before dropping anchor and relaxing.  This is what it should be like for the remainder of the trip to Grenada.  We are still going into the prevailing trade winds which can kick up during the day but that will change around St Martin when we turn southwards.  The only sizeable sail we have left before Grenada is the Anegada Passage between the Virgin Islands and Anguilla, and Pete and Claire will be on to help us with that.  Even then its only a day sail of about 80NM.  Of course the next thing we need to start thinking about is the hurricane season which kicks off in May/June.  We need to formulate some kind off emergency response plan as we will be travelling during the first couple of months of the season and our insurers are a bit anxious.

We should get to Vieques the day after tomorrow and will then spend the rest of the week looking around.  It is supposed to be a beautiful island with gorgeous anchorages.  It will be a nice swansong for Beth who heads home after that.

Relaxing at Salinas anchorage