Monday, February 15, we made the 50 mile run from Esperanza, Viequez over to Salinas Bay, on the south coast of Puerto Rico. We woke early, and left the bay at 5:30am, arriving in Salinas harbor at1:15pm.
Salinas, on the southern coast of Puerto Rico is a long, narrow harbor, surrounded by mangroves. It is fairly shallow, but the barrier islets and the mangroves offer complete protection from sea surge and wind from any direction. It is as still as a mill pond in there. The main harbor is thick with mooring balls, which we seldom use because of KINGDOM's size and weight. So we anchored in the outer harbor in about 11 feet of water.
Tuesday morning, Feb 16, we were on our way at 8:00am for the 60 mile leg to Boqueron Bay, on the Southwestern coast of Puerto Rico. We had a following sea, with 5' waves powering us along. We were making 8+ knots most of the way. But it is a bit disconcerting to have the stern lift up five or six feet, which points the bow down, and then up again as the wave passes under the boat from stern to bow. Sort of riding a roller coaster backwards, if you can get the picture.
We arrived in Boqueron at 4:00pm, tired and thirsty. We had a beer aboard and went to bed.
We had made friends with some of the local folks on our way down-island. So on Wednesday evening we arranged to meet them (Stan and Rita) for drinks at the "Sunrise Sunset Bar" near the dinghy dock. We put our dinghy in the water, all ready to go, and the battery was dead. Fortunately, we have a portable battery charger, which put a nice fresh charge in the battery in 45 minutes. (We had inadvertently left a switch on when we loaded the dinghy in St. Thomas.)
A great time was had by all, along with many cervezas.
We stayed in Boqueron until Wednesday, February 16th, awaiting perfect weather conditions to cross the Mona Passage to the Dominican Republic. It rained for several days, and we mostly hibernated aboard the boat, reading and relaxing.
Walt also researched an electrical problem with our small generator, aided by two new friends, Tony and David. They are from Michigan, and have family in PR, whom they visit for a couple of months each year.
Speaking of pictures, we didn't take any in Salinas or Boqueron. We photo-documented these places pretty well in previous blogs on our way South. And they haven't changed much.
Still beautiful...
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