Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Puerto Rico & Spanish Virgins

Culebrita, Puerto Rico

Hola, Buenos Dias y Mucho Fun from Puerto Rico!

We have had a great 3 weeks travelling along the coast, seeing the sights and making the most of our last chance at US style shopping for a while.

Almost the first thing we did on arriving in Puerto Rico was to buy the plentiful and delicious fresh fruit and veg, after 4 months in the Bahamas subsisting on whatever scraps are left in the stores we went mad at the first sight of a supermarket!

Boqueron_006

We would normally have spent more time in Boqueron and many of the anchorages on the south coast but with incredibly calm weather forecast and the opportunity to make easy miles eastward we decided to get going.  We did stay long enough to empty Boqueron of mojitos and have one of the best meals we have had for a long long time in a great new restaurant for Valentines Day but soon we were off for Salinas.IMG_2145

We hadn’t been here before as the charts show only 7 feet at the entrance but we had heard that there is more water than charted and Merlin kindly agreed to lead us in so we gave it a try.   All went well and we were soon anchored in this delightful little harbour.  Surrounded by mangroves on all sides, with towering mountains as a back drop it’s hard to beat.

We based ourselves here, hiring a car with Merlin and North Bound to see the sights and replenish the freezer and spares lockers.  Old San Juan, coffee plantations, climbing El Yunque, Sam’s Club, Home Depot, scenic drive along the mountain spine all best covered by a photo montage rather than my paltry descriptive powers:

With the exploring and shopping done it was time to head for the Virgin Islands and the long awaited reunion with Chandelle and Bella who we left Annapolis with all those months ago as well as Bleu Marie who we haven’t seen since the Bahamas last year.

By now the trade winds had filled in so we were back to the usual Puerto Rico strategy of an early start before they get too strong, and the other tested strategy of suck it up and pretend your whole boat isn’t being shaken to pieces by bashing into 10’ waves!

Two ordinary trips later and here we are safely anchored in Culebrita and ready to head onward to the US Virgin islands.  Culebrita is possibly our favourite spot in the whole Caribbean but certainly in the top 10, a gorgeous bay on the north side with sand and palms and the views from the lighthouse of the BVI’s and USVI’s.

 

 

bash along rest of PR coast

Culebra/Culebrita