Ah, just relaxing in Salinas, PR with an umbrella drink and palm trees blowing gently in the wind. I am sure this scene is what most of you picture when you think of living on a boat in the Caribbean. Some days are just like that picture. Others, not so much!
On Monday, we pulled into Salinas on a bright sunny day and expected to drop the anchor and relax. Dropping the anchor is usually about what you would expect. You push the button, the anchor falls into the water, you back up the boat a bit to set the anchor and you are done. Not so in Salinas. Evidently, after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico scraped the bottom of the bay leaving behind a ton of mud and unattached sea grass. What happens in this situation is that the anchor never finds any sturdy ground to lock into so the boat would just drag around the bay. There were a lot of boats in the bay and each time we found a spot we thought we could fit, the anchor would not hold. We definitely caught the attention of a few boat owners that were watching us as we inched closer and closer to their boats. By the sixth attempt, even the manatees were telling us to give it up. So, we called the marina to inquire about a slip. The dockmaster came out in his dinghy to see if he had a slip wide enough for us and then said he had one that was 18 feet wide (we are 15 feet wide). The first slip attempted was going to be a tight squeeze but Bill guided the boat toward the slip when, bump, we grounded on the seabed. One of the other boaters yelled, “You have run aground!” as if that was helpful information that we did not know. The dockmaster then guided us back out of that area since it was too shallow and directed us to the next slip option. As we approached the slip, I surmised that the slip was about 15.25 feet wide at best. Bill worked his usual magic and got us squeezed in with only one slight hiccup when the kayak (which hangs on the side of the boat) got stuck between Galt and the piling post. The entire event reminded me of the scene in Ace Ventura when he parks the car in the tiny parking space and screams out, “Like a glove!” While we were attempting to anchor, we picked up a transmission between the Coast Guard and a boat that was offshore. The boat was evidently in trouble and needed the Coast Guard to assist (Bill later read that they were taking on water). I could not believe when the Coast Guard asked the vessel, “Does anyone aboard your vessel have any symptoms of Covid?” Seriously? Their boat was sinking. If they had answered “yes”, would they have just been left to drown? The world needs a serious reset button. We were planning just a couple of days in the marina but the Christmas winds (which were supposed to be gone by mid-February) have decided to stay with us a bit longer so we lined up some projects. Ever since we bought the boat, the 40 year old vinyl ceiling tiles in the bedroom have been driving me crazy. They are stained and yellow and look every bit 40 years old. I had no idea how to solve the issue without pulling them down and replacing them so I have just been dealing with them. Then, when we met the family in Ponce that had refurbished a boat exactly like ours, I asked them about the ceiling solution and they gave me the exact steps needed. First, find a paint primer that is made to go over vinyl. More of a challenge than I initially thought. All of the vinyl paints were aerosol spray which would not work on a boat. Then, the Rustoleum brand I found in paint form was not available in Puerto Rico. We finally had a guy at Home Depot who asked around and found a primer that would work on vinyl so I was ready to go! After that challenge, the rest of the project was easy and I am happy to report that the ceiling looks amazing! Much better than the dinghy, horrible walls….ah, next project! Our least favorite moment of the week was the unexpected project of fixing the macerator pump. On a boat, there is a holding tank. The holding tank is basically like a septic tank but it is under the floor instead of under the ground. Much like a septic tank, when something goes wrong, you know it pretty quickly. After trying several steps such as blowing out the vent line with a shop vac, we realized that the problem was not going to be that simple. I went online to figure out next steps. In most of the posts, the next steps involved wearing only your underwear because the chances that the tank, which is a vacuum, was going to explode like a shaken Coke can were very high. Needless to say, Bill wasn’t going to be covered with delicious, sweet Coca-Cola should that happen. To his credit, he did not complain about this particular task falling on his shoulders but he did bypass eating breakfast and lunch just in case things went really sideways. As he pulled off each hose, it was like the anticipation that you get in a horror movie before the killer jumps out of the closet with a machete. Luckily, with each pull of a hose, no exploding Coke can event! He managed to wrestle the hoses and blow out the discharge hose with the shop vac. He cleaned up the macerator pump and reattached the system and voila’….we had a functioning sewage system again. I won’t say it was a completely clean job but at least he could have worn his clothes and eaten lunch. So, as you can see, sometimes those umbrella drinks come at a very high cost! We are hoping to head over to Jobos, PR tomorrow morning which looks like a fun stop. Then, if the weather holds, we will work our way around to the east coast of PR to wait for our jump over to the Spanish Virgin Islands (Vieques and Culebra). I hope that you all have a wonderful week and don’t have an only wear your underwear kind of event!
0 Comments
I am writing to you from Isle Caja de Muertos aka Coffin Island….but let’s face it, the Spanish version sounds much cooler. It is an island located about an hour and half from Ponce so we thought we’d make the jump and spend a couple of nights. It is a beautiful location! The origin of the name is unclear but the two top choices are that a pirate buried his beloved on the island and the second is that the island is shaped like a coffin. I know which story I prefer!
Until Friday, the week had been a pretty uneventful one with just running errands and doing some boat projects. We went to San Juan to go to the West Marine store and spent far too much money. Instead of eating at one of the million American restaurants in San Juan, we headed up a mountain to what the locals call the Lechonera Trail. Hmmm, what does mean? Lechonera Trail obviously means really yummy barbeque! We had a huge plate of delicious ribs and shredded pork and left very fat and happy. I voted that I could never be a vegan because gnawing on those rib bones was just a piece of heaven. Then came Friday. Before I tackle Friday, let me take you on a journey back a few years. Whenever someone decides they want to live on a sailboat, the first recommendation is to take a sailing course through the American Sailing Association. So, wanting to be smart sailors, we signed up to take the ASA 101 class in Fajardo, PR back in 2018. The ASA class taught us a lot of lessons such as ropes are called lines and sheets, all the names of the boat parts and sections, how to raise and lower a sail and how to read wind directions. All important information but is it really the information that should be covered in the very first course? No. We are going with the introduction of a new prerequisite course called Dumbass 101. In Dumbass 101, you would learn lessons such as what to do if someone falls off of the boat, how do you get unstuck when you run aground, how to keep from getting your foot caught in ropes, how to keep from dropping all of your electronic devices in the water. Those seem like important points to know prior to pulling up sails but hey, what do we know? On Friday, we decided to take Houdinghy over to a small island that was about a mile across the bay from the marina. We went early in the morning to avoid high winds and planned on being back in time to avoid the crazy late morning waves. The ride over was an easy one and as we chugged closer, we noticed that there were a couple of mooring balls close to the shore. Why would there be mooring balls when one could just pull the dinghy up on the beach. Dumbass 101 lesson one: if there are mooring balls present, use them….otherwise there would be no mooring balls. Since we had not taken Dumbass 101, we ignored the mooring balls and pulled the dinghy up to the shore. Our dinghy is a hard shell dinghy (vs a rubber one) so it is difficult to pull out of the water. Bill jumped out of the dinghy and we pulled it as far as we could but soon realized that we were not going to get it completely out of the water. That’s okay! We will just use our tiny dinghy anchor. Bill tied on the anchor and buried it well into the sand. Then, we set off exploring the little island and the lighthouse. We were gone for about 20 minutes when we rounded the corner to find the dinghy flooded with water and waves crashing over the side. The anchor was nowhere to be found. We tried pulling the dinghy further up onto the beach but now it was at least 100 pounds heavier with the water in it so we knew that was not going to happen. Bill pulled the plug out of the dinghy to try and drain some of the water but it was so full, that did not work. He decided that he could use the small bilge pump that we had in the dinghy to begin to get some of the water out of the dinghy. However, for each pump, the next wave would just crash over the side and refill the boat. He finally came up with the plan to take the water logged dinghy out to the mooring ball and then pump out the water since that would stop the wave issue. One small problem, we could not find the dinghy plug. It had been swept away in the chaos and had obviously joined the anchor in Davy Jones locker. Bill, being inspired by McGuyver, shoved his shirt into the hole to slow the flow of water. Next, Bill pulled the motor off the dinghy to lighten the weight and we dragged it out to the mooring and tied it off. Bill then began using the bilge pump to drain the water and I began bailing with a container. Slowly but surely, we managed to get the majority of the water out of the dinghy. Then, we had to carry our bag and the motor over our heads from the beach out to the dinghy. The most exciting part was dragging our 55 year old bodies out of the water and back into the dinghy without a ladder…other lesson in Dumbass 101….always bring the ladder. With a lot of pushing and pulling, we both managed to plop back in the dinghy and make our way back over to Galt. Now, don’t you think that learning a basic mooring ball lesson in Dumbass 101 would have been more beneficial than knowing that a rope is called a line? Once back on Galt, we found out through every ache and pain in our bodies how hard we had been working but we had a good laugh about the situation. The good thing is that once we make a mistake, we usually do learn from it and try to avoid a repeat! On Saturday morning, we packed up and set sail for Muertos. Well, not actually sailing because we had to take down our mizzen and give it to the sailmaker so he could get us a new sail. It will take about a month so we’ll just have the main sail for awhile….see how much I learned in ASA 101 about the names of boat parts? So useful. On the way to Muertos, we had been following two smaller sailboats that had left port just ahead of us. We were about 1.5 miles away from Muertos when we passed one of the boats and they began to wave at us for assistance. Bill turned Galt in their direction so we could see what they needed. Their engine had died and their mast “almost came off” so they were dead in the water. We had never towed anyone before….Lesson number 2 needed in Dumbass 101…..but we grabbed their line and they followed along like a little puppy. We all made it to Muertos intact and we were glad that we could help. Muertos has been a beautiful place for our weekend visit. During the day, all of the locals and tourists arrive for a huge party so the people watching has been fun. Then, by 4pm, everyone leaves except the boaters and we have a quiet paradise all to ourselves. This morning, we decided to hike up to the lighthouse and on that walk, I discovered why the island is named Coffin Island….every plant on the island is obviously designed to kill you! Cacti and thorn bushes and prickly bushes everywhere. Luckily, our friends that had done the hike the week before us had warned us to wear pants. They had not been so fortunate and ended up with Puerto Rican poison ivy….they obviously did not take Dumbass 101 either! Tomorrow we are heading out to Salinas, PR to see what it has to offer. Here’s to hoping that your week is a warm one, your power bill does not land you in debtor’s jail and that you do not have any need for Dumbass 101! PS: I caught a fish! A Bluerunner which is edible! Yay!! It was a week of planning boat projects, gathering information and a few tourist days. We arrived in Ponce, PR early in the week and settled in nicely. We met a family who had owned and restored a boat identical to Gone Galt so we have been picking their brains on how they completed the restoration and they were kind enough to even share pictures of their restoration. I have now added a million more things to our future to do list! Ponce is the second largest city in Puerto Rico after the capital of San Juan so it has a lot of history. We explored the downtown area which has a beautiful town center with old architecture and unique buildings. There is an old firehouse which houses a small museum on the history of firefighting in Puerto Rico and another museum that covers the other history of the island. Columbus claims the fame for “finding” this island as well even though the Indian cultures were here long before he arrived. The rest of the history focused on the manufacturing of sugar cane and rum, the influx of slave labor, the rise and fall of many governments and then Puerto Rico becoming a territory of the United States. After the museums, we went to visit the home of the family that started the Don Q rum label. It is called the Castillo Serrales and was situated on top of the highest hill in Ponce with amazing views of the city, ocean and surrounding mountains. Since we left the States last year, we have been a bit spoiled by what we call “Covid pluses”. Due to the Stupid, we have been able to walk into most tourist attractions and be the only visitors for the week. So, we were surprised when we arrived at the Castillo Serrales to find that all of the tours were booked for the day. While we were disappointed not to be able to go through the house, we were excited that so many tourists were in the area! I also noticed that the clearance aisle at Walmart was overrun with masks upon masks upon masks on the shelves so I am hopeful that we are coming to a turning point with the Stupid. We were allowed to walk through the Castillo Serrales’ gardens which included European formal gardens, a butterfly garden (no butterflies but some really cute turtles) and a Japanese garden. As Bill stated, “Mrs. Don Q certainly had a lot of time on her hands to spend Mr. Don Q’s hard earned money”, but it was money well spent and the gardens were immaculate.
For the night, we had an Airbnb right off the town square and we had invited our cruising friends that we have not seen since our time in Luperon, DR to join us for the night. They had left the DR while we were home in the States for Thanksgiving so it was great to see them again. The next day, we drove a very winding road up into the mountains to the Pomarrosa Coffee Plantation. We were a little late for our scheduled tour because the stop at McDonald’s took us 30 minutes! There was no one in the drive through line so we pulled up to order our Egg McMuffins (been a long time since I have had one and I was having some withdrawals). We were informed that they did not have Egg McMuffins! What? Not only do the Puerto Ricans not have Statehood, they don’t have Egg McMuffins? What a cruel world! The employee at the drive through could not understand our poor Spanish and we could not understand her limited English so at one point, she spewed out a whole string of Spanish to which we said, “Huh?” and she came over the speaker and said, “Come here!” That got us all laughing and once we reached the window, she had located the manager who spoke English and she took our simple order of three McGriddles and a coffee. She said it would be “a couple of minutes” so we pulled up to a parking spot. In about five minutes, the coffee was delivered. Then, we waited. And waited. And waited. I finally lost patience and went inside to get our food. I am pretty sure they noticed my scowl even with a mask on because I had the McGriddles in hand within 45 seconds. Once we finally arrived for our tour, we had a very enjoyable time learning about not only the history of Puerto Rican coffee but of coffee in general. The property was beautiful which was a bit of a miracle given the owner’s description of the havoc wrought by Hurricane Maria and an earthquake a few years earlier. Island people are definitely a resilient people. The remainder of our week consisted of us pulling down the mizzen sail so that I could repair a few tears. Or so we thought….once we pulled the mizzen down, there were so many tears and holes in it that we were amazed it had been able to hold wind. While I could repair it, we decided it would look like the Clampetts had left Beverly Hills to sail the Caribbean so we have a sail guy coming this week to give a quote on a new mizzen sail. Always never ending projects on a boat! Stay warm and dry in the coming week and cuddle up with your favorite Valentine….by the way….it is 82 degrees and sunny here in Puerto Rico (sorry….we just couldn’t resist!) “Sit right back and you’ll hear a tale”…..we are at Gilligan’s Island! Not the official one that is in Hawaii but Puerto Rico has one as well! No sign of Ginger or Marianne yet but I am sure there are plenty of Juanitas and Marias around. We spent the beginning of the week still in Puerto Real running errands and waiting on a weather window. We decided that we would head to the local mall for some supplies. It was a Tuesday morning and we stopped by the local bakery on the way to the mall. I asked for three donut holes and I evidently did not make myself clear. She loaded the box with $3.00 worth of donut holes which equaled at least 2 dozen so we had our fill of sugar before tackling Walmart! In the States, Tuesday morning at the Walmart is usually a pretty calm event. Not so in Puerto Rico….it was a mad house! I needed a couple of electronic devices that were, of course, locked inside a case so I had to locate a helper. Then, the helper had to locate the keys. Then, she would not let me put the item in my cart so I had to go wait in line to buy the item at the electronics counter even though I had more shopping to do. After battling through the Walmart, I wanted to go to Marshall’s to shop for a few sun dresses. We walked over to find that the line went out the door and around the corner with people waiting to get into the store…needless to say, I have no new sundresses. We gave up on the mall and headed over to pick up some wire mesh to finally finish our deck benches. We found exactly what we needed so now both benches are finished beautifully!
Our weather window opened on Thursday morning so we headed out to La Parguera. We passed by the Cabo Rojo Lighthouse that we had seen on land the previous week and from the water, it was a majestic sight up on the cliffs. Once we rounded the southern tip of Puerto Rico, we finally entered the Caribbean Sea. So, we are now officially Pirates of the Caribbean! After we rounded the corner, I tossed out a fishing line off the back of the boat. I have tried fishing several times with no luck but now that we were in the Caribbean, I felt my luck would change. I had several hits on the line and one actually snapped the line and took my lure. After re-rigging, I tossed the line back out. Bill said, “We are getting close to the reef so I bet you’re going to get one”. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, a fish hit the line and ran with it! I began to pull and reel, pull and reel, pull and reel. Bill stopped the boat to make it easier on me and I finally had the fish up to the side of the boat. Bill landed the fish in the dinghy and to our dismay, it was a barracuda! While some people eat barracuda, they are generally not tasty fish and they often carry Ciguatera (a poison that can make you very sick) so we knew we had to throw him back. He was quite the ugly guy and Bill had to be very careful not to get snapped (you notice how I said that BILL had to be careful….I was on the other side of the deck watching!) We estimated that the fish weighed about 15 pounds and was about 2 ½ to 3 feet in length so I was pretty excited with my first sea catch (so excited that we forgot to take a picture before we set him free!). I was excited until that night when I was so sore that I could barely get into bed! I doubt seriously that the barracuda was as sore as I was so he ultimately won the battle. Once we arrived in La Parguera, we found a beautiful anchorage in the mangroves. The town of La Parguera was reminiscent of a Maine waterfront town with buildings and houses built on stilts on the waterfront. We walked around town and decided that it would be quite the lively place if it was normal times. Our exploration of the town took about an hour and then we decided to have lunch at one of the restaurants that was open. As we entered, a mother hen and two chicks followed us closely and the hostess of the restaurant announced that the mother hen had been “very aggressive since she lost one of the chicks” so we should be alert. Well, that makes for a peaceful lunch as the chicks were constantly parading under our chairs. Then, just to be sure we were at the maximum chance of being pecked to death, the rooster showed up to help mama hen watch the chicks. We were very relieved to get out unscathed and back to the boat where one only has to worry about sharks…not mad mother hens! Our next adventure was a bucket list item that I did not even know needed to be on my bucket list. Swimming in a bioluminescent bay! Leaving the boat after dark in the dinghy is always adventure enough because the water is a dark place and you just always hope that you can recognize your boat on the way home. In order to help us, Bill strung up a couple of colored solar lanterns on the sail lines so that we could tell which boat was Galt. Off we set on the one and half mile trip with a couple of handheld flashlights to alert any night boaters to our presence. A little over halfway there, rain began to fall. Contrary to what you might think, Caribbean rain is cold! By the time we reached the bay, we were ready to jump into the warm water. Swimming in bioluminescence is like being in a fairy tale! I felt just like Tinkerbell as tiny sparkles swarmed all around and every movement was lighted by a galaxy stream. You must definitely add swimming in bioluminescence to your list! We had no problem finding the boat again as Bill’s lanterns beckoned us home. The next day, we hoisted the anchor and made our way to Gilligan’s Island. The nice thing about Puerto Rico is that the sails are all during the day and are short hops so by late morning, we were tucked into our new anchorage. We dropped Houdinghy into the water for some more exploring (Bill named the dinghy Houdinghy because it is always finding a way to get loose from its’ moorings…quite clever of him!). We found some mangroves where we could go snorkeling which looked like a great idea from the comfort of the dinghy. We jumped into the waist high water and began making our way into the main mangrove river. It only took a few seconds to realize that this snorkel was going to be a challenge between man and current. For every swim stroke that I took, the current would push me back at least three strokes. Bill was faring a little better than I was so I finally stopped and waited for him to get stuck. Shortly, he stopped and realized I was not going to make it so he floated back toward me and much like we were in outer space, I grabbed onto him as he zipped by. We made our way over to the shallows and snorkeled along the easy access mangroves and saw more fish than we have seen snorkeling to date so we called it a success and floated our way back over to the dinghy. We finished the week with dinner with friends at the local dive followed by homemade cookies on their boat. Not a bad way to end a wonderful week! Here’s to wishing you a wonderful week with lots of Tinkerbell moments and limited barracudas! |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
|