“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!
1 Comment
Rebecca Smith
2/7/2021 04:59:41 pm
Thanks for allowing us to vicariously follow along on your adventures ❤. I always enjoy your commentary on things!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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