2026-03-08 Trip to San Juan, lumpy seas, and manatees

Sunday and Monday were boat days.  Kris did some more work on wood refinishing, and on Monday took an old temperature sender out of the port engine in prep for our shopping trip coming up.

Tuesday we picked a car up at the Marina at 9:00, and then headed north to Old San Juan.  Found parking after a bit of drive around in Old San Juan, and then enjoyed a few hours of walking the town, having a nice lunch out, looking at sites, and touring Castillo San Cristobal.  The Castillo is considered the largest fortress built in the Americas.  It has 3 levels and numerous tunnels.

Here are a few photos of the day.

Some street were jammed packed with cars and tourists, and others were quite peaceful

Inside Cathedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista

A house burned down, and the land donated to make a small park

Many roads have these blue cobblestones

San Juan harbor

Castillo San Felipe del Morro

Capilla del Cementerio Santa María

One of the streets of Old San Juan

Floor tiles in the Castillo

Very thick walls and shuttered windows in the Castillo

View from upper level of Castillo San Cristobal

Tunnel in the Castillo

Just wandering around - one of the many streets

On our way back south we stopped in Caguas, at the Home Depot, and got some items, and next door to the Home Depot was a Cold Stone Creamery.   Haven’t had one of their ice creams in many years, so of course had to have some.  It was quite yummy.

Yummy Ice Cream

Finished the day at Advance Auto Parts, picking up a spare diesel jug - which we have never had, and 6 gallons of Rotella oil for the engine and sail drives.

Long day, but enjoyable.

Wednesday we headed back into town, and picked up our Amazon packages, then to another Home Depot, Walmart and grocery store.   The little rental car was packed.   Then we took two trips with the dinghy to the boat to unload it all.   Back on the boat it took a while to put everything away, and some relaxation was in order.

Thursday Dean started to make bread and pizza dough, and realized we had very little sugar.  So it was back to town, this time walking to the close by store to buy some sugar.   Stopped at Wendy's for lunch, and surprise, the tree now decorated for Easter.

They are really getting a lot of use out of this tree.

The weather has not been conducive to heading east at all, with strong east winds and short period steep waves for the last few days.  Looking at the weather, it was going to be another week at least before the waves and wind abated, so we decided to tough it out for one long night and motor east in unpleasant conditions.    And they were unpleasant.   We left at midnight giving the wind a chance to die down, and the first 3 hours were OK, with lighter winds around 10 knots.  We were able to motor at about 4 knots, which made the speed just right for riding up and down the swells, without crashing into them.  Then it got worse.  The seas became more confused and the seas steeper, so then we were at about 2.5 knots to keep the motion bearable, and minimize wave crashing and pounding on the boat.   We made it into Roosevelt Roads anchorage on the east coast of Puerto Rico on Friday around 2:00.  44 miles in 13.5 hours.  That's an average of 3.26 knots.   Not our best night ever.

Had one storm with 35 knots winds and dumping rain

After we got in, cleaned the salt off the deck and tidied up, we had an early pizza dinner, and went to bed early.

Saturday Kris got busy and decided to clean the over and stove top with some oven cleaner.  Also started laundry.   Heard a funny noise from the stern of the boat, and she went out to look, and thought a rubber fender was bouncing against the boat, then did a double take - that was not a fender.  

A large manatee was hanging onto the boat.

We think that it was eating the slime off the bottom of the boat.  We watched and enjoyed and talked to it for about the 15 minutes it continued to "graze" off the hull.

Enjoy the photos

At first, we were a bit nervous about damage to the boat, but since he was just resting mostly one flipper to hold position, no damage done.   Didn't seem bothered by us at all being close and talking and taking photos.  Quite a unique experience.

Later in the afternoon a local sailing club headed out for racing, and lessons on small Thistle sailboats.  Fun to watch.

Most the sailors were kids - maybe 12 to 15 years old.

The larger boats headed further out for racing, but the kids stayed closer to the anchorage area where the waves were milder.

We will stay here a few more days waiting on better weather to head east to Culebra.  Or we could run out of patience and do another lumpy night to get there as it is only 24 miles.   We will see.

2026-03-01 Boqueron and Salinas

On Sunday we left Puerto Real, and motored the short 5 miles to Boquerón.   In the evening we headed into town, to wander around, and met up with Harmonioum and Shally for a nice dinner out.    Boquerón is a local weekend party and vacation town, so the music was loud, lots of it, and lots of folks out enjoying their weekend.

Charm anchored in background right

Lot of vendors and small food stands along the roads

Narrow busy streets with folks enjoying the weekend

Karaoke done in the street at the bar/restaurant

Just a nice bug

A mural we had not seen before when in Boquerón last time

Night falls, and the lights come on and the music gets louder

Monday was a relaxing day, some odd jobs around the boat, cleaning, laundry, the usual.  Monday night around 5:00 we headed out and motored the 60 miles overnight to Salinas.   The wind dies at night close to shore, so it is the best time to head east.   It wasn't a bad trip, a bit lumpy, but we made good time, enough we had to slow up to come into Salinas after the sun rose.   Harmonium and Shally made the trip as well.

Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico

Tuesday afternoon Dean felt like having a cheeseburger, so we walked into town up the Wendy's and had lunch.  Stopped at the grocery store and then back to the boat.

Last time in Salinas our dinghy was shot at the dinghy dock, so far so good this time.

In the Wendy's - don't take down the Christmas tree - just decorate for a different holiday

Wednesday Kris started working on her wood refinishing again, and Dean did some metal polishing.  We also started working on making flight arrangements to head back to the states in June - working on finding the best flights and prices.  Our friends Matt and Sharlie on Matcha came into the anchorage, so visited with them a bit.  Last saw them in Trinidad in 2024

Thursday we had another boat day.  Went and visited with Matcha again, and saw their nice new custom bimini and dodger.  Took a short tour of the Salinas harbor.  Unfortunately, Salinas seems to be congregating a lot of "never leave" boats, as it is a nice-protected harbor, and convenient to town.  There are quite a few "junker" boats and sinking or sunk boats in the area.

This one still might be saved, but seems no one cares

Sailboat, burned to the waterline

Lots of pelicans around which are fun to watch

Friday we went out for dinner with Harmonium and Shally, as they were leaving that night to make another overnight passage.     

Nice dinner out

We will be here longer, as our Amazon packages we are having shipped in won't all arrive until Tuesday.

2026-02-22 Arrived In Puerto Rico

Monday we went and checked out at 9:00.  Melanie and John on Shally, and Krista and Phil on Harmonium Cays also checking out with us.    

John and Melanie on Shally - dinghy dock in Cockburn Town

"Dry-dock" in Turks and Caicos

We all had anchors up at 11:00 and headed out.  Winds were SE, so headed NE to start, then winds shifted, and we headed pretty much due east with anywhere from 0 knots to 9 knots from the beam back until Tuesday night.  Lots of motor sailing.  We did turn the motors off and sail a bit Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, even had to put in a reef, but then the winds died again, so back to motor sailing.

Not bad, did 389 miles in 57 hours, so averaged 6.8 knots which was great.  We did burn through 34 gallons of diesel though, with only about 9 hours of strictly sailing.   Shally and Harmonium were able to sail more, as they are monohulls, and could sail closer to the wind and maintain a good speed.

We had some fairly calm seas most the trip

Cargo ship in front of us

Love the dolphin escorts.  We always go up on the bow to watch and wave to them

Must have been close to 25 to 30 we could see, probably more around we never saw

Land in the distance - Puerto Rico

Another dolphin escort near dusk as we got closer to land

Came into Puerto Real, Puerto Rico in the dark at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, wasn’t too bad.  Got anchored and got a nice full night's sleep, which was great.  Our friends on Shally made in about midnight. Our other friends on Harmonium did not make it in until Thursday morning early – but they could have been earlier, but did not want to do the entrance in the dark.

Thursday morning we went into the dock and filled up on fuel, $5.50 in the Bahamas and $4.04 in Puerto Rico, then re-anchored.  Went in for a nice lunch out with Harmonium and Shally.

Yummy Pizza at "9 Barrios"

From left to right - Kris, Krista and Phil (Harmonium), Melanie and John (Shally) and Dean

Friday we met Harmonium and Shally at the dinghy dock, and we went to the bus stop to catch the free bus up to Cabo Rojo.  Our timing was off, and we missed the bus, so we waited for an hour until the next one.  Great bus, nice and clean and FREE.   Driver was very nice and helpful and made sure we got to where we were going.

Waiting for the bus at the public square.  Had nice shade to wait in

Got off at the Econo grocery store, and got some groceries, then walked the short distance to the Mr. Special grocery store for more groceries.  On the way a man and his son who spoke good English stopped and talked with us.  They went into the Advance Auto with us, where we got oil, and we had a nice visit, before continuing on to Mr. Special.  After groceries, we went and had a nice lunch out at the cafeteria style café adjacent to Mr. Special.  Good food, with meat, rice and salad for $7.   We only had to wait about 1/2 hour for the bus back, and back to the boat around 3:00.  Nice day.

Walking to the first grocery store from the bus stop

Nice mural on the way

Waiting for the bus.  Nice bus stops

Saturday Dean took our comforter in to the laundry, as we won’t be needing it anymore, and Kris started on oil changes.  Both engines, and a sail drive, and changed out one alternator belt.  Done with both laundry and engine work by 1:00, so lunch break and relax time.  Good thing the engines were done and ready, because around 2:00 Dean looked up and saw we were dragging anchor.   YIKES!   Got the engines started quickly, and did not hit ground or other boats, so all good.   When we got the anchor hoisted found that it had not broken out of the ground, but took the ground with it.  Kris had to poke the muddy goop off the anchor to clean it before anchoring in a different spot with better holding.  Crisis averted, relaxed the rest of the day.

Will head further east this week