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