2024-01-07 Puerto Real, La Parguera and the Bioluminescent Bay

We spent New Years day aboard the boat, relaxing and recovering.  Did some clean up from the trip and took naps.  Lots of people fish while they are sailing, we are so good the fish just leap onto out boat.  Not a very big meal

Saw lots of flying fish on the journey.

On the 2nd we decided that it was time to step on land again.   We went for a walk, and had lunch out.  Kris has been practicing her Spanish, so she was happy to use a bit of it.

First for us - tourist board in town with information on the sights and restaurants.

History of Puerto Real

Nice little town square

We think kitty lived at town square, as there was a water bowl for him/her there

Puerto Real is a small town, with a few restaurants, but the main focus here seems to be fishing.  Not big commercial fishing, but many small boats that go out each day.  There are two fish markets in town.  It still is a sleepy little fishing village.

Outside of one of the fish markets

After a walk about town, it was time for lunch.  Took the recommendation of the marina staff for the restaurant to try.

Inside Restaurant Bodega 308, where we ate in Puerto Real

In the restaurant, which was obviously a family business, we were the only customer for quite a while.  Some folks stopped in to get take out.  A newborn baby was in a carrier on the floor near the bar, and everyone who came in stopped to googoo over the baby.  Then they brought in a cake and sang happy birthday for one of the 8 family members there.    All is Spanish of course.

Steak sliders and fries.  Yummy

Next day Kris changed the oil on both engines, and then we headed into town, and with the help of the Marina, got a taxi and went into Cabo Rojo for groceries.    Through some help of other taxi passengers we arranged for the driver to pick us up again in 40 minutes for the return trip.

The grocery store was large, and carried a good variety - with close to prices found in the United States.  The fresh fruit and veggie section was a little smaller than large US stores, but had good selection.  The only thing we did not find was brussel sprouts and mushrooms.   The rest of the store was comparable to a US grocery store.

Upon checkout the clerk, who was a young girl who spoke excellent english asked if we found everything.  We said yes, except for the brussel sprouts and mushrooms.   10 minutes later, and 3 employees involved, but they did have both - don't know why we did not find them, but happy to have.  We apologized to the people in line behind us, but no one really seemed disturbed by the delay.

Fruit and veg area of grocery store.

The marina here in Puerto Real is real nice, and the folks are very friendly and helpful.   We were able to get rid of our trash, and they even have a used oil disposal bin in town which was great, since we had used oil.  Filled up with diesel, only took 65 gallons, we had filled up at Spanish Wells in the Bahamas but with the amount of motoring thought we might need more.  It was only $4.75 per gallon, gas was $4.76.

We heard from our friends on What If, that the 9 Barrios restaurant in town had decent pizza, so next day after a morning of miscellaneous boat chores, we headed in for a late lunch.

Outside on the deck at 9 Barrios

The restaurant was not busy at all, I think us and one other customer.  At the end of the meal we spent a good 15 minutes talking to our server about life in Puerto Rico.  She had gone to university  - which was much cheaper than in the United States, costing around $3000 per semester.  Had a degree in Biology, but still unable to find work in her field in Puerto Rico.    Most young folks will go to university in Puerto Rico, then head to the States for employment

Friday we left Puerto Real, and motored the 22 miles to La Parguera.  On the south coast of Puerto Rico, we most likely won't do much sailing, as the trade winds blow out of the east the majority of the time, and that is the direction we want to go.  So we get up early, and motor to the next anchorage, before the winds build.

Rounding the SE cape of Puerto Rico - Cabo Rojo

La Paguera is a locals tourist spot. As it wa a friday before the holiday "Three kings day"  there were a lot of people there on vacation.   Lots of small boats head out to the smaller islands in the bay, where they spend the day relaxing on the small beaches, or more likely hanging out in the water on floats, near the beach and boats.   

Collection of boats at one of the small cays offshore.

Water not as clear as in the Bahamas, but we are anchored in 15' and you can see bottom, of grass and some sand.

La Parguera coastline is all mangrove, so people build homes on pilings over the water, adjacent to land.

Homes on the left along shore, and mangrove island toward sea, with a narrow channel between.

Homes and boats along "shore"

The town is quiet and closed up Monday through Thursday, and comes alive on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons.   We were in at 10:00 on a Saturday, and town was just starting to set up for the day.

Restaurants getting ready for the day

Nativity display in one of the larger hotels entryway

Shops still closed up, but getting ready to open for the crowds.

Christmas tree in the town square

End of town was less scenic, with the large garbage dumpster.  Lots of chickens with small chicks and pigeons taking advantage of the dumpster.

Monument dedicated to the fishing industry of La Parguera

Entrance to fenced housing, done all in tile.

The anchorage was a bit bouncy from boat traffic off and on.  We decided not to wait until Monday for a snorkeling trip, as friends had reported it not that great and last time we were here in 2013 we had searched for good snorkeling, but did not find much, so we moved and anchored in Bahia Fosforrescente, which is a bay that has a natural phosphorescence. The unique part of this bay, is that it allows motorized vessels, anchoring and swimming.   

We were the only boat there anchored, until around 6:30 at night when the sunset, then about a dozen tourist boats came in.   We shut off all lights on our boat, as did all the tourist boats, so people could enjoy the bay.   It takes a bit of a disturbance to see the phosphorescence, so most people jump in and swim around.    We had dolphins swimming buy us, about 100' away, and although we could hear them, and see them when thy broke the surface, they produced no visible phosphorescence.   All the tour boats left by 10:00, and we had a peaceful night.

This morning we got up early, and headed out with sunrise and headed to Cayos de Cana Gorda, otherwise known as Gilligan's island.  It is just named that.  The show not filmed there.   

Will hang out here for a few days, and do some exploring.  The day temps are now in the mid to upper 80s with the lows in low 70s.  Kris is finally warm, most of the time :)

2023-12-31 Perfect way to end the year - we have arrived in Puerto Rico

Well, it was a 5 day slog, but we made it.   It wasn't a bad trip overall.

We stayed in Cat Island for a few more days.  Took a nice hike up the hermitage.  Built in 1939.   The Hermitage

Had to avoid this guy sunning himself in the road

New little goats - cut and fun to watch

At the base of the road to the Hermitage

Fun to explore

Was not built for Dean size people

Steep walk up to the top of the hill

We were thinking we would be heading out soon to make the Caribbean passage, so Kris started doing some small cleanup to get the boat ready and everything stored.   We have a small storage bag under the doorway to the main salon that had ripped, so she wanted to replace that.  Everything came out, and then she noticed something that looked like it had fallen out of the bag and slid down along the hull.   Had to remove some cabinet framing, but retrieved the item.  - YES   It was the missing brushes that we had for our watermaker.  We had searched the boat multiple times for them last year when our watermaker motor brushes had failed, and we spent a month or more dealing with that.   We knew we had ordered them - but could not find them anywhere.  Now we know what happened to them.

Kris digging into the storage area

The missing parts - finally found.

We had a nice Christmas, relaxing on the boat.  We were the only boat in the anchorage - so was very quiet and peaceful.   Ate chips with dip, and apple pie for dinner.  YUM

Tuesday after Christmas we took a nice walk on the beach.  Nice sunny day

Charm at anchor at Cat Island

Walking the beach

Nice large starfish in the surf

We looked at the weather one last time, and decided to go for it.  Upped anchor at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday the 26th and set sail.  First night and next day was not that pleasant, as winds were supposed to be SSW, but were SSE instead, so bit of a bumpy lumpy slamming trip to weather with choppy seas, but then the wind died down a bit, and the seas settled.  Winds were south, but since they were light - 10 knots and under, we decided to motor sail close to the wind, and head southeast for a while more.

The rest of the trip was pretty much a motor sail, heading SE as much as possible until we got past the Turks and Caicos, then we headed more easterly. 

That is about when we ran out of fresh water.  YIKES  Our freshwater pump had been acting a little odd, and it decided to come on and pump our tank dry, and fill the bilge with fresh water.    About 75 gallons of fresh water was gone. We did not hear the freshwater pump, or bilge, as the engine was on.  No worries, got out the spare fresh water pump we carry, installed it, and made water.  Crisis averted. 😅

Saturday night was the big night when we started heading almost due south to Puerto Rico.  The winds were east, but clocking NE, so Saturday night and all day Sunday had a nice run.

Pretty much this was the view for 5 days - water and sky and nothing else

Had some pretty sunrises

Only had one ship get within visual range the entire trip

Dean on watch

Had about 8 hours of glassy seas where we just motored

Land Ho - Puerto Rico

Out of the 120 hours, we had about 48 that were less than pleasant, with lumpy bumpy ick, but the rest were not bad.  We had 75 hours of motor time, about 32 for each engine.  We knew the winds would be light, and expected to have to motor a lot, but still got tired of listening to the engines.   Nice to sail into Puerto Rico on Sunday - great way to end the year.

2023-12-23 We finally moved, and moved, and then moved some more.

We got a weather break, so Sunday afternoon we left Marsh Harbor.  Part of the reason to leave was that a boat next to us drug in high winds, and when they got it re-anchored, we were worried it would drag into us with the upcoming wind shift.   Felt bad for the two guys trying to re-anchor the boat, as the engine did not work, so they spent 3 hours working on moving it, during the rain and high winds.

Miserable weather to be pulling an anchor by hand and trying to move the boat with a dinghy

So not planned but Sunday afternoon we moved and anchored just outside the busy bay of Marsh Harbor.  As usual our timing was impeccable, and as we were moving we were caught in the largest rainstorm we had the entire week, with 20 to 25 knot winds.  

Poor Dean got soaked at the helm, and Kris not as bad as she hid out of the rain until time to drop anchor.

Stormy skies, dumping rain on us.

After a mostly peaceful night sleep, we headed south on Monday in preparation to leave the Abaco's and head south to Eleuthera Island.   Nice sail south, and pleasant anchorage with a view of the cut we needed to traverse the next day.   We watched two boats traverse the cut while anchored, and it looked bad, 6' breaking seas knocked the boats about quite severely.    

Tuesday morning the cut looked better, and with a group of about 8 boats all had the same thought to leave.  We let several leave before us, then we left followed by our friends on Breathe, and Turnerbout.  The cut was a bit of a challenge, with 4' to 6' swells, with some breaking, but Dean did an excellent job avoiding the  breaking waves, and we ended up with a pleasant sail from the south Abaco's to Spanish Wells in Eleuthera.

Breaking waves in the cut.  Photos never do it justice

Wednesday we  went ashore at Spanish Wells, had a nice lunch out, and got some much needed exercise in.   

Dean by a Christmas tree at the point in Spanish Wells

Kris in her three layers of jackets in Spanish Wells

Christmas décor in Spanish Wells

We at lunch at Buddas, a new place for us.   They had quite the décor inside, with funny signs, and a couple of parrots in a cage as well.   Kris like the parrots as they gave her some wolf whistles when she said hello.

Inside Budda's.  Not busy when we got there, but was filling up by the time we left

The talkative parrot

Kris got a kick out of this sign.  One of many funny signs.

After lunch we hoisted anchor, and headed to the fuel dock to top off with diesel fuel.   The fuel dock caters to larger boats, and the dock is quite high.   There are 60 steps to the top of the hill, and a short ride via golf cart to the office to pay.

The dock is quite high.  Kris needed a boost from the boat to climb up and onto it.

Looking down on Charm from the top of the steps

Thursday we headed further south along with Breathe and Turnerbout, for a somewhat choppy sail.  Winds were NE around 18 to 25 knots.  Breathe and Turnerbout stopped at Hatchett Bay, while we continued on.  We wanted to be further south, as a possible weather window to head to the Caribbean would be occurring, and we wanted to be further south to take advantage of it.   

After one night at anchor at Alabaster Bay, we headed south again on Friday.  Had a pleasant sail in 8 to 20 knot of ENE wind.  Then we got to the south end of Eleuthera, and no longer on the bank sailing, but exposed to ocean swell.  Not just ocean swell, but confused choppy steep swell.  The next 6 hours were not pleasant.  Sailing at 45 to 50 to the apparent wind in up to 25 knots with 2 to 4 foot seas that were short period.  We took water over the bows many times, and even took a couple up and over the cabin onto the dodger.  We did 94 miles in 14 hours, for an average of 6.71 knots, which is pretty darn good for going into the wind.  Needless to say, a very salty boat and crew were quite happy to drop anchor in New Bight on Cat island finally at 9:00 that night.

Saturday was a recovery day, as now we are positioned for a run to the Caribbean.  Kris did some engine maintenance to make sure they were all ready to go for the long run.  Dean washed down the deck, and polished some stainless.  A load of laundry finished the day.   It was finally a sunny day, which we have had too few of, but winds still high, but at least below 18 knots.

View of New Bight on Cat Island.  You can actually see some sun

End to one of the most pleasant days we have had in the last month.