East Coast to San Juan

We left Patillas relatively early heading east up the coast so we could see the El Yunque National Rain Forest Park on the way to take Mary and Taylor to the air port in San Juan.  It was a beautiful drive along the coast but when we got to the park it was full and they were allowing visitors  in only as someone left and would be closing at 11:00am due to the crowds.  We were allowed to drive up to the waterfalls only to be met with a heavy rain shower and could not see,

tree that must be related to crepe myrtle, colors were awesome

a flowering tree that was just everywhere you looked

bamboo growing over roadway

ferns growing with trucks like small trees

more rain forest roadways 

one of the small falls on the way to the large falls we couldn't see

what we think is wild ginger

 so we came back and continued to San Juan, where Carl & Carrie Butler joined us.  We went to Old San Juan, ate at Mojitos

lunch at Mojito's, notice I'm the only one with indigestion!

where once again I had God only knows what, but it was good.  Then we toured the old fort that guarded San Juan, which was an awesome fort.

ramparts overlooking the bay of San Juan

permanent 3 ft. long resident of fort

San Juan Bay from ramparts

There were 8 foot wide tunnels inside the walls connecting all the ramparts.  This was so the soldiers could move about while under attack.

one of many tunnels connecting stations

courtyard in center of fort

the west end of the fort which we did not walk the 1/2 mile to see

another shot of bay guarded by fort

 It was time to head to the airport and we got to see the prettiest site (to me) in PR, the bridge to the airport is lined with USA and PR flags, hope the picture shows the awesomeness.

makes me want to salute

After we dropped Mary and Taylor off at the airport we took Carl & Carrie to the grocery store to provision for their upcoming trip. A lot of stores in PR are multiple storied with parking on the ground floor and elevator to get you out with your purchases.  After dropping them off at the dinghy dock, Sally & I drove back to Patillas.

street in old San Juan

The following two weeks in Patillas were spent being lazy bums.  We wished for wi-fi, slept late,wished for wi-fi, did small boat chores, wished for wi-fi, rented a car to see the north coast we missed earlier, wished for wi-fi, went to eat & happy hour with Don & Janis Furness  and wished for wi-fi.

YOU TALKIN TO ME!

 The trip north was more rain forest and then a 2 hour drive through pot holed, 1 1/2 lane, hair pinned, unmarked mountain road to see the Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope seen in the movies, SETI, Contact & James Bond.  The 20 acre dish is located in a sinkhole several hundred feet deep.  IT WAS CLOSED until October, but no notice of the closure except by the gate guard.  We could not even take pictures except from the road more than a mile away.

the radio telescope tops;  the bottom of the dish is 600 ft below 

neat little waterfall at the curve of the narrow road with no pullout  was really nervous stopping for this

So, we went to the Rio Camuy Caves Park over the same type roads.  It was open and is a very neat cave, great formations inside  well lit and knowledgeable guides.

inside the cavern

 After coming back above ground, we found a credit union where despite two hours of broken spanish vs broken english vs internet, I got some much needed cash since NO ONE sent me any money to my Philippine account, despite how much I pleaded my dire situation.  Thanks bunches!!!

We were overstaying our welcome with the Furness’ so we motored on over to Culebra and anchored in a wonderful bay next to SV Oden, Sally’s Facebook friends and now mine.  

The rest of the mountains & yellow road

After a day of rest from the roller coaster road ride through the mountains, we drove the south interstate over to Porto Real to pick up Amazon packages they were holding for us.  Jose offered to bring them to us but he has done way too much for us already.  After we left there we drove to Mayaguez and started the eastbound yellow road (it is only yellow on the map) across the island  along the mountain ridge line. 

looking for the right road

finding the left road

start of the road in the lowlands

up into the rain forest and the ferns that grow with trunks like saplings

The roads were barely wide enough for two cars and filled with hairpin curves the locals refused to slow down for.  I held my breath many times as mirrors passed within 2 inches of colliding.  The women dented the floor stomping imaginary brakes and ruined my eardrums screaming.  It only took 5 minutes to give me a splitting headache.

I learned two (and many more) things on this trip, every Puerto Rican seems to have several roosters but few hens

one of the lonesome roosters looking!

and they are wasting a natural renewable building material in the giant bamboo that grows everywhere in the mountains.  I took a picture of Sally standing next to a clump to show you their size.

Sally in the bamboo forest

  Low rise buildings could easily be constructed using this bamboo. The Japanese used smaller bamboo for scaffolding to construct high rise buildings. Once dry and kept dry they will last as long as wood and have a better strength to weight ratio, just can't be sized like wood. 

There are banana, plantain,

wild planton

small banana farm

mango, guano, coconut and flowering trees everywhere the bamboo hasn't outgrown them.  Ferns grow large enough to completely cover a Volkswagen.

 

has to be a relative to stag horn fern

Your eyes get used to seeing all the different hues of green when you round a hairpin into scorching bright sunlight with a group of brightly colored houses hanging out over the edge of the mountain and then right back into the greens.  At first it was delightful but after four hours my eyes were aching and my ears from the women's screams and my shoulders & arms from whipping the wheel back and forth on curves.  I was ready to stop but we were only halfway.  Another 3 hours until a welcome session with Dr. Barcardi  to do his magic.

We had lunch in a quant little town called God only knows what,  in God only knows where, and ate God only knows what Puerto Rican food.  But the food was very good, the atmosphere good and the people very happy and welcoming.

looking for Dr. Barcardi!

Sent from my iPad

We start Puerto Rico

We arrived Puerto Patillas, dropped the hook and rested to prepare for the upcoming week.  We rented a room from Don & Janis Furness, a retired fireman from Sherman, TX and they also have a home on Lake Texoma.  I thought it ironic a fireman named Furness, guess you had to be here.

Don & Janis' gorgeous home in paradise 

We picked up Sally's sister Mary & grand-niece Taylor at San Juan at 6:00pm and was full dark by the time we found a restaurant.  On the way back to the south coast I made the mistake of listening to the gps and proceeded to leave the interstate and head cross country on the shortest route.  It actually turned out to send us through the rain forest on nothing but hairpin switchbacks through huge bamboo forests and hardwoods with vines hanging down over the road to where the traffic broke them.  We rolled the windows down so we could hear the tree frogs and night birds, it was sorta magical but Harrison Ford did not show.  I spent about an hour trying to get out of Pitallis and down to Don's.

Puerto Rico has a yellow (colored yellow on the map)brick road that runs the mountain range from the east coast to the west coast and we intend to see it all.  However, it is very difficult to follow cause either they didn't have enough road signs or someone took them, but we saw a lot more than the yellow road.  We started on a short run from the east coast over to the north south interstate and then down to Ponce for the fine art museum.  The road was just like last night, hairpin switchbacks but totally different in daylight bringing a lot more screams cause now they can see the vertical drops beside the road.

notice ferns on left side of road

bamboo and more ferns

no tarzan but plenty of vines

We passed up a bar/cafe named El Bambu and stopped at a gas station to fuel up.  When I asked about a restuarante they insisted we go back to the Bambu and it was a wonderful little place that almost spoke English.

El Bambu Restaurant & Bar

  Don't know what we ate but it was good and like nothing I had eaten before.  The museum was awesome and a must see for everyone that visits Puerto Rico. The building itself is world renown, winning many awards for the architect.

Ponce museum of fine art

Sally on what we hope is a bench!

old man with unbelievable detail, 600 years old

close up of same

he has a story to tell

fantastic


We finished the day with a trip to Wal-Mart

heading east from Coffin Island to Patillas

We got up fairly early and slowed down our start to listen to Chris Parkers weather, which changed during the night from nice to not good.  We were looking at squalls all morning with seas to 6' and winds to 20 knots out of the east which is where we are going.  Knowing we were going to be hammered if we left, we decided to head out anyway since we only have two more days till Sally's sister arrives and we need to meet her.  Before y'all start sending me messages about how Davy Jones locker is filled to the brim with people that had to get somewhere, this is not our first adverse conditions rodeo nor will it be our last.  This is only a tack hammer and we have been hit with a sledge before!

We upped anchor at 0630 and headed out into the rain.  The wind soon got up to 18 knots gusting to 24 and eventually made it to 26 gusting to 32 and the waves up to 8' at about 5 seconds.  It never once was uncomfortable cause the waves were always with the wind. It the height of the squall I looked over and saw a fisherman running his lines in what could only have been a 12' rowboat and I'm worried in a 41'!  Has a calming effect.

fisherman running lines in weather.  Pic is him on top of wave, 2 seconds later he disappeared for 10 sec.

 When the wind peaked we saw an anchorage called Gilligan's Island (swear fo God) and we decided to head in and wait it out since we were now down to 1.3 knots forward.  I looked at the time and it was 0930 exactly 3 hours since we left so I decided under no circumstances was I going to Gilligan's Island for a 3 hour tour, so we headed right back out.  Besides I want to keep Ginger in my fantasies just as they are, not with her 55 years older, double ugh!

Within 5 minutes of turning the wind and waves calmed  to 14 knots and 3 ft waves so we had a smooth ride till noon when it started picking back up.  We headed over Caja De Muertos Island to anchor in a very protected anchorage at a state park.  Now Sally tells me this island is called coffin island by the locals!

anchorage at sw end of coffin island

We got  off at 0630 and headed east into what looked like a waiting squall but it rained itself out before we got there.

wasn't meant for us

 However, mother nature was paying close attention to our apprehension and released the 1100 winds at 0800.  It wasn't a bad ride though Sally didn't enjoy it and pointed out every anchorage on the chart just in case I wanted to stop and wait it out.  We saw a shut down nuclear plant, a recycling incinerator/generator, a wind farm with 45 huge windmills and the cleanest coal burning generator in the USA, all in 8 hours.

one of four wind farms on P.R.

 Google says the windmills cost an average of 10 million each so it was some expensive swamp land.  I thought they were foolish to mount them down at sea level instead on the mountaintop.  When I got east and looked back I realized the wind would flow through them and be forced up the 2500' mountain behind them, probably doubling the effective force of the wind. We arrived at our destination about 1330  and dropped the anchor in a quiet (during the week) little town Puerto Patillas where Sally found an apartment to rent for her sister, courteous of her mentor Ed Carter.  I started not to mention him cause his head is close to exploding already but you got to give the devil his due!

Anchorage at Don & Janis', their house is aqua with purple trim & seawall.  just behind 1st sailboat

We were motoring along and realized we hadn't seen Bocaron so we turned around

YEAH , , , RIGHT. . . You believe that then I  can sell you my ocean front property in Arizona!

We were motoring along just fine and the closer we got to the corner of the Island the higher the wind and waves.  But 3' waves with 7 knots of wind forecast, no problem, but then the wind topped 18 knots with gusts to 27 knots on our nose slowed us to 2.3 knots when we should be at 6.5 - 7 knots at 2400 rpm.  Then the tenth waves started breaking over the bow, when the third in a row sent water & foam half way up the wind screen, I tucked tail and ran into the protected anchorage at Boqueron.  It is not as protected as Pescaderia but much much closer and when you are being hammered close counts.

getting hammered

Boqueron town and anchorage

As we were leaving Pescaderia Marina, Vannesa, the manager of the fish market gave me her lucky hook to catch mahi-mahi with.  As soon as we left the harbor the lure was in the water.  The hooks luck was as good as the weather forecast, I only caught two seaweed bass which I will try to filet the next ones,  Maybe tomorrow!

We got up for a leisurely start at 7:15 and motored out to round the southwestern tip of the Island to proceed with our trip.  I had both trolling poles out and once again caught my limit of seaweed bass.  Someday I will learn how to filet them, but not today.  A dolphin escorted us out of the bay and another around the tip, we hoped they were good omens.  Once we rounded the Southeast tip of P.R. we had a clear view of Fat Albert, the nickname for the USCG blimp.  They are tethered and can be stationed from 500 ft to 45,000 ft and are a down looking radar platform to catch smugglers trying to evade normal radar.

Fat Albert on duty at about 3,000 ft.

At 8:05 I received an email from a couple I met on the dock at FYC when I was working on Encore.  They are Chuck & Micki Harding who have homes in Michigan and Puerto Rico and I will copy the email below.  Of course it was too late to heed today but tomorrow I hope for a daybreak start since the outlet is marked "caution narrow pass use only in ideal conditions"

"Welcome to the Eastern Caribbean and the PR SLOG. Tip: leave very early and take small bites daily...about til 11 AM, then get in protection and let it blow the rest of the day. It's called the Gentleman's  path and will keep you and ur boat out of the repair shop!"      Thank you Chuck!

At 1100 hrs sharp the wind picked up to 18 kts gusting to 24 with waves 4' - 5' at 4 - 5 seconds, just like sailing in the Gulf of Mexico in a storm, but it didn't make me homesick!  We tucked into our planned anchorage at Cayo Enrique and watched the waves crash over the reef in front of us instead of the bow of Encore.  I rowed the dinghy a half mile in 20 knot head winds to the beach only to find it was coral and volcanic rock.

the beautiful white sand beach I worked so hard to get to

 I walked it anyway and saw some interested stuff. I took a few pictures through the lookie bucket just to see if it would work.  One of the stuffs was a grub looking creature 2" - 3 " diameter and 6" - 10" long.

 I first thought it was a dead tuber in the water till it moved.  If it had moved fast I would have hurt myself.