Big Steps, Don’t Look Back!

Eventually we had to leave our little Puerto Real hidey-hole and make a move (anti-clockwise) along Puerto Rico’s windswept south coast where anchorages are plenty, though mostly behind protective coral islands and reefs.  You’ve just got to get into them!  The Trades, of course, were showing signs of settling into their regular routine here – a jolly decent easterly blowing madly during the day (on the nose) and nightly calms.  That translates to sailing (well perhaps motoring) in unknown waters – at night.  On local advice and to ensure a Thornless Path*, we decided to leave early but not necessarily hit all the stops; just to get the mileage done in big steps…    

We left Puerto Real at 3am, rounded Cape Rojo to meet more relaxed, but still existent winds and, using the night island lee, arrived at our destination, Ensenada, before 9am in calm waters.  We were surprised to find a rural village with a peaceful anchorage tucked in the mangroves and all to ourselves.  Now this may have had something to do with the imposing fertilizer factory in the large bay next over, but, as with Puerto Real, it was nice to be amongst locals.  Roosters crowed, dogs barked, builders hammered a damaged jetty (and could they talk - in Spanish!) and vehicles roared by, but we slept on.  Then, naturally, we stayed an extra day to recover, and to watch manatees, with their big whiskery noses, snuffling about in the mangroves.  Oh dear! We were quickly learning about slowing down “island time”.   

Ensenada was once a well-off sugar producing area 

Our next departure was set for a slightly earlier (after-dinner) slot.  It was dark when we glided by Gilligan’s Island, not seeing much at all.  “Well, perhaps next time!” said GS.  The weather gods were kind to us though and we had a reasonable motor so gave Ponce (PR’s second largest city) a miss and made for Salinas.  Rather than attempt the narrow channel into Salinas in the dark, we threw out the anchor amongst the mangroves and yet again, crashed for some shut-eye.  A few hours later, the Cap’n guided us into possibly the world’s most challenging fuel dock before we re-anchored out amongst abandoned hurricane hulks, long-term live-aboards and more shy manatees to recover.  At least our Cap’n found time to relax here with a little spot of snorkelling over coral.

Salinas Sunset

Our final stop before tackling the challenging east coast was Puerto Patillas, once a quiet fishing village, now a local beach destination with Mr Whippy, local bars & restaurants, families celebrating Mother’s Day and the usual Sunday crowd out for a good time.  WJ3 became the go-to rounding mark for “I-can-go-faster-than-you” jet ski hire patrons.  Whilst we enjoyed the exuberant spirit of this crowd, we soon decided enough was enough and it was time to make a break for the hopefully quieter Virgins.  Well, not before well-wishers came by to bid us a cheery Mother’s Day too!  

Ahh! The early morning calm before the (Mothers Day) Sunday picnic storm...

After the flat, shelf-like coastline of Puerto Rico’s north coast, it came as quite a surprise to see the rugged south and east coasts.  Travelling at night had not allowed us to fully take in the lush landscape of this mountainous island.  “Well, perhaps next time!” said GS.  

*Bruce Van Sant's, 2006 “The Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South”.  It's a bit of a cruiser's bible now....sadly no longer published.