Salinas, April 13-21, 2009

Just an update--We are still here in Salinas enjoying the town with its great empanadillos, deep-fried turnovers stuffed with crab, shrimp, lobster or beef. We've had the good fortune to meet several old friends here such as Wandering Albatross, whom we met in Buenos Aires last summer, Slow Mocean whom we met in Charleston in June of 2007 and Tevai whom we knew from the Caribbean last spring. This seems to be a crossroads for those going south and those going north. 

We rented a car and drove to Ponce about 1/2 hour away. We were there 38 years ago and wow, has it changed. The downtown area has spruced up and is very attractive as a tourist site.

We also drove to San Juan in search of--you guessed it--boat parts. The drive across Puerto Rico was lovely. There are some mountains quite green with several large stands of bamboo. We stopped and had roasted pork at an outdoor restaurant. We were intrigued by the propietor's lopping off some meat with a machete and using a paper plate to catch the grease spills. The pork was delicious.

Our mended sail is now back on the mast so tomorrow we hope to move on.

Puerto Rico April 1-12

Once again weather prevented our leaving Los Roques until April 1. Even then it wasn't perfect, but we thought we could go ahead and head for Puerto Rico. Although it was a rough ride to start with compounded by several boat problems, it did calm down considerably as predicted. We managed to keep going after having to take down our battenless mainsail after only six hours of our 72-hour trip. Our starboard engine clogged up; the newer wind generator collapsed in the middle of the first night in rough seas; then the port engine cable broke. Fortunately, Mike was able to repair the starboard engine and rescue the wind generator. However, we had hoped for a more pleasant sail instead of a motorsail.

We are now in Salinas a lovely, laid back little town where we've had the good fortune to meet up with several sailing friends including Wandering Albatross, Tevai, Child's Play and Ti Punch. We've also discovered carne empanadillas—spicey beef turnovers-at La Barkita, a tiny outdoor cafe near the anchorage.

We also found a wonderful sailmaker who is mending our sails. Hopefully, we will be ready to move on towards the end of next week.

Back to the East, March 16-31

Before leaving Spanish Waters in Curacao, we often saw sights like this—sailing schools for anyone.

The beach bars nearby, though not cheap, had excellent local food like fried mero—grouper, one of our favorites, with morro—beans and rice.

On March 3, we managed to successfully travel to Bonaire where we spent a few days waiting for weather. The trip was not a pleasant one as the seas were lumpy and the wind out of the east made it unsailable.

On March 16, we successfully left Bonair. Arriving in Sotavento, we were thrilled to find beauty and solitude except for the nearby fishermen. They came over at our call and traded a wonderful lobster for a small bottle of rum

and a pack of cigarettes. Such a deal!

Onto Barlovento, the next island in the Aves...The water was beautiful with tall scraggly mangroves harboring lots and lots of birds.

Red-footed boobies, frigates and pelicans swarmed amongst the trees, daring us to get any closer to their sanctuary. They squawked loudly as we snorkeled in to check out the reef close by, and we got the message!

A couple of other boats came in the following day, but still it was a very quiet anchorage. By Saturday the weather seemed reasonably accommodating for our 35 mile push onward to Los Roques. Of course, it turned out to be another lumpy, bumpy motorsail, but we were anxious to move on. Our first night in Elbert Cay was miserable with opposing wave actions rocking the boat every whichway unmercifully. The next day we moved onto Carenero, a lovely spot where we again had the good fortune to find the local lobsterman. He traded us a loster for coffee

which we took back the following day to his wife and daughter.

On to Francisqui , another island in the Roques, to wait for weather and get protection from the 13' swell due over the weekend.