Blog 038 – Puerto Rico and The Spanish Virgin Islands-Part 1

This has been Liana’s favorite. She has a connection with this country that is hard to put into words. Her father, Fredrick Juan Diaz was born here to Zotorita and Emiliano. The story is one of angry in-laws and kidnapping and a grand adventure of a young boy caught between a family war. His mother, young and in love with his father; but it was a forbidden love. Zotorita’s parents refused to let them be together and eventually drove them apart, wanting to take young Fredrick away from his father. In what could only be described as an act of love for his only son, he kidnapped him and brought him by steamship to America in the early 1920’s. They had very little but Emiliano was a gambler and they traveled clear across the United States and even into Mexico. With their dark skin and being able to speak fluent Spanish they felt right at home even in Mexico. Life was hard and dangerous back then for a gambler. By horseback they traveled from town to town, at one point young Fredrick was shot in the leg as they were escaping on horseback from some kind of trouble. I remember him showing me the scar and telling the story as he remembered it. Not much is known about Emiliano because by early teens Fredrick was on his own. He eventually lied about his age joined the military and after many years and duty stations that stretched from Alaska to the little Island of Guam in the Pacific, he retired from the Air Force. Liana took care of him at our home his last year in 2000.

Liana often told me of how she wanted to visit Puerto Rico and see this place her Father came from – part of her heritage. I promised one day I would take her here. It took me 22 years to make good on that promise and here we are now. To me it was even more special because we sailed here on our own boat. Liana was so excited to see Puerto Rico we pulled out all the stops and we were flying downwind making fantastic time. We conquered the dreaded Mona Passage wing-in-wing and by early afternoon we pulled ahead of the pack. We dropped anchor a few hundred yards off shore just ahead of the team who came in behind us.

Harbor at Boqueron

We came into Boqueron in the evening as the sun was setting on the horizon. An orange sky lit up the palms that laced the pristine white sand beach. The first impression was just fantastic. A quaint little town with bright colorful Caribbean style homes and businesses, clean streets, high mountains in the background, along with palm trees and lush greenery everywhere. That night we all cheered and yelled and celebrated a great passage together. We toasted our safe arrival and then went to sleep. The next day we all took a taxi to Mayaguez about 45 minutes away. It was the closest place that we could check in to the country. Puerto Rico is definitely part the United States. We all noticed the modern main streets and the fast food restaurants we all recognized.

After we were legal we enjoyed a night on the town. Boqueron is a sleepy little village during the week. Then on the weekends around 7:00 pm all of a sudden the night life cranks up. Live music, karaoke, restaurants and bars with people pouring out into the sidewalks. Everyone happy and laughing and having a good time. And not just young single people. Entire families, grandparents, parents with kids and babies in strollers all mingling around and walking in the middle of the streets.

I remember two young boys playing baseball in the street. They had to be about 9 or 10 but you would swear they were in a major league game and up to bat with the national title on the line. This boy would get his feet in position, set his hands on the bat, look way out over the fence and point his bat to let the pitcher know just where he was sending that ball. He would tap the make-believe plate, spit some make-believe chewing tobacco, cock his head to the side and intimidate the pitcher. As soon as the pitcher let that ball go this kid smacked the ball out of the park and then tossed the bat like a pro. We watched this over and over, it was quite entertaining. Ok, he did not hit it out of the park, just over the street light. And it wasn’t an actual bat, it was plastic and the ball was rubber, but this kid will be in the Big League someday, mark my words…

Then we wandered over and watched karaoke in the middle of another part of the street. A big crowd had gathered and everyone was singing along in Spanish. We even tried fresh oysters and hot sauce. We bought a few dozen and partook of the local cuisine. It was good.. sorta like swallowing a large booger covered in hot sauce. Oh well, so I am not yet a big fan – but I didn’t chicken out. The street tacos were more to my liking. By midnight we were exhausted and we all piled into the dingy and went back to our boats.

After a day or so we had a good weather window to get around Cabo Rojo and we took it. Just as twilight was breaking we all started our diesels. Our sail that morning was light until we got into the open waters offshore of Cabo Rojo. This is a rock outcropping forming a natural protected harbor behind it. Atop its sheer rock face is a light house. The wind really perked up as we rounded the cape. We were sailing along at a nice clip and the seas were starting to build but we were not staying out there very long. Our destination was Phosphorescent Bay. It’s a bay inside a very narrow channel and is quite protected by several reefs. John has been here before so he took Kaya Moya in first, followed by Sea Ya. Liana and I stayed outside until they were sure we had enough water to get Silhouette inside. It turned out none of us could make it in. Silt had shallowed the entrance to just a few feet deep. So we all dropped anchor in a protected bay along a mangrove island close by.

Just then John got a phone call and we were going to have visitors – Nigel and Miss Kitty. Nigel and John have been friends forever and an unusual turn of events put them within driving distance. The previous evening we overheard a distress call from a power boat that lost all propulsion and was adrift and requiring towing services. The Coast Guard was asking for assistance from anyone in the area. John recognized Miss Kitty’s voice on the radio and he knew they were making a delivery of the boat from hell. This distress call was that boat! They had engine problems, electrical problems, steering problems, navigation equipment failures. The boat had to be towed into Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Nigel and Miss Kitty are professional delivery captains and as we found out over dinner this was not the worst delivery they had been on.

Miss Kitty told us the story of one delivery that Nigel had fallen down a hatch during an intense storm and lay paralyzed on the salon floor for six days while Miss Kitty single-handed the boat, steering the Swan sailboat through a storm for six straight days. She even had to take on extra fuel underway from an assisting ship which was a feat in itself. Trying to get fuel on a sailboat while the seas were raging and from a humongous tanker, while Nigel lay unable to move the entire trip. She even fed him and tended to his medical needs until they could get him to a hospital. Miss Kitty you are quite the sailor! Our hats are off to you.

Nigel, John, Miss Kitty

After drinks and dinner and long after dark we made a night dingy run to Phosphorescent Bay to see the bioluminescence. It wasn’t the best night for viewing them but we sure had a lot of fun. Early the next morning we bid Nigel and Miss Kitty goodbye and pulled up our anchors once again on our way to Guilligan’s Island.

Guilligan’s Island

Guilligan’s Island

Guilligan’s Island

Guilligan’s Island

Yes, its that Guilligan’s Island. We walked around the island and it was filled with iguanas of all sizes. Then in the afternoon while I was working on the windlass a swarm of the most evil and horrifying mosquitos came down and mugged us before we could get inside and close all the hatches. It took us hours to kill all the ones that got in and days to stop scratching. We won’t soon forget Guilligan’s Island.

We gladly left this place at first light headed for Caja de Muertos or Coffin Island. It’s one of the islands talked about in Pirates of the Caribbean. Well, the wind and waves turned us away just short of our destination. The waves were building and we were making very little progress towards the island so Team Doctor all got on channel eleven and decided to pull into Ponce instead. We anchored out off the marina. The wind was going to blow like this for a few days and we were all low on food so we decided it was time to provision. Since there was six of us, we rented a van and all piled in for a run to the grocery stores. We had purposely allowed our freezer to empty out so we could shut it down while we were gone to Cabo San Lucas when we were back in Luperon. It is the biggest electrical load on the batteries and we wanted to have as little going as possible while we were away. Now it was time to fill it back up. By late that night there was no more room in the van and we had piled supplies on or in between everyone.

Since we already had the van we decided to keep it another day and go on a fun road trip up over the mountain into San Juan. Sea Ya also needed an alternator that could be found in the city. So off we went. This was our first real look at the beauty of the interior of Puerto Rico. What a wonderful country, full of steep mountains and valleys. On our way back we took the road less traveled. It winds, via hair-pin turns, straight up the cliff face and along the ridge top, almost constantly dangling off steep cliffs. The houses, schools, churches and bars also hung from the cliffs. Each little mountain community had loud music blaring from the bars along the way. We saw 50’ bamboo trees and listened to tree frogs so loud they sounded like birds raising a ruckus. Very late that night we climbed in the dingy and made our second nighttime ride across the wind swept bay to our boats.

Yauco-City of Coffee

John at Yauco

Yauco

Yauco

The next morning before we returned the van, John and Liana and I took one last sight-seeing adventure to the nearby town of Yauco-city of coffee, also known for its colorful hillside houses. Being coffee lovers, Liana and I are always searching for the worlds best cup of coffee. This town is build into a very steep hillside that was once covered in coffee plantations. The houses are the most colorful of all the houses we have seen in the Caribbean. It was stunning to see the beautiful colors from afar. Pictures can’t tell the real story. We wandered through the park in the town square and enjoyed some coffee – not the worlds best but still pretty good. We took pictures of houses on streets so steep we could hardly believe people could park their cars on them and walk away. We hiked a stairway to a statue of an island warrior and took in the view clear to the deep blue Caribbean sea.

We headed out early in the morning for Salinas a protected hurricane hole. A group of power boats were coming out as we were going in and the salsa music played so loud it could take the paint off your boat. Salinas was a beautiful anchorage full of life. Marinas and restaurants and bars, powerboats, sail boats, fishing boats all floating in this lovely bay surrounded by mangroves with mountains in the background. This is a wild weekend getaway place for the locals and the party boats leave here ten at a time all blaring music and having fun as they head out to a few of the islands just outside the bay.

Bajo de Almodovar

Stay tuned for part 2 …