May 12-13, 2010... And, Further East

Wednesday morning we had the anchor up by 6am and were underway for Ponce where we had an appointment for watermaker parts.  Our salinity probe failed and a new one awaited us there.  The trip was pretty good, though the trades did kick up and take us for a ride.  Good though to be sailing again.  And remember tacking?  Yup.  We did that too.  We arrived in Ponce and anchored off the yacht club.  We had more fun anchoring in 20 knot winds, but the anchor held.  Hail Rocna.  Luis Santos of Maritime Sanitation arrived and walked John through a whole bunch of stuff -- they were busy with the watermaker for hours.  In the end, Patti was out of a job as the substitute human salinity probe.  Luis left and we settled into to dinner as the malecon (boardwalk) woke up and the music started.  We decided to leave in the wee hours for Salinas as we weren't thrilled with the Ponce anchorage and its view of the industrial port, and we wanted to make tracks east.

Thursday morning we left Ponce at 4am.  As we were right next to the ship channel, we had pretty good navigation aids and it was no sweat getting going.  The reason we wanted to leave early was to get as much easting done before daylight.  We had stronger winds than expected, but they were out of the northeast making our voyage pretty easy.  We stuck pretty close to the coast and that kept the seas lower.  All in all, we had a terrific little 20-mile journey and had the anchor down in Salinas by 9am (after boring holes in the water in Rincon Bay for 45 minutes as we waited for the end of the watermaking session -- we didn't want to make water in Salinas as it is a mangrove area and the silt would clog our filters.)  Just after we arrived a small squall blew through and John and Galen ran out on deck for fresh water washdowns!  Somehow showering is more fun when it is in the rain.  John and Patti jumped in the kayak for an exploratory paddle after dropping Galen off at the dock where he started his hike.  Afternoon naps all around.  Dinner out tonight!

12 May:  Ponce:  +17° 57' 57.78", -66° 37' 13.86"

13 May:  Salinas:  +17° 57' 14.52", -66° 17' 31.02"