There were many reefs along the way and I was a bit anxious to navigate around them during the night but the chart said there would be lit buoys. So I was relieved to find those buoys in place and being lit. There was very little wind but I didn’t want to motor and I needed to spend at least 12 hours for the trip anyway so that I would arrive in the light. There were almost no waves so the trip went very smooth and easy.
The wind picked up at dawn and it was already blowing force 5 again when I dropped anchor in Puerto Patillas. There were two other boats, both Puerto Rican.
I took a while to scan the coastline to find a place where I could land the dinghy. I didn’t want to rig the outboard for just one day so I rowed across against the wind. At the beach I met a gentleman who said it would be ok to leave the dinghy here and he also told me the way into town. There was on shop a half hour walk away and coming back I was hoping to be able to use the internet in a bar. The manager came and told me that he was really sorry but it was a closed system and he couldn’t give me access although he would like to. He felt so bad about it that he went out of his way to help. He proposed to drive me 10 miles to the next town which I refused. Then he bought me a beer and we talked a bit. One of his employees was also a professional skipper and I got to use his phone as a hotspot. I was beginning this place very much. Walking back towards the beach doing a little hike to the coral reel on the outside of the bay I came past another bar. I asked them for internet and they shared the password of their private connection (they lived upstairs). I had a bit to eat and a few “medallas” (the local beer) and tried in vain to check in with the CBP app.
The wind died during the night and I slept very well. The bay was supposed to be full of manatees but unfortunately I didn’t see any. The next morning I rowed across again. Had a bit longer conversation with a fisherman after I asked if I could take a coconut from the beach and got some water from the faucet in the public park. When I came back there was another coconut in my dinghy.