Checking in with customs was a breeze with my fabulous US cruising license. I took a 10km walk into the town of Ponce along a highway in the incredible heat. The walk itself wasn’t very nice but Ponce is very beautiful and the effort was definitely worth it. After that I went halfway back to a huge supermarket, went shopping and got a SIM card. I shlepped everything home along the highway to the boat. At the Fishermans Marina I had a beer and watched some pelicans.
The next day it was off for a fairly short 18M trip to Gilligan’s Island, another fairly quiet bay behind a huge coral reef. I cast off the lines from the buoy and sailed away through the anchorage.The wind was perfect but we had fairly nasty wave on the beam. The entrance through the reef looked a bit scary and I double checked the charts and to a bearing on land to get it right. Here was a second reef behind the first one and because of all the waves it was impossible to see where the actual reefs were. I had to trust that the charts were right again. They were and I was able to sail all the way into the bay where I met the Australian couple. I was able to drop the anchor under sail again so here was another day that went by without ever starting the engine.
I was invited for dinner by the Australians and we had a very enjoyable evening. While we sat in the cockpit of their catamaran we saw a large stingray jump out of the water. Something I had never seen and it was quite an experience.
I had expected the place to be totally quiet because of the reefs. But somehow the swell food its way in and the night was very rolly and although the bay was beautiful I was very ready to sail on the next morning.
