My last stop in Puerto Rico before going on to the Dominican Republic. I was expecting it to be a bit rough especially around Cabo Rojo, the southwestern Cape. I weighed anchor at 0730. I could sail away from the anchor again. The wind was around force 5-6 gusting to around force 8. A weird combination of wind from astern and waves from abeam made this a very uncomfortable trip. Behind the cape the waves became much smaller but the wind did not let off.
There is a very narrow entrance channel into bay of Puerto Real. We had the wind on the nose so I decided that this time the engine would have to help. It was blowing 30 knots in the bay and my first anchoring attempt failed. I had dropped the anchor much too close to a wreck and was now drifting onto it. In a slight state of panic I managed to get anchor up in time to run back to the cockpit and manoeuvre way from the wreck. At the second attempt the anchor seemed to hold fine. I was very tired. Phoned the authorities who told me that I would need to check in via the app which I did.
A dinghy came by and I was invited to attend Barbara’s birthday party in a bar on the shore. But being a bit exhausted I decided to stay home and go to sleep.
A professional skipper named Michael came by the next morning and we talked a bit. He was very impressed with Amy’s simplicity and solidness. I was happy.
I went to shore to check out the town and I liked it very much. It was basically built around the little harbour and most houses had some kind of dock. I bought some groceries and had a beer in the fish store and sat on their dock drinking and enjoying life.
The following morning Barbara came by for a coffee. She was apparently fairly new to sailing and had delivered her own boat to this place together with Michael. They had also done a very similar trip to the one that was lying before me and so I was able to ask a few questions. After that I cleaned Amys bottom for 3 hours. There was a lot of growth again but I got it very clean.
I then went to shore again, bought some more provisions and got water. I also checked out of Puerto Rico and got my exit zarpe for the Dominican Republic. After that I visited Barbara on her 40 something ft Beneteau and had a beer and she told me that when I got to Bermuda I could use her private mooring because she would be staying in the Caribbean. Wow, what a great coincidence.
I still had some things to do on the boat to get Amy and myself ready for the three day trip to Luperón and the dreaded Mona passage.
