We left Salinas at 9:30 am and returned shortly after reaching the open waters because the auto helm  was not working.  It would be no fun making an overnight passage to Mayaguez with out the help of that auto helm.  Although our first year of cruising, we did an entire 6 months of passing back and forth and all around the Bahamas without one.  We are spoiled now.

Will was able to check the connections, and we cruised around the harbor testing it out.  It works so we left the harbor again at 11:30.  The winds were favorable and with just a little bit of the jib out, we were cruising along at 6 knots.  We were rolling quite a bit and the wind was gusting close to 30 knots, so anchored on the lee side of Coffin Island....Isla Caja de Muertos to Puerto Ricans.  It was crowded with the weekend boaters, but after many attempts to set the anchor, we ate turkey sausage wraps for dinner at 4:00 and end at 7:00.

Will was up and ready at 10:00 pm so I helped in pull the anchor and get the jib set, then I went back to bed.  After making his solo sail from Grenada to St. Thomas, he has learned to love night sailing alone.  He sets his cell phone on the brim of his cap and has the alarm set to go off every 15 minutes. If he falls asleep he his awakened and checks radar, visually spans the horizon, checks on sails, then dozes off again.

I was up at 3:00 am and relieved him of his upright sleeping position.  He slept until 5:45 I woke him with a question about a mark on the Garmin.  We had coffee and motor sailed the rest of the way to Mayaguez with calm seas and light winds.

We were anchored in Mayaguez harbor across from the baseball stadium by 11:30.  We are close to the Nautical Sport Bar where we met our Puerto Rican friend Rooster last year.  But before we can go looking for him, we venture to the fishing dock to go to the grocery store....one more time.  It was treacherous trying to tie up as the northern swells were pushing us towards the shore.   But we made it and found bags of oranges, grapefruits, and pizza crusts at very reasonable prices.  On our return ride back in the dinghy we were in a small rain storm, so everyone was wet.

The rest of this story with our adventures with Rooster will come later.

It is now 9:00 am on April 6th and we are preparing to make our trip to the Bahamas.  Last night while we were having dinner and saying good bye to our friends, the clouds opened up and rained for over an hour.  We had left the back hatch open so our bed was soaked thru to the mattress.  Everything has ben hanging out to dry since 7:00 this morning.  We want to get under way by 10:00, so I must stop now.......I will post pictures later.  The full moon pictures are awesome.

Later