Puerto rico....sitting at anchor today next to the Cabo Rojo lighthouse.  It is located on top of 200-foot limestone cliffs overlooking the Caribbean Sea.  It  marks the south-west tip of Puerto Rico. Built in 1881 by the Spanish government, it was renovated in 2007 and painted the original grey and white.

We left Mayaguez on Tuesday the 18th and arrived in Boqueron after a leisurely three hour trip along the western coast.  The town is a party spot for university students and Puerto Rican bohemians.  Weekends are wild but during the week most businesses and restaurants are closed.  So our trip into town was quiet and peaceful.  There is a mile long beach that we walked with Bentley.

By Friday the stores and restaurants were starting to open.  We took two trips in on Friday...one for lunch where we sat in a town square next to a traditional home that had the cutest little windows on the second floor.  Our entertainment was watching two men load 20 pound bags of empy beer cans onto a truck.  this obviously was not the first time this has been done.

Our second trip in was seeking out pinchos which are strips of meat on a stick, grilled and a hunk of bread at the end.  Delicious.  We stopped for a photo op and Bentley decided it was time.  I laughed so hard, but not nearly as hard until I saw the picture.  I had not finished putting on my top over my bathing suit.

My facebook friends have already had a good laugh at this one!!!

We left Bogueron on Saturday hoping to continue our trip along the southern coast of Puerto Rico, but the winds are were strong.  We will just sit tight and wait....we have time.  As we wait we try to do little boat projects, but we have a Bentley problem to figure out.  Some where along our walks, he sat in a wad of gum.

We miss you all and will keeep you posted.  Thanks for following us along our way.

Arrived in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico at 2:30 am after a 37 hour crossing.  The highlight of the trip was seeing a humpback whale just after we left the Samana Bay.

Our trip was wonderful for most of the time as we were able to sail.  Only on Friday did we lose our wind and had to motor in seas that were uncomfortable.  But it is the last long passage between ports we have to make for a long time.  This is Will's account of the crossing.....

"We were able to sail on a close reach in 12 knot breeze for the first 14 hours, although we were forced Northeast by the wind and current. Then we motorsailed with main for about the next 12 hours, when the wind died, leaving us motoring--and rolling--in the swell left by the wind. The wind picked up enough to use the main to stabilize the boat for the last half day motorsailing Southeast to Mayaguez, dropping anchor in the wee hours of the second night out."

Mayaguez is a large city with many universities, a professional baseball stadium, lots of street vendors, horses, and friendly people.  We found a great grocery store and stopped at one of the food vendors on our first day in town.

Our second day in town took us to a dingy dock that looked private, but we thought we would give it a try.  We asked politely if we could leave our dingy. Of course, no one spoke English, but we were assured it was okay to leave it there.  We took a cab to the Mayaguez mall and renewed our AT&T sim card for the iPad and then shopped at a Spanish Wal Mart.  That was too much for both of us. A

cab ride back to our little private bar and we ordered a beer.  Rooster, the manager, bought the beers for us and has now become our best friend in Puerto Rico.  He feed us chips and soup and made us feel so welcome.  Many of the other locals hanging out bought us beers also.  We left in our dingy having paid not one dime for anything to eat or drink, and not one cent for the dingy landing.

Our third day was another trip to the grocery store and back to our favorite watering hole.  We gave Rooster one of the only eggcups I had on board the boat.  It was pink with a rooster on it.  After drinking more beers at no charge again, we said goodbye to our new friends and headed back to the boat.  About 7:30 we heard an engine and sure enough we had visitors.  Rooster and Luis wanted to give us a plague that was a fishing award.  Rooster wanted us to have it to remember him by.  We will never forget him and promised to return again some day

Fond memories of these people and their city!

We arrived at Puerto Bahia Marina on February 11th and enjoyed two wonderful days here.  It has helped us forget our 50 hour trip to get here.

We left Luberon on Sunday, February 9th, 4 hours later than we planned because of problems being cleared out of there.  Richard, the main man boarded our boat with two compatriots, and he proceeded to try to take our droid phone and our portable VHF radio.  The captain firmly stated that we needed them, so NO he couldn't have them.  That was after a $2,000 peso pay off the night before.  But we left the harbor at 11:00 am leaving behind our great friends Jon, Susan, and Sylvio.

For our crossing we had stronger than expected winds in the 20+ knot range and we motor tacked in uncomfortable seas till after midnight.  Winds died down and we motored sailed in calmer seas until morning when we reached Cabo Frances Viego.

Monday was much calmer in winds and seas and we enjoyed passing along the coast line of the DR.
Off of Cubo Cabron about 5:30 pm, we turned off the engine and heaved to....which meant we drifted in the open water and rested.  We actually watched a video and had dinner.  We slept a little, and then started engine again at 1:00 am.  Quiet morning sail into Samana harbor and i to our slip by 1:30 pm.

Puerto Bahia marina was like a 5 star resort and we soon forgot about the two uncomfortable nights we had getting here.  We enjoyed the pools, restaurants, the laundry, and walking around the grounds.
It will be hard to leave here!!

Santiago....a city of a million people in the central part of Dominican Republic.  We got to visit the city yesterday.  We went with our friends Susan and Jon in Nino's taxi. Lots of beautiful countryside with mountains and valleys, a tunnel, and plenty of little motor cycles, goats, and cows.  We visited a monument that honors many special people in bronze statues.  We aren't sure who is on top of the dome giving the touchdown symbol.

We all thought it would be a short stay in Luperon, so we did as much exploring of the town as we could in three days.  We found two local gringo cafes that had internet....Wendy's and JR's....our favorite being the later.  We found cheap places for lunch and dinner...our favorite being Robert's upper deck.  We had a home cooked meal as we watched Ann and Ramona prepare our food in the kitchen.  We were the only customers and were delighted to have beers, wine, and tasty dinners all for $1,175 pesos...which is about $28.00 in American money.  Mero is grouper, lambi is conch, and pollo is chicken and all served with salads and fried plantains!

After dinner we walked to the Navy station on the hill and checked out with Richard the commondant that boarded our boat the first day.  We were free to leave at sunrise Saturday morning.  And we did!

We arrived at Ocean World marina by noon, and Jamie was packed and off the boat quickly.  First some laundry and then he was off on his dream vacation..off to Cabarette,  DR...the wind surfing capital!   He had his eye on this spot since we called and asked him to join us in San Salvador.   We were happy he had his dream come true and look forward to hearing about his adventure.

Ocean World is like a miniture Nassau with swimming with the dolphin exhibits for $169.   The marina fees for us were $1.66 per foot...to much for our pocket books.  So with Jamie gone and a 40-50 hour passage to Puerto Rico, we decide to head east on Sunday morning.  We tacked successfully all day in 20 knot winds and 6 foot seas.  We arrived at a resort bay named Sosua and anchored near a 1/2 mile stretch of beach filled with beach umbrellas from one end to the other.   The mountain in the picture looks like a cloud.

The anchorage has no protection so we rocked and rolled throughout the night.  We listened to the  latest weather report and their was night a good weather window to continue....that meant 20 knot plus winds for at least another week out of the east!  Should we stay here for a week?  Should we go back to Luperon?  Ocean World was out of our budget!  Should we just go back to the Bahamas?  We opted for Luperon!

We arrived back to Luperon anchorage at about 1:30 pm and rechecked in.   Our friends on Toi Et Moi as well as our friend Sylvio on Avanti were surprised to see us.

Well a week has gone by and we are still here.  I caught a virus and was sick for most of the week.  Will has been able to continue working on boat projects as I try to feel better.  No photos of me in bed sick thank goodness.  We have had strong winds in this protected harbor, so I am sure they are even stronger out there in the ocean!

Looks like we will be here until the beginning of next week.

Luberon, Dominican Republic....we have arrived. Mountains surround this hurricane hole harbor. We are here with about 30 other boats, some with cruisers on them and some empty. The harbor waters have a reputation of being very dirty, so no swimming. However, I was able to see the rudder of our boat.

 Our trip from Provo started at noon on Monday, January 20th. We planned to stop at French Cay to anchor for the night. But the winds were right and we were sailing along great....we were well rested and eager to continue. Winds continued all night and seas were 4 to 5 feet. Close reaching, we tacked twice, once as the current began to carry us West, then again as we closed on Mouchoir Banks. The boat was pitching into the waves, so it wasn't a comfortable sail but we were sailing with no engine which was very nice. In all we sailed for 38 hours. Shifts went well and we ate when we were hungry. At 2:00 am on Wednesday January 22 with the lights of The Dominican Republic shoreline in sight, the winds died, so we turned on the engine and headed for Luperon. We waited for sunrise then entered the harbor just as the Wednesday morning Cruisers net was starting. We introduced ourselves and met Popo in his dingy to guide us to his mooring ball....$2 a night.

 By 9:00 am we were boarded by 4 Customs officials, the head guy named Richard. He asked us how many on board. Will responded 3 plus the dog. Richard said, "So you have 4 passports?" Will replied we didn't have one for the dog. So Richard said, "I will have to take the dog if he has no passport!" Haha...His first prank pulled on us. After paper work was filled out, Richard and two others came below to search the boat. We guess they are looking for fire arms. He pulled up cushions, opened closets, pulled up floor hatches, and then turned to Will and showed him a gun. He said, "Is this yours?" Will said no it wasn't his. Richard laughed and said, "I forgot--it is mine!" Our second prank from the prankster! We paid them $20 and off they went!

 We left shortly in the dingy for immigration. In all we made four stops...three inside the same small trailer....paying a total of $113.00 in entrance fees. Then off we go into what looked like a small town in Mexico! We walked for about eight blocks past little shack houses, little stores and restaurants, open air markets, flowers and watched lots of motor scooters zoom up and down the streets. We found an open air restaurant that suited my liking, and had a marvelous meal for less than $10 which included grouper, octopus, and a Presedente beer.

We have spent many hours in the town of Luperon hanging out at local cafes with internet.  The pace is very laid back and slow.  The sounds are of scooters, children crying, and hammering of  tin roof repairs.  There are many dogs wandering around, but they are not aggressive.  

Jamie has really enjoyed this life style and enjoys his meals at JR's cafe.  We spent hours and hours here and even spent our evenings here.  We had dinner with our friend Sylvio whom we met back in Rum Cay.  

We will leave tomorrow and head along the north coast of the DR.  Jamie plans to leave us in Sosua and spend time wind surfing.  He will fly back to Cananda from there.  Will, Bentley and I will continue on to Puerto Rico

Provo....we made it here on Friday morning at sun rise.  It was a 14 hour trip into the waves, but the winds were light, so not too bad of a trip.  The full moon was in and out of the clouds which gave us visibility during the night.

As we entered into the Caicos Banks, we flew the mandatory yellow flag, which means we are new to the area. Jamie stood watch on the bow sprit for hours watching for coral heads....large chunks of coral that are near the surface.

We will check into Customs and immigration at the marina.  We found a marina called South Side which is tucked  inside of a mountain.  There is a large red house that looks like a castle. You can see the masts next to the white roof. This is the first marina we have been in to since West End on November 19th.

Turks and Caicos are in the Bahama island chain, but they are their own country. They have so many more amenities  than any of the other Bahama islands....especially a fully stocked grocery store.   I bought okra, bok choy, and grapes.....things I haven't seen since leaving the states.

The marina is clean, quaint and quiet.  The painting is inside the laundry room, and the bathroom is carved out of the mountain.

Bentley enjoyed his stay here as he was never on a leash and could explore as he so desired.   Can you find him?

Hint?.....he is on the roof!

We plan to leave here tomorrow and head straight to Puerto Rico.  The winds will be light and from the north!   Could take us up to five days without hitting land.  So we will check in again once we are there!

Miss you all.