Sometimes we have so much adventure and so many cool experiences I don’t know how to jam them all into a blog to share with you guys. I have decided to break the last week up into 2 blogs so they do not get excessively long.
We have done exactly as we had said we were going to do in a previous blog, we are following the sailing advice of Dario and making all the stops he suggested, and here is how things have gone so far.
I was chatting with some other sailors we met today (Shaun and Shelley) and mentioned to them how I have kind of figured out that if you know exactly how the day will go… you are on a vacation NOT an adventure. To genuinely be on an adventure you really do not know what will happen today, there is real danger and a real possibility things will go badly, and for sure, probably will not go according to plan. This is the freedom that comes from the uncertainty. We told you the plan… here is what actually happened….
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LaParguera
After recovering from the bathroom cabinet flooding on the sail around the corner from Puerto Real we woke up the next day safely on a free mooring ball outside of LaParguera, we were just off the Cayo Caracoles reefs. The sun was shining as always and the skies were clear blue as WildChild floated in calm clear tropical waters. All the locals, who had a big birthday party on the little island the night before were gone and we had the place to ourselves, it was beautiful.
Dario had told us that the town of LaParguera was a tourist town busy on weekends but nice to visit during the week. We also knew we could provision a little and had heard there was a chandeliery somewhere near the Yacht club.
I spent some time in the morning swimming around the boat with my trusty scraper trying to clean up the waterline a little bit until, having rung the dinner bell (all the little organisms scrapped off the hull are food for other sea creatures) , the waters around me filled with big jelly fish. Elena was reading a book inside, and when I got out of the water I informed her that we were going to take the dinghy and try to find access to shore soon. We needed a little exercise and a land adventure was clearly in order.
We hopped in the dinghy sometime before noon and began to make our way to the mainland. We knew from Navionics that there were some docks that were supposed to be the LaParguera yacht club, we figured maybe we could land the dinghy there, we thought wrong. The place did not seem all that friendly, kind of old and run down, and everything was locked and gated off to prevent any possible access to shore by non-members.
The entire shoreline was completely lined with mangroves, which are quite impenetrable, and private homes with private docks filling every possible other opening to shore. It seemed maybe we were not going to be able to get shore access to explore after all. We motored around a bit and I remembered an Active captain note for the area saying there was a nearby fuel dock that had allowed some previous sailors to land their dinghy there, so I figured… let’s try to find it.
There was a small unassuming dock nearby with a few boats tied to it. We landed our dinghy on what looked almost like a big private dock near a house. I left Elena in the dinghy while I walked up the dock to shore to see if I could find a person to ask permission from. I made my way thru the closed gate and stepped foot on shore when a man’s voice reached out to me in a lazy and unhurried tone and said something in Spanish I did not understand.
We had landed on the private dock of Ariel’s family where they also sell fuel to boats. I found him lounging in a hammock in the shadows of the porch of his home. Using my best (very little) Spanish and Ariel using his best English we managed to communicate. I asked him for permission to land our dinghy on his dock for a few hours, which he was happy to allow at no cost. Ariel, a native Puerto Rican was a very kind friendly and genuine person. I chatted with him for almost half an hour about the local area and history of the area. He shared with open kindness and freely provided local information for us. It was just a few miles walk down the road to find the town.
We found a marine Chandeliery just across the road and bought a few spare items I thought we might need, specifically high on my list was spare on/off switches for the engine. We made the long sweaty hot walk into town and explored the mostly deserted tourist area. We provisioned and we managed to find wifi access in a hotel lounge.
All of the Puerto Rican people we have met have been friendly kind and always helpful to strangers, it just seems to be something in their culture. Down near the tourist area docks we found.. hmm… how to describe this without sounding crazy… ??? we found a fish feeding area. It surprised me at first, Elena saw these, like bubble gum type vending machines that dispensed pellets, like one might find at a zoo. We puzzled over them for a bit when a helpful local, watching our confusion with amusement from a distance shared the idea that the food goes over the railing into the water. We looked over and much to my startled surprise there were dozens of very large (like 1 meter and maybe 40-80 pound) fish right there in front of us awaiting the food. It was kind cool to feed the fish and watch their behaviour up close like that.
The tourist area was kind of fun to wander thru mostly deserted as it was. We found it a wonderful treat to find a rather large (1 meter) Iguana slowly walking down the boardwalk. In Canada we have squirrels living among us, down here in the tropics they have no squirrels, but they are rather blessed with lizards galore. We just love them. I am endlessly amused by the Lizards, so finding a giant one always fascinates me to immobility.
One of the main features that makes La Parguera a must see stop on the south coast of PR is that the outer small islands that so protected our anchorage were also covered in mangroves. Mangroves in and of themselves not being anything interesting, what made this spot special is that being out exposed to the open ocean the waters surrounding them were fairly clear. Mangroves almost always mean muddy waters unfit for snorkelling.
So given that the main attraction of the area is the rare privilege of getting to snorkel in and around mangroves we did exactly that. Despite the ever present intense heat of the tropics, which has given rise to my pink bikini becoming my official captains uniform out of necessity, I always swim in my wet suit. I am simply uncomfortable taking the risk of jelly fish stings on my bare skin while in the water. Even Elena swims in her Yoga pants and a long sleeve shirt.
Although the snorkelling in the mangroves was not high speed car chase exciting it was kind of a cool experience. As we swam around the perimeter and stuck our head in between the roots every so often to see life inside the protection of the mangroves. There were schools of smaller baby fish shimmering around and the more colourful 1-5 inch long tropical aquarium type fish peeking around roots at us. In any healthy ecosystem of course the food chain keeps getting represented in larger and larger fish. Snorkelling in and around the mangroves was a pretty cool experience, worth while to do.
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Gilligan’s Island
The next day we sailed our way slowly upwind in light and variable winds to Gilligan’s Island. I think Caribbean sailing is so easy, so unbelievably easy, compared to the North Atlantic fall and winter sailing that I did last year, that perhaps there is seldom any need for concern about wind forecasts.
Your two favourite sailor girls sailed for a few easy hours tacking slowly upwind until we began the starboard tac towards shore headed into the bay of Punta Jacinto. The waters are sufficiently deep with a smooth bottom, not with coral heads, but there are a few reefs to be dodged getting into the bay.
One of the things that, as captain, concern me a lot, is the inaccuracies of the charts. The 2 devastating hurricanes they had back to back here 2 years ago moved a lot of the bottom topology and created sandbars and shoals in places the charts no not. These invisible underwater shallows can be quite a dangerous hazard for us little cruising yachts. The nice thing is there is a 17Deg magnetic bearing mark on the charts that line up with a landmark on the shoreline that can be followed safely in, past the reefs, into the safety of the bay.
Elena was in another one of her silent moods swings that day so mostly I was alone on the boat. Once we dropped the anchor in 16 feet of muddy bottom and had the yacht safe and secured I decided to go alone to shore to explore. The Navionics notes said there was a small colourful ferry dock around the corner friendly to dinghies and a fancy vacation resort nearby.
I launched the dinghy and set out alone to explore shore, get a little exercise and try to find internet access to upload the last blog to you guys. Exploring the shoreline I found it mostly closed in with mangroves and private property small docks. As I came around the corner I found the extremely colourful docks of the ferry terminal and landed the dinghy. Inquiry with the local proprietor found very kind and friendly locals happy to allow me to leave my dinghy on their dock and explore shore.
I made my way along the road on shore about 1 km around the bay to the entrance of the resort. Although I was not a paying guest of the resort I did very much look like a tourist and nobody bothered about my presence. The place was absolutely spectacular. I am generally not the type of girl with so much extra money that I can ever afford to fly to tropical destinations and stay in resorts, but if I did, this place woulda been my choice destination.
I found an ATM on the property where I was able to withdraw a little bit of local currency on my credit card and without problem managed to get the wifi password. I found my way into the air conditioned and posh dinning facility and ordered a beer and set about composing the last Blog for you guys. Life was for sure good in Lexi Land.
Having been forewarned that the parking lot gates at the ferry dock would be locked at 5:30pm I made my way back there by around 4pm with the intention of sampling some of the local food. The feeling of the place is just so relaxed. With a leisurely stroll the kilometer back I made my way into the open air local eatery and, using my limited Spanish, managed to order chicken stew with tostadas on the side. Not being entirely sure what to expect when the plate arrived, I learned that the local idea of the word “Stew” differs greatly from the North American one.
While sitting alone waiting for my food to arrive 2 of the local employees, now finished work for the day, invited me to join them for a beer, their treat. I am socially extroverted and tend to make friends easily when I choose to, I made acquaintance with Orben. An easy going older local guy, who was perhaps a bit lonely or bored, he was curious about this solo sailor lady sitting nearby. We quickly became friends and at the end of my meal he mysteriously and extremely kindly just paid for my meal, expecting nothing in return. Don’t worry about it he said, no big deal. Puerto Rican kindness.
Orben was a very interesting and cool dude who lived a simple life on the island. He had told me during our mixed language conversation that he had a small fishing boat and tomorrow wanted to take me and my friend out fishing. He said we would fill our freezer full of fish, no problem. The idea of the adventure sparked my imagination and I agreed to the opportunity. He explained though that we would be fishing with a net not with fishing rods. We would be fishing the local way. It sounded like a cool thing to try so arrangements were made for 4pm the next day.
Another interesting story Orben told me was that there are manatees in the bay and there are easy to see. You can swim with them no problem he says. They are friendly and not dangerous. He told me that once we was swimming in the bay doing something with one of the park mooring balls and he had 7 manatees swimming with him and poking him with curiosity. They are very friendly he tells me.
Later that night Elena and I were sitting on the deck of WildChild in the full moon lit bay and we occasionally saw some large creature come up to the surface with a short, but clearly audible, exhaling of air. We felt confident these were manatees but never had any direct visual confirmation. It was still cool to know that these nearly extinct animals were around us.
The next day Elena and I went over to dinghy slowly around the mangrove edges of the bay looking for signs of manatees and iguanas. It was hot in the blazing sun and admittedly we saw precious little. Although… at one point, as we slowly and stealthily paddled our dinghy under an overhanging mangrove bush to peer inside looking for signs of life, a 3 foot iguana 6 feet above us got spooked and made a mad dash thru the brush overhead down to the water 10 feet beside us. It scared us silly, it was so loud we thought a large branch was falling on our heads. Exciting and scary at the same time.
We then went out to explore Gilligan’s island. We landed the dinghy at the tourist ferry dock without concern and walked into the tourist area to find and film a large iguana. The place was rather a let down to be honest. In and of itself not worth stopping for. Imagine a small sandy swim area enclosed by ropes and bouys with maybe 300 square meters of beach filled with picnic tables gazebos.
We made it back to WildChild by 3pm and felt we still had a good day. The mostly disappointing part of that day is that Orben did not show up and we did not get our fishing adventure.
Ohh well.
You know… maybe this sailing life is beginning to seem nice.
Captain Lexi…
……… the weirdly happy, for no reason …..