On Sunday, June 24, we drove up to San Juan with another couple on a boat we've met here in Ponce in a rental car. The trip over the mountains is very pretty to the northern coast of Puerto Rico, and the old city (Viejo San Juan) is one of the most picturesque cities I've ever seen. The old cobble- stoned streets, hemmed in by 16th century stone walls and two Spanish forts; old San Juan is a city well worth an extended visit. We may try to stay longer on Puerto Rico so we can visit it again, taking in some of the museums and the forts, which we had to bypass on a short day trip.

We have been in Ponce, Puerto Rico now for about two weeks. Here we are enjoying the wonderful Puerto Rican coffee and sweets in downtown Ponce. We finally figured out the trans- portation here and took the Publico into town to be tourists for the day. There is a large central park with a big cathedral downtown, and museums. While here, we are getting a waterproof cover made for the bow to try to minimize the water that has been coming into the anchor locker when we are underway. Once that is completed we'll be sailing on to Salinas.

We have another gear failure which is distressing - our new hand-held VHF radio, a West Marine VHF-150, purchased new in November, has failed. The latch holding the battery pack in place has disintegrated, rendering it useless without power. West Marine says we either need to bring it to the store to exchange it, or to deal with Uniden (who manufactures it) for repair. Both options are difficult at best for us, with no car. West Marine does have two stores in P.R., in Fajardo and San Juan, but rental cars are expensive and buses are scarce. We are trying to figure out how to do this; it's so aggravating when essential equipment fails, especially *new* essential equipment.

UPDATE: For those of you interested in the outcome, we did rent a car and drive up to West Marine in San Juan to exchange the VHF. After looking at every model in the store, we went with an ICOM M-34. Since the West Marine models are made by Uniden, they all had this flimsy plastic latch for battery holding. So far the ICOM has been more rugged than the WM model. The only thing we don't like about the ICOM is that we do not have the option of loading it with AA or other batteries; we must use the Li-ION battery that comes with the unit. ICOM has a tray which will accept AA batteries but West Marine does not sell it.

We stopped to anchor in Boqueron, Puerto Rico, and had several short hops into the wind, stopping at Cabo Rojo, La Parguera, Playa Santa, and finally Ponce, where we cleared customs and stayed for a couple of weeks. It's a mixed bag in Ponce - not very many cruisers, but you can reprovision if you are willing to walk a few miles. We took a taxi back from WalMart for about $5. The other drawback to Ponce is the noise and music on the weekends - thank goodness we have ear plugs! They play music until 4 a.m. at the bars right across from the anchorage.
We are looking into prices, as there is a well known boat yard here and we need to haul out and paint the bottom (as well as replace the depth sounder).

Towards the end of May, we got a good weather window to sail east towards Puerto Rico. The best we could hope for is light winds, as we are in the trade wind belt blowing steadily out of the east. We didn't have any storms, and mostly motored for 48 hours into light easterlies. The seas were like a washing machine however. The coastline of the Dominican Republic reminded us of California, with wide sweeping cliffs.
Once we got to the east coast of the D.R., after checking in with our weather forecaster Chris Parker, we found that there were squalls all around Puerto Rico and decided to wait a day to cross the Mona Passage to P.R. Our cruising guide (Passages South by Bruce van Sant) mentioned a nice inexpensive marina at Punta Cana. Unfortunately, the Punta Cana Marina was full, there were no anchoring options, and the only other choice was to go into a big Trump construction called CapCana. What a mistake! We don't recommend this place to anyone. It's overpriced at $1.50 a foot, with noisy construction well into the night, the worst showers we have ever seen (not even any hot water!), no other facilities. We paid $54 for a place to tie up for the night, period, with not even enough peace and quiet to rest. After complaining in the morning, we still were forced to pay and we unhappily sailed out and crossed the Mona Passage in about 24 hours.

While we were in Luperon, D.R., one day we rented a 125 cc motor bike and drove up the coast to Cabo Isabella for the afternoon. These little motor bikes (and smaller!) are all over the D.R. People use them for all their trans- portation; we have seen as many as four people on a bike this size. They reminded Larry of a bike he had in high school.
At Cabo Isabela, where it is claimed that Christopher Columbus landed in 1493 and left some Spanish settlers, there is a National Park that we went through. It has a small museum and an anthropological area where the first settlement was.
We also stopped at the beach there and found these donkeys in the shade.