We have now sailed east to Salinas, Puerto Rico, but here are a few of our favorite spots in Ponce. Larry is walking along the beach from La Guancha to the Hilton Hotel; we walked or ran on this beach several times, and treated ourselves to a wonderful buffet lunch one day.
Debby in front of Santiago's Cash and Carry, an amazing warehouse full of inexpensive food, some in large case lots but also smaller quantities. It was our main grocery store, only about a half-mile away from the dinghy dock.
Here's Larry in the courtyard by the cafeteria of the University of Puerto Rico, Ponce, which was about a two mile walk for us. They were very welcoming there, with staff and faculty eager to help us use the computers and printers, and Wi-Fi available on campus. We would take the computer over on the long walk there and back to be able to use Skype for telephone calls, do email, browse the web, and make a day of intensive Internet work.
Here's Deb at La Guancha, the public waterfront right by our anchorage; our boat is in the background. On weekends and holidays, even Monday and Thursday nights, the music was quite loud until the wee hours of the morning. We got a lot of use out of our ear plugs to allow us to get to sleep. The good news of being there is we never knew what kind of entertainment La Guancha was going to bring - a live band; an antique car show of old Chevrolets, Mustangs, pickups, all kinds of fully restored cars; and one night, a wrestling ring with live Lucha Libre (Mexican-style wrestling), which Larry thoroughly enjoyed.

Everyone reading this who doesn't live on a boat probably thinks we have a lot of free time. What most people don't realize is that living on a small sailboat is really a labor - intensive way to live. For example, we do almost all of our own laundry by hand in a bucket. We use sudsy ammonia for the water, as this does not have to be rinsed, so we save on our water. Each small load takes about 2 to 3 gallons of fresh water - most of which we lug by 6 gallon jerry jugs. Here's some pix of Larry doing laundry. We have no problems getting it dry, with the brisk trade winds here in the tropics and mostly sunny days.

On Thursday, July 12, we went to the Museum of Art in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is advertised as the best art museum in the Caribbean. We spent a very pleasant day there. It has a good variety of old masters, from the Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, Italian, and even a Hudson School (Frank Church). We also enjoyed the bonsai garden in an interior courtyard.

We are still waiting for the printed copy of our marine survey, but hope it will be delivered tomorrow. Saturday is a good weather window to sail east and we are all set to make use of it if we can get our survey.

On Monday, July 9, we finally got all the necessary people together and details taken care of to get our marine survey. This involved what is known as a "short haul", taking the boat out of the water for an hour or two, while the surveyor takes measurements of the hull. We used a great surveyor in Puerto Rico, named Ciro Malatresi. We can recommend his services to anyone needing a surveyor on the island. He was thorough, really knew boats, and efficient. The boat got a good report card, with only cosmetic recommendations. The hull is sound, and now we can take the survey to other insurers and try to get insurance "in the box" (in the hurricane zone). Every insurance agency wants a current survey, and our current insurers are waiting to see one also. Some insurance companies want boat owners to have a hurricane plan; ours will probably involve staying on one island for the hurricane season, with a contract to haul the boat out of the water, block it, strap it down to cement screws, take the mast and all canvas off, and then head inland. If you look carefully at the hurricane data from the last 150 years, South Carolina actually gets hit more often than any of the individual islands, yet we could find insurance for South Carolina and are having trouble for the islands. Go figure.

On July 5, we rented a car for the day with our new friends Yvonne and Carl. We had met them here in Ponce; they are from the Netherlands and making their way over to Guadeloupe, and waiting for engine work to be completed on their boat. In the meantime, while we were waiting to have a marine survey, we decided to do some traveling inland. We drove across the mountains of Puerto Rico on some twisty roads and breath-taking views.


We went to visit the radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. This is the largest radio telescope in the world; it weighs 300 tons and is built into a natural karst bowl. Astronomers from all over the world visit Arecibo to perform experi- ments. The size of the telescope itself is hard to describe. The visitor center there has interesting displays and a "day at Arecibo" film for visitors. The only thing missing, we thought, was a scientist or astronomer to answer our questions about the telescope and its use.
Here's Debby getting a permanent and a cut in Ponce. It was quite a test of my Spanish, as the friendly young hair stylist did not speak any English. I did have a phrase book which included conversations for a salon visit, and a dictionary. The results turned out quite nice.