Letter from Puerto Rico, to one, and all

Sandy,

On our floating home here we realize just how much we take our physical inde-
pendence as a given. We ferry and lift all of our own fresh water in 50 lb jugs from shore back to the boat and do a lot of other manual stuff. Our attitude changes when one of us bruises or strains something and is suddenly in less than peak form. When that happens it's really just an inconvenience compared with, say, a worker in the 3rd world (or 1st or 2nd for that matter) whose family might not eat if there's a minor injury or sickness. Reminds me of a story in the book, City of Joy, about a rickshaw puller in Calcutta who was always on the verge of collapse or starvation, and then would get hurt.

Speaking of books, I haven't heard of the writer Van Gieson but will check her out. Since you mention Shape Shifters, I have enjoyed some short stories in The Mysterious West, ed. by Hillerman, and also several Nevada Barr mysteries which are each set in a different national park. In other veins, Attack by Yasmina Khadra was pretty interesting as a look at the Palestinian/Israeli rift. I want to get to Independence Day by Richard Ford and Money by Martin Amis, mainly to see what they're like since I don't read that many current novels. Mostly nonfiction, although now that I've got more time I'm going back to try some "classics" like Don Quixote, with its Spanish roots, and Middlemarch by George Eliot which I liked, although years ago I would just not have been able to get into it. I should mention a book about writers and language that I thought good is Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. She illuminates a nice range of authors without being pedantic.

As for Puerto Rico, yeah I think it's about time to move on as the storm season tapers off even though this is a pleasant island with friendly and interesting people. Things are somewhat uninspiring here now since Debby has been back in Minnesota helping her mother for the past few weeks with a couple more weeks to go. Met a British couple here the other day who have been visiting PR on their boat for the last twelve years. They like the natural environment but are dismayed by the American/West Eur. direction they've seen some things going in that time.

You notice vehicles driving around booming LOUD music from external speakers(for political candidates), slick TV programming and advertising, burgeoning fast food joints and epidemic obesity—all just like the states, except childhood obesity here is something like 50% higher than in the US. But some features are homegrown and not an evil Western influence. There are a great many stray dogs roaming around the towns and also incessant barking through the night. ( http://www.saveasato.org/ ) (www.saveasato.org/animalhell.htm) ["Sato" is slang for a street dog in PR] We also hear widespread rooster crowing in the wee hours from residential neighborhoods. Since we're anchored in the harbor at a distance from most of the racket, the cocka-doodle-doing is really not bad, reliable like a clock with preset alarms. It takes some getting used to the plentiful chickens in this small town wandering around yards and sidewalks. (Is there a vaccination for bird flu?) Puerto Ricans take it all in stride and are generally warm and welcoming to strange visitors who show up on boats. We have also always felt safe here, unlike many places in the states.

Much of Puerto Rico's population is poor; per capita income about half that of the state of Mississippi. Yet you don't get the sense of poverty, just simple living. The island does lag behind the US economically, but is quite prosperous by Caribbean or Central American standards. People from the Dominican Republic or Haiti, on the next island over, would give a lot, and probably do, to make their way to PR, and then maybe to the states if really lucky.

But the Puerto Rican economy seems to be in a downhill slide, so seeing the greener grass depends on where you come from. Unfortunately the island government here, which might be a source for some leadership, does not seem too competent(they're not alone), mired down in Latin bluster and corruption supported in great part by American tax dollars. Everything is complicated by the odd political atmosphere that colors people’s outlooks according to how they see PR's future: 1) continued status as US commonwealth, 2) statehood, or 3) independence.

There could be a general vote here someday on PR’s status; the arguments on all sides are endless. But I would bet that PR as the 51st state is fairly unlikely, while becoming an independent country would be stepping off into a black hole, unless another well-heeled sponsor came along to prop the place up. Someone like, oh I don't know, say… Hugo Chavez, who would no doubt love the opportunity to imprint his brand of dysfunctional government on a fresh, desperate populace. Not that Chavez hasn't done some good things in Venezuela and elsewhere with health care, poverty programs, etc., etc. Most likely if the independence scenario did come about, and Chavez made a move toward "our" former colony, the US would respond by sending in the Marines (to PR or VZ?)--a tried and true remedy in this region--rather than let a rich, well-armed nutcase gain influence over this strategic real estate. We'll see what happens.

Enough spouting off for now. You have your own spectacles to watch in California which seems to be trying a few good things and has its own strongman in office.
Until later,
Larry

More reef exploration near Salinas: the Caribbean octopus and the reef squid. The octopus has always been hiding under a coral or rock shelf; you have to look closely to see her blinking eye or a tentacle. The squid are out in the open, in groups of four, five, or as many as nine. They seem to travel in groups, and in formation.

Debby will be flying back to Minnesota for a few weeks, to help move her mom into a nursing home. Larry is staying behind in Salinas to take care of the boat, as we are still in the high season for hurricanes. He may need to move the boat back over to the Bahia Jobos mangrove forest for protection if a hurricane threatens the area. It has been pretty quiet, after Hurricane Felix went well south of us a few weeks ago. Just to remind us we aren't through with storms yet, this morning we got rain showers from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ingrid, which is passing to the north in a disorganized fashion (which is the way we like to see our tropical storms, disorganized and disintegrating).

We have decided to stay in Salinas a little longer, since it is so close to the hurricane hole in Bahia de Jobos where we tucked in for Hurricane Dean. Another hurricane, Felix, has since passed through the Caribbean hitting a sparsely populated area of Central American. Some of the locals there, Miskito Indians from small fishing villages, had to flee in canoes (!)

On Labor Day weekend, we attended a local minor-league baseball game in town. The sport is very popular in Puerto Rico which has supplied many players to the major leagues including Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda(SF Giants), and Bernie Williams from San Juan, currently with the Yankees.

The enthusiasm that a Puerto Rican crowd brings to an event like a baseball game can hardly be described. There were homemade noise makers, cowbells, drums, whistling, and singing enough for a crowd ten times the maybe 300 people in this small town stadium. We really had a good time, even though the home team lost.

On Thursday, August 16, Hurricane Dean had just slammed into Martinique and St. Lucia and was headed for the Caribbean Sea. It was predicted to follow a path well to the south of us, but it was growing in intensity, so we decided to play it safe and head for the hurricane hole about 5 miles away from Salinas in Bahia de Jobos. A satellite image of Dean as it passed south of Puerto Rico is pictured here, on Saturday, August 18. Puerto Rico is completely covered by the northern edge of Dean, which stretched for over 400 miles from its northern edge to the Venezuelan coast on its southern edge. We never saw winds over 40 knots, but it rained in sheets all day Saturday off and on. It was a good "dress rehearsal" for what to do.
Here is the boat as we are prepping it. The mainsail got lashed to the boom, and the boom was lashed to its crutch. We also double tied the jib in case the furling line came loose, and stowed the small staysail jib below decks.

Had more wind been predicted, we would have taken down all sails and put them below decks, as well as all canvas. We also would have taken off the wind generator (we did tie it down so it wouldn't rotate during the storm). We also took the motor off the dinghy and put the dinghy on deck and lashed it down. Had more wind been predicted we would have folded the dinghy up and brought it below (where would we have slept, I wonder, with all these things below?).
I think, in hindsight, the biggest safety measure we could have taken but didn't would have been to take down the jib; we heard many stories of loose jibs in storms. My secondary tie would probably not have held, and it was below the jib sheets.
We also put down two anchors, our primary Bruce 33 lb. with 5/16 inch all-chain and a 15 foot, 3/4 inch chafe-guarded snubbing line, and our secondary CQR 25 lb. on 30 feet of 5/16 inch chain and 1/2 inch nylon rode. We also took one line ashore and tied it to a sturdy mangrove, with garden hose chafe guarding the mangrove side and more chafe guard in the anchor chock. For a worse storm we would have used more lines ashore and picked a narrower section of mangrove creek.
Here are our neighbors in the mangrove section we secured ourselves in. Everyone was very friendly and we all helped each other out.

People who don't live aboard boats have often asked us what we do all day long. Maintaining the boat is usually a full-time job. Here's some of our more interesting jobs lately pictured here. Larry climbed the mast recently after we got carpet bombed by frigate birds at night. They were landing on the mast or spreaders and letting loose. It took most of the morning to clean up bird poop. So Larry went aloft and strung fishing line to prevent birds from having a perch to land on. So far it has worked.
Deb is getting ready to varnish (actually we use Cetol Marine Light) the exterior brightwork on the boat. Between the salt water and air, and the UV from the harsh tropical sunlight, wood work always needs a touch up to protect it.
We also have a sewing machine on board. Ours is a new Singer Scholastic machine; it can plow through 13 layers of denim, or several layers of sailcloth. Deb uses it to make curtains, patch canvas and sails, and mend clothes. Here she's making a mosquito door for the companion- way hatch, using stainless bolts for weighting the cloth.

While in Salinas, Deb joins a group of women three times a week to go swimming and snorkeling in a mangrove bay. This area, a short dinghy ride away, has clear water and a small coral reef, with schools of colorful reef fish and other marine life. Here are two squid just above the ocean floor.

It looks like we will be moving over to the hurricane hole about 5 miles away, in Bahia de Jobos, as the first tropical depression is heading our way. So far, every three or four days, a tropical wave goes over our location. This only amounts to a few showers, maybe a bit more wind, or even just more humid air. This depression will be growing into a tropical storm and probably a hurricane in the next few days. We hope it won't go over us directly, but we have a very protected bay to anchor in.

We rented a car on Thursday, July 26 to run errands and also to take another trip up to old San Juan and tour the fort (El Morro). The fort was built by the Spanish to secure their holdings in the Caribbean, starting from the late 1500s. It is a masterpiece in Spanish architecture - with walls fifteen feet thick, on a vantage point protecting all of San Juan's harbor. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour and walked around old San Juan some more. We had lunch at La Bombonera, a popular local spot in old San Juan with great food and service.

The old fort has one of the world's notorious slums right next to it, on the other side of this fifteen foot thick wall. The slum, which we viewed from the other side of the wall, is called La Perla (the pearl), and visitors are warned to stay away from it.
Here is Larry walking down a stairway in old San Juan - some of the streets are built on hillsides that rival San Francisco.

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.

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.