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.