May 27. Boqueron on the west coast of Puerto Rico

Checking in in Mayagüez is easy, as long as you go in early before the Ferry from the DR shows up (Mon/Wed/Fri), otherwise you're standing in line for hours. The officials were very friendly and it took maybe 5 minutes to check in. The trickier part is to get on the concrete dock, while you have to climb up on tires. This was actually very funny, Sid climbed up first, then I followed him and as my hand was grabbing the dock a little crab ran over it, I of course shook my hand, the little crab got winged into the air and landed in the dinghy and ran right over Stacey's foot, that happened so fast that we simultaneously screamed. Then the funniest, Toni leaped into the air and landed on the highest part of the boat, imagine that?!!! Sid was laughing so hard he almost fell of the dock into the water, well after all he had the best view for all of this. It took a while for us to recover from this, it was too funny. After checking in, we went into town to chase down the radiator lid. Toni decided to get us ashore, return to the boat and keep boat watch for us. Within 10 minutes we found the part and decided to take a taxi to Walmart. Even thought this was not a Super Walmart, it was just a treat to walk from isle to isle and things started jumping from the isles right into our shopping carts. Later when Toni came to pick us up at the dock his eyes widened and he believed us now when we told him to bring a trailer. The plan now was to go back to the boats, have lunch and then the guys would take off for Home Depot, but unfortunately the trades started to blow and picked up fairly fast and turned our anchorage into a pitching and rolling washing machine. Non of us wanted to go ashore and this lasted for the rest of the afternoon. Then of course right after the trades stopped it started to rain and it rained for a couple of hours and all the hatches had to be closed. It got pretty hot and muggy for a while. Then by 9 the stars came out. Since we didn't want to relieve the trades in this anchorage we pulled anchor early at 7 and headed 17 miles south to Boqueron. It was nice and calm and just as we turned the corner out of the anchorage the wind was on the beam, perfect for a spinnaker run. For the first 5 minutes we sailed with 4 knots, it was just wonderful, always love the spinnaker up, but we should know better then as soon as we pull it up the wind will blow straight down and this was no exception. We asked Stacey to take a couple of photos with full spinnaker as all the photos we have of the spinnaker is collapsing. I think she managed just on time to take a photo with full spinnaker before the wind blew it straight down. Well, at least Sid keeps busy on the boat. After that it was a motor sail and half way there the trades built to 15 knots. Our way points should have brought us by red nun buoys. Now we know why they name them nun buoys, because there are none, I think they just spelled it wrong. Non of the red buoys were there. Getting into the bay was just as pretty as could be, a light ripple on the turquoise water surrounded by green, lush hills with taller mountains in the background. Welsh Rover was a quater mile ahead of us and as they headed into the anchorage a police boat started heading towards them with sirens on, them of course wondering what they did wrong. Then they realized that the cops were after jet skiers, we just love it. As a matter of fact, we watched them for hours after we had anchored writing them tickets left and right. For you non boaters you need to understand that jet skies, as much fun as they are, they are a nuisance for us. They are a nuisance because when people get on them they leave their brains on shore. We know of too many accidents and at least one person that was killed running into an anchored boat. So it's great to watch the police stopping them from racing through the anchorage. Not sure how long we'll be here, but we do need to refuel and provision and of course keep an eye on the weather.