The South Coast of Puerto Rico

We were delayed a couple of days in Fajardo making repairs to SUNLUVER. No sooner did we pull away from the dock and we noticed our freezer was no longer working...oh well.. we'll make due by shifting a few things around - no worries! We've adopted a new saying which has become the theme of our journey.... no matter WHAT happens, good or not so good.... "it's just the way we like it". So the main freezer is now empty, but it's just the way we like it! :)) We don't have as many days to play now so we're making our way to the West side of the island stopping the first night in Puerto Patillas, a sleepy little fishing village. No time to visit, we weighed anchor early... then ...well maybe a little time to play... we decide to drop anchor and snorkel a reef we'd been looking at all night. Then off to Ponce. Holy mackeral.. Bob caught a nice fish for dinner.We were going to do some provisioning in Ponce, but decided there was nothing we really needed. Ponce was a bit noisy (they're VERY proud of their stereo systems here) so we left out early and headed West. Rounding the most South Western point of the island we passed by a beautiful lighthouse perched high up on a cliff surrounded by gorgeous white sandy beaches on both sides,

and next thing you know we're in Boqueron!

Boqueron is a very quaint town with a flavor of Key West, glad we like it because we have to have our genoa repaired and it will take a couple of days. Fortunately, we found a sail repair business card stapled to the dingy dock as we went to shore. Bob got to use his bosen's chair to climb up the mast and unfurl the flags. Oooh! Hang on! ...just kidding... it's just the way he likes it!
We met a few nice people in town, this is Hector. We bought him a drink...he bought us a drink....had some great food at Club Nautico. Antonio, the owner and Danny the bartender were very informative on the local rum.
Then a stroll to the liquor store for some Puerto Rican rum ...and hielo (ice) ...and we're ready for our next leg. The sail was returned earlier than expected so off to Puerto Real to fuel up and... what the hell... let's go to the Dominican Republic. This leg of our journey will take approx 30 hours through the Mona Passage and a 5pm departure time fit right into our weather and time window.

Puerto Rico!

We have arrived on the East coast of Puerto Rico and are looking forward to picking up our order at West Marine in Fajardo, as well as other supplies we've been doing without. It's amazing to realize how UNimportant some things are and how much we take simple things for granted.  Tomorrow we rent a car and head to town...woohoo! Hopefully we can pick up a "card reader" so we can download some more photos, my iphone can only do so much!  Life on the boat has been great. We met some fellow cruisers yesterday, Bob and Debby Bradford, and hope to meet up with them again next year. They were kind enough to invite us aboard their sailing vessel for coffee and delicious pastries. We're now preparing for our first onboard guests, Bill and Nina Washawanny. They'll be joining us for 5 days here in Puerto Rico for some fun in the sun!

...and our other colors...the Conch Republic flag under the BVI flag

Bob is ready to hoist our colors...

Village Cay in Road Town, Tortola

My Lagoon 440 at sunrise. Looking forward to a wonderful day of sailing.

We've Arrived!

We have arrived on our new home. Tortola, although rainsoaked, is rich with floral landscape - as you would expect on a tropical island. We are in Village Cay Marina in Road Town, since we arrived around dark, we chose to unload just a couple of things then check out the local fare. Dinner at the marina restaurant was ok but the rum and cokes were great! Tomorrow we provision for groceries and other necessities and hopefully meet up with friends Anne and Steve of sailing vessel ("SV") Fine Line who are "in the neighborhood."  Our travel to here was magnificent and without incident. I'm sure a sign of things to come!