New Crew Arrives!

Rachel has arrived! We are soooo happy to have her aboard for the next few months! Yup, you heard right she is going to be with us for while. Good news for us! An extra hand is always welcome aboard especially when it is family! She arrived late in the night in San Juan. Unfortunately we had to head right back to Ponce where the boat was so we did not get to explore San Juan but no worries there is lots of exploring in our future of other beautiful places that we’ll be sailing to.

Having fun on the Malecoln in Ponce

Lighthouse that Rachel and I visited on Isla Cardona, close to Ponce.

We finished up on our last minute provisioning and headed out to our first stop Isla Caja de Muertos or otherwise known as “Coffin Island” or “Dead’s Man Chest”.

Isla Caja de Muertos from a distance

Instantly evoking our curiosity because of it’s unusual name, Isla de Caja de Muertos is located 8 miles south of Ponce is an island of true tranquility with clear, turquoise waters and white, sandy shores. Although just 1 ½ miles long and ½ mile wide, the now uninhabited “Coffin Island”, as it is known in English, has been an island of great intrigue over centuries having been the exotic home of pirates, sailors and Spanish colonialists alike.

Pretty beach Coffin Island

The bizarre and strange name choices for such a beautiful island lies at the heart of a widespread and highly-emotive legend. Though there is no consensus on how the island got its name, one story is that of a Portuguese pirate, Jose Almeida.

A former merchant sailor, Almeida fell in love with a Basque lady in Curacao and married her and took her pirating with him around the Caribbean. His ship was attacked and she was killed by a stray bullet. Distraught, he had her embalmed and placed in a glass box inside a copper coffin. He buried her in a cave in a deserted island near Ponce. They say that he would come every month to gaze over her preserved body and leave half of his treasure in her grave. He was eventually caught in the Puerto Rico mainland, tried as a pirate, and executed in 1832. Many years later, a Spanish engineer discovered the glass and copper coffin, and identifying the cay on a map gave it its present name. The treasure found, if any, was kept secret.

Thorny Path to Isla Caja de Muertos lighthouse

Another possibility is that the island got its name because it resembles someone lying down when seen from the main island. Caja de Muertos can be translated into English as “Coffin” or “Dead Man’s Chest”.

The island is absolutely beautiful! The fortunate or unfortunate part depending on how you look at it is that the island is run by park rangers so we could not explore any of the caves or climb the surrounding hills except where it was designated. So we did not have the chance to explore for golden treasures. If we could have who knows what we might have found! 🙂

Lighthouse on Isla Caja de Muertos one of 14 built in PR by the Spanish in the late 1800’s

The climb to the 170 ft hill to see the lighthouse was a breathtaking! Both from the climb up (uh, huff and puff for me…) and breathtaking for the views once we reached the top. Bummer that we could not go into the lighthouse though it was padlocked. We really enjoyed the view from up there though…just beautiful. Maybe this was the treasure that we were meant to find!

The path there and back to the beach was lined with the largest and thorniest cactus that we’ve ever seen. We were truly on a “thorny path”, only this time on land and not at sea!

We only spent one night here but I think it would be easy to spend a week. We missed out on snorkeling because after the hike and exploring the area in the kayak we were just plain tired!

Rachel’s first watch

No worries though, I think that we can expect a lot of snorkeling in our future destinations.

We headed out the next morning east, when the winds picked up and the seas got a bit rough we decided to call it a day. We cut though a reef and into a nice bay for protection. I later found out the reef that we went through is called “Boca del Inferno” (translated as hell’s mouth)…yikes! Thankfully was easy to clear and it lead to a nice calm bay for us to tuck into for the night.

Puerto Patillas

Puerto Patillas Beach

Next stop for us along the southern PR coast was Puerto Patillas. Cute coastal town and another nice calm harbor. Thanks for our shallow draft we were able to anchor here. It is mostly a shallow bay with lots of surrounding reef.

goofing off in Patillas

We went ashore for some much earned time off of the boat and stopped yup, you guessed it… one of the local pubs. It was hopping and when we entered we found out why. The Speaker of the House for PR and the Mayor of the town were out on a promotional tour of the area visiting small businesses drumming up votes no doubt. They were very interested in us visiting the area and it was neat to meet them. We talked to them for a bit with the media snapping photos all around us. Now we know what it feels like to be a star! Who know where our pictures are going to end up! We were too star struck to ask who was taking all of the pictures and too distracted to ask to take one of our own. Maybe we will see ourselves in print one day in the paper. Definitely something different form our usually visit to a town!

Say cheese!

Iguana or killer dinosaur…you decide 🙂

After quenching our thirst we headed off to explore the beach area. Nice sandy shore lined like most with palm trees but wait…there was something a bit different here….BIG scary dinosaurs! OK, well they were not really dinosaurs but their very distant relatives … huge iguanas! Come to find out that they were more scared of us then we were of them and it was hard to get a good photo with them running away from us.

We enjoyed this stop had a good nights rest and were once again up at the crack of dawn to make headway before the trade winds picked up heading out to our next destination. Can you see a theme here? Get in early, check out where you are and then up early and out on the sea again. We can”t wait until we are done beating into these easterly winds and can have a leisurely sail!

We are getting closer though and our next dream island stop is on the west end of Vieques. Vieques is one of islands that are sometimes called the Spanish Virgin Islands or the Passage Islands.

Isla Vieques

Vieques is 18 miles long and 3-4 miles wide. This island is an extraordinary place in every sense of the word. Vieques is known as “La Isla Nena” (little girl island). Vieques was founded in 1843 by Francisco Saínz. It was annexed to Puerto Rico in 1854. Vieques derives its name from the Taino Indian word for small island (bieques). For may years this island was avoided by yachtsman because of the US military presence. Why you ask…because they used the island for target practice!

This guy blends right in…can you spot him?

Lobster hiding…thankfully he ran into vegetarians!

After pressure from the people of Vieques, the U.S. Navy left the island on May, 2003, after more than 60 years of use as a testing ground. The U.S. Navy came to Vieques in 1941, taking jurisdiction of about 70% (27,000 of the island’s 33,000 acres), which it was used as a training area (target practice with live ammunition and war games).

Crazy, huh? This was not even that long ago…the Navy just left here in just 2003!

We’re glad that they moved out though because this island is paradise! We enjoyed snorkeling on the west end and thanks to Rachel’s awesome GoPro camera we have some underwater pictures to share with you.

We spent the usual one night on the west end of the island and after some great kayaking and snorkeling we motored east to Esperanza Bay.

Esperanza is a nice town with lots to do. We anchored Moon just past a shallow sand bar where no other boats were and had the perfect spot all to ourselves. Once again it’s nice to have that shallow draft!

We’ve been snorkeling, beach-combing and exploring this little seaside town and love it here! So much that we’ve decided to stay two days! It’s been awhile since we been settled down that long..lol!

On the malecon in Esperanza, Vieques

Right now Brian is exploring via his bike, up and down the steep hills to the other side of the island. Why? Because that’s what he does. Can’t keep him still not even for a minute! We plan on taking off again tomorrow to anchor in Puerto Mosquito or also known as “The Bay of Magic” famous for it’s phosphorescence. They say that it is the brightest phosphorescence bay in the world. There is a new moon so it should be an awesome sight! We’ll try our best to get photos but not sure how that’s gonna work out in the dark.

OK, that’s enough for now phew…I guess that I’ve written a whole novel here! We’ve got so much to share and this is just a smidgen!

We just want to say one more thing before we let you all go. In the spirit of Christmas and all of the jolly thoughts running around in our heads, thank you to all of our family and friends for supporting us and being there for us when we’ve needed you even if it’s just to talk and say hello. We are having one of many journeys of a lifetime and you are all in our thoughts and hearts everyday even though were are not there with you. Take care and know that we are with you in spirit and happiness and we will see you all soon.

Love and miss you all….Merry Christmas!

Jennifer, Brian and our new deckhand… Rachel 🙂