Mainland Puerto Rico

Coming into Fajardo, PR

Finally the weather cleared and it was easy sailing to Fajardo on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico. The sail over took about 5 hours and I could clearly see the rainforest mountains topped by clouds as we neared the harbor.  Fajardo is the boating capital of Puerto Rico and there are many marinas there to choose from including the largest marina in the Caribbean, Puerto Playa, with 1,000 slips.  Chico Marina was selected as it had been recommended by a friend and we slipped into the gas dock to obtain fuel.  Now, I don’t speak Spanish, but have a very slight knowledge of the language, so as the boat maneuvered to the dock, I called out “Hola!” “Fuel Dock”!  Well, at least part was Spanish.  But I’m not the only one speaking “Spanglish” as this sign was posted at the fuel dock:

 

The boat was filled with fuel and water and negotiations made for a transient slip.  We have friends in Puerto Rico and hoped we would be able to catch up with them while there.  After a week at anchor, it was nice to be able to step off the boat and go ashore without the necessity of getting into the dinghy, bailing it out, and hoping the motor will get us where we want to go.  The marina was nice, not as nice as some I have been in, but acceptable.  A small, serviceable restaurant is located onsite and we had a decent dinner there.  I can generally recognize food items in Spanish so the menu proved no obstacle.  I found it interesting that in a country so associated with the States, not everyone spoke English.  I made an effort to use whatever Spanish I could muster and managed to get by on “Spanglish” whenever I ran across someone who didn’t speak English.  I think I will try to learn Spanish as there are many people who speak it and it can be useful when cruising the Caribbean.

Fajardo was a good place to re-provision and get some things taken care of.  I needed to get some laundry done, purchase groceries, propane, and some boat parts. We also needed to see about our dinghy motor which had basically quit working in Culebra.  Asking around the marina, information was provided that there were several marine stores nearby and they were, according to the source, in walking distance.  Well, walking distance is evidently in the mind of the beholder, as we found out when we had walked several miles and still hadn’t come to the shops.  It turned out that the marine stores were a good 3 miles from the marina.  Three miles may be a walk in the park to some of you, but these old folks don’t hike that much.  We did find two marine supply stores and a Yamaha outboard dealer, unfortunately they didn’t have what we needed and the Yamaha dealer didn’t want to work on our engine.  Ugh.  A decision was made to rent a car to do further shopping and, once again, we were told that the car rental agency was ‘walking distance’, although the person who said that admitted that it was a ‘long walk’.   So in the heat of the day, off we trudged to the port of Fajardo to seek a rental car.  The walk was so long and it was so hot that part way through I made a remark about feeling that I was on the Baatan death march.  The highlight of the trip was spotting a Burger King along the way and stopping for something cold to drink and some much needed air conditioning. Ahhhhhhh, I didn’t want to leave, air conditioning and drinks with ice! Something we don’t get on the boat.  When I get home I am going to use up all the ice I can find and sit in the coldest air conditioning and enjoy! 

Anyway, we finished our libations and continued on the death march to the car rental place where we finally arrived and obtained a car---with air conditioning!!  (am I stuck on this?? Probably—everyone has something they lust for!)

Once we had the car it was shopping extravaganza in Fajardo as I felt at home with Walgreens, Sears, Kmart, West Marine, and my own special “Happy Place” – Walmart!!! I made a mad dash into Walmart for fans because when we have shore power, I plug those bad boys in and, you guessed it, pretend I have a/c.

I also was able to shop in a ‘real’ grocery store, one that resembles the type in the US—big with LOTS of stuff!  I really stocked up! Good thing I had the car as I loaded it down.  I find that I have to take advantage of access to decent stores when I can get them as I can never count on what I might find on the various islands.