Author Archives: Mark
Road Trip
Our plan was to take a coastal road, take a mountain road, grab a meal and see what we find. Other than this, the agenda was pretty loose and we figured we would go where the road took us. There is some reassurance that if we got totally lost, we are still on an island. […]
Old San Juan
We visited Old San Juan and for two days walked about this wonderful corner of Puerto Rico. If you are ever on the island of Puerto Rico, this stop is a “must do”. Our old motto of, “walk ‘til our feet hurt and drink ’til they don’t” came alive. The historic area is packed full […]
El Yunque National Forest
Two things: First, we visited a rain forest. Second, I am feeling very old. Let’s talk about the rain forest first. Why? Because it is fun and I have lots of pretty pictures to show you. I’ll get to the feeling old part in a minute. Mona had on her bucket list that she wanted […]
Drinking Bacardi Rum for Breakfast
Still in Puerto Rico and loving it. Our dear friend Mona arrived and is staying with us for a full week. She makes the most delicious homemade cookies in the world and lugged about 3 dozen of them in her carry-on as a special treat just for us. Mona is our point of contact when […]
Palmas Del Mar
We have finally arrived in the Southeastern corner of Puerto Rico. I say finally because we took longer than expected to get here. The trade winds have been in true form making our eastward travel head into the wind. On most days the wind has blown 25-30 knots. The long range forecast showed no sign […]
Caja de Muertos (or Coffin Island)
I always thought cacti were soft inside. Silly me. I’m not sure where or how I came upon this wisdom, or lack of it. Perhaps it was the old western movies watched as a kid where some Indian native cut open a cactus for a drink of water while all the bad guys suffered heatstroke […]
Ponce
Our first order of business in Ponce was to take an Uber to PF Chang’s. How very American is this? We have both been longing for Chinese food. It was a regular part of our life in Atlanta but we are finding it harder and harder to get good Chinese or Thai food in the […]
Boquerón
Our stay in Puerto Real was a little bit longer than planned. I think the close proximity of the awesome bakery might have had something to do with this. It’s hard for me to get motivated to move away from daily fresh bread and pastries. We purposely skipped a weather window to move east along […]
Rincón, Puerto Rico
It didn’t take us very long to scope out a bakery near the marina. I’m talkin’ real bakery here. This is the kind of shop where you walk in and the smell of fresh baking bread hits you hard and makes you want to stuff everything you can get your hands on into your […]
Skeletons in the Closet
You know when you start a conversation with a couple of sailors who have a waving skeleton hanging on their boat the next few minutes are bound to be entertaining. It’s only six months to Halloween, so why not hang out the skeleton. Meet Ed and Annette. His name is Slim. Slim was found at […]
We’re in Puerto Rico
We just made a 405 nautical mile sail (466 miles) from Providenciales Island in the Turks and Caicos to Puerto Real in Puerto Rico. Our passage took us around the west side of West Caicos and then southeastward along the northern coast of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We have seen an unusual amount of […]
Providenciales – Turks and Caicos Islands (Part 2)
Everything on Providenciales is new. In the early 1960 only about 500 people lived on the island. There were no cars or electricity. Then the building started. A huge Club Med was one of the first resorts. Exquisite beaches like those found on these islands attract tourist. Today the full-time population is about 30,000. And […]
Providenciales – Turks and Caicos Islands (Part 1)
On our way to the Turks and Caicos Islands we sailed south of the Tropic of Cancer. This is a line of latitude at about 23° 26′. This marks the northern edge of The Tropics or West Indies. We are now in the West Indies. To answer the question posed in my previous post about […]
Passage from the Bahamas to Turks and Caicos Islands (Part Two)
Hanging out in Abraham’s Bay on Mayaguana, we killed time until the winds died down. Well actually, they died down yesterday but we are giving the sea a day to settle down a little bit from the 2 days of strong northeasterly breezes. And, it rained yesterday most of the day so we stayed put. […]
Passage from the Bahamas to the Turks and Caicos Islands (Part One)
We have sailed south this year down the Exuma Islands of the Bahamas. These beautiful islands offer a glimpse of a time gone by. The local residents are happy and content with island life. Unlike the metropolitan areas of the USA and Europe, there is not very much to spend money on here on these […]
