The Malecon in Ponce
08 April 2006 | Ponce, Puerto Rico
We spent 3 days at Giligans Island, no joke! The anchorage was great and the island is part of the National Park Service. They are mangrove islands with small beaches. We did snorkle around the mangroves and there were thousands of very small minnows hanging out beneath the roots of the mangroves. Menno and Paul kayaked through the small canals in the mangrove islands. There was a nice long curvy beach that had swift currents that flowed around the island and it was fun floating and swimming there. Daisy has turned into a water dog and loves swimming with the boys! Whenever they dive under the water she barks and swims out to them, worried that one of her boys has left the herd!
We pulled up the anchor at 5am on Friday and motor sailed the 17 miles to Ponce arriving by 9 am. We have had to sail to our next destinations very early in the morning before the easterly trade winds begin to blow. The winds are very calm in the night and early morning and then begin to pick up around 9am every day. The winds start to blow and will get up to 20 plus knots coming out of the east (the direction we are trying to go!) with white capped seas every afternoon. It is best to be at your next anchorage and tucked in by 9am. The south coast of PR is famous for this weather pattern.
Ponce is the second largest city in Puerto Rico and we have fond memories of it from our previous visit here! We are anchored off the Ponce Yacht Club which is a beautiful facility with great pool and restaurant. We spent the first afternoon swimmining and realxing by the pool. The anchorage is also off of the Malecon which is an old fashioned boardwalk with many vendors and small restaurants selling shish kabobs, empanadillas ( a favoraite), pizza and more. Every restaurant has there own HUGE speaker system and music and this makes for a very entertaining, LOUD evening! True to the Spanish environment, children are welcome most everywhere, so there are lots of children running around and having fun! The boys are "having a blast!" Last night there was an all girls marching band that put on a show and it was cool, Daniel said! The boys discovered a small video arcade and are getting there fill playing games!
Photo: At the Parque de Bombas in Ponce; Karin, Daniel, John, Paul and Menno.