St Patrick's Day, and we never new it until Ali and Quinn sent there greetings via google chat! Our family tradition rates this holiday high, but what can I say. National talk like a pirate day has moved to the fore front. The great news is, La Parguera is a sleepy little village all week, even including [...]

Addendum: Forgot to mention tiny clams and oysters served up with a squeeze of lime in the stalls on the main street and lunch in a little cafe away from the dock area where the "gringos" hang out. Lunch was fried chicken, salad, and the national dish, mofongo, plantains mashed with a bigger volume of garlic and chicharrones, along with a Puerto Rican beer. Lunch for 2, $8.20!

3/13/10 3:00 p.m. We hoisted the main and slowly motored out of Luperon behind Daryl and Lyndsay on "Wild Blue", who sailed from South Africa to Brazil 15 years ago after building their own boat and have been mostly in the Carribean since then although they did get up to Florida and the Bahamas for a couple of seasons. Daryl is absolutely the best story teller ever. We enjoyed them immensely and hope to meet up again with them in Grenada. We started out our trip in the afternoon per Van Sant's advice, in order to take advantage of the night lee. That worked but the 5 - 8 knot winds piped up to over 20 dead on the nose with a strong current and short chop kicking us back as we motor sailed forward. Finally we killed the engines and tacked far enough north of our intended course until the wind finally abated and moved a bit south allowing us to have a lovely sail for our second night out. We caught a polypropelene line around our new propeller that instantly killed the engine, but upon restart it didn't interfere. That worried us a bit as did the fact that pounding into the seas under motor used up lots more fuel than we had anticipated. Fortunately, the wind cooperated later in the game and we made it into Boqueron just an hour and a half shy of two full days. Not to brag, but we were last boat out and first boat in, the only cat in a fleet of eight. Plus, we really enjoyed hot showers along the way and never did spill that test cup of coffee on the table. Once in Boqueron, we dug out our $10 track phone and called into immigration and customs with our Boater's Option and Decal numbers. Didn't even have to leave the boat. Smug we were until I admitted to a cat and grapefruit on board. Agriculture sped over from Mayaguez, flagging us down from the dinghy dock, we brought in Tilloo's vaccination certificate, our DR grapefruit, four withered oranges, and our "international garbage" which included the rope from the prop as James dove in and cut it as soon as we anchored. A slight dent in one blade was the damage. Nice to have such affable and convenient garbage service! So we have now wandered through town, carted fuel out in gerry cans from the local service station and plan to depart for La Parguera before dawn. Just a 20 mile trip, but the word is to scoot around Cabo Rojo while the night lee is still in effect. I did get to use my cell phone to call Ali, Quinn and Lorraine. That was a real treat. If you are reading this, give Aunt Lorraine a call to keep her updated. She'd love it.