McCormick Visit
22 May 2013 | Puerto Rico South Coast
Holly
On May 15th Rog drove to San Juan to pick up the McCormick kids (Tyler, Cooper, Cassidy). The next day we sailed 6 miles to Isla de Muertos, aka Coffin Island (looks like a sarcophagus on approach) & had a Bahamas-like day. Crystal clear water (most of the DR and PR have bad visibility - muddy bottoms) and a great hike to an 1880's lighthouse. My camera ran out of batteries for the most gorgeous picture at the top of Muertos, of course!
After a great night at anchor we sailed about 15 miles to Salinas & anchored in a mangrove bay. The kids swam for a bit & then we dinghied into town for a little exploration & lunch. We got a good flavor of small-town Puerto Rico. It turns out that Salinas is the cock-fighting capital of PR (it's legal here) & nearly all the houses have roosters in cages in the yard. Indeed, the next morning was like being surrounded by thousands of coyotes because of the endless cock-a-doodle-dooing.
Another 15-mile hop brought us to a great little anchorage in Playa Patillas. We swam, checked out the beach (lots of creatures) and got checked out by the locals. Fun day and night.
Our last hop with the cousins was to Palmas del Mar, which is a marina on the east side of PR. Palmas is a gigantic gated community (it actually has gated communities within gated communities) so it didn't have much PR flavor, but we enjoyed the beach and pool.
Our last day involved getting the McCormicks up to San Juan (on PR north coast) so we left early to see San Juan old town and Castillo San Felipe Fort. Totally Spanish, totally cool. The cousins were sad to part but we had a great time.