Boqueron, P.R. is like a college town and a beach town all rolled into one. We were awakened the first morning at 5am by a marching band. It really is like Destin, Fl on a smaller scale. Lots of young Puerto Ricans partying over the weekend. We left Sunday with our friends on "Gabridash" and motored around Cabo Rojo and East to La Pargura. Here we found the Puerto Rican version of the "Redneck Yacht Club" or Crab Island, Destin. There were a hundred boats rafted up with loud music and dozens of jet skies, kite boarders, etc. One BIG difference between here and the D.R. is that the locals in Luperon were in homemade wooden boats used for work with 20hp or less outboards. Here they are in Ski boats, big sport fishers, race boats (like tunnel boats with unmuffeled 200hp outboards) and all out for fun. It could have easily been on Ft. Loudon Lake or in Florida except for the language. We had dinner (homemade pizza) on Gabridash last night and watched a movie on their big, flat screen in the salon. Do you have any idea how big a 44 foot catamaran is? It's like a small apartment. Make that a medium sized apartment. List price on this model is $850 K. I know you are wondering, GAryBRIanDAvidSHaron is for Gary, Sharon and their two sons. I looked at that possibility for Unchained but the name was WAY too long and didn't come close to being something that could be pronounced. We leave tomorrow to go to Ponce where we will pick up some packages that have been sent and visit Wal-Mart, etc to re provision. We should be sending this and 2 or 3 other updates as well. Two and a half months to Trinidad and then home for the summer. It will be good because we do miss everybody.
We arrived in Ponce about noon on Tuesday and decided to stay at the Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club. Wednesday we rented a car with Gary & Sharon from Gabridash and headed to San Juan. We got a hotel and visited the Bacardi distillery. That evening we stopped by the casino at the hotel. Sharon agreed to teach me some Black Jack skills while Sue played the slots and Gary went to the crap table. I started with $50 and after two hours was down to $10 when we decided to leave. The dealer at our table had been dealing me 16 in my first two cards repeatedly. He jokingly said I should play 16 at the roulette table. I took my last two $5 chips and walked over to the roulette table. I placed them on 16 and the wheel began to spin. I was the only player. It landed on 16!!! 35-1 odds. How cool is that? We went to Old San Juan, saw Morro castle, visited all the little shops(think Gatlinburg). They cater to the cruise ship crowd, lots of touristy junk. We returned Friday night with plans to provision Saturday, relax Sunday, prepare Monday and leave for points East on Tueaday morning. Remember what happens to plans? I was still dealing with stomach issues that had been with me off and on since mid February. I decided to go see a doctor Saturday. The office at the marina said to go to the hospital emergency room unless I wanted to wait days for an appointment. Four and a half days later (it's Wednesday afternoon) I am discharged and back on the boat. More about this adventure in a blog update dedicated to the experience. I will install my new dinghy davits this week and we "plan" to leave Saturday morning for Salinas, and the islands of Vieques and Culebra. These are Puerto Rican but are referred to as the Spanish Virgins. The picture is of the crew of Unchained at the Bacardi factory, Bill, Sue and our traveling companion, Diablo.