Two weeks in Ponce, Puerto Rico

Photos from Old San Juan


We never dreamed we would stay two weeks at a marina in Ponce. We originally planned to leave Boqueron a couple of days before all our friends so we could get a head start with some projects - like having our mainsail re-cut while in Ponce. We left at midnight on April 10 planning to sail all night to Ponce. We had no idea what a frustrating night we had embarked upon. The weather was supposed to be light, maybe 10 to 15 knots. It is also suppose to be much calmer at night, they call it the night lee. Ha! Once again none of this was so, we never saw a night lee. It was blowing 20 to 25 on the nose. We were making a whopping 2 knots of speed and at this rate we would arrive in Ponce in about a week. Yuck! The waves were a short, steep chop and very confused. So we endured a very tedious motor sail and decided to stop the next morning at Playa Santa – about half way to Ponce. We got into Playa around 9:00 A.M. and slept all day. Our friends from Dragonfly arrived later that afternoon; they had also endured a rough ride. We piled into their dinghy and went in search for a restaurant. We walked a while and found a lovely little family owned restaurant. The owner Rosie was a trip!

We left the next morning at a bright and early 3:00 a.m. and once again had a rough, slow motor sail into the wind. We arrived at the Ponce Fishing and Yacht Club around 1:00 pm. We were happy to be connected to shore power and have an endless supply of water. The next day we rented a car with Jeff and Una. We were so excited to be in U.S. territory. I never thought I would be so happy to see K-Mart and Sams. It was a little overwhelming to go into the Super Walmart - rows and rows of produce and food. Remember, we are more accustomed to being in small islands in the Bahamas where the town has no fresh milk or produce. The other weird thing about being back in U.S. territory is seeing all the familiar fast food places, but no one speaks English. We have decided we must learn Spanish.

Friday morning I taught my first yoga class. Crew from four other boats wanted to practice yoga so I said I would give it a shot. It was awesome. It was not as hard as I thought it might be. Everyone taking the class had practiced at least once and they were all in good shape. Practicing with a group made me realize how much I miss yoga. This marina turned out to have a beautiful setting for a yoga class. We were over looking the ocean to one side and the mountains on the other. We have practiced there several times since. That evening I organized a potluck. It was easy because you can just tell 3 boats and they pass the word around to bring a dish and before you know it you have 30 people and lots of yummy food. I think this potluck had the best food yet. One boat brought freshly caught mahi mahi with mango salsa. Gary and Linda from “July Indian” brought a beef tenderloin. We had 4 tables of food.

The next day we decided to take an excursion and drive to San Juan. Glenn and Jeff were excited to be able to spend their West Marine bucks - Una and I were excited to go to the largest shopping mall in Puerto Rico. We were in search of cool cotton sundresses. Oh my! This mall was sooooooooo big I got lost 4 times. It had 3 ½ floors and had everything you could ever want or need. After three hours of power shopping we headed for Old San Juan. We saw tons of children flying beautiful kites on the grounds of the fort. It was amazing. The fort went on for miles and miles and you could really spend a week just touring the old town. The streets had a very European feel and looked like an old part of Italy or Spain. We thought we might get a hotel room and tour a little more the next day, however everything was sold out due to the holiday weekend. So we returned to the boats late that evening very tired and broke thanks to West Marine and the mall.

Sunday we cooked hamburgers and invited our friends from “July Indian” over. It was one of those great spontaneous days that turned into an all day and evening event. Jeff from Dragonfly came down and said they were also grilling burgers, so we told them to bring their stuff over and join us, We had a couple of extra burgers so we asked Bob and Jane from “Scooter” to join us, several hours later we decided we should probably order a few pizzas. What started out as a midday cookout turned out to be a 7-hour get together. Crossroads was entertainment central.


Ponce has provided excellent opportunities to get a ton of projects completed. I had no idea how many projects we still needed to do. Glenn replaced the anchor windless; hopefully this will make it easier for him to pull up the anchor. I might even try it. Ha! We are getting our main sail re-cut; it was too long on one side for this boat and it could not be flattened to allow the boat to sail to windward. We hope this adjustment will help us. We are also getting risers made so we can modify our companionway stairs. The previous owner changed these steps into a ladder. Very Steep! Glenn installed our water filter and so many other little projects that I can’t even begin to mention them all. So while we wait for our sail and stack pack we are enjoying the swimming pool and luxuries of being hooked to the shore power.