To go back to the customs situation, we duly phoned up on Saturday morning as requested, at 8am, having got up early, to be told that we could not check in until 2pm!  John, having obviously not had enough sleep, exclaimed in horror - "you have got to be joking", the customs officer was not amused!  By this time the anchorage was getting rolly and the wind was gusting 25 knots - not great to get Seaduced onto the Municipal Dock, which is where we were told we had to go.  We had made our appointment via the office in San Juan, and needed to confirm this in Mayaguez, so we set off in the dinghy to try and see what we could do.  We had to don our foul weather gear and still got a soaking on the way over.  When we arrived, the customs officer couldn't see any reason why we would need to bring the boat in, but we would have to wait until 3pm to clear in once they had sorted out the ferry that was unloading - so we sat down to wait in the sun.  Eventually at 4pm it was our turn and we cleared in and renewed our annual USA cruising permit, as it expires whilst we are back home later in the month.  By this time it was too late to move on, so we stayed the night, and went to town for a pizza - this meant we got about 3 hours on dry land, bringing our total hours on dry land since 27th December up to about 8!

Sunday we set off for Ponce in glorious weather, light winds and calm seas.  In the morning, I was lucky enough to see a giant manta ray leap out of the water, and dive in again - Pat, John's sister was less lucky, I was on the phone to her at the time and all she heard was me shrieking "look" in a state of high excitement!  

By the afternoon, the seas had built to 5 metres and we were bashing through them, trying to stay inshore to miss the worst of them, the waves were much bigger further out!  That night we stayed in Ponce but, as we arrived late, we didn't go ashore, the anchorage was well protected and calm, and a good night's sleep was had by all.  As is usual in the USA, every time you move port, you have to contact the Department of Homeland Security to inform them.  We did as requested, on arrival in Ponce, only to be told that our new cruising license was invalid, as the license number, computer generated obviously, was wrong as it was too long!  Additionally, although we had been told in Mayaguez, that the new license replaced the old licence, which was no longer valid, we were now told that the new one couldn't possibly be valid and we were still registered on the old license, so when we arrive in Fajardo, we have to go to customs again and sort the whole mess out!

Monday, we decided to head further round towards Bahia de Jobos, or even Puerto Patillas, if the weather allowed.  A few heavy squalls resulting in near zero visibility, meant we didn't leave until about 11am.  Again, by the afternoon, the seas were building so we went into the Bahia de Jobos to do a bit of 'gunkholing' to find a protected spot.  We had a great spot in the mangroves, with no-one else there.  As it was only about 4pm we had a couple of hours on deck, enjoying a well earned rest.

Today, Tuesday we set off again to try and make Fajardo.  We passed Puerto Patillas, our only real safe spot between the two at about 9.30am, and as all was going well, decided to keep going - well, within 2 hours we had huge seas again and the winds were gusting well over 30 knots - when they reached 40 knots, we had a real problem as the lashed down genoa came loose and started flapping about - if only it could have lasted another 30 miles we would be safely in Fajardo tonight.  But no, we had to turn round and head back 8 miles to anchor in Puerto Patillas and sort the damn thing out. We are now safely anchored, winds are still gusting 25 knots at times, but as there are only three boats here we have 50 metres of anchor chain out.  Hopefully, if we get up good and early, the weather seems calmer in the mornings, we can get round the corner to the east coast and into the shelter of the neighbouring islands, and arrive in Fajardo tomorrow.

  The lighthouse at Capo Roja - the Red Cape

  The cliffs are said to be red in some lights - clearly not this light!

 The view through the spray hood as yet another wave crashes into us!

  Our wonderful mangrove filled 'gunkhole'