“17:57N  066:18W”

Salinas

Saturday 9^th April

We left the anchorage in Patillas at about 9 am, to sail west along the coast to Salinas.  We had a full main sail but didn’t bother with the genoa as we were directly down wind.  A bit more breeze today, 15 – 17 knots gusting to 20.  A very pleasant, fast downwind sail.

As we approached Bahia de Jobos there are a string of low lying islands covered in mangroves, with entry points through the reefs at various points.  We missed the first one at Boca de Infierno but entered a bit further along the crescent of islands.  We changed from the main sail to the genoa and had a nice sail in calmer waters to Salinas.

Salinas has quite a narrow entrance and we did get a bit concerned when an exiting motor boat pushed us into the shallower part of the channel.  Only a slight heart-stopping moment when the depth gauge showed zero, but we were fine.  We anchored in about 3 meters water in amongst the mangroves.  A bit smelly every so often, but good holding.

Salinas seems to be a boating place as lots of sailing and motor boats moored in here, and there is a small marina.  When the wind drops a bit we will launch the dinghy and go into the town.  We had thought we would go straight to Ponce tomorrow, to wait for Ian and Barry on “Spray” (Gerry is going home for a while and will meet up with us in Cuba), but think we may wait for them here.

As we are now in a different section of Puerto Rico – south instead of east – we have to check in by phone with Border Security, so they can keep tabs on us....