A Tale of Two Chemists: Playa de Salinas

Playa de Salinas

Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th February, 2025

We departed the Bahia de Jobos on Tuesday morning and motored to the channel leading into Playa de Salinas. We found a spot to anchor off the east side of the channel between two vessels. Looking toward the town, all we could really see were more boats—quite the contrast from Monday night! We got the engine on the dinghy and motored into the marina. A helpful chap called Randy (S/V Sinbad) gave us directions to the hardware store and the supermarket. He confirmed that we could get water (free of charge) and diesel at the marina. We went into the office and asked about car rental. They helpfully gave us the phone number of a local guy and we made a booking for Thursday and Friday. We hope to explore a bit more of Puerto Rico by car. We walked to the hardware store and got some silicon sealant and a hose nozzle. Continuing along the route to the supermarket we found the florist/propane refill shop. The guy inside confirmed that he could fill a tank for us and we promised to come by the next day. The grocery shop happened to be near a restaurant and it was well past lunch time. After an indecently large lunch, we wandered the aisles of the supermarket with less than usual enthusiasm! Somehow it still seemed like a ton of stuff to carry on the way back to the marina. Mike filled the water tanks from jerry cans and then went back to the marina to refill the empty jerries. We had a light dinner and watched a FILM!

This morning, there were chores to be done. Mike filled up the diesel tanks from the jerry cans and we loaded the empties into the dinghy along with our empty propane cylinder. Once at the marina we elected to walk to the Florist/ propane place, where we left the tank to be picked up later in the afternoon. Then we returned to the marina and filled the diesel jerry cans. We returned to Cotinga for a well deserved rest and lunch. After lunch we went to shore for a walk to the other side of the bay to get access to the mangrove area. We saw a few birds including a tricolor heron and greater yellow legs. Then we walked back to pick up our propane tank. We stopped at the marina bar and had a rest and cold drinks. Back on Cotinga, we have showered and are feeling refreshed.

One of the things I’m excited about in Puerto Rico is the abundance of birds. There are 17 endemic species and plenty of other birds. Today on our way back from the propane-fill/flower shop, we saw a Venezuelan Troupial, a very bright orange and black bird. We also saw a Puerto Rican mango (hummingbird) and a group of monk parakeets. On Tuesday morning, before leaving the marina, we saw the Greater Antillean grackle and the Puerto Rican Spindalis. Tomorrow we will go to a couple of birding site along the south coast. Fingers crossed for plenty of bird sightings!

Gloria

17 56.909 N, 66 17.466 W

Before making our way down to our current anchorage we needed to address a potentially serious issue. On our two previous passages I had found it very difficult to dis-engage forward gear to neutral. All sorts of hideous possibilities were running through my head and I had even started to search for full-service marinas where we might get the clutch / gearbox repaired. However, when I inspected the engine the source of the problem became obvious - yet another hose clamp had worked loose (this time on a cooling hose to the clutch mechanism) and had dropped down and was physically impeding the mechanism. Thankfully this was a trivial fix.

This morning I made the mistake of measuring how far we have to sail to get back to northern Florida. I was a little shocked to realize that it is over 1000 nautical miles. This seems a bit daunting at this point.

Mike