08 December 2015
Puerto Rico continued….
The Ponce Fishing and Yacht Club hosted a sailboat regatta
the weekend before Thanksgiving. Our
fellow crew member, Bill is an avid racing sailor and inquired about entering
the races. The yacht club scrambled and
came up with a Sunfish, put together with borrowed pieces from various boats in
the club—showing once again the generosity and friendliness of Ponce. Bill’s borrowed sail was not a racing sail,
and was red and white striped. Almost
all of the other sails were mostly white, so we were able to see how Bill was
doing from Callisto, about a mile away from the race course. Close to us were the youngest sailors, on
Optimist Prams. They were very
competitive, yelling out the rights of way and taking their penalty turns
without complaint. What was very
impressive to me were the adults on the race committee, I am sure they were
hoarse for days afterwards..they encouraged each sailor throughout every
race. I was also pleased that there were
both boys and girls in the class.
If any of you are
familiar with Sunfish, you may think they are a “kid’s boat”. They are well suited for young, agile
sailors, but people well into their 60’s and 70’s can compete at the world
level. Bill did fairly well, learning a
lot in two afternoons from his fellow racers. Sunfish
photo
Now for the food…Ponce has built a public park along the
waterfront near the working harbor. There
are 18! little food kiosks along the
boardwalk. One of them, Tango, is known
to the cruisers as the place for internet and very cold local beer. We discovered Raul’s, where Raul and his wife
(both well into their 70’s) cook and serve…A lot of the kiosks just have
microwaves heating up things put together elsewhere and frozen. Raul’s the real deal, his own hot sauce, and
very generous portions. I had a
shellfish mofongo (mashed fried plaintain with spices) mixed with conch, king
crab, lobster and shrimp…so much I had enough for two more meals back on the
boat. The guys had carne asada and for
an appetizer we had a Puerto Rican version of nachos. I had no idea so much garlic was part of PR
cuisine. The space in the grocery store
for garlic, both fresh and in jars is about the same as that devoted to
potatoes.
After six days in Ponce we moved east a short distance to Patias,
Esperanza and then to Ensenada Honda, still on Vieques. Both Patias and Esperanza were very “rolly”,
meaning large swells curling around the protective reefs in the bays rocked the
boat, just enough to say let’s not stay here more than two nights. Esperanza is noted for its gorgeous beach and
the bioluminescence in the small bays nearby.
http://vieques.com/
Next time..Ensenada Honda Viequez and then Ensenada Honda
Culebra
Gretchen, s/v Callisto, Ensenada Honda Culebra
1 comment:
Enjoyed the story.
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