St. Thomas, USVI

CARNIVAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands

Flamingo Beach

Good sailor friends, Marty and Gabrielle on S/V Santocha

Mamacitas

Culebra and Flamingo Beach

Rainbows and sweet fragrant air and crystal blue water.

Salinas, Puerto Rico

Salinas

Salinas was a great place to rent a car and tour Puerto Rico.  

We bought 8 new batteries 

and tons of organic produce at Cosco.  Having learned that Shishkibob was "Pinchos" and on every street corner, I got in the mood to make them with the organic produce we scored at Cosco.  

I also learned to make Tostones which are plantains formed into a bowl with this handy press and also used this to invent Eggplant Tacos.  

This little press makes the bowl out of either vegetable and then you can stuff it ( Relleno) with a tomatoe or meat sauce; seafood or cheese; or whatever you like and then fry in Olive oil.  Delicious!

Old San Juan

Nana Mau Mau ReJoins Captain of Just Drifting, Dominican Republic

Welcome Noa!

April 3, Maureen rejoins S/V Just Drifting in Luperon, Dominican Republic, as a new grandmother.  Baby Noa was 17 days late which caused Wade to live in Luperon for 27 days in total.  Wade surprised me with a necklace and earrings of amber and Larimar (a blue stone only found in D.R.)  He also bought me a “tico” washing machine which we named Gigi! 

Semana Santa in Semana!

Wade ALSO revarnished all the teak!

Larimar and Amber

 2 days later we set sail for Semana, spending Easter weekend amongst the locals overpopulating the beach and jumping off the long and multi-arched walking bridge for fun.  We celebrated our reconnaisance at a white linen restaurant called the Mata Rosa along the sea dining on fresh Meru or Grouper, Creoli style and in a shish-ka-bob or Pinchee, with perfectly grilled sweet peppers.  The next day we left across the  north of the Mona Passage to Rincon, Puerto Rico.

Rincon was a blast. After a rest-day we surfed for 2 days.  The USA ex-pats were really nice, driving us to see all of the breaks and the village and lending us the phone to call Immigration and promise them that we would clear in Mayaguez, Thursday a.m. which we did.  But first, we stopped over in Boqueron and since we met Margarita we were forced to have Chichee-something or other, which are shots of rum that has cloves, anise and cinnamon.  This quaint little restaurant had the best food in town according to our local and well-educated friend (a nuclear physicist) and we tried a typical dish made with fluffy plantain that had been molded into a bowl shape and stuffed with a delicious sauce.

Next day, we set off to find the luminescence in the bay past La Paquera but it was too shallow to enter.  With my philosophy of “never turning back” we went on to Guanica (Ensenada Bay).  It rained hard for a few hours and the bay turned muddy and littered with branches but we wanted to go for a dingy ride.  We stumbled across a restaurant on the water that was a favorite for Puerto Ricans, an out of the way spot where they bottled their own wines.  They offered us 5 samples and at the bar we met Nora Perez and Raymond Armstrong (fashion retailer and lawyer).  Nora suggested a typical bean soup to absorb the alcohol and after, since they were envious of our life on the boat we brought them out to see boat.

Stopped over in Guilligan’s Island and met up with Gabriela and Marty on Santosha.  Gabriela was teaching yoga when we where in Georgetown.  As a strict vegan we had a simple quinoa and squash dinner with them while the guys drank a tall bottle of Bohemian beer (a litre), the biggest bottle of beer EVER (we stocked up in D.R.).

We decided to brave the 20 knot winds on the nose and motor-sail to Sallinas, surprised to see a full, large bay of boats.  

Next stop is by car:  Old City of San Juan!