The next day we sailed to Vieques, Puerto Rico.  We couldn’t believe how uncrowded the waters were in the Spanish islands compared to the other islands in the Caribbean.  The water here was clear too.  We would have liked to have gone into town, but we didn’t have the time and I was still not feeling well.

The next day we sailed to Puerto Rico and anchored west of Ponce.  Along the way a large pod of dolphins frolicked alongside the boat.  Seeing them always makes us smile.  It is amazing how they can stay inches off of the front of the boat and not get hit.  The anchorage we settled in for the evening was quite muddy and when I pulled the anchor up, mud got everywhere.  After spending the night, we continued west to Puerto Real and entered the marina there.  I was still struggling with Covid, but was on the mend.  We were able to explore Puerto Real a little, as we rented a car to go grocery shopping.  They even had a Walmart in Puerto Real where we were able to purchase some items at reasonable prices.  (It was unbelievable how crowded Walmart was.)  The roads in this area were quite good, as was the signage.  In fact, we remarked at how modern this part of Puerto Rico looked. 

We spent two nights in the marina and then left late in the afternoon to anchor in the bay.  We wanted to be able to leave around 6:30a the next morning, as we had a long sail to the Dominican Republic.  There were supposedly manatees in the bay, but we didn’t see them.