We're anchored off, yes folks, Gilligan's Island. South coast of Puerto Rico still, and headed for Boqueron around the corner. Can't remember how long it's been since we left Vieques, two weeks?, early in the morning, with a lovely smell of flowers coming from the island, an easy beam reach to Puerto Patilla, and spent the evening there trying to get photos of the manatees. They surface, stick their mud-coloured snouts up for air, then dive giving a brief look at their mud-coloured, round tails. Very strange creatures. Part walrus, part elephant, part duck-billed platypus. Can't imagine mistaking one for a mermaid.

Ashore, clumps of Harleys fart-blatting and screaming their way through town. So manly! Mostly, Puerto Ricans have excellent weekends: the music is always danceable, the whole family goes out together, and they shut down well before dawn. Apart from the motorcycles, which do not follow a schedule.

We were ready for the glories of the grocery stores again. When fridge-scrape salad is on the menu, you know it's time. There's lots of organic chicken stock and teabags and sardines, but nothing to eat. The plan was to stop at Playa Salinas for a few days, stock up, rent a car and plan a road trip with Michelle and Charlie.

My 2002 copy of the Lonely Planet guide to Puerto Rico notes that "There is nothing for the traveler in this town except the stomach-churning scent of human misery." Damned with faint praise. Humpph. We thought Playa Salinas was a very tidy little community with some very friendly and helpful people. Some nice gardens, well-kept homes (we got lost several times over several days, so we had a pretty good tour), so either things have changed, or somebody's standards are way high. There are many very, very homely dogs with very short legs and none of them have had the Bob Barker treatment. Otherwise, a nice place.

The boaters there are also pretty nice. We were at the outside edge of the anchorage, and on the weekend, there was a steady stream of small motorboats and we only felt a wake once or twice. Very unusual.

Salinas is a couple of miles away, and we walked into town and had lunch at a local cafeteria. When we walked in, an elderly lady hollered, Ah, Americanos! and everyone looked at us and smiled. Randy said that we were Canadienses, and everyone was very nice, glad to see us, and we had beans and rice and ribs and beer for a couple of dollars.

Rented a car from Sidney (his number's on the bulletin board at the marina), and got a great car for a good rate. Sidney is charming and helpful with directions and suggestions. He knew we wanted to go to Wally World right away. Giant Walmart a few miles down the road, and we shopped until it became difficult to manoevre the cart to the checkout. It was gross. It took us 20 minutes to pack our stuff into the truck so there was enough room for Michelle and Charlie's groceries. It took two days to finally get the stuff stogged into the boat. (I just kept thinking about the Bahamas as I shopped, and remembered paying three or four dollars for a can of cream of mushroom soup and thinking Yum! Not this time around if I can help it.)

THEN, we drove to San Juan, stopped at El Yunque (the rainforest), and stayed overnight in Condado and spent the day wandering Old San Juan. A great gas, great food, fun shopping, hot showers! more hot showers! A bed! Mariachi bands! Totally exhausted by the time we fought traffic back to Playa Salinas. Traffic is hard, dangerous and unpleasant. I thought of Lake Annis, where we can look out the window, and announce "car!" at least half a dozen times a day.

On to Ponce via Isla Caja de Muertos. The Ponce Yacht Club is not interested in cruisers - they wanted 10 bucks each for a 24-hour pass so we could tie up the dinghy and walk to the grocery store. We chatted with a fella ashore (who drove us to the grocery store, thanks David) who told us that they were hurting for business, and he couldn't understand why they wouldn't welcome cruisers to the restaurant. The good news is that this guy has leased some of the waterfront on the west side of the bay and will offer a dinghy dock for cruisers, maybe next year. The club does have a good fuel dock though, and the accommodating fella turned off the water meter when we were washing the boat.

So here we are at Gilligan's Island (how embarrassing), full of water and fuel and food and contemplating upcoming weather. Now we start facing the long passages. We'd like to skip the DR altogether, which means at least a three-day weather window to the Turks and Caicos. That's a lot of sailing. Or motoring. Also fishing. Stay tuned.