We had a knarly crossing from St Croix to Culebra for a quick overnight before jumping over to Puerto Rico proper to pick up my brother. We had been in St Croix, part of the US Virgin Islands and an American territory where we checked into customs and immigration so we figured we were cleared. Imagine our surprise when we arrived at Marina Del Rey and were informed that we were supposed to check in back in Culebra. We tried to do it on line with CBP Roam but because Gary couldn’t facetime with his phone we were told to sit tight at the marina office and someone would come to us. DO NOT MOVE.
About an hour later a very nice young man from CBP showed up and apologized for making us wait. What? We were in the wrong and he was apologizing. He cleared us in very quickly and then we were faced with our accumulated trash.
Coming into a US island you cannot just dispose of your trash in the nearest trash can like we had been doing all along the island chain. In an attempt to contain bugs, molds and other yucky things being transferred into the country, your trash has to be specially treated. They pick it up from the boat and put it in special containers and then haul it off to be incinerated. In St Croix they wanted $75 to dispose of one bag of trash so we just held onto it until Puerto Rico where we paid $18 for two bags. Go figure.
It’s a little confusing as all the stuff that we bought on other islands that is generating trash going forward is okay. They are just concerned with what is already trash.
While provisioning the boat we hit the third of our fast food wishes and found a Wendy’s. Gary was happy.
My brother, Robert, came in for a week. We had a few days at marinas and a few days anchored out in Calebra and Vieques. Although he much preferred the marinas he was a good sport about the anchoring and got a taste of the peace and solitude we’ve come to really appreciate.
The Laa-Dee-Dah is now docked at Palmas del Mar where it will be for the next couple of weeks while we head north to visit friends and family.