03/20/2009 Vieques

03/19/2009 Last evening I made it to the west end of Vieques. This is known as Green Beach. The anchoring was good for the evening as I sat in the lee of the island. I had gentle winds and a flat sea for good sleeping and star watching. I am not sure if I talked about it in the past week, but I saw the Southern Cross in the sky here. I have seen it once before when me and my family traveled to New Zealand. I am able to see in the sky at the same time the Southern Cross and the Northern Star.

I got the dinghy off of the davits and went for a beach hunt. I walked the beaches to the point, did some snorkeling and then walked the beach south. There are many shells and treasures on this beach. I shared this beach with very few other people. It is probably because it is mid-week.

Later in the day I pulled the anchor and headed for Esperanza. I motored for less than two hours to make my way there. There are few places to anchor and mooring balls located there. I was able to grab a public mooring ball that had no charge associated with it.

That evening I went ashore and walked through the town. The town, or village, is probably only ½ mile long. There are many vendors there selling different items such as clothing, home-made jewelry, paintings, food and tours. The hair on the back of my neck stuck up a little bit. It finally dawned on me that I was in a touristy area. My last two weeks in Puerto Rico have been on areas that usually only locals of PR would go to and now I am in an area that is frequented by Americans and Europeans. It has a different feel to it.

3/20/2009 Today I needed to make it to Isabel (or locally known as the town). I hitch-hiked my way there. It is probably about 5 miles to the town located on the north shore. I was able to get a ride with no problems at all. I went there to get some grocery shopping in as it has been hard to get fresh produce. It was no different there. I walked around the town and out to the light house with a stop in one of the bars for a beer. There are some shops with art work, local made clothing, a coffee shop with wi-fi (another reason for the trip), etc. It is the city hall for the island. There is an older feel to the architecture here. After a few hours and my errands completed, I hitched back to Esperanza without any problems. The locals again are as friendly as I have met anywhere.

Later that afternoon I took No Rush over to the entrance to Mosquito Bay. This is suppose to be the most brilliant area in the world for bio-luminescence. This is created by a plankton that lights up when it is agitated. The bay has a high density due to the shallow entrance that does not allow the plankton to wash out during the tide changes. After dark, I took the dinghy into the bay to see this. It was amazing. As I was motoring into the bay, I noticed the prop wash was super bright and then also the wave splash from the dinghy. Then I looked and could see fish dart through the water as I went by. When I was in the bay, I went over the side and swam. This caused the water to light up around me. It is hard to describe what it looked like here on this page.

After making my way back to No Rush, I decided to move the boat to Sun Bay that night. I was on a day mooring with a south-east swell and winds. It was not going to be a comfortable night and I was not sure of how good the mooring is. With the help of the chart plotter, I made my way into the large bay that is protected from the southeast winds.

03/22/2009 After spending the whole previous day anchored in Sun Bay with beach walking and back into Esperanza, I made for an early morning motor back to Isla Pineros. I am spending the night there as I have a slip reserved for the next couple of days to get ready for my daughters to arrive. I could definitely tell there was weather coming in. The seas were as flat as possible and no wind. That afternoon it rained most of the day. The deck was naturally cleaned. I have not seen that much rain since September when I was still on the Chesapeake.
03/23/2009 After getting the boat put away in the marina I jumped in a rental car and did a little touring. I saw Laquillo Beach and the 60 bars. This is an interesting collection of shacks with many different bars, restaurants and souvenir shops.

I made my way to San Juan and finally found Christian. It turns out he left a few days after I did and was not able to use the front to travel on. He island hopped down to Turks and Caicos and had a fuel problem. He was able to jury rig a by-pass fuel line and then finished the trip with a straight shot motor-sail into the San Juan harbor. The good news for him was that he picked up a crew member, Ann, to assist with him for this leg. Having the second set of hands and the ability to have watches made it easier for him.

I then made a quick tour through Old San Juan. I hope to make it back there with the girls if we have the time during their time here. There are two Spanish Forts, along with the narrow streets and many old building and structures to explore.