Happy Birthday Noah!!

Today is Noah’s 11th birthday, and we start with his favorite breakfast of pancakes, complete with 2 matches burning (no candles) as we sing happy birthday. Today is Saturday, and we have read that there is a farmer’s market in town today with lots of baked goods and pastries. Figuring this would be the perfect place to get a cake, we head in. Unfortunately there must not be a lot of farmers on Vieques, there are only 2 tiny tables of items. One with lettuce and the other with mostly jams and breads with nuts. He does have chocolate cookies, so at least Noah doesn’t go away completely empty handed.

We head down to the beach, and hike along the rocky shoreline while collecting sea glass. Noah is happy that he gets to rock climb on his birthday. As we are making our way back, the rain starts pouring down. When the rain stops, we make it to Lazy Jacks for pizza. Something Noah has also been waiting for all week. The local beer is Medalla and I feel obligated to try it. It reminds me of when I felt I had to have a Lone Star beer when at the rodeo in Fort Worth – terrible. But the pizza and calzones are great.

After lunch we walk the beach down to Sun Bay. Tracy and kids find so much sea glass, their pants are falling down from the weight. Sun Bay is a nice beach, but there are no concessions or snack bars for the ice cream we were searching for.

We head back out to the boat so Noah can make some birthday phone calls, and we can cook up the kingfish from yesterday. I grill it this time, and its our best fish yet. Even though it was only half a fish, there is enough left for another meal.

Vieques 4-16

We get an early start sailing down to Vieques (pronounced vee-A-kez), with the winds in the upper teens and from the North-East. As soon as we clear the southern tip of Culebra, the waves start rolling pretty good. We are moving mostly with them, so its not too uncomfortable but we are still rolling a bit and there are the occasional slams as the tops of waves crash into the bridge deck between the two hulls. The good news is, we only have about 10 miles to clear the eastern tip of the Vieques, and then we will be partially sheltered from the waves.

We are sailing in about 80 feet of water, with lots of fish pots out – perfect fishing conditions. We put put out both lines. Lucky Louie has had quite a dry spell and the kids have no confidence in him, but I tell them I’ve got a good feeling today. Ricky the rattler, that we bought in St. Barths, was damaged by the spanish mackerel. The leader was cut by its teeth but I cut out the bad part and re-tied the so called ‘uni-knot’. Soon we notice a fish on Lucky Louie and Noah hauls him in. We have another black fin tuna. He’s a little stiff by the time we get him in - I think he was dragging for a while before we noticed, and he drowned.

We round the Eastern tip of Vieques and turn down wind, sailing around 7 knots in some good sized waves. Through a deep section Delaina spotted a few flying fish. They only show up in water deeper than 100 feet. There is a series of shoals running along the south side of the island. They form an 80 foot deep channel running parallel with the shore. It must be a good fishing spot, because the fish pots are everywhere through here. This time Tracy is the fist to holler – fish on! She head towards the line, and I try to slow the boat. This fish hasn’t drowned yet, we can see him fighting back there, and he’s really pulling hard. Tracy screams as the fish takes off, nearly jerking the yo-yo out of her hands and streaming more line out. Then she thinks he’s gone, but soon we see a fish dragging.  As we pull it in, its only half a fish. A shark has bitten in cleanly in two. It was the shark that nearly pulled the spool out of Tracy’s hands. The fish is a kingfish, that would have been between 3 to 4 feet long. We have 20” left, and based on the picture, it looks like the shark got more than half. Remembering how good the kingfish was at Mamacitas the other night, we decide to fillet what we have left. Its still a lot of meat, and the fillets are as big as the whole black fin tuna.

By the time the fish cleaning is done, we are down in front of our intended anchorage of Sun Bay. We pull in to a huge horseshoe shaped bay, and motor in towards shore. Its a beautiful beach, but its at the west side of the bay, and doesn’t offer much protection from the wind and waves. There are moorings on the east side of the bay, but they are a long way from the beach. We saw boats anchored in the next bay, in front of Esperanza, and decide to check that out. There are two large, rocky cays separating the bays, so we motored around them and into the harbour. There were a few boats on what appeared to be private mooring balls, so we dropped the anchor behind them in about 15 feet of water.

After anchoring, we head into town to find a tour of the Bio Bay that is near by. There is one main dock in front of town and as we  head towards it a group of kids jump in with spear guns. One of them directs us around to the other side of the dock and points out the area for dinghies. As we are climbing up on the dock, one of them has a black eel about 2 feet long, that apparently they had just shot. Directly across the street is Blue Caribe Kayaks, and we are able to quickly sign up for tonight's tour.  He cautions us to be sure to lock things up in this area as they do have a high crime rate. Hearing that makes us change our plans a bit. Instead of doing a lot now, we opt to take a quick look around then head back out to the boat to lock things up before heading back in for dinner and the bio bay tour. This time when we go back out to the docks, the kids have speared a huge moray eel. Unfortunately, I think they are just doing this for fun.

We head back in, and have a great dinner at Duffy’s. Tracy eats a little too much, and has to lie down for a while before we head over to Blue Caribe.

The Bio Bay turns out to be amazing.! According to the guide, this is the brightest bio bay in the world. It has the perfect conditions: warm water, high salt content, lots of nutrients, and most important – low light pollution.  We take a beat up old van with wooden benches up the road a few miles and then go off road to reach the water. They have a couple of two person kayaks available, so Delaina and I snag one of those. Tracy and Noah go on singles. We really aren’t sure what to expect, and Delaina is pretty scared. However, as soon as we are in the kayak and she sees her hand light up in the water she is fine, and is asking when she can get in and swim. At first we are all just sticking our hands and paddles in, and watching the glow. Once the guide has everyone loaded on their kayaks he starts taking us out to deeper water where we can swim. He slaps his paddle down a few times, and we can see fish create a light trail like a comet as they zip away. The best comes when we jump in the water. The bioluminescent plants light up as thousands of little dots. As we splash about, not only does the water glow, but you can see tiny dots of light washing all over us. The kids are taking mouthfuls of water (yes, a little gross) and letting the light dots drool out of their mouths.  All of us thought swimming in the dark would be a little creepy, but we are having so much fun with the lights that no one really thinks about it. Soon we have to be back in the kayaks, but we all keep splashing water into the kayaks (and on Delaina) to watch the glow. This tour definitely lived up to the hype, and was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Culebra 4-15

The wind shifts 180 degrees over night, and when Tracy looks out in the morning she sees that we are pretty close to another boat. According to the GPS, after swinging around, be drug our anchor for about 100’ before it caught again. We are holding fine now, but a little close to the next boat. So we pull up the anchor, move back forward and drop again. No problem holding this time.

Take a dinghy run around Cayo Pirata, there is an old beat up dock that we could pull into, but it doesn’t look like there is much on the island. We can see the roofs of some old shacks, but we opt to stay off. We make a quick trash run, and go through the canal that leads to the ocean side. On the way, we see something swimming across the canal that turns out to be a large iguana. Once through the canal, and in the ocean we see 4 moorings that should be well protected in a North-East wind. These may come in handy.

The kids are doing some school work and we are taking it slow today, planning to just move down to the southern tip of the island and wait until tomorrow to sail down to Vieques. At mid-day, we pull anchor and move down to the reef at the end of the island. We saw several mooring balls between the reef and the island on our way in. Its tight and shallow to move through the  boats that are already on the balls. So far, the only balls that are open are right on the reef, and must be meant for very small boats. There are a couple of flat bottom boats that are right on the reef, as well as a couple lovely resort condominiums floating there.  

We continue to wind through the shallows to an empty ball. As usual, the wind has picked up, and its now a steady 20 knots. We pick up the ball without a problem, but notice the cat on the ball that is only a few feet behind us also has an anchor out. I had read that there are some questionable moorings here, and that some of the locals will use an anchor as a back-up.  On shore, we can see none of the shops/restaurants that the area map indicated. We take the dinghy in both directions, but other than a few  private houses, the shore is undeveloped, with no where to land and no access to whatever may or may not be further inland. All this adds up to an uncomfortable night exposed to the wind, worried about the reef and mooring ball. Plan B is to head around the outside of the island and up to the moorings we saw this morning. Its only about 40 minutes to get there, and soon we are tied up and completely sheltered from the wind and waves. There is a reef just off the shore, that turns out to be a great snorkel. Not many fish, but a the reef has some huge coral heads that come right up to the surface and we can swim around. We spot some coral that Delaina and I think looks like a potted plant. Its a big planter shaped cone, with other types of coral or plants inside. Still no lobster yet though. We have a quite night there on the ball, with the usual two or three 5 minute rain showers. 

Culebrita 4-14

It ended up being a  quiet night here. No big winds, storms, or waves.  Noah gets us motivated for a hike on shore before it gets warm, so we head in and beach the dinghy, dragging it well up the steep shore to make sure the swells don’t pull it out. I’ve given up on the dinghy anchor, after watching it pull right out of the sand and let the dinghy slide into the water a couple of weeks ago. There are turtle habitat signs everywhere, so we are careful where we walk, staying below the high tide line.

We find a sign marked ‘verada’ that we figure means trail, and start hiking through the trees. There are a lot of very large hermit crabs along the trail. At a split in the trail, we head through the mangrove forest towards the sound of crashing waves. The trail has been cut through the trees and is like a tunnel, only wide enough to squeeze through. A couple hundred yards later we emerge on the beach at the Eastern shore. The swells have been running from the east, and are crashing onto the beach.

 

We take the trail back through the mangroves to the split, and head towards the western sided of the island. We are out of the mangroves, and going though more of a desert habitat. There are a lot of lizards here, scurrying about. Then we spot something else scurrying beside the trail – a big rat. He doesn’t seem afraid of us and just slowly walks away. Nasty. We continue on, surrounded by the constant sound of critters (mostly lizards) scurrying across the dried leaves. At one point we have to go through a narrow section surrounded by tall grass. The scurry noise is everywhere. Tracy and Delaina finally manage to hustle themselves through.

Eventually we make it to the Western shore. This side of the island is protected from the waves, and quiet compared to the last one. There are several mooring balls here, but no boats. We consider bring the boat here, but the forecast is still for north wind, leaving this side somewhat exposed. We head back down ‘rat’ trail to our beach and back out to the boat for a swim and snorkel. There is some great coral over on the eastern side of the bay, and its pretty good snorkeling.  Afterwards, we complete the project of measuring the chain, and manage to get a good mark in at 100’. this should be enough to give us a good estimate of how much chain we are putting out for the rest of the trip.

Noah has his sights set on the rock part of the shore, and the climb up to the top of one of the hills. Tracy drops the two of us on the beach, and we start heading along the shore towards the rocks. There is a low rocky area before the hill, where the waves from the east are rolling through creating several bubbly pools. We cross over and head up to the peak. Its really awesome up here, watching the swells crash and spray up on the rocks.

On the way back, we climb along the rocks and bubbly pools over towards the shoreline. Most of the pools are surging too much to safely climb in, and the one we were headed for that looked safe, was filled with small, red urchins, so we waded through carefully, but couldn’t sit down where the waves were crashing in. We climbed out on the rocks towards the open water, crossing over a crevice that would drain out, then fill with an eruption of water. High up on the rocks, most of the waves crashed below us, but we had some big ones roll in, shooting up spray and drenching us with water. From the lower areas, it would have been a struggle to keep from being washed away, but where we were, it was just a good wet spray. Noah was not happy with me for bringing him out here. On the way back, he hesitated a little too long in crossing the crevice, and again got soaked when a big wave rolled through. Once back on the safe side of things, he now is thrilled with the adventure. We hike back along to the beach, while Tracy come back with the dinghy to pick us up. Its been a full day, and its barely lunch time.

 

After lunch, we haul up the anchor and head South-East toward the main island of Culebra. As we clear the headland, we run into the huge swells from the east. They aren’t breaking, but are steep and close together. We have to motor through those before we are able to turn to the south and run along the island. This area is full of reefs and rocks, and its the most navigating I’ve had to do on the trip. (I just steer Boss, don’t really navigate – C.R.) Once clear on the south side of the island, we had to follow the channel markers through the reef to Ensenada Honda, the main harbour on the island, and where we need to clear in. We wind through the harbour, and drop anchor in the North West corner, behind Cayo Pirata. The wind has dropped off, and is actually blowing from the south west when we anchor. There is a phone number to call and check in, and I am pleasantly surprised that we are able to complete the process without going in to the office at all.

We head in to town to check things out around 4pm. On the way in, we see someone fishing from a large cat, and swing by to ask where the best place to go ashore and find some shops and food. He directs us in towards a place called the ‘Dinghy Dock’. We tie up there, noticing all the large tarpon swimming off the the dock. They must feed them here too. There is no one around at the Dinghy Dock, even though the sign announces happy hour from 3-6. We walk on, finding a small market for ice cream, and laugh at the US post office that looks like its from the 19th century.  Tracy buys a cool t-shirt from a local artist, and we stop in to a place called Mamacitas for drinks, since none of the restaurants serve food until after 6. On the way in we run it to the crew from the catamaran ’Clarity’  in the harbor. They are down for a 10 day charter and just starting their cruise. We chat with them for quite a while, enjoying a couple of margaritas and their signature Bushwhackers. We end up staying for dinner, and have the king fish after learning that the hostess’ husband caught it himself that day.

Sailing to Culebrita 4-13

The rain showers continued on and off all night long, and we woke to the same overcast skies – feeling like being back in Ohio again. The wind is down this morning so we motor over to Red Hook in calm seas and rainy skies. One down pour is enough for a good outdoor shower! Again we are rewarded with a rainbow that comes down to the ground right near the boat.

We make it in to Red Hook and drop the anchor by 8AM, and waste no time heading in to shore. The propane ran out on the boat this morning as I was trying to make coffee. Luckily there is a very nice coffee stand in the middle of the shops overlooking the water, and we make that our first stop. We run into Bob there having coffee with a bunch of other sailors. This is quite a hangout, and it looks like half the marina is here having coffee and using wi-fi. Bob is headed over to Yacht Haven Grand to prepare for the boat show starting this week.

We swing by Ace hardware hoping to find a percolator coffee pot (we broke the base off the brewer. I jerry rigged it to work, but we should replace it before we go.), but we have no luck. On to the market where we again fill 2 carts. This should be our final shopping, other than little things like bread or milk. At the market we run into Sueno and meet her and Bob’s boss Larry, that owns the charter cat they are crewing on. Its called Good Medicine, which we happen to anchor right next to in the bay. Small world. We load up the dinghy and take the groceries to the boat. The wind is starting to build, which is a good sign for the sail. Forgot the trash on the first trip, so Noah and I run back in with that. We also top off the gas tank on the dinghy since there may not be availability in the Spanish Virgins. 

By 10:30 we have the dinghy hoisted and are underway, sailing around the north side of St. Thomas. There are quite a few houses on hills, and a couple of large resorts on the water, but relatively few beaches on this side of the island. We spot a castle built on one hill that we will have to look up later.

The wind is blowing nicely behind us, making for perfect sailing. We have just the jib rolled out, and are moving along at 6-7 knots. Once clear of the rock and cay out from Magens bay, Tracy puts out the fishing lines. I joke that we’ll probably catch spanish mackerel in the Spanish Virgins. We are just approaching the Salt Cay pass at the west end of St. Thomas when Tracy hollers fish on! She pulls it in to the boat, and I lift him on the swim deck. We are trying to get the rum poured in, but he’s thrashing about pretty good. I set him in a bucket while Tracy pours the rum into a small bottle to make it easier to get down his throat. The fish thrashes again, throws the hook and jumps out of the bucket onto the swim deck. His mouth is filled with teeth, and I’m hesitant to reach for him, but manage to make a grab before he goes over. Tracy has the rum, which this time does the trick. Delaina grabs the fish book and identifies it as, you guessed it, a spanish mackerel.

  

With the fish cleaned and in the freezer, we enter the Virgin Passage, between St. Thomas and Puerto Rico. The wind is steady at around 15 knots from 120-130 degrees – Perfect sailing. The swells are still rolling from the East from the high winds the last several days. They are larger than we had on our previous crossings, but we are running comfortably with them. Its a great day to be on the water.

We make it to Culebrita just before 3pm. There are 3 other boats in the bay, but its otherwise deserted. There is nothing on shore but sand and palm trees. We set the anchor in sand, and then take the dinghy over to check it our. Its set well, but have less scope than I thought I put out. We still don’t have markers on the chain, and sometimes its difficult to tell. I decide its a good day to measure it out, so I take a 25’ line out to the anchor. We are to the bridle before I can measure 50 feet, so I tie the line on the chain, and then go onboard to pull it in and make the first mark. Of course, while pulling the chain in to where I have the line tied, it comes off the chain and sinks in the water. Meanwhile the wind gusts, and before we can let the chain back out, we start dragging backwards. We drop the anchor quickly, and I go in to find the dock line. It should be easy, but it takes quite a while and a lot of passes back and forth before I spot it. While swimming back to the boat, I spot a large remora swim below me. (at least I hope it was a remora) At this point, I’m done trying to measure the chain. We pull it up, set it in a better place, let out plenty of scope, and back down on it hard. It doesn’t budge, so this time I’m not going back in to look at it.

 

 

By now, its almost 5, and there is still the threat of rain. So we stay on the boat, and try to do some more school work. This session goes a little better than yesterday. Maybe there’s hope yet. We fry up the mackerel for dinner. Its good, but I really wish I was a better cook.

The swells are rolling in to the bay pretty steady. They don’t bother the boat much, but we can hear them crashing on the shore to our south, and the reef to the east and west. Its completely dark here in the bay, with only the 2 other anchor lights visible. Its kind of eerie not being able to see anything.  The last forecast we had, showed the wind swinging to the north tomorrow, which will put us closer to shore. We planned for this, and anchored quite a ways off, but still, hearing the crashing waves makes you think about it . We can see a lighting storm lighting up the sky in the distance.