Voyages around Puerto Rico

Let me take you back to some of our sailing trips around Puerto Rico a couple of weeks ago. As you may recall we were entertaining our friend Helen, over from Amsterdam, and had a fun couple of days on the island of Culebra. After that we made for the next island to the West, Vieques. You pronounce it Vee-eck-ez, and until some ten years back it was almost a closed island, being dominated by a navy and airforce range which actively bombed the heck out of a small part of the island at regular intervals.

Now returned to civilian use, the island's population has fallen dramatically and most of the employment has dried up, so it's economy and social fabric is in tatters. Many areas are still peppered with debris including live munitions so some clean up has gone on but otherwise much of the area is a 'nature refuge' conveniently closed to the public. Nature thrives, being another example of the law of unintended consequences; the best way to protect the environment being the act of blowing a tiny part of it to smithereens for a few years. There is no big box tourism, no resorts, few flights, it's great.

We only visited for one day, to see one thing - Mosquito Bay. Now that sounds a little less than thrilling but the big attraction is that it is the most bio-luminescent bay in the northern hemisphere. People travel a long way to see this, usually only by kayak or electric boat tour from the nearby village of Esperanza. Tiny bugs, phytoplankton I believe, give off a phosphorescent green glow when disturbed. We've seen this in the wake and waves when sailing at night, but you need good conditions, a dark night and to be sailing through a bunch of the little critters at the time. Strangely enough, the best I'd ever seen was one dark night off the coast of Essex in the UK, amazing glows in every disturbed bit of water.

Well, we had the chance to go here on a new moon, and a Friday so very few weekend tourists would be there yet. It would be perfect. But few things worth having are easy. A big swell was running in from the Caribbean Sea and the couple of moorings at the mouth of the bay were untenable, we would be bounced out of bed. We crept further in, crawling forward slowly in the murky water until we just had eighteen inches of water under our keel. Here it was settled enough to be tolerable, and we laid out a second stern anchor to hold us pointing into the swell. We explored, visited the nearby beach and waited for dark.

At nightfall we paddled into the bay, and found a magical world of eerie green light at every swish of the paddle. The kids dangled their hands in the water, swirled and twisted to make the bugs glow, and marveled at the sight. As it got darker and darker we began to see the shooting trails of fish darting about below us. We were entranced, and after about an hour I went for a swim, which was surreal. My mask was covered by green sparks as I swam, and I could hold my hands in front of my eyes and waggle my fingers to make glowing outlines of my hands. A wonderful experience, we all loved it.

The next day we sailed on to the 'big island' of Puerto Rico, a long forty mile day to the village of Patrillas on the south coast. We were about half way across when a fin cuts the water alongside with a telltale puff of air. Dolphins! Helen, Gesa and the kids were straight up to the bow to watch them playing with the boat, as I went to get the cameras. More and more appeared, and soon we had ten or twelve swimming along with us, dancing and playing as they do. They stayed for about twenty minutes, and it was the best 'dolphin experience' the kids and crew have ever had - I've been lucky enough to see them offshore a few times but this is the first time we've all been aboard when they've turned up.

After the dolphins leave, the only thing left on Helen's to see checklist for the day was a fish on the end of our line. Nearing the end of the trip, the ocean obliged but, sadly, it was a big barracuda so back it went. Still, she got to experience the thrill of seeing a fish on the end of the line, hauling it in and on deck, then getting to set it free again. Those barracuda are mean, and this one was no exception. We think we got him back in alive, and without any teeth in the skipper, more importantly.

The nice thing about sailing the way we've been going is that the wind is almost always behind us. We are able to cover a lot of miles in relative comfort. In reverse, this route is tough but it is one of the most traveled ways for sailors to get from Florida out to the Leeward and Windward Islands. To do so you have to pick your weather, ride the wet and windy cold fronts that shift the wind into the north, and sail a lot at night to take advantage of lighter winds in the lee of the cooling islands once the sun goes down. And be ready to wait, and wait. People sit for days waiting to go the next thirty miles east. We just poke our nose out and go west, it's so much more comfortable.

After Helen left, we headed on towards Ponce, our last stop before departing Puerto Rico. Leaving Salinas, a combination of problems and mistakes left us gently but firmly aground in the mangrove mud that surrounds the approach to the harbour. It was quiet, so we were in no danger and we took an hour or so to lay out anchors and ease the boat back into her desired six feet of water, then tidy up and take stock. We could still make it to Ponce but the fuel dock would be closed and the book said it was a noisy place to spend the night. A few miles before that is Cajo Muertos - of Coffin Island - so called because of it's shape resembling the aforementioned wooden box. We'd heard good things about the little island, a national park, so we stopped there for the night and loved it. Despite only having a few hours, we strolled on the near deserted beach, swam in the clear water and relaxed a bit after the hectic past few weeks, ney months of non-stop travelling and entertaining. As the sun set, a pod of pilot whales, small creatures almost dolphin sized, came into the anchorage and cavorted for a while, nicely rounding off a very pleasant afternoon. We were ready to leave now, calmer, quieter and better rested, we filled up with thankfully cheap diesel in Ponce, found a few last minute provisions and set off for the Turks and Caicos Islands.