We had a bit of not-so-fun sailing/motoring straight into
the wind to wrap around the southern-most island of Vieques. It is the largest
island in the SVI’s and has roughly 9000 inhabitants. The first stop was an enormous bay with lots
and lots of ‘hurricane’ holes. Hurricane holes are places where people can
bring their boats during hurricane season, starting officially in July. Boat
owners not wanting to risk the path of a hurricane, need to be either pretty far
north (South Carolina) or West to Honduras or Guatemala, or south past Grenada
or to South America by then.
At a hurricane holes,
you tuck your boat in as far as you can in a mangrove slot, and tie lines from
all corners to the trees themselves, often putting out an additional anchor (or
2!) then hope for the best. So people that are sailing through the islands
during hurricane season, typically don’t want to be too far from one of these
spots, really cutting down their mobility.
Anyway, since we’re no-where near hurricane season, it just
wound up as a super calm anchorage and with steady breezes, and made for a few
nights of VERY quiet sleep!
The next place was a bay where there is supposed to be a
large concentration of ‘bio-luminescence’ a strange phenomenon in the water
from little one cell organisms that glow when disturbed. When the conditions
are right, the water glows and there are various kayak tours, swimming tours,
etc. etc. to come and see the magical waters they create. I don’t know if we
‘zigged’ when we should have ‘zagged’, or the stars didn’t align, or somebody
spilled “anti-bio-luminescence” in the water, but we didn’t see anything. Nothing. Bupkus.
I mean, we’ve certainly seen ‘em……all over the Mediterranean
and all the way across the Atlantic, but for some reason, didn’t see ‘em in the
place they were supposed to be thick as ants at a picnic. Oh well, I guess we left ‘em there for
whoever is reading this to see them when you go. When you go, please tell us how
great it was!
So, after another couple days, we’ll be on toward Puerto
Rico, another 25 miles away.
Hems
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