Vieques and Culebra: The Spanish Virgin Islands

Back again from the cold Northeast! This can get very habit forming. 

Flying in to Beef Island you pass over the south edge of Tortola.  Here are a few bird's eye views:



West End, Soper's Hole and Frenchmans Cay

Nanny Cay

Road Town and Road Harbour

Pratique's home: East End Bay and Penns Landing under the plane wing

Back in East End, things are just as we left them:

The next day, we left Penns Landing to check out of the BVI's from West End, so we could check in to the US Virgins in St. John. 

Soper's Hole

 



Rowing back from Customs

Outside Caneel Bay, after checking in!

 

Caneel Bay Sunset

We were excited to start downwind (west) to the "Spanish Virgin Islands."  These are the lesser known islands east of Puerto Rico, mainly Vieques and Culebra.  They were called the "Passage Islands" but someone in the PR tourism office got smart and figured Spanish Virgin Islands would be a better draw.  Fortunately for us, compared to the USVI's and the BVI's that has not yet panned out.

Poled out and prevented. This is fun!

"Hey you are blocking our view of St. Thomas!"

In the afternoon, after a very pleasant 6 1/2 hour downwind sail, we arrived in Ensenada Sun Bay, Vieques



Ensenada Sun Bay Anchorage



Beach at Ensenada Sun Bay

We spent the next day getting around to parts of the island, beginning with a short dingy ride around the corner to the town of Esperanza.

In the harbor at Esperanza

We stopped in to the tourist office where we were greeted not just by the lady at the desk but also by a very friendly retired couple now living on the island, Harry and Ellen Parker. They offered to give us a ride in their pick-up truck north to Isabel Segunda, and before long the ride turned into an escorted tour of half the island! They drove us around much of the town and then dropped us off atop the hill at the historic town fort, El Fortin Conde de Mirasol which was built by in 1845 by the Spanish.  It mainly functioned as a jail, and was restored in the 1990's and turned into an art and historical museum.



El Fortin Conde de Mirasol

Works by an artist named Josean Ramos were featured in the gallery, and this one tickled me:



"El lamento de Woody Allen" 

The Parkers also introduced us to another local artist, Ernesto Peña, at his gallery across from the fort.  He showed us his works, including some that was done while he was imprisoned in 2001 protests against the US Navy's use of Vieques as a firing range and missile test ground since WW II.   Largely as a result of these protests, the Navy withdrew from Vieques in 2003 and a good part of the island is now a US National Wildlife Refuge.

Vieques is also famous for one of the brightest bioluminescent bays in the world, just east of the Ensenada Sun Bay, around the corner in Puerto Mosquito.  Microscopic dinoflagellates in the water light up when stirred up, and the resulting glow is pretty spectacular.  It's pretty hard to photograph the phenomenon, so here's a photo freshly swiped off the web:

 from nipunscorp.com, whoever they are! 

To get there, most people join kayak tours that start with a shuttle ride from the town to the isolated bay.  At dusk, cruising sailors can take a dinghy into the open seas, around Punta Negra, and then up into the well protected bay.  We tried it the first night at dusk, but the water was too rough for us in the dinghy so we postponed it until the next night, when conditions were better. Still, it was choppy and we needed to mind the rocks all around the point. I made sure to take mental note of where they were because the ride back would be pitch black, even with a bright lamp we brought along which was worse than useless because of the haze reflecting back at us instead of lighting up the sea. I had to agree with Susan that the dark, bumpy and wet ride back was pushing the envelope a bit, but we made it back to the boat safe and sound!

The last thing we did on Vieques was meet up with an old friend from my original Brooklyn stomping grounds.  I hadn't seen Scott Appell since the 60's when we were kids growing up in the same apartment building, but I had heard that he moved to St. Croix and then to Vieques. Scott, known locally as "The Green Man," is a horticultural taxonomist and more recently the island's celebrity "baker extraordinaire."  Scott joined us for breakfast on Pratique, and by morning's end 45 years didn't seem that long a time!  Scott, for good reason, let's not wait another 45 years to get back in touch!

Next, off to Culebra!