Getting there

We are on the road! The alarm clock went off at 3:00, was very early, and discovered first that the fridge had been dripping water all night, I was at least immediately right awake! The big bag was still too heavy (I don’t know if we had expected that that would change overnight), so we transferred some stuff in our hand luggage, we are now dragging four pretty heavy bags around the airport. 

We had expected all kind of scrutiny with the “no-water, coats off and shoes in the bin” control, but we just flew through, with that we had lots of time to get a very good breakfast. In the waiting area were a couple of guys very loud discussing the elections and politics, I was so hoping not to hear anything about this for a long time!!!!!!!!!! 

After an uneventful flight we arrived around two in San Juan and were soon on the way to Salinas. The Lady Hawk was peacefully floating in the water and we were happy to see her. It was a little messy inside so the thought occurred that the launch had probably not gone very smoothly. But suddenly we missed the bikes and two toolboxes and an emergency light, there had been a break-in! Jacques sent some choice dutch words out to all the people of Puerto Rico, we all know the sound of that.

After the first clean-up we took a good drink on our arrival and even with the stolen goods we are very happy to start our third season on our Lady Hawk. 

Ria

Drying out

Still at home

We are slowly getting in the mood for our third winter on Lady Hawk.

Ria

The queen in stride

Photo blog since we have a fast internet connection

South wind, no wind = HOT

First the wind turned to a south wind and then the wind stopped completely. It was boiling hot in Puerto Ferro. This is actually not a puerto at all but more of a bay. That meant even less wind. The bay is surrounded by mangroves and that usually equals mosquitoes. Shaggy (Jacques in Holland, Chuck in the US, Shaggy in the Caribbean) does NOT like mosquitoes.

Ria was in the lucky position of having a Breeze booster attached to one of her windows. Smart thing really. The back bunks where Mark and I sleep with the kids have two tiny windows that we have to close every time it rains and gets more humid. We had a couple of painful days until the wind sort of came back.

Helena

Puerto Ferro via Bahia Icacos

We had now decided to leave the Culebra area and return to Vieques. On the way, “Mark the Barracuda Man”, had a bite. A big one it sounded like. When we pulled up the fish, once again an uneatable barracuda, a big bite was taken from the fish. This was according to Joel and Noah of course taken by a shark!!!

As we where leaving we passed by Punta Mark!!!

Two thirds of Vieques was until recently used by the American Military as ammunition experiment grounds. That is luckily no longer the case and the land has been returned to the people of Vieques. Unfortunately large parts of the land is contaminated by unexploded ammunition and you are not allowed to go on land. When we tried to anchor in the beautiful Bahia Icacos, a gentleman very politely told us to piss off. Since we where hoping to snorkel around a small island with a reef, we disappointedly decided to continue to Puerto Ferron the southern side of Vieques.

Helena

Culebrita, photo blog

Boat visit, the sailboat without a mast

On Culebra we spotted a sailboat without a mast and were of course very curious about what could have happened. On Culebrita the very same boat was anchored right next to us. Mark saw that the man was fishing and subtly swam over and asked what fish he caught and what had a happened to their mast. He also invited them over for a beer. Since we had had thirsty Dutch people over the evening before, we did not have an abundance of drinks left, and therefore hoped they would not be that thirsty. 

They were retired Canadian military (=very young) relocating to the homecountry of the Captain, St. Lucia. The mast had broken during a storm in the Bahamas. In addition to this mishap they had also lost three anchors on the way and now had a very sturdy anchor. Since this anchor was very heavy the last thing that broke was their anchor chain…. They where hoping to get a new mast on St. Croix and they had to pick travel days with low wind. They had been on the way for about two years.

Helena

Boat visit, scavenging Dutch man

On Culebra we hooked up with two other Dutch boats. One couple was on their way to Canada via Bermuda…. Hans had just spent 31 days to cross the Atlantic from the Canaries, all by himself. No wind. The other couple was a bit younger and this Dutchman had picked up his very nice American girlfriend on the island of Bermuda. He had a hobby. In my opinion this must be a very Dutch hobby. He had managed to equip large parts of his boat, build by himself, with pieces he had found on deserted boats or boatyards along the way. The boat was running on bio-diesel. He collected used cooking oil from restaurants along the way and had installed a self-made filtering system (starting with just a t-shirt) and created his own fuel on the boat. The collected oil was transported on to the boat on a canoe!!!

Helena

Animal Life

As we walk around looking for a place large enough to play a bit of football, we spot a baseball field. When we look over the wall, what do we see??? A baseball field filled with a hundred or so sheep. LOL. Not exactly what we expected but I have to admit that it makes sense to use animals instead of a lawnmower in a place where grass is scarce.

Later in the evening as we where having dinner at the Mamacita restaurant located along the canal on Culebra what comes swimming in the water if not a rooster. This was obviously not that common as all the staff took out their mobile-phones.

Another evening as Mark was washing up a pot in the water we hear snap and two fishes came and tried to catch what ended up in the water. They moved exactly like sharks. The day before the boat next to called us on the radio to tell us we should get the kids out of the water since a bull shark was getting closer.

Helena

Culebra with some fantastic snorkeling

Since Friday we are now on the Island of Culebra. Our first stop was anchoring next to the reef at the entry of Ensenada Honda. First snorkeling trip was on the inside of the reef and although that was nice and we saw some stingrays, the snorkeling outside of the reef was absolutely fantastic. The water was crystal clear with corals separated by white sand and the amount of fishes was spectacular. To Noah's joy we even saw some YB-fishes (black-yellow). The evening was very calm and we had our first night without any breeze. Bloody hot.

Helena

On Lady Hawk we have our own Queen

Isabel Segunda

This is the capital on Vieques. I really like it. It is a really small town clearly made up of people living there and not for tourists. The shops have things you would need if you lived there and not things boaters are looking for, such as sun cream, long-sleeved sun protection for the kids and fun things we could attach to the dingy. In the evening we had a delicious dinner at a place obviously frequented by the American expat community on the island. We heard no Spanish.

Helena

Fishing success

After having spent a lot of time with his fishing rod, Mark used a new technique of trawling a lure as we left Palomino for Vieques. And he was successful!!! If size matters, he was very successful (according to Mark, size does matter).
He had to work quite hard to get the fish out of the water since it was a quite a large one. It measured to one meter (40 inches). Now the question was what kind of fish was it? Could we eat it? Would it taste good if we ate it?

After we arrived to Isabel Segunda we took the dingy to go on land and showed the fish to some fishermen. After some impressed sounds when they saw the size, they confirmed our suspicion that it was a Barracuda. Large Barracudas are poisonous and really should not be eaten. Bummer for Mark.

Helena