Admirals Log:
Vieques cont..
You have to remember there is no hairdryer or makeup these days!
I just use a number 1 on David all over and he had offered me the same with a number 2 comb but I politely declined! That was what I got last time without the clippers!!
We then went snorkeling over to the reef that we had crossed and both David and I were a bit gob smacked at how many unexploded bombs there actually were just lying on the sea bed. Some were only about 40cms long and 10cms diameter but one was at least a meter long and 30cms wide!!! Just as well we didn't land the anchor on one!!!!!! We did go for a walk along the shore but kept very close to the waters edge! It is a huge beach so it was a lovely way to spend the day!
We stayed at a few bays on the southern side of Vieques as well, doing maintenance jobs on the boat and hoping against hope that the winds would die down and the sea swell would drop enough for us to do a trip to bio-luminesence bay.
Lighthouse at the entrance to Puerto Ferro where we stayed one night.
Looking into Ensenada Honda Bay where we anchored for quite a while , it was really calm and we often had it to ourselves. Great place to do maintenance jobs!
We had read about the bioluminescence bay and both were very keen but you are not able to anchor in it or use any motors once you are inside the mouth of the bay. To say we were thrilled when out of the blue one evening the wind died away and the moon only day 1 of a new cycle - meaning that it would be pitch black - and ideal for experiencing the luminescence!
Thats all very well but first we had to get there!!! With no moon to guide us and -although smaller - still a reasonable swell running we had to dinghy out of our bay and make a run for it up the coast to the bay 2 bays along!! We both wore life jackets and with me sitting in the front -(where you get the most bounced around but necessary for balance) and clutching a torch, dry bag with our good SLR camera and my cell phone in it, the Ipad (in a ziplock bag to keep it dry but still able to see the screen so we could see where we were with GPS and not run onto one of the reefs) plus hanging on to the rope (painter for boaties) for grim death so I didn't bouce out we slowly made our way to the bay!! I didn't want the camera etc bouncing on the hard bottom of the dingy and breaking. When it is that dark you can't really see the size of the waves you are running into until they are right on top of you, but we got there in one piece and although I may have been secretly thinking to myself " I hope this is worth it" I didn't complain to David at all about the uncomfortable ride! (but I was glad I still have strong pelvic floor muscles after having 2 kids!!)
Well it was absolutely worth it and then some!!! I sat like lady muck in the front of the dingy while my wonderful husband rowed us around and it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Every dip of the oars created a bright light under the water and all the fish swimming away from us created bright streaks of light through the water and there were hundreds of them. Then you would see a larger but not as bright light that was a slower moving but bigger fish going for the smaller ones, and them racing away. It was awesome and I had no idea how many fish there really are swimming under the surface until you see them like that!!! Like our very own fireworks display but all under the water!!
People staying on shore can do kayak tours and the light off their paddles was awesome - similar to our oars!
There is a steep drop off only about 500ms from the shore where it goes from around 80ft to thousands of feet very quickly, so David and I headed out to try our luck trolling for wahoo and mahi mahi. The first day wasn't too bad, we at least got a feed of tuna for dinner! Sashimi and then, after ringing my sister Kathy for cooking advice, the most divine rare tuna steaks with a lemon zest seasoning!! We did catch a small wahoo as well but something with a lot bigger teeth than we wanted to tangle with, decided it had first the first bite!!!
The next time we went out we only caught lots of barracuda and as they are full of worms and really nasty teeth we got fed up and came back in. As you can see it is only a small one but David still uses a pair of plyers to remove the hook as their teeth are really nasty!! and they thrash around like crazy! We are very humane when we are removing the hook of a fish we are keeping and we anaesthetise them with a dose of southern comfort poured over their gills first! (The southern comfort was left on board by a previous guest and David doesn't drink it!)
We met Oliver - (a business associate of David's brother Mike that he introduced us to in Nassau) very kindly came on board and gave us a lot of tips on fishing in the Bahamas and the Caribbean and then amazingly left us with a big container of lures to use including this pink one that was his favourite!!! It has worked the best of all of them for us as wel,l although doesn't stop us catching these nuisances!!
Ensenada Sunbay was another truely beautiful bay and it had the added attraction of being near a small town so we could pick up a few supplies. The locals were friendly and walking back from the small corner shop we were lucky enough to see the semi wild horses that roam the island.
We have spent the last few days doing more re-bedding of stainless fittings on the boat so that hopefully the rust that seems a never ending battle on a boat (despite being marine grade stainless) will be resolved. We use a product called Bedit that is like blue tack and comes in a huge roll very similar in size to the strips of blue tack you can buy. It stays pliable even when exposed to the hot sun and works its way into all the gaps preventing salt water from getting trapped under the fittings! Of course first you have to polish off all the existing rust, both from the fibreglass and the stainless. This bench seat had over 40 screws and washers to clean off as well as the bigger fittings!!!!
Doesn't it look good now though!
If you look carefully you can just see a thin line of grey under the fittings which is the bedit.
I am gradually expanding my repertoire of local dishes that I cook, and David inadvertantly pushed me into learning another one. I had sent him to buy me some frozen peas and when I got them out of the freezer to cook for dinner there were some green ones but a lot of brownish or yellowish ones as well! I thought they were off and got David to taste one! Peas have never been a favourite of mine as I still remember being made to sit at the dining room table as a little girl and not allowed to leave until all my peas -(cold by now) were eaten, so there was no way I was going to taste these!! His verdict was that they certainly didn't taste like normal peas so I tossed them out, meanwhile David had got out the bag from the freezer to read the info on them. Well they weren't normal peas at all. The were called pigeon peas!! We looked up on the internet and they are a favourite all over the Caribbean and are more like chic peas than our normal green peas we use for a vege. I came across a recipe for them that is a traditional dish of the Dominican Republic and gave it a go. It was basically the peas, rice and coconut milk with herbs added for flavour and surprisingly really good. I will put the recipe on my galley page. They eat them raw a lot too.