Day 12

Mark and I left the crew asleep early this morning and took the dingy in to Culebra looking for a place that would have internet.  Instead we found was a nice air conditioned donut shop!  We couldn’t resist a long leisurely donut stop in an arctic climate.

 Everyone here on Culebra seems really friendly and many of them speak English—mainly the expats who seemed to have all discovered this easy-going island and decided not to ever leave.  The gal at the donut shop gave us directions to the nearest working Internet and even gave me the password.  Everyone here seems to know the guy on the island with internet and they all seem to know his password.

Mark set off for the dingy and the boat and left me to wander town looking for the illusive wi-fi connection. 

I finally found the spot where all the locals said I could find a hot spot and hung out in a paneria (not a bar this time mom) for a couple of hours posting on the blog.  The internet was coming from the business next door but the folks at the paneria were more than happy to make sure I knew the password.  I spent a couple of hours uploading pics and talking with the locals—a placid medley of Culebra natives and expats, with a side of tourists streaming in on the weekend ferry.  There I learned the local politics, the nuances of the island with its lackadaisical school schedule, and some minor squabbles a few folks had on various government matters.  Despite a small list of qualms, these people were for the most part content and happy with life here.

Kathy and Chloe showed up a little while later and joined me for lunch before setting off on a hunt for nail polish.  They haven't found any on any of our other stops and they've got a hankering for a little spa night if they can just find polish.

Meanwhile back at the boat the boys decided to involve themselves in more adventures that could be filed under the capricious episodes I call “Boys will be Boys”.  Sadly I was not there on the scene with my camera.  The three of them took the dingy over to a spot they thought might offer a little snorkeling.  They saw a bat ray, some lion fish, sea turtles, trumpet fish, and a “weird light-up fish” as Connor explains it.  Then they found a bunch of jellyfish.  What’s the collective noun for those? Swarm? As in, "a stinging swarm of jellyfish".  

Connor is great in the water, but at the sight of jellyfish he quickly retreats.  Connor swam to his dad and clung to his back using him as a human jellyfish shield.  Connor claims he’s not afraid of anything in the water--except jellyfish.  Not even a reef shark, or so he claims--but just wait for day 15 to be posted when he is proved weary of reef sharks too [cue mysterious foreshadowing music]. His fear he claims is just for the jellys.   

I’m not sure his plan to use Mark as pseudo-kevlar against the mighty jellyfish was such a wise idea since Mark has an affinity for hair-brained ideas much like the mastermind behind all tomfoolery--Keith.  Soon, Mark decides to play a game called “Pet the Jellyfish”.  Ever heard of that?  I'm betting you haven't.  And my guess is because it's a game people DON'T play.  

On his first go Mark lost the rally and got stung.  But as with most boys, this sort of thing is not an incentive to forfeit a game no matter how bad it's going.  I'm not sure if Keith joined in the fun since I wasn't there, but I can imagine as with all bad ideas, if he was there, he dabbled.

Back at the paneria, I managed to hurriedly upload photos and make a few posts that I can only imagine are hideously riddled with typos, in my rushed attempt to catch up on our life here at sea.  I stayed in the paneria long enough to be closed up in the shop during siesta--they didn't mind I stayed and nor did I since they too had air conditioning.  They had turned the closed sign out, shut the door and let me stay and blog while they mopped and cleaned up after serving lunch.  Sometime later I figured I’d better make my way back to the boat so I wouldn’t be left on land while “Hakuna Matata” set sail for Vieques without me. 

I waved from the dock and soon Connor was on his way over with the dingy.  

These days he is operating the dingy on his own.  It's like he's got his own car.  He will never want to return to land now since he has a few more years to wait before he can operate a vehicle by himself back on terra firma.

Back on "Hakuna Matata" Connor decided to check his handmade rain gauge.

 He's been working on his weather merit badge while out at sea.  A great place to do so since weather really becomes important.  But here's the real lesson he's learned...

A rain gauge doesn't gauge the rain.

Do you see how much rain this thing collected overnight??

Last night it rained so hard that it filled up our dingy up with water, but hardly any water was captured in his gauge.  Next time it rains he plans on getting out a Sharpie and marking the inside of the dingy and using it instead of his duct taped little water cup contraption.

On board there was another rare sighting…and no, not a horse or a guy taking our picture.  This sighting was of  T-shirts.  Three of them to be exact.  On the boys no less.  A rare sight indeed. 

Mark was at the helm while Keith, Kathy,  and I tried to raise the anchor.  Once again we were having problems bringing the dang anchor up. Only this time we checked the anchor chain in the hatch, thinking the crew was going to send me back in the bowels of the anchor locker and get all rusted up again, but that was not the problem.  Keith motored the anchor up, then down, then up, then down again, and it would not budge any farther up.  Finally we got smart enough to put our head down the anchor hatch and take a look see.  The problem was quickly identified…

we were caught up on a line that was under the water somewhere.   

The boys tried to free the anchor by using a kayak paddle...

 

 Which didn't work, we were still hopelessly tethered to Culebra.

Something drastic had to be done.  This meant someone was going to have to go in to the water and free it by hand...

Normally any of us would be more than happy to jump in and do this but at this particular moorage the water was brackish and grossly green, sure to give anyone a case of the heebie-jeebies and possibly something much worse--something that might require a hardy dose of rash medications.  I volunteered even though my shots are not all current but Keith was all gentleman and declined my offer.  Whew!

Soon he was in and had set us free.   

and our anchor was up and locked in.

But no sooner had he done the job he was quickly back on board the boat and running for the shower on the back deck.

Kathy decided that for good measure she should douse him with some rum we found on board.  Since we weren't drinking any of it she thought it go to good use by killing off parasites.

With the anchor up, the crew de-plagued, it was off to Vieques!

En route, Connor did what he loves most--cat napped on the trampoline:

Keith got great reception on his phone during our passage and spent the time texting photos back home to friends and family right from the deck of our boat.

The boys decided to anchor off Veiques in Bahia Icacos where according to this chart there is clearly an anchor symbol in the bay.  One would assume that's the go-ahead for a stress-free anchorage.

It’s a fairly tricky spot to thread in to as there is a very narrow passage to gain access as it features two large reefs that flank both sides of the deceitfully wide bay.  We motored through with no problem and that was certainly not the riskiest part of tackling this beach.

That’s because this beach has one other major problem:

BOMBS.

 Up until 2003, Vieques was used as a sea and air weapons target by the U.S. Navy.  Signs on many of the beaches warn visitors that there are still remains of unexploded ordnance hazards on a few of the beaches. 

So we were very very very careful when setting the anchor:

 

While Keith put on a mask and snorkel and made a sweep of the seabed checking our anchorage for explosives the rest of us headed to shore and read the cautionary beach signs for ourselves. 

 Chloe and Kathy went by Kayak:

Me and the two boys went by dingy:

Yep, the sign were indeed of a cautionary nature:

Let's just say we came, we read, then we quickly left for our boat.

Meanwhile, Keith found nothing to be alarmed about under our boat.  He and Mark did a little more "investigative" snorkeling and returned with crazy stories of bomb sightings just around the point from where we were anchored.  Something a few of us curious crew members may have to confirm for ourselves tomorrow.

Meanwhile, they brought back some starfish for the kids:

 

The Island of Vieques is one of those little jewels we discovered back in 2007 with the Williams.  Clear back in 2001, Keith and his oldest son Chris did a reef dive just off its shores and came in to town for a quick lunch.  Keith decided it would be a great place to bring our families to and so we came in 2007 for a Christmas holiday. 

This is also the island where Connor spent his eighth birthday, he was baptized right on the Beach--a less explosive beach I might add.  Being here brought back a lot of fun memories of that amazing family trip.  It made us miss Peter and Cassandra, Chey and Mitchell, and Mirjam!   

We couldn't wait to do a little exploring the following day.  Adventures in bombs and Bioluminescence await...