Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited

4-15 We moved from USVI to Vieques. We got going about 9am. It was a pretty uneventful passage. Mostly downwind, but started swirling and had to motor last hour or so. Cade caught a fish. He thought it might have been sea weed because it wasn’t really fighting but once we got it in saw that it was a small fish. I think a bonita. It took us about 6 hours. We anchored out in the bay in the city of Esperanza. The kids and I went to shore because Cale didn’t want to leave the boat until we made sure the anchor was secure. Cole was driving and got distracted by what he said were sharks but was actually tarpon chasing after the boat. He took us close to some rocks so I jumped in a little sooner then I’d hoped and got pretty wet. We walked around and got some names of cabs drivers for a ride to church tomorrow. It’s weird how just like that it feels like Mexico. There is a cute little walkway along the water. There are quite a few tourists around. There are only 2 other boats anchored out by us. We got back to the boat and the kids were anxious to wing foil. We had 2 wings and 2 boards and took turns. I went first and did okay. I almost turned but fell at the last second. The kids are getting good. It will be nice when we can go up wind. Without the foil you can only go down and so we had to use the dinghy to shuttle. We got back to the boat and a metal can of kidney beans had burst open all over the canned foods. Kira and Kelsey were helpful getting it cleaned up. The boys worked on putting the wings and boards away. The generator wasn’t spitting water but was running fine.

4-16 None of the cab drivers were responding so we went to shore around 9 not knowing how we’d get to church. We were worried about leaving the dinghy but we pulled it up and put a lock on it using a a tree branch. We got ahold of a lady to give us a ride. She said she’d come, but we got a little nervous. She finally came about 9:30. She was the sweetest lady. She spoke some English. Her husband died and left her the business. She recently became care taker to her brother and his wife who needed constant care. Though she had all that going on she had the sweetest spirit about her. She was, however, a terrible driver. Several times she was checking things on her phone while driving off the road. It didn’t help that several times we came around a corner and there were 6 or 7 horses were on the road. We found out later there are around 14,000 people on the island (there were 15,000 before the hurricanes in 2017) and 3,000 horses. They are everywhere. We found the little church building. There was another plot of land that it used to be on that was donates to the church by a member who past away but it was hurricane damaged and they didn’t rebuild it. Now they rent a building. The branch is very small. There are just 8 active members . There was another family visiting from Florida, the Nelsons, who bought property here. The member said how glad they were to have children there. Sacrament meeting was good. The missionaries spoke. We tries to listen through headphones, but it was very crackled and difficult to hear. There were no kids classes so we all joined the adult Sunday School class. It was a good lesson, at least from what I could follow. He told how horses get hit all the time on the island ( our cab driver on our way back said 12 a year) and the night before he had been warned to slow down and missed hitting a horse.
My favorite part of being on a new island is always walking around. You get to see the island in a more intimate way. They kids bare it but I don’t think they love it. It was especially hot and the kids were not feeling it today, especially Kelsey, but we walked around anyways. We walked down to the water and up to the light house, which wasn’t accessible. Next, we walked downtown to the main square and then up to the museum and fort. The man said we could look around the outside of the fort but not the inside. We still aren’t sure exactly why because it all looked open. We have heard there is an anti-American/outsider sentiment here so our best guess was that. On the way, we passed lots of horses. We also had 2 dogs come out barking and growling at us. It was kind of scary. One time Cale was in front of Cole with Cade. A dog was going at Cole. It was a pretty but it little dog but vicious. I’m screaming at if from about 30 feet behind while Cole is kicking at it. Cale didn’t realize what was going on. It snapped at Cole several times, just grazing the skin on his ankle. I then had to walk by with the girls. I grabbed a stick and as soon as I did they dog ran away. Sad, but must have been hit before. I was just glad it didn’t keep attacking. Also, so glad it didn’t break skin where it got Cole on his ankle. We went back to the square and met our cab driver. The niece of the owner came and got us. She was a fun lady. She is a fisherwomen for her job and helps her aunt. She took us a different way back. We passed a man on the street and she said ” oh he’s so crazy.” She told us how he puts money in places and then watches to see if people will get it. Then just leaves it there.
We passed some old phone booths from horse and carriage days. Several had been destroyed, but two were still standing. They were quite isolated, but all lined up on one side of the island.
We went back to the boat for lunch. We cleaned up and organized the back part of the boat and then wing foiled again. We are all improving but it’s defiantly hard, especially now that we can only go downwind.
We talked to the Durgins and the Taylor’s. It was fun to catch up.

4-17
We moved over a to Sun bay to put us closer to the Mosquito Bay or Bioluminescence Bay. We got anchored around 11:30am and then met our new friends from church the Larsens, Rob, Cindy, Sydney, Savanna and Remington. It took a little bit for the kids to warm up but then they had a blast. They were kind enough to bring pizza and chips and sodas and oreos. The kids were in heaven. There was enormous barracuda under the boat. At first the kids were nervous to swim but slowly forgot about him. There youngest was loving the idea of driving the boat so we took them out and over to just outside the bay and anchored and then dinghied to our own private beach just to the right before you go to mosquito bay. It was sand on one side and rocks and tide pools on the other. It was so fun to share the day with friends. We sailed back and re- anchored at Esperanza. The kids jumped off the boat and swam some more and then we took them to shore and got ready for our night expedition to the bio bay. We left at dusk, around 6:30pm. It was a little nerve wracking to be heading out to open sea at dark but we prepared ourselves as much as could. We took the ditch bag, flashlights, life jackets and extra water. It was about a 2 mile ride. It was also really calm so that helped. The dingy ride was smooth. It gets very shallow and narrow as you come into the bay. You also have to turn you motors off so we paddled in. It slowly became more and more bright and beautiful. As you paddled through the water it just illuminated. It was like nothing else I’ve ever seen. We paddled around and tried to overhear one of the tour guides to get some info. Somehow slowly the kids ended up getting in the water. It was very cool. Cale challenged everyone to sit in silence for one minute, one turned into five. There was no one around and it was so calm. The bay was absolutely still. It was my favorite part. It was impossible to get pictures or video but trust me it was awesome.
Our dinghy ride back went great. The water was so calm and we were surfing waves. I’m glad it was uneventful. We were undecided when we went to bed whether we would stay another day in Sun Bay or head to the Isle de Grande.