Safe Again
19 February 2013 | Ensenada Honda--Vieques
Douglas Paddock
We got back safely to my favorite anchorage ever--Ensenada Honda.
Safe?
Yep. First of all, every time I stick my head out into the Atlantic south of Puerto Rico, I feel like I'm taking my life in my hands. We buckle everything down and stow everything away for even a 3-5 mile run. It's rough out there. The trades seem to always be blowing 20-25 knots and the waves are wicked. I've never been shaken, rattled and rolled so much.
Secondly, our reason for heading back west to Sunbay was to meet our friends, Sherman and Judy on Fairwinds. They were meeting us here from Ponce on Saturday. They had a horrible trip here. They lost their main halyard on the first leg of the trip and therefore lost the use of their mainsail. They lost a fan belt about two miles offshore and therefore lost the use of their engine. They sailed into Sunbay on Saturday after covering 35 miles in fifteen miserable hours in nasty wind and sea conditions. Even after they reached Sunbay, the anchorage had a huge swell coming into it that rolled us all night.
Finally, our experience in Esperanza was hair raising if not life threatening. Esperanza is the little fishing town just west of Sunbay. I had arranged with the Seven Seas Cruising Station host, Angie Adams, to pick up a couple of moorings there Sunday night. We had moved our boats and were getting ready to go to dinner when some crazy local started verbally assaulting us asserting we were on a private mooring. We moved and anchored. Sherman and Judy coughed up some extortion $ and stayed.
Seems as if Esperanza has become the wild west since the military pulled out. Drug running, murders in the streets, the whole shebang. The game we ran into was where the Department of Natural Resource moorings had been highjacked by some of these cowboys. They painted over the DNR name and put theirs on it--harassing and shaking down cruisers. Locals from Vieques are sick about the current state of affairs and are fighting all of this nonsense.
But it was not our battle and as soon as possible yesterday, we got out of Dodge and bashed our way to a safe place. Once again we are surrounded by nature and with good people. Ah-h-h...that feels good.
Yesterday afternoon, we snorkeled for two hours on one of the coolest reefs ever. The reef was so full of fish it was amazing. Huge eagle rays "flew" by as we gawked at all the variety of species. I found two huge conch that volunteered to be our supper tonight.
Life is good (just not in Esperanza!)