Vieques, SVI

Our tour of the SVIs resumed in Vieques, the second of the two islands. It's skinny, tall and longer than you'd expect. Very few people populate the island and even less make themselves visible. It would have to be one of the more isolated places we've been.

Although it didn't really feel that way, Vieques was rather disappointing. We failed at trolling. We failed on the crayfish hunt. The diving, which was supposed to be top notch, was decisively average - so much so we didn't even bother. The phosphlouresence was supposed to be the best in the world yet offered little more than a fizzle and many mosquito bites. Our first night's anchorage was picturesque yet overly rolly. And the wind blew strongly all the time except when we tried to go windsurfing.

These first world problems swiftly became a distant memory on the evening of the second night. We made anchor in Esenada Honda (not to be confused with Esenada Honda on Culebra Island - really original place naming here). Excluding the odd passer by, we were the only people in the harbour. We tucked in the lee of some mangroves, in what later became glassy water and had the darkest, flatest most peaceful night of the trip. Boy did I relish that sleep! As it was our last night as an awesome threesome, we topped off the night with a cheeky man date, stargazing.

Dawn alarms blared the next morning, as we reluctantly rose from our slumber and made haste eastward, directly into the oncoming trades. Cat, Dave and a very distant Jost Van Dyke awaited.Read more