Log #43M Vieques, Part 2: Bombing Ranges
Ensenada Dikaty, Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands

May 3, 2007

After leaving the mooring buoy at the entrance to Puerto Mosquito, we motored along the south coast of Vieques, past several mangrove-lined bays, shoal-littered shorelines, and reef-fringed small islands over towards Ensenada Honda, a common name meaning "deep bay". En route we saw many of the bays with signs prohibiting landing because of unexploded ordnance. On the crest lines of some of the hills we could see the burnt out remains of military trucks and tanks once used for target practice, their skeletons mute reminders of the bombing ranges now closed. There were no other signs of "civilization" this end of the island; just the rugged hilly tree-clad landscape with the occasional tall palm tree dominating the skyline.

Ensenada Honda, the last bay on the southeastern coast, is a 2 mile wide estuary with several smaller mangrove-edged bays and inlets. We were pounding into energetic force 5 winds and four foot waves which eased off as we entered this wide bay. We motored around a few shoal areas in the bay to anchor, going up to the eastern end where the anchorage is protected by a long peninsula and another half mile of shoal area to create a calm well-protected refuge. The wind still blew across the lowlands of the peninsula, but the water was quite calm. We anchored off a mangrove inlet (18 07.02N, 065 20.67W), the only boat for miles around. Dropping Wave Dancer into the water we dinghied for several miles around this eastern portion, exploring the mangrove inlets as possible hurricane holes if necessary. We would quietly dinghy up these narrow openings, taking soundings with a hand line, a lead weight attached, to see if there would be enough depth for Veleda to squeeze in for hurricane protection. As we went up these channels we enjoyed the bird life, egrets, herons and a variety of seagulls, as well as some thrushes, hummingbirds and a few butterflies. There were even a few frigate birds and hawks soaring on the updrafts overhead. The shallow inner ends of the inlets were alive with fish life, as we shut off the engine and just drifted, silently enjoying these isolated nature sanctuaries. There were no "no landing" signs as the mangroves were too thick to get through to dry land.

Next day we weighed anchor and proceeded around the eastern cape of Vieques to anchor in Bahia Icacos (18 08.57N, 065 18.23W), a comfortable sandy beached bay with 20 plus power boats anchored along the shores with stern anchors on the beach. There were many beach umbrellas and families strolling and picnicking on the shore in front of "Danger - Unexploded Ordnance" signs. OK, if they could, so could we, so we went over and strolled the beach. We did see a couple of finned metal projectiles and several craters a few yards inshore that we had no intention of exploring. The sandy beach seemed safe to walk, but we didn't venture off the shoreline behind the "Danger - Unexploded Ordnance" signs. It was a Sunday and these boats were from Puerto Rico for a weekend get-away; all left by 1730 that afternoon, leaving us as the only vessel in the entire bay overnight.

At 0700 next morning, as we were having our coffee and tea, we got a call on a bull horn from shore to communicate with Vieques range control on VHF channel 16. The range controller was very polite, but indicated the work crew would be starting ordnance clearing in 15 minutes and advised us to leave the area. We complied immediately and had a short conversation with the individual, who had a sailboat as well. He suggested we be careful about dragging our anchor across the bottom as there could be unexploded ordnance there as well. We have never heard of a boat dragging up unexploded ordnance or being blown up by such. But, who wants to take chances? So we weighed anchor, making particularly sure to lift the chain vertically, and headed off back to the mainland of Puerto Rico to see about replacing our tattered main with our spare main, to be refurbished while we go to Panama City and Toronto.

One of the features of Vieques we did not see was the mile long pier on the western section of the north coast of Vieques, built in WW II as a potential base for the Royal Navy if England was conquered by Germany. Fortunately it did not have to be used for such, and has just fallen into disrepair.

We like Vieques, especially as there is no large scale resort development there - yet. Perhaps this is one of the mixed blessings of the presence of the US Navy.



Next log - Log43N