BBBBBomb in Vieques, 18:07.87N 65:18.37W
MALARKEY
Jo & Trevor Bush
Thu 10 Apr 2008 23:46
|
No..... we have not been murdered, lost or
kidnapped.
It has been 8 months since I posted our last blog
and I have struggled to write anything 'til this point. But pressure has been
applied and this is the first of many to bring us upto date.
Events at home had overtaken us and our cruising
plans had hit the dust as a consequence. We needed to get back to the UK and
sort some stuff out before we could carry on. We reluctantly decided to halt our
westward run and return to Venezuela. Venezuela had proven to be a good place to
leave the boat for an extended period, especially during the hurricane season.
So it was with a heavy heart we said 'hasta luego' to our cruising pals Ade
& Jan on 'Squander' and turned the boat eastward. But of course, we couldn't
say goodbye without a farewell drink at the 'office'.
 There is a strange but curiously acceptable way of
boozing in Puerto Rico.
The idea is to buy some grog from a liquor store,
find a seat in a nearby park or grass verge and then drink 'til you are
mullered. Now, where I come from, those kind of antics are left to the wino's,
town drunks and brain dead teenagers, whilst the rest of us normal drinking
society get hammered in the local boozer. But here, it is not only
acceptable but the done thing. The liquor store will even supply you with
plastic beakers filled with ice. Oddly enough, the more you drank, the more
acceptable the whole thing became. It was a very friendly and social affair and
a whole lot cheaper taboot.
Anyway, having made the decision to head back to
Venezuela, we figured we would do proper justice to the Virgin Islands this
time, and then go south via St Maarten to buy even more spare parts. Which
brings me nicely to why we needed to buy even more spare parts for our money pit
called 'Malarkey'. I am not sure how we did it or even when but we managed to
stretch our anchor chain. The darn thing wouldn't work properly on the
windlass and as Joanne was in charge of that
department, she insisted that it was changed completely and pronto or
I would have a mutiny on my hands. St Maarten was the obvious destination to do
this but even then it had to be ordered a month in advance.
So we planned to use this time
well and spend it in the Virgins. The first port of call was
Vieques, one of the Spanish Virgin Islands.
Before we left Puerto Rico we were kindly given a
chart for Vieques from the Port Control Office in Fajardo. This chart clearly
identified all the best anchoring locations and all the sight seeing spots.
We cruised the south coast and the chart proved quite correct. We enjoyed some
quiet anchorages and pleasant excursions ashore. However, we needed to start
making progress east and so we looked for a perfect jumping off point at the
south eastern end of the island. We found it courtesy of our lovely
little chart, a nice little protected anchorage right on the SE
corner....perfect. So we headed off in that direction late in the afternoon with
the view of being there before dark cos there was tricky entrance. Well we
got there before dark alright and managed to negotiate the reefs ok but what we
didn't account for was a total loonie in combat uniform screaming some sort
of obscenities at us from the shore. Now his voice didn't carry that well
on the stiff breeze that was now blowing and we only caught a few words.
They proved to be choice words at that. We picked up 'stupid', 'anchor', 'bomb'
and 'to hell'. At the time, none of this made sense but now that I am
writing it, it kind of seems obvious. Jo, my no1 crew, suggested I turn the
radio on, maybe they have been trying to contact us on the radio. Don't be silly
I thought, nobody even knows we are here. Well the US Army did and
judging by his language, when we finally did speak on the radio, he wasn't
best pleased with us. It went something like this
Radio
'Blue yacht entering the bay, come back.'
My
reply
'This is sailing yacht 'Malarkey' please identify
yourself.'
Radio
'This is the US Army. Get the hell out of this
bay NOW.'
My
reply 'Please explain
yourself, we have a chart given to us by your Port Control Office saying it is
perfectly fine to anchor here.'
Radio
'Well we are the US Army and we say that it is not, twenty four
seven, 365 days of the f**king year and if you drop your anchor here you will
probably be blown straight to hell.'
At this point my belligerence was beginning
waiver and after a quick consultation with the crew, which took approx
2 .5 milliseconds for Joanne to say 'Bbbbomb gggo oooo', we about
turned and headed back to sea, which was looking pretty ugly in full on east
trade winds in falling darkness.
I managed to vent some of my frustrations over the
radio with some very flowery language but it was obviously falling on deaf ears
and I didn't get a response......The Jar head was probably on the floor
laughing.......the US Army had won another battle and the British Merchant
Navy was sent off scurrying back to sea.
|