Vieques, Puerto Rico

For 5/16/12

Sunrise over Vieques with Dream Walker ahead

On Mother’s Day at 3:30am, Dream Walker and Wayward Wind, motor-sailed out of Salinas for a rolly ride and anchored at 1:00pm in Puerto Patillas for the night where we listened to dreadful karaoke assaulting us from onshore.  Fortunately we were able to sleep through the audio attack for a few hours. 

At midnight we weighed anchor and motor-sailed to Green Beach, Vieques, Puerto Rico.  The reason for the early morning departures is that the wind has been between 15 and 20 knots from the east, so right on the nose and the seas have been about five feet.  Not too bad but not relaxing.   Conditions are usually a bit calmer at night, but not always.  The Green Beach anchorage was so nice we stayed for a couple of days to snorkel. 

Stan and Elizabeth dinghying over to pick us up for a snorkling adventure

Snorklin' Dave

Stan and Elizabeth are avid snorklers and divers and often harvest their evening’s meal from below.  We joined them on two afternoons where we found conch.  Stan then gave me a conch cleaning lesson on the stern of our boat.  Dave is not too fond of conch because of its rubbery texture.  As per Elizabeth’s instructions, I beat the heck out of it to tenderize it.  We’ve now had conch salad which turned out pretty tasty if “chewy.” 

Conch Harvest

Enjoying mahi mahi pasta salad at a table with a view

We had Stan and Elizabeth over for a mahi mahi dinner which Dave had caught on the way.  A couple of nights later, we had dinner aboard Dream Walker that included delicious conch fritters and Elizabeth’s specialty, crème brulee.  This was no ordinary crème brulee but was coconut cream brulee sweetened with maple syrup from Stan and Elizabeth’s home state, Vermont.  And for the evening’s entertainment, Stan whipped out his plumber’s torch to caramelize the sugar, which he did ever so expertly.  Words fail to describe the experience of tasting that maple coconut crème brulee.  I will say that a hush prevailed over this moment of gastronomic bliss.

Ahh...