Bio-bay on Isla Vieques

If Puerto Mosquito on Isla de Vieques is not officially one of the top ten natural wonders of the world, then it should be. This bay is beyond words, full of living stars. This ecosystem is very fragile The water is warm, shallow, salty, and unpolluted by boats, cars, boats, and electric light. (It must stay this way for the beauty to remain.) The red rooted mangroves surrounding the bay produce minerals and vitamins which help the dinoflagellates in the water flourish. These tiny creatures live in Mosquito Bay and give off light – bioluminescence-- when they are disturbed, appearing 100 times their actual size. In a gallon of normal sea water there are usually 20 – 50 of these creatures, but a gallon from “bio-bay” has 500,000-700,000, making it the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world.

We took a tour of this astounding bay with our friends from Bojangles and Chasseur. It was a partly cloudy night with a waning crescent moon low in the sky, perfect for our adventure. We kayaked through the dark water that illuminated with our every touch. Jumping fish streaked like comets across the inky black surface. When we reached a deep spot in the bay the symphony of colliding kayaks echoed, boom, bang, crash across the water. Abandoning our kayaks we plunged into the water. The excitement of seeing our arms glow with microscopic plankton, our legs outlined with an eerie shimmer, and our friends sparkling crazily was beyond reason. Hollers of “Look at this … Watch me … Try this … This is so cool!” filled our ears. After hearing those exclamations we changed our minds, this shouldn’t be just in the top ten, it should be the first.

– written by the whole family while sitting on the steps of El Fortin Conde de Mirasol in Isabel Segunda, Vieques.

St. John -- USVI

Pardon the long delay in posts. It can be attributed in part to lack of wi-fi connections and part to “island time” mentality that has the days slide one into the next.

Over the past two weeks we spent time cruising around St. John, doing some volunteer work, visiting favorite spots we found when we were down here four years ago, and hiking and snorkeling with Bojangles and Stolen Hour (two other family boats that were part of the Carib 1500). We also had an amazing “shore leave” in St. Thomas. John and Joanne hosted our family at their home, treating us to great cooking, helping us with Christmas shopping, and letting us relax around their pool. Additionally, as I worked on various boat projects, John and the whole CYOA staff shared various insights and energies with me, helping us tune up Ohana for the next legs of our journey. Currently we are exploring Culebra, one of the Spanish Virgin Islands. We will head to Vieques shortly and then make our way to Puerto Rico for Christmas.

While at St. John, our family took a day to join with others who were volunteering to help maintain the national park. Eliza and the boys helped out a second day and then spent a day hiking with those they met. Below is a reflection Jeremiah put together after his volunteering efforts.

-- Peter

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Xavier, Mom and I spent two days volunteering to help preserve and maintain trails on St. John. We worked with people from the American Hiking Association. One of the people we met had orange neon boots and she was writing a story about them to bring back home to her friends. One time she put a soldier crab on her boot, then put a band-aid on the boot because the soldier crab pinched it. Another person we met was Tony. He was the one who rolled a huge 200-500 pound boulder down the hill that crashed down about five trees with fist size trunks. The tree that stopped it was about three times bigger around. Both Tony and Vicky were very nice. I am glad that I went and met these new people.


– Jeremiah

 

Trail work

Teamwork to move a huge boulder.

Taking a short break.

Tony with a smaller boulder.

Falling Water

While Josie, the crew and I sailed the boat down to the Caribbean, Eliza and the rest of the kids visited family in Virginia and then headed to Pittsburgh. As part of their stay in western PA they visited two Frank Lloyd Wright homes -- Kentuck Knob and Falling Water. Catherine has put together the essay that follows to share her insights about one of those homes.

--Peter

You might think that you are in the middle of no where but actually you are in the middle of Pennsylvania. The land is hilly but not quite mountainous and rhododendron bushes are everywhere. A stream runs through this landscape and its bed is shaded by tall deciduous tress. Here somewhere on these 500 acres of land is one of the most striking sights, the house called Falling Water.

If you look at Falling Water, you would see that it belongs here in this wilderness. This is a hidden piece of paradise. You are all alone here but that is good. The peace of nature is so much a part of the house itself that even the windows have no blinds because you have no need to block the path of nature. Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect, saw no need for landscape lights so the world outside is perfect, natural black at night. The house itself is built right into the landscape to the extent that if you go to the hearth in the dining room you will see that the floor by the hearth is actually a boulder that the house was built right around.

Since nature is so much a part of Falling Water, you will find that even from the inside you are pushed out to it. With windows taking up entire walls nature flows through the house as fluidly as air. From every terrace you can hear the sound of Falling Water. You might even notice that all the reinforced concrete is painted ocher, the same color as a rhododendron leaf when it first falls. The sandstone floors are shined with wax so when you look they should remind you of wet stones in a river bed. These are other ways to make you feel more a part of everything outside.

The great room also has ways to make you feel like you are outside, it has the best view of the stream and even has a stair case called “the hatch” leading right from the room to the water. The great room you will see is appropriately named as it is a great huge room. This room is actually many rooms in one, the dining room, the living room, and the lounge, and each room is separated by merely a change in ceiling height. There is a also desk for business, seats galore for cocktails. The great room, like every other room, has its own terrace. This terrace has a spectacular view of the falls. You could call it a common room maybe because so many different things can be happening at once within the same room but they are as apart as if there were actually walls.

Falling Water was not what the family expected,you see, they wanted a house with normal rooms separated by walls and a nice view of the waterfall. Frank Lloyd Wright would not build a house looking at the waterfall, no Frank Lloyd Wright said the house had to be part of the waterfall itself. Well as it turns out the family loved the house, it had and still has a certain magic to it. For example a family of three could live here comfortably and not feel as if they are lost in a huge house but that family of three could also invite a good number of guests to come visit and not feel crowded in any way. Falling Water amazes everyone but for different reasons, that is just another bit of magic.

It might not be a looming castle with a great hall for giant feasts, it might not be a cozy cottage where you light a fire in the fall, maybe not even a nice square house that fits right into a friendly neighborhood, but you will find that all those together do not come close to adding up to the house called Falling Water.

-Catherine Jacob-Dolan