Bahia Fosforesente, Puerto Rico

Woke this morning early and well rested!  We’re in our own little part of heaven here but unfortunately, we are not alone.  As we had dreaded, we are hoarded with those damn No-See-Ums!!!  They came out last night at sunset and we did the rapid shuffle to close up the boat the best possible but those little suckers can get in through the tiniest of an opening.  This morning, they are just as bad.  Larry fogged the boat and it seems a little better.  Gotta put foggers on the list of things to buy in Ponce!

We had a quick breakfast and then headed out.  We were only going a few miles (east) but wanted to make sure we did so before the trade-winds made it uncomfortable.  We were headed for Bahia Fosforesente.  Supposedly, the entire bay glows with bioluminescence (micro organisms that light up in the dark when they’re disturbed … much like fireflies).  I’ve experienced this before on night dives.  A very memorable dive was in the Florida Keys with my good friends Julius Javor and Gord Lemon.   The water was crystal clear and every time you moved in the slightest way, you disturbed the water and it would glow.  It was amazing.  We’d shut our lights off so we could experience this to the extreme.  However, as we pulled into this bay, it was very cloudy water.  Would we really be able to experience this phenomena?  I really hope so because Larry was very excited to see it.

In any case, we would have to wait for dark to see if it was worth the trip or not.  We decided to drop the kayak/paddleboards and enjoy the bay.  The bay was surrounded with mangroves.  There were channels running thru the mangroves.  We used our new kayak seats on our boards and it was really very comfortable.  We rode them as kayaks and toured the area.  The mangroves were beautiful.  As you got closer to the mangroves (even penetrating them through the little streams that formed their way into the cluster), the water cleared.  It wasn’t “tropical” by any means but at least we could make out the bottom!

We kayaked for an couple of hours.  We circled the bay and were at the far side as the winds picked up.  It was such a comfortable paddle to this spot but now we had to go against the wind back to our boat.  Yuck!!!  Larry is so adorable.  He took the line from my kayak and tied it around his waist.  His intent was to tow me all the way back to Soulmatie.  Now … I would have loved to have just sat back and enjoyed the ride … BUT … there was about 25 knots of wind blowing against us (causing a major chop to the water) and I couldn’t just sit back and let Larry shoulder the burden.  I did my best to keep stroke with him as he towed me home.  He was an animal, paddling full strength, non-stop.  Occasionally, I would need to stop and take a break.  Had I not been tied to Larry, I would have lost major progress each time I paused.  BUT … Larry just kept plugging away and kept my momentum going forward! 

Back on the boat, we relaxed.  We laid down about 7 for a “nap” before we woke to head out.  I was almost asleep when at 8pm, another boat came into the bay.  It was a large boat (probably filled with tourists).  They were screaming and yelling and jumping into the water from the top of the boat.  We could see the glow in the water as each person took their turn jumping in.  It was a bright flash.  Looked really cool.

We were finally able to get a couple of hours sleep when the alarm went off at 11:59pm.  We got up, made coffee and took a quick swim ourselves.  Rather disappointing.  The water had a slight glow to it but nothing like I imagined.  I’m sure Larry was disappointed also because he didn’t “play” very long before he got out.  I’m just hoping sometime during our adventure, he will be able to experience the thrill of a GOOD phosperesence bay!

We were underway by about 1am.