I’m not on CC much while we’re traveling, but have a little time today and wanted to update this thread in case anyone else is interested.
The Puerto Rico ferry is now much more dependable than before. The difference (as I was told here in PR)? They’ve been sold to the private company, Hornblower. This should be familiar to some because they run the ferries in NYC and own the “Maid of the Mist” on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, probably among others.
This means if you have the time, you can save a LOT of money taking the ferry to/from Ceiba/Vieques vs flying. It costs $2 each for the ferry, though you can add on more for luggage or other things you want to bring over (one carry on per person is allowed). Flying, when we wanted to go, was a minimum of $55 each. You can make reservations online during the month of travel and starting somewhere near the end of the previous month - when, exactly, varies based upon when they get the docking schedule.
The ferry takes about an hour, maybe a little longer, though just 45 minutes for the actual trip. Flying supposedly takes 10 minutes of flight time. We took the cargo/passenger over and the solely passenger vessel back, preferring the latter but the first wasn’t horrible. They say to arrive an hour before boarding time, but that’s not super necessary either. They have nice areas to wait in.
Those with special needs are boarded first (wheelchairs or similar). Residents of Vieques are next, then us minions, but it wasn’t difficult for us to get good seats, esp since we were there an hour early.
On a separate note, if going for the Bio Bay, definitely try for at or near a New Moon - or when the moon has set before darkness. We couldn’t do that with S’s schedule to be with us, so took a chance on a near Full Moon night. We’d have been disappointed except we went with Fun Brothers due to a recommendation by our AirBnB host. They had a dark tarp they pulled over a couple of kayaks at a time to let one see what it would be like and it’s phenomenal (to us nature lovers anyway). We will go back on a New Moon at some point, but not this trip.
Afterward we thought perhaps all tour operators did that, but talking with others we met the next day, no, they don’t. We’re really glad we followed the recommendation. That said, on their web site or email (forgot which) they suggested bringing a coat due to cold - don’t bother. It’s not cold, and a coat will just get wet. On the bus they tell you to leave everything behind, including shoes, as you need to walk through mud to get into the kayaks (at least with their company).
Also… again, in our opinion, Vieques was not worth scuba diving on. The water was murky and we didn’t see much. St Thomas last year (also this time of year) was much better, as was the western part of the main island of PR. We’d have rather spent our diving time snorkeling or seeing more beaches.
Don’t expect cheap food on Vieques either. They have to ship it all in from PR. There are very few veggies as we found out with a mostly vegan DIL. Bananas (restaurant) made a terrific Vegetable Mofango that we’d all have gladly gotten again, but it wasn’t on their menu and they said they only made it on slow nights - mostly because it’s too difficult to get good vegetables - we were told they were more expensive than meat. We lucked out with the waitress telling us about it once she heard S and DIL wanted vegetarian fare. It was superb!