They may not even run tours. What time does the moon Rise? Will it be cloudy? Check when you get there.

Sometimes it can be full moon that doesn't rise until very late and you have time to see the bay after the sun sets.

Island adventures has that info on there web site. no one runs trips when it isn't worth it.

As the previous poster said, the moon can be close to full and if it rises late it won't affect your viewing of the biobay.

Unfortunately for you, the full moon is on Oct 15 and the moon will be up early the whole time you're here. The only night (during your visit) that looks even half-good is Oct 9, the day you arrive. If you can swing that along with your arrival, then it may be OK.

But after that, the moon gets continually unfavorable until Oct 16 (when viewing will be "fair") and then viewing gets "good" again on Oct 17.

You can see the whole biobay/moon calendar in our travel guide at www.puertoricodaytrips.com/biobay-and-moon/

Hope this helps!

Will be staying in the Fajardo area 4/1-4/6. Had decided after looking at the link about moon phases that going on the biobay tour to Vieques would be a waste of time. Now that I read this thread it appears that maybe the time of the moonrise could play a part. However, when I looked up the time of the moonrise on 4/3/09, it states sunset at 6:37 p.m. and moonrise at 1:10 p.m. I must have flunked astromomy because I have no clue what this means.

Based on what I wrote, would you recommend taking this excursion? We definitely want to get in the water.

April 3, 2009 ...

Don't worry about the time of the sunset.

The moon rises that day @ 1:10 in the afternoon. But it's only a little more than a 1/4 moon (1/4 moon is acutally April 2).

Full moon is on April 9 ... and the moon is up early every night preceding that full moon. So as it gets closer to April 9, there's a "bigger" moon in the sky giving more light ... and making the glow in the biobay harder to see.

By April 11, even though the moon is still almost full, it comes up later (8:43pm) so you'll still have good viewing in the biobay until 10pm or so.

So you see, there's a lot to take into consideration when thinking about the moon and the biobay.

To answer your original question ... I would go on April 1 or 2. April 3 is pushing it, considering that we've rated April 4 as an "unfavorable" night for the biobay. But if you have to go on April 3, and you won't be getting back to Vieques any time soon to do it again ... then do it.

Hope this helps!

Ray has it exactly right on the April, 2009 moon.

we did the bio bay on aug 18 and there was a full moon that night and we had enough time to do the tour with them before the moon came out and when it did start coming out they let us stay out there to watch the moon come up, it was magical and also a great photo op!

That's the whole point ... it's more than just the phase of the moon. If the moon rises late enough, then you have time to see the biobay before the moon "wipes out" to bay's glow.

So you can do your research on the phase of the moon and the time the moon rises ... or you can just check our biobay/moon calendar where we've already done that work for you ... www.puertoricodaytrips.com/biobay-and-moon/