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| footprints on the sand of Culebrita |
We sailed on a beam reach for Culebrita, an uninhabited
and eastern most island of the Spanish Virgins.
Reaching the island at about 1400 we had time to explore. We took a mooring in Turtle cove and set off
to snorkel the reef.
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| Leslie and Lila on pricess floats |
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| The Lighthouse |
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| Leslie in the Lighthouse |
Friends on
Yachtsman’s Dream invited us for drinks and Leslie and Lela enjoyed the
“princess” floats. Next day we hiked the
island and at the top explored the abandoned light house. Beautiful building, too bad it has been left
to fall apart.
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| Capt.Sebastian sets up the resort |
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| Carl enters the Jacuzzi |
We found a path to a
beach on the west side of the island and found Capt. Sebastian setting up a
mini resort. Reminded us of China and
how whole shops came off a bicycle, he sets up tents, food, and umbrella’s all
out of a small boat.
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| Leslie in the "Hot Tub" |
We hiked to the
east side of the island and discovered a “hot” tub and Jacuzzi. The Jacuzzi was rough so Carl went in and I
took pic’s.
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| Waves enter the Jacuzzi |
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| Flamingo Bay Beach |
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| The Dighy Dock Resturant |
From Culebrita it is a short sail to Culebra and anchoring in
Ensenada Honda. We took the dingy to the
Dingy Dock Restaurant, tied up and went exploring knowing there was a cold beer
waiting after a hot hike. A very laid
back island with friendly helpful people.
The reefs around this island are some of the most healthy beautiful
we’ve seen. We hiked 3 miles out to
Flamingo Bay, a famous beach which on Sat. is very crowded.
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| Carl with his cold beer |
This is the area that was bombed from 1936 to
1976. Two colorful tanks still
remain. One is careful not to touch
anything strange under water as there are still unexploded ordinates here. The beach has little food kiosks with
oversized beer. You can set up a
permanent tent site also and the beach has shower and bathroom facilities.
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| Bird at the beach area |
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| waterfront walk at Vieques |
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| Interesting fence in Vieques |
With a weather window we sailed to Vieques
to check out the bio bay. Unfortunately
it was so dark we could not get pictures, I got to swim in the bay and I was
covered in glowing organisms but no pic from our camera. We anchored in
Esperanza and explored the lovely waterfront.
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| Leslie in Fajardo town square |
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| Church in Fajardo |
Sailing back to Culebra on a broad reach we decided to anchor and take
the ferry to Fajardo the next day—it is only a dollar. This gave us the opportunity to go to West
Marine and Wal Mart. The architecture
around the town square is very European with fountains and church the central
focus.
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| Capt. Pat at Mother's Day Party |
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| Mayor of Culebra and wife |
Back on Culebra more snorkeling
and enjoying and hiking. On Mother’s Day
Leslie was invited to the island wide Mother’s Day party hosted by the Mayor
and his wife. Free food, drinks, music
for dancing and raffles made for a fun Sunday esp. since spouses were invited
also. We met Capt. Pat a wonderful women
who has made her home on Culebra for 26 yrs.
her deceased husband Capt. Jack and she sailed there via Venezuela and
started many day sailing enterprises.
We
spent a lovely three weeks in this area but the weather window opened and we
heard a party was in the making so we bid good-bye and sailed back to the USVI.
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| Leslie on Pirate Island |
