We woke up the other day and realized that we'd spent almost three weeks hanging around in Culebra. (Overheard two graybeards on the bridge: "I came for the day, and that was five years ago...."Yeah? I came for two weeks, and that was 20 years ago!")
A planning session was called, during which someone pointed out that it's almost a thousand miles to Florida, where we plan to leave the boat. We do 50 miles a day, on a good day, with good weather, which is all we care to have for sailing days. If I'm to have at least a rudimentary garden in Lake Annis this year, we have to put our skates on. Plan A is pretty much the 2005 trip in reverse. Puerto Rico, DR, Bahamas, Florida, with some variation on ports, bays, anchorages and activities. Less fear and barfing. More fishing. I'm actually, sort of, looking forward to it.
Plan B is sell the boat somewhere along the way. So far, Plan A is what we're working with.
In the meantime, we enjoyed another couple of days in Culebra. Did laundry at a clean, completely functioning laundromat. Martin was there too, doing his wife's laundry, and entertained me fully while I fluffed and folded. He'd been coming to the island for 12 years, and had lots of stories about his life, most of which would help to explain why he ended up in Culebra. I forgot my hat on the dryer, and he chased down the road to hand it to me. We've had two hats go overboard recently, so I was grateful.
The fruit and veg guy comes on Friday mornings and sets up at the crossroads by the airport. Everybody goes. We loaded up: papaya, grapefruit, bananas, parsnips (parsnips!!), little red potatoes, shallots, spinach, beautiful organic sprouts, tomatoes. A real vitamin bonanza.
Another cruiser told us about the great butcher at Milka, one of the grocery stores. Looks like a little building on the outside, but inside, there's nooks and crannies with everything you need, and a real butcher. If you show up when the right song is playing on the radio, the guy at the cash will be singing and dancing.
Just to add to a cruiser's joy, Culebra has a brilliant community library: run by volunteers and stocked with donated books. It's the first left past Milka, close to El Eden, and they have wifi, a table with free books outside, computers, really nice staff, and free arty bookmarks. Our friend Laurence works there. We hadn't seen Laurence since a snazzy party on Lughnasa in 2006 in Grenada, so it was a treat to run into him again and catch up. He likes Culebra so much that he's stayed almost three years, and everyday he's got stuff to do. We had lunch at the Dinghy Dock, where they brew their own beer! Laurence was disappointed that they were out of stout.
We decided not to wait for the stout, and we said hasta luego Culebra, and headed for Vieques. The island was used by the US Navy for bombing practice for many years, but it has been turned over to Fish and Wildlife, and the Navy is still in the process of cleaning up unexploded ordinance. The eastern end of the island is still off limits.
Lovely sail, figured we were doing about 5-6 knots with full sail on, but with a wicked current pushing us west, we took most of the afternoon to get around the eastern end of the island. Too late to get safely into Ensenada Honda (same name, different island), so Mi Amante and ND anchored in Bahia de la Chiva, with a fabulous view of Blue Beach. No buildings in site, but Michelle and I joked about checking for wifi reception. Rolly night, but there was a lovely beach walk in the morning, and then both boats motored back to Ensenada Honda, with good light to see the reefs. Street and Van Sant give different directions, for the entrance, but we anchored, no problem.
This is probably the most remote, deserted, flat-calm, isolated, wild and gorgeous anchorage we've seen. No indication that civilization is anywhere within reach. Randy said "if it wasn't so much trouble, I'd rig the wifi antenna just to freak Michelle out."
Bird noises in the mangroves, fish jumping, a couple of jellyfish and starfish, and then a full moon.
Next day, it's quiet, still water, huge puffy clouds, gentle breeze, tweedly birds, and I'm reading quietly in the cockpit and there's a hell of big bang, and I leap up to see a big plume of black smoke a couple of miles away. I'm guessing that would be unexploded o
rdinance, getting "cleaned up."
Moving again, Esperanza, then over to Puerto Rico proper the next day. Fishing in the near future! Photos below.
A planning session was called, during which someone pointed out that it's almost a thousand miles to Florida, where we plan to leave the boat. We do 50 miles a day, on a good day, with good weather, which is all we care to have for sailing days. If I'm to have at least a rudimentary garden in Lake Annis this year, we have to put our skates on. Plan A is pretty much the 2005 trip in reverse. Puerto Rico, DR, Bahamas, Florida, with some variation on ports, bays, anchorages and activities. Less fear and barfing. More fishing. I'm actually, sort of, looking forward to it.
Plan B is sell the boat somewhere along the way. So far, Plan A is what we're working with.
In the meantime, we enjoyed another couple of days in Culebra. Did laundry at a clean, completely functioning laundromat. Martin was there too, doing his wife's laundry, and entertained me fully while I fluffed and folded. He'd been coming to the island for 12 years, and had lots of stories about his life, most of which would help to explain why he ended up in Culebra. I forgot my hat on the dryer, and he chased down the road to hand it to me. We've had two hats go overboard recently, so I was grateful.
The fruit and veg guy comes on Friday mornings and sets up at the crossroads by the airport. Everybody goes. We loaded up: papaya, grapefruit, bananas, parsnips (parsnips!!), little red potatoes, shallots, spinach, beautiful organic sprouts, tomatoes. A real vitamin bonanza.
Another cruiser told us about the great butcher at Milka, one of the grocery stores. Looks like a little building on the outside, but inside, there's nooks and crannies with everything you need, and a real butcher. If you show up when the right song is playing on the radio, the guy at the cash will be singing and dancing.
Just to add to a cruiser's joy, Culebra has a brilliant community library: run by volunteers and stocked with donated books. It's the first left past Milka, close to El Eden, and they have wifi, a table with free books outside, computers, really nice staff, and free arty bookmarks. Our friend Laurence works there. We hadn't seen Laurence since a snazzy party on Lughnasa in 2006 in Grenada, so it was a treat to run into him again and catch up. He likes Culebra so much that he's stayed almost three years, and everyday he's got stuff to do. We had lunch at the Dinghy Dock, where they brew their own beer! Laurence was disappointed that they were out of stout.
We decided not to wait for the stout, and we said hasta luego Culebra, and headed for Vieques. The island was used by the US Navy for bombing practice for many years, but it has been turned over to Fish and Wildlife, and the Navy is still in the process of cleaning up unexploded ordinance. The eastern end of the island is still off limits.
Lovely sail, figured we were doing about 5-6 knots with full sail on, but with a wicked current pushing us west, we took most of the afternoon to get around the eastern end of the island. Too late to get safely into Ensenada Honda (same name, different island), so Mi Amante and ND anchored in Bahia de la Chiva, with a fabulous view of Blue Beach. No buildings in site, but Michelle and I joked about checking for wifi reception. Rolly night, but there was a lovely beach walk in the morning, and then both boats motored back to Ensenada Honda, with good light to see the reefs. Street and Van Sant give different directions, for the entrance, but we anchored, no problem.
This is probably the most remote, deserted, flat-calm, isolated, wild and gorgeous anchorage we've seen. No indication that civilization is anywhere within reach. Randy said "if it wasn't so much trouble, I'd rig the wifi antenna just to freak Michelle out."
Bird noises in the mangroves, fish jumping, a couple of jellyfish and starfish, and then a full moon.
Next day, it's quiet, still water, huge puffy clouds, gentle breeze, tweedly birds, and I'm reading quietly in the cockpit and there's a hell of big bang, and I leap up to see a big plume of black smoke a couple of miles away. I'm guessing that would be unexploded o
rdinance, getting "cleaned up."
Moving again, Esperanza, then over to Puerto Rico proper the next day. Fishing in the near future! Photos below.
posted by Susan at 2:11 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Randy and Susan, Steve and Carol on Emerald. Was surprised to find I had no email for you. I wrote twice in Culebra forwarding you the local email addresses for MJ and Pat. However, you must never have gotten them and I have no record of you in my list. So hope you'll get this and write back as we really want to come up and see you in Nova Scotia! We are seriously considering going to NC. Send us your email. Carol and Steve Emerald
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