It’s hard to believe that it has been six months since we have been on our beloved Moon. We did an awesome job preparing her before we left and when we got home it was easy to get back in the swing of things. I was even surprised on how clean she was to come back to. Boats tend to get moldy and stuffy when they are closed up for too long but we got lucky and there was not much cleaning that had to be done. It was great to be home! Mother nature on the other hand thought that we had gotten off too easy with our transition so she had to throw not one but two tropical storms our way from the moment that we arrived back in Culebra.
View of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico as we flew over.
Ferry boat that takes you from mainland Puerto Rico to Culebra.
On our first day back Hurricane Danny…a cat 3 hurricane was barreling our way! With all eyes on the weather we sighed and said welcome back to the boating life. Good thing was that we were here and able to take care of Moon instead of being back in PCB where couldn’t have done anything but worry for the worst.
Our first view of Moon in Ensenada Honda Harbor, Culebra…high and dry right where we left her. Can you spot her on the right hand side?
Our dingy just off of the dock where we spent our first night back in Culebra.
Thankfully as you probably all know by now Danny petered out before he reached us and we just had a windy and wavy night in the anchorage. Yea! We got lucky, what a relief! But wait…now on Danny’s heels another storm was heading our way. Tropical Storm Erica was following in Danny’s footsteps and it was looking like it was going to be more of what the locals here call an “event”. Hmm…event, don’t like the sounds of that.
This is what your anchor line looks like when it’s been down for too long. Smells good too…yuck!
Storm clouds passing by as Tropical Storm Danny starts to move in.
Erica was more organized and had some potential to be a serious storm so we headed into the protection of the mangroves. One of the reasons that we picked Culebra as an anchorage to leave Moon in was because it’s harbor is very protected and that it has lots of mangrove creeks that are a good place to tie up to for safety during storms. The only problem with tying up in the mangroves is that there is a “pecking” order. Locals reasonably get first dibs and then the long-timers that have been in the anchorage and “been here and done that” get to go next and then is everyone else…which was us.
Moon snug in our spot in the mangroves.
We had taken our dinghy through the mangroves a couple of times so we had an idea of where we wanted to be but that changed when we got there because of course the other boats had taken the most prime spots. Thankfully we were able to find a snug place for Moon and we rode through Erica just fine. I have to say that Brian did an awesome job lining us up just right for the big gusts of wind that came through (we heard that it was sustained around 40 knts with gusts of 50+ knts) but we had an uneventful night. Brian is my hero once again for keeping us safe!
Exploring the mangroves.
Once Moon was safely tied up and ready for the storm we kayaked through all of the other boats that were tied up in the mangroves. It was an amazing and scary site…lines zigzagged and tied everywhere, boats all snug in and all hoping that the storm would pass through uneventful for all.
Now we are now back in the main anchorage along with everyone else. Erica turned out to not be an “event” after all and ended up being more of a practice run…fine with us we will take that anytime!
Our friend Dave tied up in the mangroves waiting for Tropical Storm Erica.
We’re getting back into the swing of things here. Lots of work to do on Moon just putting her back together again after being away so long. We’re starting to remember what days to go to the market for fresh veggies and that sort. You know the important stuff like when and where happy hour is… 🙂
Ok, enough rambling for now. Hopefully we will take some time off to play soon. Can’t wait to go snorkeling and take some underwater pictures with Brian’s new Go Pro!
We hope that you are all doing good. Take care, we love and miss you all!!
Living the real “Salt Life” or is it “Salty Life”…
Jennifer and Brian