Last we wrote we were working hard to get Moon back in shape and to say that is a never ending job, that would be an understatement. There is always something to do to keep us busy but we also know that it is also important to take some time off to play so that is what we’ve been up to for the last couple of weeks.
Rachel’s bunk…painting complete.
After Brian completed his painting projects of Rachel’s bunk and the undersides of the navigation and bunk areas we decided to take a spin around the island of Culebra and some of it’s smaller surrounding islands.
We love our new GoPro. It’s great to get underwater shots of fish, reefs and even the occasional turtle. There are so many turtles around here that I’m guessing that you’ll see lots more shots of them as we explore. Are we lucky or what?
Snorkeling near Tamarindo Beach in Culebra, Puerto Rico, we see a sea turtle!
We have found some great snorkeling spots to take Rachel when she gets here so we are pretty excited! She’s due to arrive on October 25th to join us here in Culebra, PR. We’ll hang out here until hurricane season is over and then head east and south through the islands of the Lesser Antilles. We’ve met lots of cruisers along the way and have heard tales of exotic and exciting stories of the islands and we can’t wait to visit them.
But, back to the here and now…
Recently we circumnavigated our little island of Culebra, first stopping at a small harbor called Las Pelas. What a peaceful spot. It is tucked in behind a reef and a very calm anchorage. With only 3 other boats there we pretty much had the anchorage to ourselves. We jumped in for a swim and found a grassy bottom with lots of conch just in front of the boat. Not that we would take them, they were all too small to harvest, but cool to see. Next we offloaded the kayaks paddled around out to the front of the reef and jumped in. It was beautiful! Lots of fish and pretty corals! This was a perfect first stop.
Next stop on our round and about tour was Culebra’s little sister island, the island of Culebrita. We’ve been here before…Rachel remember the shark that you saw when you jumped off of the boat last time? We love this island! It has a beautiful crescent white sand beach on one side with mooring balls for public use and a lighthouse perched on top of it’s highest peak. The snorkeling here is great! Brian says that this is his favorite snorkeling spot that we’ve found so far.
Hello there…
Last time we were here it was rough and we had to anchor on the backside of the island (not where the beach is). This time the seas were calm and we were able to get a mooring right in front of the beach. The reefs were close where we moored and we were able to jump right off the back of the boat and swim over to them. This was awesome!
Culebrita Island. Just a small shot of some of the boats that were in the harbor with us.
Being a sailor we did not really pay attention to what day of the week it was. Apparently it was a Saturday and this is a really, really popular anchorage for powerboats coming over from the mainland of Puerto Rico. Because the seas were calm the anchorage filled up quickly throughout the day with powerboats ranging in size from small to mega! We were one of three sailboats in the cove and there were probably over 30 powerboats. This was fun for people watching but note to self, check what day of the week it is before we visit here again! We had a great time though. Our friends Frank and Denise had sailed their boat here too and we all enjoyed each others company. Good times!
Next day were on the move again. Our friends Frank and Denise on “Here and Now” decided to join us for the sail. We sailed past the north side of Culebra sightseeing but not stopping. There was a north swell and there was not a good place for us to anchor. We headed to the north-west side of the island to Tamarindo Beach to pick up another mooring ball and spend the night. This just happened to be the night of the blood moon…all I can say is WOW!
Melones Beach, Culebra.
We had a beautiful clear sky with no light pollution and the eclipse was just amazing!
What a great night!
We have been having a great time exploring so to say “our back yard”. We had so much fun in fact that when we found the most perfect spot, a secluded beach on the nearby island of Luis Pena, we just knew that we had to spend the night in this wonderful island paradise! This is a good daytime anchorage however there is a swell that comes straight into the small cove and there is coral everywhere that we could swing into. We were going to have to apply some anchoring strategies if we were going to spend the night here safely.
The absolutely most beautiful beach ever, Luis Pena Cay. This is very small harbor that packs out in the weekends but we had it all to ourselves on a weekday.
We decided to anchor bow and stern so that Moon would not swing into the nearby reefs. As Brian was rowing out our stern anchor with the dinghy one of our dinghy’s oars broke!
Brian said that this was a omen and that we should not spend the night, at least not this time…bummer! So we hauled anchor and headed to a nearby anchorage off of Culebra’s town dock. We rationed that it was OK though because we needed to make a beer run anyway so, as we drank cold beer we dreamed of our paradise anchorage at Luis Pena that we would visit another time.
Thankfully this was not an “omen” and we did not have any more problems or breakdowns but this was a good reason to take a trip over to St. Thomas so that we could go to a marine store to buy new oars. St. Thomas has the closest marine store that we can go to other than taking the ferry to the main land of Puerto Rico and renting a car to go to West Marine. Culebra does has some small hardware stores but no marine stores… therefore no oars.
So next stop, St. Thomas.
Moon anchored off of Sub Base anchorage in St. Thomas. Lots of current here, look how all of the boats are facing different directions!
Check out how close this boat is to the channel…no this is not a trick of the eye. The pilot boat had to come and tell him to move. I think that I would have gotten the hint with the large ships passing right by my stern!
Cruise ship passing by us at night while we are at anchor.
Sub Base anchorage, St. Thomas.
We had a great sail over with the wind coming from the south but let me tell you that the harbors around the town of Charlotte Amelia, St. Thomas are not comfortable in a south wind and swell. We were rocking and rolling for the most part. Great thing though was that we had a chance to get beautiful new oars and re-provision specialty food supplies with things that we also are not able to get in Culebra. (like rotel tomatoes…love these on the boat!)
Sargasso weed has been a real problem for the Caribbean this year, look at how it collects all of the garbage in the harbor too. Not to mention the smell…yuck! This is in Charlotte Amelia harbor.
View of Charlotte Amelia Harbor from up above.
Solar farm, Charlotte Amelia
View of Megan’s Bay from far above.
We also made a stop at a Sherwin William’s paint store to get some paint for Moon. Brian had researched and had a specific paint in mind that he was after. Corothane MCU Paint. Not only did they have the paint that he wanted, they were getting rid of it for an end of year inventory and we were able to get it at a very deep discount. We had planned on getting a couple of pints because this paint is so expensive but walked away with three gallons…yes, three gallons. Brian with a big grin on his face lugged it all the way back to the dinghy…score!
This guy was just hanging out at the Havensight Marina.
Look Mom, a beautiful gardenia bush, our favorite…but for some reason these ones have no smell.
Also while we were here we were able to spend the evening with some great friends that we had met last winter. Not sure if you remember but we met Bob and Sally, fellow Searunner trimaran owners when we anchored at Water Island near St. Thomas last winter. They are a wonderful and fun couple. We were really happy to see them again and they invited us to their beautiful home for a wonderful dinner. It was a night of great company, awesome vegetarian food and some serious loving from their pups! Thank you so much Sally for going out of your way to make dinner deliciously wonderful!! It was great spending time with you and Bob!
Bob and Sally…look at those mangos, yum!
Thanks for sending some home with us!
Sally showing us the tricks that her cute pups can do….loved them so much!
We had a wonderful time seeing our friends once again. We stocked up on things that we needed and things that we did not and headed back to our little town of Culebra.
Boats in Dakity anchorage, now our favorite anchorage in Culebra.
Very calm behind the reef, a nice secluded spot.
Houseboat in Fulladoza Bay, Culebra.
St. Thomas is a wonderful town and lots of fun but it is a bigger city than we’ve been used to for a while so we were glad to get back “home” to our Culebra anchorage.
Some of the gang here in Culebra hanging out at Flamenco Beach.
Wow, I guess that I did have a lot more to share than I thought that I did. I’m sure that I’ve left something out, maybe it will pop into my head for next time.
We hope that you are all happy and healthy and doing good in your adventures of this life.
Take care for now.
Jennifer and Brian