The sail to Culebra
We set full sail for Culebra and the winds held good for the first half of the trip dying to nothing as we approached the harbour at Ensenda Honda. Just off the entrance there is a long reef which we book-marked for snorkelling later. We anchored near the main town and then had tea and cake.
Next morning we went ashore to check in at the airport. (quite a walk) We had a bit of a wait as there was a plane due in. There were the usual forms to fill in including one for food. I established that they didn’t want the contents of the freezer nor any canned goods just fresh food, wine and tobacco. They were by far the friendliest customs guys, giving us advice on the best place to eat and the quietist beaches. It only costs a few dollars to take a ferry to Puerto Rico by ferry—as cheap as a bus ride to the tourist beach. They also gave us a cruising permit for the whole of the U.S.A. ! This means that all we need do for other US ports is phone and tell them our cruising number and that we have arrived—so no need to fill out more forms. Great eh…
Back aboard ‘Piano’ for coffee and lunch before heading off to the reef for the afternoons entertainment. We picked a buoy and jumped in. The first thing I saw was a Ray chilling out on the sea-floor! So I had to be quick with the camera to get the shot before it swam away. Next a conch shell started moving and on further observation I saw it was quite a big hermit crab. Plenty of other shoals of brightly coloured fish so we were worn out by the time we got back to ’Piano’ for sundowners and dinner.
The following day we snorkelled on the other side of the island at three different locations each with it’s own microcosm of aquatic life.
‘Melvin’ arrived later on with a bottle and bites so we caught up on their sail over and arranged to join them for a hike to the beach the following day. Flamenco Beach is about 3 miles from the anchorage so we had a decent walk there. Most of the holiday makers had used the bus. The beach was busy but not too overcrowded. There was plenty of surf and quite a strong current but it was great fun.
The Island is inhabited by about 2,000 people but this is greatly topped by the many daytime visitors by small plane and the ferry from Puerto Rico. The quaint town is set up fro all types of sailing vessel as we soon found out. It was Easter and the whole country came out in anything that floated to visit a beach and chill out. Internet was excellent this being a small island it is covered by the town of Dewey (some of the older inhabitants still call it Pueblo Viejo.) After stocking up with what little groceries were available we sailed to Isla de Culebrita for the holiday.
