Fixing A Boat In Paradise ... Sigh

We were so excited when we set off Friday morning with both engines running and Culebrita in our sights, but after about a half hour, right on cue, the starboard engine once again cut out. The port engine stoicly marched on so we pulled around the south shore of Culebra and up into the Ensenada Honda anchorage, just next to friends on Blue Blaze and Freedom.

Near the airport in Ensenada Honda we have swapped ferry traffic for airborne traffic.

Another day of trouble-shooting ensued and in the end Henry changed out our old prefilter for a new Racor filter that will clean out any water or grunge from our fuel, and then triumphantly found a split in the fuel line near a clamp. This may have been the cause of our most recent problems since the engine most definitely won't run with air in the line. We put Mowzer to bed once again with the plan to try to get to Culebrita. It's only five miles away, how elusive can it be??

Saturday morning found us up an on our way nice and early and hallelujah, we made it to Culebrita...with both engines running all the way! I know we're a sailboat, but engines are still essential for tight spaces and anchoring, at least for us they are.

Leaving Culebra, boats anchor behind the reef at the Dakity anchorage.

Now time to do some exploring, but first a swim since we are now back in he Virgins with lovely clear water.

10' below the anchor set is easy to see.

Our first reef snorkel in a while.

We've been to Culebrita a few times before and always enjoyed the hike up the hill to the old Spanish lighthouse, and across the island to Tortuga (Turtle) Beach and the bubbly pools, or as they are signed on he island "The Baths". I guess they are trying to piggy back on the famous BVI Baths, but we will always think of them as the bubbly pools.

We set off to hike "down the garden path", through the sea grapes pressing in on all sides.

At Treasure Beach, Henry pondered the passage to St. Thomas, just 15 miles to the east.

Culebrita's resident goats: we could smell them along the way, now we see them.

The tip of the lighthouse, next climb is up that hill.

A closer view of the top of the tower.

Sadly, the climb up the tower is now closed. It was pretty rickety but I wonder what someone did or complained about to get it closed. Too bad.

Still love the colours of the old brick and paint, and their busy propping it all up and making it seem very civilized.

Now, back down the hill to the beach - sure, there's a beach down there somewhere.

Lots of lizards and birds scampered off through the bugs out of our way. The hermit crabs just curl up in their shells. This one was particularly pretty.

Tortuga beach, with a bit of wave action, just too much to consider anchoring in the bay.

At the north end of Culebrita the waves hit a huge crevice in the rock and the water then flows down through a series of pools to the bay on the other side of the island. Some days you can sit in the pools like a gentle jacuzzi, and on others like today, you risk being pummeled on the rocks like laundry on a wash board.

Wave action into the top pool.

Henry found a calm spot to ponder his surroundings...

While I went off to smell the frangipani.

So, we fixed the boat (fingers crossed) and we're definitely in paradise so I guess the adage is true.

 

Culebrita - more exploration

We awoke once again to our deserted anchorage and mile-long white-sand beach laid out before us.  Hard to believe if you look carefully behind Mowzer in this picture that all the mooring balls in the anchorage are empty and we haven't seen another boat since the family in the power launch at the beach left yesterday afternoon.  This has been our experience in the Spanish Virgin Islands; perhaps it is the time of year early in the season, but it has been delightful.

We decided to tackle the hike to the lighthouse on Culebrita this morning before it got too hot.  The first challenge, as it was yesterday, was finding the trailhead.  Once you know where it is on the beach is is very easy to find, but there is no signage and the same path leads off towards the bubble-pools before branching off up the hill to the lighthouse.  I think "path" is a rather charitable way to describe what we followed.  In places it was wide open under trees although you had to watch not to step on hermit crabs who follow the 'stop-drop-&-roll' principle of trouble-avoidance, but in many other places we were tearing our way through thorn trees who's every intent was to leave us battered and scraped so we could truly feel we'd earned the reward at the top of the hill.  Culebrita lighthouse was built by the Spanish in the late 1800's and sits atop the 350' headland at the southeast end of the island.  It is now a (maintained) ruin but one can imagine it's former splendour when you realize that the beautiful black and white floors are hand-hewn marble tiles.

 

The view from the top of the tower is spectacular; a full 360 panorama spanning from Puerto Rico in the west to St. Thomas in the east, Vieques in the south and the empty Atlantic to the north.  The wind did it's best to get us to release our grip from the rotting iron structure at the top, but I am happy to report we were all victorious in that little spat.  This particular view is of St. Thomas about 20 miles away and gives a preview of the crossing we will be making tomorrow as John and Eleanor need to be back to catch their flight home on Wednesday.

We spent the remainder of the glorious day revisiting the bubbly-pools and snorkling the reefs lying right alongside Mowzer in the anchorage.  We had a wonderful turtle sighting and the reefs were full of wonderfully coloured and colourful characters.

Having read a number of the cruising guides for the area, many of them rave about Bahia de Almodovar back on Culebra.  Before the sun got too low we decided to cross over to the bigger island and check out what makes this anchorage so attractive.  Much like the Ensenada Honda / Dakitty Bay anchorage we stayed in back on our first night on Culebra, Almodovar is located behind a reef that protects it from the wave action outside; just a light chop flows through the anchorage.  However, it is a windy spot so the wind is whistling through the rigging and the halyards are tied back to stop them slapping on the mast.  The bay is backed with mangrove trees and the odd house dots the hillside above, but to be honest I am at a bit of a loss as to what makes this such a 'beautiful' anchorage.  Very practical yes from a weather protection point of view, but not as pretty as many of the others we have stayed in.  Perhaps we are just getting a little picky and will have to come back down to earth with a bump!

WiFi Access and Culebrita

Before I go any further I feel I should explain a little more about how we've been able to post to our blog while crusing the remoteness of the S.V.I.  For example, tonight we are sitting in an anchorage off uninhabited Culebrita Island with no other boats in sight and only a few lonely houses on the hillside of Culebra more than a mile away across the channel.  We are in no visible reach of any commercial facility yet have been able to 'borrow' some kind person's signal and post to the blog.

Before leaving Ottawa this time, I sourced out a wifi booster system and ended up purchasing from Bob at IslandTime PC (I know, blatant plug but he's set us up very well.)  I had the antenna and other paraphenalia shipped to CYOA and we've installed a temporary setup for whilst we are aboard.  The system consists of an antenna, radio, power over ethernet injector and cabling, and depending on the height we hitch the antenna to, we are able to pick up signals over a mile away.  Currently we only have the antenna attached to the bimini but are picking up many available signals.  Way to go Bob!!

Now, back to Culebrita.  We actually left Dewey on Culebra this morning under sunny skies and lighter winds than we've been having recently.  As a result we decided to circumnavigate the island in a clockwise direction which would take us over the northern end past Cayo Norte to Culebrita.  Up the west shore, we commented that the winds were shifty but similar to the Ottawa River (5-15 knots and flat water).  However, it was a completely different kettle of fish as we approached the north-west point and rounded into the northern swells rolling in from the Atlantic.  The winds clocked up to over 20 knots but most impressive were the swells with waves on them topping out at 10-12 feet.  The north shore of Culebrita is home to one of it's most popular beaches, Cayo Flamenco, but today the only fans were parasailers.  I'd imagine most of the Thanksgiving beachgoers from Puerto Rico had headed to more sheltered spots.

The sailing was fantastic and after about two hours we found ourselves in the passage inside Cayo Norte and our anchorage below the old lighthouse of Culebrita in sight.  Once again, a pristine white-sand beach with only one other boat (which was a daytripper so soon would depart) - how many more of these fantastic anchorages can we endure!!  The waters are incredibly clear and turquoise and the whole area is actually a protected turtle nesting zone, so true to plan, we saw sea turtles in the bay.

Since we have been quite lazy aboard, we are pleased that Culebrita offers a couple of different jaunts; one to the 'bubbly pools' or jacuzzis as they are locally known, and the other up to the 350' elevation of the lighthouse.  This afternoon we headed to the northern end of the island to explore the bubbly pools.  At the extreme northern tip, the molten lava that forms this island chain heaved up out of the ocean to form a massive craggy headland.  The pummice-like stone is tumbled down in massive boulders that the northern swells crash into on an ongoing basis.  Craftily arranged behind the first row of defensive boulders are pools of varying intensity of wash from the crashing waves.  Some surge and threaten to pummle you on the rocks (swedish massage style?) while others offer calm unruffled waters (more of a zen-like experience).

We stayed on until almost sunset and then made our hike back over the island in time to enjoy a hearty lasagna dinner with fresh Culebra bread and salad.

Off to explore the lighthouse in the morning.