Ocean Play: From Culebra to the USVI

5/6/2023

We arrived at the island of Culebra last Monday and loved it immediately. It is beautifully green with perfect sandy beaches littering the coastlines. The coral reefs around this island are known to be some of the healthiest in the area so our plan was to start the day outside of the main town and get snorkeling.

But, small glitch in our plan. Mike had tweaked his back earlier in the morning, just before we weighed anchor. Ugh. He could move around but it was limited. Snorkeling would have to wait. So, onto Plan B! Our buddy boats went on to the chosen snorkeling site while Wild Horses continued for another hour to the main town’s huge lagoon. Here Mike could rest and our buddies would catch up to us the next day. Perfect!

Downtown Culebra is very walkable, with lots of restaurants, cafes, and stores. Even a really great gelato cart with beautifully served gelato. Passion fruit and cherry with a twist of coconut. Yum!

Welcome to the island of Culebra!

Hector El Protector guides the mainland ferry into Culebra

A view of the Culebra waterfront, from our anchorage

Waiting out a squall along with a few chickens

The small boat canal in Culebra

This puppy came out to guard his small stretch of land along the canal

Dinghy parking at the town gas station

Tasty and pretty gelato!

Our boat buddies arrived the next day and we quickly made plans for exploring Culebra, visiting the nearby smaller island of Culebrita and also for doing some snorkelling and diving in the area. Mike’s back was healed and we were ready to have some fun. Our friends Dave and Lisa on Indigo Lady offered to play chauffeur for our three-boat play dates (Wild Horses, Caretta and Indigo Lady). Awesome! Indigo Lady is a beautiful boat. Dave and Lisa purchased it as a sailing catamaran several years ago but quickly converted it to be solar electric powered. It does not disappoint! On the few days we were on the boat, it was moved entirely on solar. Incredible! You can see more about the conversion of Indigo Lady here.

Indigo Lady

Solar panels cover her roof

Lots of space in the cockpit for chatting with friends

Ocean and Victoria sit on the stern walkway on Indigo Lady

Our first adventure was to take Indigo Lady to Culebrita. This island is home to incredible walking trails, beautiful natural baths and, oh my gosh, also to a hoard of bees! Thousands of them to be exact. The area is suffering from a lack of rain so these poor bees were looking for any and all sources of fresh water. For those that know our pup Ocean, well, this is a problem. She loves to eat bees. Yes, you heard that correctly. She actively hunts them down. Now, with hoards of them in the picture, it was just too much for her and she did get the bitter end of a few of them. Getting stung didn’t deter her though! With a swollen nose and jowl, she kept right at it. For the rest of us, the bees weren’t an issue. They only wanted the fresh water and we had beers in hand (and not water) so they left us alone!

Swimming always provides some relief from the heat

Culebrita is littered with walking trails

The Culebrita lagoon

Ocean looking out towards the baths

Ocean hunting bees aboard Indigo Lady

On Thursday, we rented golf carts so we could see more of the island of Culebra. Caretta and Indigo Lady climbed into one cart and Wild Horses took the other. It was an awesome day of touring the island, including an incredible day at Flamenco Beach, one of the world's most beautiful; beaches.

Our rented golf cart

A view of our golf cart on the move with Ocean in the back

Ocean looking back towards our friends, from her perch at the back of our golf cart

Walking along Flamenco Beach

Ocean loved the beach!

An old tank used for bombing practice during WWII and for Vietnam

Another tank, deserted by the US military and used for bombing practice

Ocean and Barry enjoying a moment on the swing outside of the La Cocina restaurant

Friday we continued the adventure! We set off on Indigo Lady once again and headed around the north west shore of Culebra to explore one of the many island dive sites. Dave and Lisa launched their Hookah dive system (surfaced supplied air system), Andrea and Barry jumped in with their dive tanks, and Mike and I slipped below the waterline with our snorkel masks and fins. And Ocean you ask? Well, she did her exploring in her birthday suit with just a simple life jacket on. Four ways into the water and we were all plenty happy with it all!

A dive site on the western edge of Culebra

Dave gets out the Hookah

Barry getting suited up to dive while Andrea waits in the water

Mike headed off to snorkel the coral reef

Ocean swimming off the back of Indigo Lady

Barry holding a lobster with eggs on her belly. Of course the lobster had to be put back!

Whew, what a jam-packed three days of exploring the Spanish Virgin Islands!! But all good things must come to an end, but only so you can enjoy other good things! And that is exactly what we did. On Saturday we all weighed anchor and headed off to St. Thomas in the USVI (United States Virgin Islands). We will explore the islands of St. Thomas and St. John as we look for a good weather window for heading to St. Martin. More fun awaits us! 😊