Ensenada Honda Culebra Spanish VIs

Thanks to Mark Pollington (Wild Iris) for many of the photos in this blog entry.  I’ve credited some, but perhaps not all of them, in the captions

Anchored in Ensenada Honda, Culebra, once the rainstorm had gone through.
Wild Irisis off to the left of the picture

Mark and Lisa weren’t on board Wild Iris when we arrived in Ensenada Honda, Culebra, on Tuesday 1 May, so we set to calling CBP in Puerto Rico to inform them of our arrival (compulsory even if you intend/need to visit the CBP post at the airport) and getting the dinghy ready for us to report in person to CBP ashore.  Once on terrafirmawe were very kindly give a lift up to the airport by a local lady, Suzie, driving a golf-cart but when we arrived there was no Customs Officer in sight. We waited……and waited…..and waited… and eventually called CBP in Puerto Rico to check that the officer was intending returning to the airport that day.  After another quarter of an hour or so, he arrived (after a long, late lunchbreak), cleared BV into the US customs area and issued us a US Cruising Permit for her (cost US$37).  So, BV is now permitted to remain in the US for up to a year whereas we have to leave the country no later than 20 October 2018 (6 months after we immigrated in St Thomas).  I guess we’ll need to go to Canada then….

Views around Culebra Town canal/cut-through.  Clockwise from top left:  Looking north from the lifting bridge into Ensenada Honda; looking south from the lifting bridge along the canal/cut-through; view from Mamachita’s veranda; looking back towards the lifting bridge from Mamachita’s veranda.
Note:  the lifting bridge no longer lifts

We wandered back to Culebra Town and took a look around, visiting the supermarket near the airport that Suzie had pointed out earlier and then also taking in the supermarket on the cut-through/canal.  We found both to be surprisingly well-stocked for a small island.  So much so that we knew that we would be okay for victualling when, a few days later, we decided to depart for the US mainland from Culebra rather than from San Juan on mainland Puerto Rico as we had originally intended.

Views of Culebra Town.  Bottom left:  all the advertising signs on the island are hand painted

We thoroughly enjoyed our wander around the town and particularly enjoyed the bright paintwork on the buildings and the hand-painted advertising hoardings on the walls.

Flamenco Beach, described to us as ‘the best beach on the island’.  Centre picture by Mark

Back at BV we were visited by Mark and Lisa Pollington from Wild Iris.  We had last met up with them in Leverick Bay at the Cruising Association get together and by this time we had rather expected them to be further south or east. However, Lisa’s knee (injured in an accident getting into/out of the dinghy in a swell) had slowed down their progress and though her knee was much recovered, with a 3-4 day hard-on-the-wind passage south to Bonaire or Curacao ahead of them they didn’t want to set off until a) her knee was almost fully recovered and b) the forecast looked reasonable.  So, over the next 5 days we spent a lot of time discussing the forecast weather situation and deciding on the best day to set off north and south, whilst preparing both yachts for long-distance passages.

Looking northwest along Flamenco Beach

But not before we had hired a petrol-driven golf cart and spent a day exploring the island.  We had been recommended to visit Flamenco Beach, ‘the best beach on the island’ so we went there first and, yes, it truly is a spectacular beach.  It has a beautiful crescent of fine, soft, white sand with gloriously turquoise waters breaking onto the sand and the beach is backed by tropical island palm trees. It’s perfectly wonderful and all the locals and other tourists know it too.  So much so that in the carpark behind the beach there’s a large building with security lockers as well as a café and toilets.  None of the other beaches we visited had such facilities but then most of them were further away from ‘civilisation’ (the airport and the main town).

Flamenco Beach

There’s a reef to the north of Flamenco Beach which keeps it relatively calm, even with the prevailing northeasterly wind and, when we arrived, there were a couple of yachts anchored in the southeast corner of the bay.  It looked like a lovely place to spend the night, particularly given the colour of the sea, which was far prettier than that in Ensenada Honda.

Tamarindo Beach – great snorkelling!

From Flamenco Beach we put Lisa’s injured knee to the test and took the footpath from the rear of the car-park (through a gate that looked very locked but wasn’t) across to Tamarindo Beach, where we had been told the snorkelling is excellent.  It was a reasonably long walk for Lisa and, when we came to it, the beach was nothing like as sheltered as we had hoped.  This beach is within a nature reserve that extends some distance offshore and within this area fishing and potting are not permitted, hence our source had said that the snorkelling and diving here is very good.  Lisa wanted to rest her knee and stayed on the beach whilst Mark, Nicky and I braved the uneven bottom and swam out to see what we could find.

Top left:  Front right of picture shows Sea rod coral in front of Corky sea fingers with Lobed star coral behind.  Brain coral back left.  Top right: Sea rod and Brain coral.  Bottom right: Common sea fan and Sea rod. Bottom left:  Elkhorn coral?

We had a very enjoyable swim and saw a good amount of soft coral – the most we had seen for a considerable time. Whilst there were coral heads off the beach, the best display was along the headland to the western end of the beach…..

Top:  Hawksbill turtle (note the jagged edge to the back of the shell). Bottom:  Green turtle (no jagged edge to the shell).  Hawksbill turtles tend to be smaller than Green turtles (30-100lb vs 100-200lb) but it’s difficult to estimate size in these photos

…..where we also had a great view of a couple of turtles.

Top:  Carlos Rosario Beach.  Bottom: Vieques as seen from Carlos Rosario Beach

From the headland we had looked north along the coast and seen an even more stunning beach and so once we had dried off from swim number one we continued along the path to Carlos Rosario Beach.  Here the water was beautifully protected from the northeasterly wind and, having found an area where the sand continued all the way to the water’s edge (no rocky bottom to negotiate), Lisa joined the 3 of us for a swim over the reef close offshore.

Venus sea fan next to Corky sea fingers 

A school of Clown wrasse (L)

Brain coral with Elkhorn coral in front

If anything, this was even better than the snorkelling off Tamarindo Beach, with myriad fish and plenty of Common sea fans and Sea rods as well as a huge variety of hard corals.

Carlos Rosario Beach

We had another long swim and by the time we got out it was 1300 – time for lunch – and if we didn’t hurry all the places to eat might be closed.  So, reluctantly, we turned our backs on Carlos Rosario beach and headed to the golf-cart for the drive back to town.

Lunch at Zaco’s Tacos.  Bottom (L-R):  Nicky, me, Lisa and Mark.  The picture looks a little odd as it was taken as a 360°panoramic shot on Mark’s iPod

The chap in the vehicle hire shop had recommended that we eat at Zaco’s Tacos so we headed straight there. Amazingly, the restaurant didn’t open until 1400 so we had a short wait, along with about 10 other people (a sign of a good restaurant – a place where all the locals eat), until the sign was turned around and the front door opened.  (Opening hours 1400-2100 Mon-Thu, 1700-2100 Fri).  We had a fabulous meal!  Lisa and Mark each had a burrito and Nicky and I shared a burrito and a shrimp taco.  Each was delicious, with fresh flavours and interesting ingredients – Mexican food as you didn’t know it could be done!

Zoni Beach with views out towards Culebrita (bottom photo by Mark)

Hunger pangs sated we headed out once more, this time to the northeast coast and Zoni Beach – another recommendation.

Compulsory tropical paradise pictures

Yet more beautiful white sand, turquoise waters and lovely views out to nearby islands, in this instance Culebrita. It has  a couple of good anchorages which we had intended to visit but didn’t actually get to – one for next time!

Zoni Beach is a Leatherback Turtle nesting site

Mark, Nicky and I took a stroll northeast along the beach, intrigued by some fencing we could see a short distance away.  We found that the stakes marked out an area where a Leatherback turtle had laid her eggs. Looking closely we could see the indentation in the sand from her excavation and even the track up along the sand where she had made her way from and to the sea.  There were information boards about Leatherback turtles at the entrance to the beach so it seems likely that the nesting sites are carefully observed and, probably, the baby turtles watched over when they hatch from the eggs and make their way to the sea.

The anchorage behind the reef at the southeastern entrance to Ensenada Honda

With the afternoon drawing on we decided to take a drive out to view the anchorage behind the reef at the entrance to Ensenada Honda and then to find a suitable bar from which to enjoy the sunset. Lisa and Mark had spent their first night in Culebra in the reef-protected anchorage and it certainly looks to be a lovely place to stop.  Windswept perhaps but protected from most seas by the reef – a bit like the anchorage in Clifton Harbour on Union Island or behind Green Island in Antigua.

Melones Beach and the locals

We tried to end our tour on Melones Beach, which would be the perfect place from which to watch the sunset – had we had some beers to hand.  As it is, there is no beach bar and the locals, a large flock of chickens with a protective rooster and a few hermit crabs, weren’t able to help with the (lack of) beer situation, so we headed back to the town and a bar at the harbour. It had been a fantastic day out and, based on it, we certainly plan to return to Culebra and visit by boat some of those beautiful beaches and islands that we saw on our tour.

For the next 4 days we were kept busy with tasks preparing BV for the long passage north to the Chespeake Bay.  As I alluded to earlier, we had planned to explore Culebra for a few days before moving on to some of the other Spanish Virgin Islands, including Puerto Rico.  After that we had intended to head north to Charleston, stay there for about a week and then continue north to the Chesapeake Bay. But looking at the recent forecasts and, once again, calculating distances, estimating the time required to cover those distances and making allowances for unforeseen occurrences, we decided that our plan was too ambitious for the available time.  We need to be north of 35°N no later than 1 June to comply with the requirements of our insurance company, to say nothing of the fact that we have committed to stay with good friends near Washington DC at the beginning of June.  So, instead of a relaxed cruise in the Spanish Virgin Islands, we started to make preparations for sailing BV 1300nm north.

Over those 4 days we checked the engine, generator and other equipment, bringing forward some routine servicing (eg an engine impeller change) and making sure that there were no potential problems with the mechanical systems of which we were not aware.  We transferred the fuel from the jerry cans that we keep on deck into BV’s main tanks and then did some dinghy runs ashore with the jerry cans to ensure that both BVand Wild Iriswere chock-a-block full of fuel.  Nicky did some nav planning and prepared charts for the US mainland whilst keeping a close eye on the weather and I studied the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) books to check on bridge clearances between Beaufort, NC and Norfolk, VA should we make landfall further south than we intended at this point (answer: lowest bridge = 63ft, BV’s air draft = 65ft; the offshore route looks to be the sensible one!).  Nicky also winched me up the mast so that I could check and remake a connection on the AIS aerial and whilst I was up there I put the foam pads back on the spreaders, as we had done before our Atlantic crossing, to help protect the mainsail from chafe.  I also carried out another rig check and, happily, found nothing untoward.  We spent the last 2 days food shopping and cooking up meals to make the first half of the passage easier.  It was all go, but in amongst all that busy-ness we still found time to relax in the evening (sundowners, dinners and cocktails) with Mark and Lisa, each checking on the others’ progress and discussing problems and issues.

With a 10 day passage ahead of us, and some pretty variable conditions likely, Sunday evening was a quiet one.  We’ve had a wonderful time in the Caribbean and are very much looking forward to returning for winter 2018/9 but then we’re also looking forward to an American summer and a new country, or countries (if we get to Canada), to explore.

Sunset at Melone Beach (photo by Mark)

Ensenda Honda, Culebra, Spanish VIs