Culebrita to the Turks and Caicos (Day 1, Friday 18 January 2019)

We lifted our anchor in the beautiful Bahia de Tortuga on Isla de Culebrita at 1040hrs on Friday 18 January. It’s a couple of days earlier than we had wanted to leave but we have been following the weather forecast for several days, in particular listening to the broadcast on the SSB radio first thing in the morning, and the prognosis is not good.  We need to be making progress west in a short weather window now or risk being held up for over a week.

Leaving Culebrita and Culebra

With Culebrita slipping away behind us and BV making just 4.5 knots in the light wind, it’s hard to believe that in a few days’ time we’ll be in for a pounding from some strong winds.

The north end of Culebra close by on the left of the picture and Puerto Rico in the distance

We are heading 320 degrees, west-northwest, and have a passage of 420 nautical miles ahead of us to get to our next destination, South Caicos in The Turks and Caicos Islands on the southeastern edge of the Bahamas.  Our routing will take us north of Puerto Rico which sits at the north end of the Caribbean Sea.  Technically, therefore our passage is out in the Tropical North Atlantic Ocean (though it feels very like the Caribbean!).

Light winds and smooth seas for the start of our passage towards the Turks and Caicos

We had planned on the passage taking about 72hrs which puts us arriving at Cockburn Harbour on South Caicos just as the strong winds and big seas start and so our initial slow progress is a concern. Chris Parker, the weather guru for this area that we listen to on the SSB, has been highlighting the strong wind effects of a weather front that will move south from Florida to stop just north of the Dominican Republic somewhat southeast of the Bahamas; essentially where we are heading to.  The 25-30 knot winds with gusts up to 40 knots in squalls are an obvious concern for us but so is the predicted sea state.  Chris Parker has been forecasting 10ft swells from the north and from Tuesday/Wednesday also from the east.  The combination of these 2 swells will create what he calls a “washing machine effect”. Rather than be trapped in Culebra for a week, our challenge is to get to Cockburn Harbour on South Caicos before this “washing machine effect” starts.

Passage Statistics:
Position at Midday 18 January: N18 23  W65 19
Position at Midnight 18 January: N18 55  W66 11
1040hrs to Midday distance:  6 nautical miles
1040hrs to Midnight distance:  69 nautical miles
Total miles covered:  69 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go:  347 nautical miles

End of day 1 position Culebrita to the Turks and Caicos

Culebrita near Culebra Puerto Rico

We left the anchorage in Ensenada Honda at 1400 on Thursday 17 January and motored the 6nm around to Culebrita, partly out of sheer laziness and partly because the wind was rather light and we wanted to arrive whilst the sun was still quite high in the sky.

Our first glimpse of the anchorage which was mostly hidden behind the sandy headland

Culebrita is a small island on the northeast coast of Culebra.  It has a lovely big bay on its north end with a fabulous white sand beach but in winter the bay is often affected by northerly swell making it untenable. However, the weather had been particularly settled for some time so it seemed an ideal opportunity to anchor here.

Bottom:  looking into the bay with the reefs on the starboard side of the entrance clearly visible

We weren’t the only people to have such a brilliant idea.  We could see some of the masts above the low ground as we approached the island from the south but it wasn’t until we rounded the final headland and could see right into the bay that we realised how many boats were anchored there.  It was a veritable boat-park.

The entrance to the bay has reefs on both sides and, whilst the route in is clear, being unfamiliar with the entrance we wanted to have good light to see the shoal areas.

There are a number of buoys in the bay and some of the boats were using these but there were also four yachts at anchor.  We guessed that they would be staying the night whereas, since the buoys are supposed to be for day use only, we expected the vessels on these to leave before nightfall. We joined the anchored yachts, finding ourselves a comfortable space on the west side of the bay in about 4m.

The lighthouse on Culebrita.  It is possible to walk up to the light but we didn’t see an obvious path though, to be fair, we weren’t searching too hard

Having ‘parked’ quite close to the reef, we snorkelled over to take a look and were rewarded by seeing 2 green turtles in the bay and a good variety of fish and coral on the seaward side of the reef.  We also saw a number of beer cans and a wine bottle which we removed back to BV for proper disposal at our next landfall.

We strolled the length of the beach and decided that this was one of those places where we simply had to do sundowners on the sand.

Palm trees behind the beach.  Many of the islands lack large palms following the hurricanes of 2017

And so we did, but not under the palm trees as it was warmer sitting in the final rays of the setting sun than in the shade.  Back on board BV when it became properly dark, we could see the white sand of the beach glowing amazingly brightly in the light of the moon.  It was a fabulous sight.  Our pilot book talks of the bay being bioluminescent and, whilst we didn’t see evidence of that (perhaps because the moon was so bright) it could be that the glow of the beach is partly explained by the presence of bioluminescence.

A good job well jobbed.  A clean(er) dinghy

In the morning before we set off, whilst the crew of 2 of the yachts did yoga on the beach, we scrubbed the bottom of the dinghy.  It probably wasn’t as much fun as the yoga but it was nearly as virtuous an activity and the dinghy looks a lot better for the attention.

Culebrita, near Culebra, Puerto Rico, USA