Culebra might possibly be one of my favorite islands yet!
It ranks right up there with Long Island in the Bahamas. It’s beautiful, quaint, easily accessible by dinghy, and has so so so much to offer! It’s really pretty amazing. We could’ve easily spent a few weeks on this adorable little island in the Spanish Virgins, but were there for just about a week before an amazing weather window popped up for our sail to St. Thomas that we just couldn’t pass up.
Culebra is seriously gorgeous! This 12-square-mile island in the corner of the Caribbean is one of the area’s hidden gems. In my humble opinion at least.
We rolled into the main inside harbor, Ensenada Honda, the Saturday after Thanksgiving and man oh man was that place bumping! The anchorage was pretty full, music blasting, and boaters and local weekenders from the main island of Puerto Rico everywhere! But by Sunday afternoon, it felt like the island cleared out and there we were with just a few other cruiser boats left in the harbor. I’m really glad we got the chance to see both sides of the coin, so to speak.
Later in the week, we decided to rent ourselves a fancy little golf cart from Carlos Jeep Rentals and explore all the island had to offer, including a half dozen or so of some of the most breathtakingly beautiful beaches. We literally cruised the entire island one sunny day, up and down the (sometimes scary) steep, unpaved roads.
^^crazy gorgeous vistas all the way to the US Virgin Islands from everywhere on the island.^^
We made sure to check out the world famous Flamenco Beach on the north coast of the island. It was easy to see why this curving mile of white sand beach is always in the top 10 list of the world’s most exotic beaches.
^^Sooooo gorgeous, right???^^
We also especially loved the much smaller and rock lined Tamarindo Beach on the west side of the island where we snorkeled with a dozen sea turtles!!! It was seriously unreal. And I have a crap load of GoPro photos and videos from the sea turtles just waiting to be posted. :)))
^^Tamarindo Beach where we had the most amazing sea turtle experience EVER!^^
^^oh and we met this little guy! He was SO close to coming home with us. I tried. ;)) Although I’m sure Oliver wouldn’t be thrilled. Lol.^^
Other than some fab beaches and pretty stellar snorkeling, we throughly enjoyed popping over to Zaco’s Tacos for some super authentic mexican food! We probably haven’t had real tasty tacos in what feels like forever! Don’t tell anyone, but I ate four. ;))
Jereme and I have also decided that every coastal town should be required to have a dinghy dock restaurant like the one here in Culebra. It’s totally open-air, right smack dab at the waters edge, and you can just pull on up and hop off the dinghy for some drinks and food. What’s not to love about that?
I’m so thrilled we stopped to check out Culebra for a few days and I’m quite certain we will be making a return stopover there on our way back to the U.S.
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Boat Life, Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, Spanish Virgin IslandsTags: Caribbean, Cruising, Culebra, Flamenco Beach, LahoWind, Puerto Rico, Sailboat, Sailing Blog, Sea Turtles, Spanish Virgin Islands, Tamarindo Beach
We snuck in a snorkel pitstop on our way to Culebra last week. :)))
Our easy breezy trip from Vieques to Culebra was one of those awesome kinds of motor sails. You know, the ones where you’re basically just lounging around, enjoying some killer weather, singing along to some good tunes in the cockpit, and even hooking a fish or two along the way! So why not up the ante another notch and make a fun little snorkel pit stop at one of the reefs just outside the island of Culebra in the Spanish Virgins?
Exactly! So we did just that. ;))
We had read about how breathtakingly beautiful all the small cays are surrounding the area of Culebra and, even better, most of them have a few free Department of Natural Resources mooring balls available for day use. And seriously, free mooring balls are the bomb dot com!
Unfortunately for us, we were headed into town on a busy holiday weekend where there were sure to be boatloads of locals staking out all the good snorkel spots and free moorings. In other words, we definitely weren’t holding our breath on being able to secure one that afternoon.
As we made our way closer and closer to Culebra, about two or three miles from the main channel into the harbor, we said “why the hell not” and headed instead towards Cayo Luis Pena, one of the small islands adjacent to Culebra.
In the 60 seconds I happened to take a quick peak through the binos, a huge fishing boat dropped their ball and motored away. Seriously, what are the odds that a mooring would open up the exact moment we needed it? Talk about a couple of lucky ducks!
Although another boater could have easily whizzed on by us and stolen that free mooring ball right out from under our nose, luck must’ve been on our side because we were able to mosey our way on over there and pick up the one empty mooring ball without any issues whatsoever. Woot woot!
About 20 seconds after grabbing the mooring, we were all in the water and paddling Oliver to shore for a quick potty break.
^^the 3 of us packed on the paddleboard is a hilarious sight to see. Oliver only fell off twice. Lol.^^
After returning to the boat and busting out our snorkel gear, we quickly jumped right back in the water! We were greeted with a beautiful reef in about 15 to 20 feet of crystal clear water. Easily the clearest we’ve seen since the Bahamas! We saw plenty of fish, a few jellyfish, and lots of interesting coral during our snorkel of the area. After about an hour or so of taking it all in, we hopped back on the boat, dried off, and dropped our mooring as easily as we picked it up. Not such a bad way to spend our lunch break en route to Culebra?
^^all of those paddle board + snorkel photos were taken on the gopro.^^
Leaving Cayo Luis Pena, it took about another hour to motor all the way into Ensenada Honda, the main harbor next to the town in Culebra, where we dropped anchor in a very lively anchorage that Saturday night!
Posted in Boat Life, Puerto Rico, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, Spanish Virgin Islands, TravelTags: Boat Dog, Boat Life, Caribbean, Cruising, Culebra, LahoWind, Sailing Blog, Snorkeling, Spanish Virgin Islands, Underwater Photos, Young Couple
We (literally) dusted off our fishing pole this week and got that reel back in action during our sail from Salinas to the Spanish Virgins! It feels like it’s been ages since actually hooking our own catch of the day. Luckily, our passage to the Spanish Virgins didn’t disappoint!
After a few false sargassum weed alarms tricking us into thinking we caught something good, we were shocked, to say the least, when the first actual fish we hooked was a tuna! A tuna, people! Unfortunately for us, that guy wasn’t as excited as we were and managed to come unhooked just as we were pulling him into the boat. It’s a sad sad day when you lose a tuna.
But now we were totally energized and ready to catch another one! Oliver included! That dog is so well trained to the sound of a fish on the line. Sheesh, it’s unreal how excited he gets when he hears the line dragging.
Using all of our normal fishing gear, we kept a line trolling off the boat during our quick passage from Vieques to Culebra, where we hooked, and thankfully, reeled in, a pretty hefty fish shortly into our trip. At first, we thought we had a wahoo, but upon closer inspection we figured it was more of the mackerel family variety.
We still weren’t totally convinced, so I went ahead and spoiled one of Jer’s birthday presents that I’d been hiding on the boat (his birthday is coming up in December). I busted out the new fish book I had planned to give him later this month so we could look through it and figure out exactly what we had caught.
Final determination…some variety of king mackerel, or kingfish. We were right all along.
^^Happy (early) Birthday Jer! Lol.^^
And if catching that first guy wasn’t good enough, immediately after catching the first, we brought in another decent sized kingfish!
Yup, I think it’s safe to say we have our fishing mojo back! Lol. ;))
Just when we were about to put the pole away for the day, something massive took our line. It peeled that baby out in record speed before ripping off one of the three hooks on the treble hook from our lucky lure. The new one we just bought. :(( Oh well, it happens.
We still have no idea what we caught and quickly lost, but we know for sure it was big.
Here’s to hoping we catch at least one stinking tuna before our cruising days are over.
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Boat Life, Puerto Rico, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, Spanish Virgin IslandsTags: Caribbean, Cruising, Culebra, Fishing, King Mackerel, Kingfish, LahoWind, Photos, Puerto Rico, Sailboat, Sailing Blog, Spanish Virgin Islands, Trolling, Vieques
We said “see ya later” to Salinas and headed for the Spanish Virgin Islands early last Friday morning after an expectedly less-than-festiveThanksgiving. Instead of gobbling up turkey and all the tasty trimmings we’re accustomed to, we spent the holiday scratching off one massive list of departure to-do’s so we could take advantage of the awesome weather window that was forecasted the following two days. From topping off our water tanks to tackling hair cuts for both Oliver and Jer, and everything in between, it was one helluva long, chore-filled Thanksgiving to say the least.
We did, however, participate in the notorious “Black Friday,” albeit in a slightly different fashion than most. ;))
We awoke at the crack of dawn like many do the Friday after Thanksgiving, but not for the purpose of scoring super deep discounts on holiday gifts. Instead, we set out on a very dark, moonless nighttime passage, where we spent several hours in the early morning dodging crab pots, dragging ass (excuse the French) due to a dirty boat bottom, and diverting our intended destination of Culebra and instead heading for Vieques.
^^seriously such gorgeous weather on the sail to the Spanish Virgin Islands. I mean, hello, I’m in leggings and a long-sleeve.^^
The weather was perfect as expected, but with no moon in sight, we spent the first few hours of our passage from Salinas to the Spanish Virgins in the dark. This would have been totally fine if it hadn’t been for the loaded mine field of crab pots that littered the coast a few miles into our sail.
Jereme caught wind of the first crab pot we came upon just in time to steer clear of the trap’s polypropylene rope that was floating along the surface. After that first run in, he quickly awoke me from my cozy corner in the cockpit to keep an eye out for any additional traps. I jumped into lookout mode and grabbed our handy spotlight to scope out the waters ahead. Unfortunately, our first crab pot encounter would not be our last, as the pots began to multiply and we continuously noticed more traps up ahead.
One literally appeared out of nowhere and, of course, directly next to our boat as I flashed it with the handheld light and shouted to Jer to switch the engine into neutral. We were nearly about to motor over it, but instead of getting another pot caught around our prop like we sorta did that one time (which was so NOT fun by the way), we simply floated on by in neutral no worse for the wear. Phew! Disaster averted.
With several more hours until daylight, Jer made the executive decision to head out into much deeper waters so as to avoid what would likely be a crop of crab pots up ahead. We hooked a 90 degree turn and headed straight out to sea until we cleared 1,000 feet and then turned back east and continued on towards Vieques.
^^see that weirdo hook in our track. that’s where we called it quits on the crab traps.^^
^^so happy to see that sun rise over the ocean early Friday morning!^^
^^we even managed to rig the little point and shoot camera for a family photo.^^
^^nap time.^^
^^these two.^^
But those darn crab traps weren’t the only thorn in our side on our trip from Salinas to the Spanish Virgins. Shortly into our motor-sail, we noticed our usual speed was a little on the slow side. Like really slow. When we should be averaging about 5 knots, we were doing more like 3ish. By the looks of our anchor chain and bridle when we weighed anchor in Salinas, our two-week stay probably hadn’t done much to help in the cleanliness department. We figured our bottom was surely the dirty culprit holding us back. Especially after we experienced the same thing the morning we had our boat cleaned in Puerto Real.
After dragging some serious you-know-what, we made yet another executive decision to forgo our originally intended destination of Culebra and simply try and make it to Vieques in a reasonable amount of time. This way, we could take advantage of the clear, shallow waters off the coast of Green Beach, Vieques and clean our hull before heading on to Culebra the next day. Our passage to Vieques should’ve taken about eight and a half hours. Instead, it took us nearly 13. Awesome. But we made it. Safely. And that’s all that matters, right? ;)) And as an added bonus, we got to see a tiny piece of beautiful Vieques that we didn’t expect to see at all!!!
Oh, and I almost forgot…we hooked a TUNA while en route!!! And while simultaneously on skype with Jer’s parents. Lol. Our very first tunie! Sadly, it came unhooked just as we were lifting it up into the cockpit. I think Jer and I had a collective heart attack when we lost it. We were both very much ready for some fresh tuna. :(((
^^gotta love American cell service and sailboat skype sessions while still in PR!^^
^^the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico from a distance.^^
^^by the looks of this pretty palm-lined beach, I’d say we made a good choice with our detour.^^
^^and it was just as gorgeous as expected!^^
^^there’s our friend Texas Larry’s Endeavour 32. He made the trip from Salinas too!^^
We were thrilled when we pulled up to a pristine white sand beach on the west side of Vieques. We dropped anchor and quickly jumped in the water for a swim…and, ugh, more boat chores thanks to that dirty hull. Do the boat chores ever end? Don’t answer that.
Turns out, our prop was in fact covered in cauliflower chunks of barnacle disgustingness. It’s a miracle our boat moved at all. But after an hour or two of heavy duty scrubbing, she was as good as new! :))
^^scrub-a-dub-dub, we don’t want any barnacles on that tub. PS – that’s not an awesomely high-waisted swimsuit Jer’s wearing. It’s a weight belt courtesy of our friends from way back in the Bahamas…Dos Jalepenos.^^
^^it’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. ps – those two photos are basically the “after”…I didn’t get a chance to snap any before Jer got to work.^^
^^hi.^^
^^ready for a dive into that crystal clear water for a swim.^^
^^and some paddle-boarding.^^
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening enjoying a gorgeous sunset, beautiful weather, and even a delicious dinner of pasta and homemade meatballs.
^^seriously spectacular sunset!^^
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Puerto Rico, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, Spanish Virgin Islands, TravelTags: Boat Dog, Caribbean, Cruising, LahoWind, Night Passages, Sailboat, Sailing Blog, Salinas, Spanish Virgin Islands, Vieques, Young Couple
So we finally left Puerto Rico. The main island at least. I know I know, you thought we were never going to leave, didn’t you? ;))
I mean, sheesh, Puerto Rico was our home for the past four months. We joke on the regular about how 5, 10, 20 years from now we will always say “remember that one summer we lived in Puerto Rico!” It just sounds so random, doesn’t it?
On July 15, 2014, we rolled into the town of Puerto Real, Cabo Rojo after a 300+ mile sailing journey from Luperon, Dominican Republic. And little did we know a cute little friendly fishing village would become our home for the next few months.
Puerto Rico, you were so good to us.
Well, so good minus the dirty ticks. We could’ve done without those. ;)) But seeing a baby sea turtle hatchling making a go at life right by our sailboat…now that’s the stuff dreams are made of!
We sure did love your regular American cell phone service, glorious free marina wifi (for most of our time on the island), free water (that did NOT have to be lugged around in 50lb. jerry cans), amazing air conditioning during the hottest months of the year, regular grocery stores and tasty restaurants, a West Marine, and even a Starbucks for crying out loud. And we especially loved the super fun outings we partook in…like horseback riding on the beach in Rincon, trips to Old San Juan, Playa Sucia, Ponce, La Parguera, Coffin Island, Joyuda, dinghy rides around the bay, and so much more!!!
Oh, and we can’t forget those guava donuts! I will most definitely miss the donuts. ;))
We truly loved spending hurricane season here on this pretty little island. Our decision to hurricane in Puerto Rico instead of sticking it out in Luperon, Dominican Republic or booking it down south was a well-crafted decision in our eyes. And fortunately, we lucked out with a very weak season in terms of tropical activity…where we prepped and rode out our first (and only of the season for us) Tropical Storm. And for that, I am thankful.
It really feels like we became full blown residents of Puerto Rico this summer. Maybe it’s because we were glued to a dock and marina facility most of the time…maybe it’s because we had a mailing address, a community full of friendly locals, favorite restaurants, a car (on way too many occasions), and a vet for Oliver even.
Who knows?
But we did totally put down roots here. So, needless to say, it’s kinda sad to leave it all behind. We won’t see those same friendly faces at the marina everyday, have local fishermen handing us fresh free mahi on the regular, or have the same comforts of the U.S., but adventure awaits and we are ready to get this party started!
Hurricane Season is over…it’s Cruising Season, ya’ll!
Adios Puerto Rico! It’s been real.
Hello, Virgin Islands!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Puerto Rico, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, TravelTags: Boat Dog, Boat Life, Caribbean, Cruising, LahoWind, Liveaboards, Puerto Rico, Sailboat, Sailing Blog, Virgin Islands
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We felt the same way about Culebra in 2006, Long Island remained our #1, so we ended up building a home there eventually, but Culebra was a close second. Y’all have to sail to Culebrita and check out the lighthouse ruins, that was personal fave! Fair winds!
[…] Talk about totally unreal and mind blowing. Or at least that’s the way I felt after we swam with a dozen or so turtles off Tamarindo Beach in Culebra. […]
Culebra is certainly on our list of “Must Visits” – can’t wait! And those tacos are just making me hungry.
[…] our awesome week-long stay in Culebra, it was a nice little change of pace to disconnect from everything and spend a few days off the […]