02-24-2011: Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands (Puerto Rico)

How about this for an opening photo!

Knew you'd like that one - it's the queen by one of the deserted tanks on Flamenco Beach, Culebra.  Has to be one of the most widely photographed objects on the island (the tank, that is).  But, I digress.  Here's a shot of the entrance into Ensenada Honda - a very nice harbor on Culebra.  On the left you can see boats on moorings behind a reef - that's Dakity Harbor.  Many cruisers anchor deep inside Ensenada Honda, right next to the town of Dewey.  Then after having their fill of free internet, easy access to provisioning, etc, they move out to the quiet of Dakity.

Dewey is a quaint, little town.  Mamacita's Restaurant is a favorite hangout:

Mamacita's has their own dinghy dock for easy cruiser access.  Take your dinghy under the prominent bridge & it's on the right.  You can't miss it.  Here's the bridge.  Love the colors.

The other well known "watering hole" is The Dinghy Dock Restaurant.  It's on the left just before the bridge:

Here's Dance Aweigh at anchor near town - new kayak ready to go.

And here's the town dock.  Drop your trash off here.

Here's Capt Rich with Mike - Kevin's Dad - visiting Sabbaticus for a couple weeks.  We're sampling the fare at the Dinghy Dock restaurant.



And here I am again - this time with Bill from Ultra.  We're sampling the fare at Mamacita's.

The queen took a liking to this ride:



And here we are on the bridge:

The queen with her entourage.  That's Mike (Kevin's Dad), Kevin (Sabbaticus), Bill (Ultra) & Brandon (SolMate).

Of course, it's not all play.  I'm up the mast, retreiving a broken flag halyard:

Why the socks, you say?  Well that device is called the "Mast Climber" - clever name, huh?  Anyway, it's got 2 rope clutches.  You stand up, shoving the upper clutch upward.  Then you sit down, shoving the lower clutch upward, etc.  Without socks, you remove the skin from your shins.

So off we went to Flamenco Beach on the North Coast:

Rated number 2 beach in the world by Discovery Channel.





Body surfing anyone?

After a few days in Ensenada Honda, we took the boat to the Western side of the island - free mooring at Tamarindo beach.  Swam, snorkled.

Then it was time for Kevin's birthday bash aboard Sabbaticus:

In addition to our usual cast of characters, we were joined by the crew of Wild Hair (don't ask).  Heather & Dave recently did the off-shore trip from Florida to St. Thomas - pretty scary.  You can see their blog at: http://adventuresofwildhair.blogspot.com/

And finally, here's the Birthday Boy himself: