Flamenco Beach

I had never heard of the Spanish Virgins before this cruise but two friends Keith & Ida insisted we not miss it and new friends Kim & Simon were raving about their recent visit. One of the OCC members Trip was chatting with on the OCC net (every morning) had also mentioned Culebra, so off we went. It was only a day sail from St Thomas and though a bit rolly, a beautiful downwind slide.

Flamenco Beach

We had a bit of a ‘who’s on first/what’s on second’ situation with customs and immigration (two different offices who kept referring me to each other). We wound up anchoring in Ensenada Honda in the main anchorage and were told to report to customs (who had sounded pretty grumpy) the next morning. Imagine our surprise when we found the customs agent to be a wealth of knowledge about the entire island and very funny! – she should have been in public relations and marketing rather than customs.

Beached tank

We stopped for a quick breakfast at a little restaurant across the street from the airport/customs office, it totally reminded us of the diner at the airport on Block Island or the old TV show Wings). After that we kept walking down the road over to Flamenco Beach. Flamenco is known to be one of the top three beaches in the entire world with soft white sand and water colors every shade of blue. There was a lot of sea grass left over from the storms, but you really wouldn’t have known that the beach was hit by two hurricanes, it was still so lovely. If you followed the water’s edge toward the end, you came upon a tank sitting right there on the beach. For several decades in the 1900’s, Culebra and neighbor Vieques were solely used for bombing practice by the US Navy (marine charts still list areas of unexploded ordinances). That tank and another up the shore were targets and now historical oddities.

Culebra – The Last Virgin

We had a beer at one of the beach bars and then headed back to town to wander around, followed by dinner at Mamacitas overlooking the canal.

The next day we went back ashore and explored town a bit more. Frustrated that one of the bars wasn’t opening on time, we took the local juice bar lady up on her offer to make pina coladas if I ran down to the local gas station and bought some rum. Lunch was a solid cheeseburger for Trip and a fresh greek hummous wrap for myself, eaten right off the ferry dock. We stopped for provisions across the canal and found the local store that has a great butcher. We hadn’t had steak in months so I treated us to some fabulous hanger steak for Caesar salads that night.

Pina coladas courtesy of Jaki’s Seas

One of the anchorages we had been told about was Almodovar, right around the bend a few miles from town. It’s an interesting entry through reefs and the anchorage has plenty of mooring balls. The amazing thing is that the moorings are all just feet from a reef that lines the eastern edge. You can sit there on your boat feeling the wind blowing, and watching the waves crash but the reefs cut out all the wave action so it’s as still as a pond on the mooring.

Culebra sunset

We went snorkeling to explore a bit and were immediately met with a dozen or so bonefish right under the boat. As we got close to shore we saw hundreds if not thousands of jellyfish resting upside down on the ocean floor. Trip stirred up a couple with a fin, but most didn’t stray from their resting spots.

With good wind but no waves, Trip decided to take the dinghy for a sail. In the meantime one other boat sailed in and he too put up a sailing rig on his dinghy. Trip and John sailed back and forth chatting away and John later came over for sundowners. Turns out he summers in Florida and winters in Culebra. Most fascinating was listening to him talk about everything he manages with his solar oven – I think I may have to invest in one when we get home!

Turtles in Culebrita!

The next day we headed up to Culebrita. The moorings were really close to shore, so we anchored just a bit out off of Tortuga Beach (coincidentally a sea turtle hatchery). Turtles were everywhere in the water, and you could see the marks from the hatchlings as they made their way to sea. Someone swam over from a local charter catamaran  to ask if we were really from New York and we invited Alex aboard. A Spaniard, he was chartering a boat with his sister and some friends to get a bit more experience before chartering in the Med this upcoming summer.

Lighthouse at the top of Culebrita

The next day we hiked up to the lighthouse for a spectacular view of all sides of the island. We stopped at Treasure Beach (on the windward side, I can only imagine what ‘treasures’ wash up onto shore) and then stopped by Alex’s boat for a drink and some appetizers. We had a blast chatting with them all, but they needed to move on as they had limited time.

We went back to the boat for a bit then went back ashore and worked our way up to the end of the beach. With a little bit of diligence and rock climbing, you get to an area called the ‘Baths’ or ‘Jacuzzis’. A 10 foot opening from the open ocean brings water into several pools that form natural Jacuzzis. Being shallow, the water warms up quite nicely – we spent an hour or so exploring but easily could have stayed all day. Culebrita was definitely one of the highlights of this trip!

Jacuzzis