Lyn's Log, 9th January 2007
Spanish Virgin Islands

Palomino, Puerto Rico.
N18º17', W65º28'
11,836 miles.

We anchored Saturday 6th January in a bay nearly 2 miles deep into the island of Culebra that was like a lake as the entrance had a reef across it with only a small gap in the middle. There were many pontoons around the shore and fortunately we chose the correct one on which to land the dinghy. It was only a short walk to the airport where we found Customs and checked in, receiving a year’s cruising permit for the United States. Culebra is both part of Puerto Rico and also a Spanish Virgin Island owned by the United States. We walked round part of the main town, Dewey, where there is a short gap in the land between the inland water and the Caribbean Sea. Over this was a lift up bridge built by two of the locals. Unfortunately it now does not operate.

The next day it blew hard all day. We motored back to the reef where we could pick up a buoy just inside the reef. Andrew swam over to it but found it was sea grass and rocks with very few fish and only few pieces of coral trying to get established. I painted over some bald patches on our dinghy. After lunch we motored round to the East to anchor in a bay on the north side of Cubralita. The sea conditions got worse as were became more exposed to unsheltered seas. As we approached the bay we were in five metres of water with four metre waves crashing over us and we decided to abort and retraced our steps to anchor off the West side of the island. Going ashore we found a track through the undergrowth that led to the bay in the north. It certainly was a pretty bay with white sand and palm trees, but there were breaking waves on the beach that would have made landing difficult. On the trail we found many snail shells of various sizes. The strange thing about them was that they were all inhabited by crabs!

We left the anchorage before dark to enter another bay on Culebra which was largely cut off by a long reef. We made the entrance all right but when picking our way around a small island we went aground. A second attempt got us aground even firmer. A rib with three local guys came over to offer assistance. Eventually our engine got us off and we followed the rib through the correct way round the island to where there were mooring buoys. It was worth a few beers. The wind was still blowing a gale outside but the water there was calm enough for a good night.

The next day the weather was much calmer. It was easy to see the reefs in the morning sunshine as we made our way back out to sea, around the eastern end of the island and along the north coast. Our guide book said we must visit Flamenco Bay and we thought we might stop there for lunch. Well the swell and the waves were still coming from the northeast and going straight into the bay as they were into the bay on the north of Cubrelita. They may not have been quite so large but we still decided to give the bay a miss and went to look at a possible anchorage off one of the small islands to the west of Culebra. This proved to be a collection of one large and several small rocks with out a beach and giving no shelter from the swell or wind. We continued westward towards Puerto Rico and picked a buoy in the shelter of Palamino Island. We discovered that most of this island is owned by one or two hotels on the mainland just five miles away and when we ordered a couple of beers from the beach bar were told they did not accept cash, only the hotel room number or credit card. The beers had already been opened so we could only leave the cash and leave it them to sort out! We did not want to row back to the yacht to fetch a credit card. The island was surrounded by lovely sandy beaches, had a Palamino pony trail, and a wedding chapel on a hill. This looked out over the beautiful coloured water over the surrounding coral reefs and the islet of Palominitos.