We’ve had a fun filled, busy week with Caroline. Evelyn flew home on April 20 and we left the dock on April 21. Our plan for Caroline’s last week was to go to the Isla de Culebra – a roughly 70nm trip from Marina de Salinas. If the weather cooperated, we’d make 2 jumps over 2 days, Monday and Tuesday.
Monday April 21 started as usual – a little breeze and comfortable temperature. We got off the dock very easily and were underway nice and early (around 7am). We were heading about 40nm to Cayo Santiago or as it is better known – Monkey Island. Early morning was good – the wind was from a favourable direction so we were able to pull out the jib. By mid-morning the wind had picked up – higher than predicted and we started bashing into the waves as we turned the corner heading north (not much fun). The decision was made to stop about 14nm from Monkey Island and anchor in this little bay. We had a bit of trouble in this bay as we were trying to anchor. We picked up a float and line (might have been attached to a fish trap) around our bow thruster. Mark tried to untangle the line from the deck but that didn’t work. We dropped anchor where we were and Mark went for a swim to remove the line. Once that was done, we had lunch! It turned out that this nice looking bay was super rolly!! So we pulled up anchor and bashed our way another 7 nm to Puerto Yabucoa. This was a larger bay and we were able to tuck in close to the shore – a much calmer spot.
The next morning (April 22) we got going around 8am and made a brief stop at Monkey Island. The island is home to about 1800 rhesus macaque monkeys who have been observed and studied by scientists since 1938. The public isn’t allowed on the island so we watched the monkeys running up and down the hilly island through our binoculars. It was a short stop (about 30 minutes) and then we continued another 7nm to Ensenada Honda Inlet – our anchorage for Tuesday night. This spot actually felt like going home to Reynolds Park!! The bay was an old USA naval base and is now used for ferries travelling to Culebra and Isla de Viegues plus other work vessels. It was fun to anchor near the large concrete piers!!
Wednesday April 23 was a great day to make the 24 nm crossing to Culebra. The wind was super light and the waves were gentle rollers. It was an easy 4 hour motor trip and we had our anchor down a little after noon. After lunch we went for a dinghy ride around the harbour. There’s a small river that crosses the island and joins the inner harbour to the west side of the island (where the ferries land). We checked out the river and had a George Town (Bahamas) flashback as we went under a little bridge!! It was very fun. We tied the dinghy up at the public dock and walked around the town – Culebra Pueblo. The town has many restaurants and is quite a tourist destination. It was busy for a Wednesday afternoon!
We decided to rent a golf cart on Thursday (April 24th) so we could tour the island. Caroline was very interested in some beach time and we all wanted to see Bahia Flamenco – a well known beach that is super busy on the weekends! We got the golf cart around 9am and headed to the beach. It was interesting putting along the road in the gas golf cart. Lots of potholes, speed bumps and drainage dips made driving very exciting – not to mention all the other traffic! I think Mark enjoyed driving around and I know Caroline loved facing backwards!! The beach was pretty amazing and not super crowded! We found a nice palm tree shady spot and enjoyed about 4 hours relaxing on the beach. There were food kiosks at the beach so we had lunch there as well. On the way back, we toured the east side of the inner harbour (where we were anchored). The island is quite hilly (just like Puerto Rico) and our little golf cart did an awesome job of climbing up the steep roads. We had an incredible view of the inner bay and could see all the way to the Isla de Vieques. It was very impressive!!
Friday morning was the last full day of Caroline’s 2 week holiday and our last sailing day of the season. We were up early and had our anchor up by 8am. It was a lovely light wind day so we actually managed to sail with the spinnaker! It was a great way to spend the last day before going into our slip at Safe Harbour Puerto Del Rey (our summer season home for this year). We arrived at Marina Del Rey around 1 pm and were all secured at the dock fairly quickly. Mark went off to the marina office and I started with our storage jobs – I washed the deck, the enclosure and all our hatch screens.
We’ll be picking up a rental car today at 4:30pm and then we’re going out for a last celebratory dinner here at the marina! In the morning it’s time to go back to the airport to say bye to Caroline. It will be a busy week before we fly home on May 4th! First time we’ve had to do all our storage jobs in such a short time! Let’s the storage games begin!
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 