The first stop in our 10 day tour of the Spanish Virgin Islands was the small island of Culabrita located roughly 15 miles west of St. Thomas, USVI. It's an easy sail to Culabrita, being dead down wind from St. Thomas with no real hazards to navigation. Reefs guard the Bayo Tortuga entrance, which is best approached from the north east. We sailed past a good ways and then turned southeast, angling back towards the center of the beach. Easy.

We picked up an outside ball and after gathering all of the pertinant customs info from all crew (name, passport #, DOB, etc) we called to clear-in. It was a snap. They give you an arrival number for future reference. (Note, this is for a US boat w/ C&I decal with US crew leaving the USVI. If coming from the BVI your mileage may vary.)

There are 9 well maintained mooring balls in the bay, and many, many places to anchor. Here's shot of the east half of the bay after all the day-boaters went home. We shared this anchorage for the night with only 2 other boats. The anchorage is beautiful, and the beach is calm in prevailing conditions. You can easily swim to shore from the mooring balls close to the beach. A good strategy if the balls are all taken when you arrive is to anchor further out, and move up after the day-trippers leave.


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The next day we walked south east behind our beach to a windward beach. Shoes required due to stickers on the path. My wife pulled 60 stickers out of my crocs! This beach was not as nice for playing in the water as Tortuga, but doable. A bit rougher water, reefs, waves, and the sand was more grainy but still light and fluffy.

Here's a panorama from that south/east facing beach that includes the lighthouse. It's an easy 300 vertical foot / 20 minute hike to see the lighthouse if you're fit.

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