There seems to be a paucity of information for those interested in exploring the Spanish Virgin Islands compared to the British Virgin Islands so thought I would share a trip report for those that might be interested in future explorations of the Spanish Virgin Islands. This trip would clearly be easier if you could charter a boat from Fajardo in Puerto Rico or from St. Thomas with the base at CYOA, but we had to do so from Tortola where my chart company is located.
OCtober 31 – Arrive in Roadtown Tortola for sleep aboard and finish provisioning lists and dive gear. We were on a Moorings 4800 catamaran which was well equipped but, as luck would apparently have it, had its BVI registration expiring the next day and had to be renewed. The base recommended we not clear out of the BVI until the second of November to allow the registration a day to process. I still question the validity of this as it seemed quite coincidental and effected our plans the next day. We wondered if BVI registration had just not been renewed appropriately.
November 1 – Initial plan to pick up four passengers arriving to STT in Cruz bay on St. John after clearing out of BVI but the registration forces us to White Bay on Jost instead where we had a passengers ferried via a private ferry service. Slight glitch in plans but wanted to be as far west as possible to jump to Culebra the next day. Hurricane Oscar had churned up the Atlantic and forecast for the next evening was wind gusts into the high 20s and sees up to 8-9 feet swells at times so we wanted to be well ahead of this forecast.
November 2 – Cleared out of Great Harbour on JVD at 0830 and began a long sail of 41.3 nm to Culebra heading just south of Little Tobago Island on a NW course before a single jibe SW towards Culebra across the Virgin Passage. Seas had six foot swells from NE and seemed like we may have surfed down an 8 footer or two but maybe that is a fish tale on my part.
Arrived in Ensenada Honda and anchored, raised the Q flag, and attempted to clear in via ROAM app. Had to call CBP to get them to look at info on the app and begin processing but things ran smoothly from there until the video conferencing failed to connect. CBP thus required the whole crew to come to airport for visual confirmation which was a bit of a hassle but painless once we arrived. They seemed suspicious that I might be trying to make money as a captain bringing people to the SVI for some reason which is why I think they forced us to come in to the airport. Had video conferencing worked I think they would have been fine and allowed us to stay on the boat to complete the process.
Had a few drinks at the Dinghy Dock restaurant to celebrate the long sail with some excitable folks from Puerto Rico who were enjoying the weekend in the SVI as well. Cheers to Raphael and Omar if you are reading this!
November 3 – Leisurely morning before motoring around the corner to Playa Tamarindo with beautiful views of Cayo de Luis Pena. Picked up a National Park mooring ball and most of the crew snorkeled and hung at the beach while my friend and I went for a dive along Punta Tamarindo Grande. Good thing I had warned the snorkelers about possible swift current at the point as this was indeed the case. We quickly realized that we would have to use our secondary plan of drifting around to the other side of the point as we would not have been able to swim back against the current. A good reminder for us about the power of the sea. Dive was interesting with a cave on the northern aspect of the point and the largest lionfish I have ever seen. Alas, we had no spear to take him out. Other than 2 snorkelers dropped off via speed boat, we had the entire beach to ourselves for the most part.
We then motored over to the SW corner of Cayo de Luis Pena for lunch and more snorkeling. Picked up a NPS mooring here as well. Thought about taking the hike to the 476 foot peak of the island but trail seemed overgrown and we all decided to relax instead. We were the only boat here as well and felt like we were on a deserted island, a stark contrast to the BVI. Due to the wind gusts and seas predicted with small craft advisories still out, we decided to head back to the well protected Ensenada Honda for the night as opposed to one of the anchorages along the south side of Culebra.
More to come….
