Well this is the final installment of the November 04 trip. This entire trip was a blast!

Tues 9am We arrive safely between Cayo de Luis Pena and Las Hermanas. We anchor just north of Pta Tamarindo Grande in Playa Carlos Rosario. The water is very calm and it is a gorgeous beach. The crummy weather has now pretty much broken and the sun is shining. This too is a Federal Nature Preserve and deserted. There are, however, a pack of dogs on the beach and I am not really happy about going ashore with them there. They are all barking and scratching at something in the water. We have another light breakfast and watch them. Later a couple comes down to the shore and walks the beach, Lifeforms on the island! A few people come and go during the morning. Later we snorkel in and walk the beach. The snorkeling here is very pretty, large coral heads, many soft corals, various but not abundant fish. The beach is pretty and we walk northwest to look at the north side of Culebra. It is blowing on that side for sure.

I decide that it is finally time to find a home for the new hammock that we brought down. We bought it at the Newport RI boat show in Sept. and have been waiting to try it. It is a packable 2-person hammock from Eagles Nest Outfitters. Paul ties it between the front cabin-top handrails to the forward deck rail. Works great. We take turns lounging, even though it is 2 person, we don’t want to put that much weight on the coach rails. I love it. It is my new best friend.
The rest of the day is spent doing what we will mostly do for the next 4 days. NOTHING but lounge, drink, read, eat, drink, swim, snorkel, drink, lounge………etc.(you get the picture) Now this is true limn’.

Wed am Time to pick up anchor and head SE along the west shore of Culebra. The weather has turned again and there are occasional showers. Our destination is somewhere on the south shore of Culebra. We pass Bahia Tamarindo, Laguna de Cornelio, Punta Malones, Bahia de Sardono. Here we can see Dewey (the main town) through the canal between the landmasses. The canal is not navigable other than for small boats. The bridge that crosses the canal was built 30 years ago. It was raised then for the first time with a great celebration. Unfortunately, they could not lower it. It took 3 days to get the bridge back down and they have NEVER raised it again. Go figure. Modern technology. We continue on heading past Pta del Soldado and into the open waters south of Culebra. We choose to pass Ensenada Honda (yes there is an Ensenada Honda on Vieques and one on Culebra.) We decide to head for Bahia de Almodovar. There is a huge reef protecting the southeast side of Culebra between Culebra and Culebrita and you MUST take great caution to avoid it. I would not want to come in from the east, St. Thomas in poor light. Totally submerged, but huge and very dangerous. We stay well clear of it and find our way into Bahia de Almodovar. Directions……turn hard to port when in line with the “Wedding Cake” house and steer directly for the house to avoid the 2 reefs on either side of the entrance. We make it in, but the rains really start. Shortly after, we decide that maybe today is the day that we should visit the metropolises of Dewey and Dakity. Pick up anchor and head back out the same way and back west along the Culebrita reef to Ensenada Honda. Ensenada Honda is very large and the main “drag” on Culebra. We pass several well-protected anchorages/bays as we head to Dewey. Of course, as we arrive in Dewey, the sun comes out and we dink to the “Dinghy dock” a concrete structure that is about 6 feet above water level. Not too practical for dinghies, but they have added a wood plank all the way around the structure for you to put a foot up on. Of course it helps if you are 6 ft tall and have really long legs. Paul is fine; I not too gracefully drag my body up. (Still in pain from toe incident…see Vieques log) did manage to put on deck shoes, but very uncomfortable. We have taken the initiative to review all the books so we know where the “sights” are. We follow the directions and find nothing. Most stores, (all stores) are closed. There is a vendors cart by the bridge that says it all “Open some days…….Closed others!” We are looking for at the very least maybe a place to eat a meal, a place to buy lettuce and salad dressing, anything……. Nothing to be found. We walk across the never opening bridge. Walk to the gas dock….diesel 5559 per what? It turns out to be per liter.
We don’t need fuel anyway, and even if we did we couldn’t get Cattitude anywhere near the gas dock….remember the bridge doesn’t open. We do finally find “Milka” the grocery store, butcher shop. It is tiny, but they have lettuce and salad dressing and cream cheese. Mission successful. We walk up and down a few streets. Lots of roadwork going on. Driving here is on what side of the road? Can’t tell. They all drive in the middle. We head to the “Dinghy Dock” bar and restaurant. It is open and there are 2 women sitting at the bar drinking wine. Cool. We head down the stairs and as we approach, the bartender says, “hope you don’t want lunch”. The wait staff is sitting in the dining area, but not serving. Go figure. Nah, we just want a drink at the bar, but we have this cream cheese and how do we keep it cold. She offers to put it in the bar fridge and makes us 2 frozen Margarita’s.. Nice change from all that rum this week. The sun is out, skies blue, and all is well with the world. Turns out the bartender is also from PA and has been to Fire Island on Long Island, NY where we live. Small world. Tell her that we need to get rid of the garbage from the boat and that we can’t find anywhere to deposit it. She agrees to accept the smelly bag and I send Paul back to the dinghy dock to retrieve it and come by dink back to the bar. While he is accomplishing this mission, I do only the right thing and order another Margarita. (no one else at the bar now and she would have nothing to do.) When Paul arrives she pours my drink in a disposable cup, retrieves our cream cheese, and accepts the garbage. I climb down the short step to the dink and off we ride back to Cattitude. It is still midafternoon and we have to decide where to stay tonite.
The anchorage on Bahia de Almodovar was very calm, but the blowing wind was so bad, that we didn’t think we would be happy there. We decided to skip Dakity, (couldn’t really even see it from the water cause it is such a tiny town) so we headed back around to the west side of Cuebra and Bahia Tamarindo.
Tonight we anchored just south of Pta Tamarindo in Bahia Tamarindo, as there was actually a sailboat where we had anchored the prior night. Tonight we have another pretty beach, but above it is the garbage dump for dead vehicles. Not pretty. Crushed cars, rusted out school buses, trucks, etc. Oh well, I just wonder what they we thinking to put it right on the coast. Why not off in some undeveloped valley. If the land starts slipping into the water, lot of vehicles will be swimming. Tonight we find the best home for my new friend “the hammock”. Paul ties it off the bimini stanchions on the bridge so that it hangs off the bridge behind the aft salon. PERFECT SPOT. Good sunset viewing, out of the wind, a place to stand my drink on the cabin top. Can’t ask for anything more.
Cocktails and a swim. We don’t head into the beach. Eat more leftovers and work hard to finish up the open liquor and foods. We decide that tomorrow we will head around the north side of Culebra (yes we are gluttons for punishment) but there is nothing left to see on the south side and we hope to visit Bahia Flamenco, Playa Resaca, Playa Brava and Zoni Beach.
Thurs am Wake up to another perfect day, though again very windy. Time to pick up anchor and head around Pta de Molinos. Repack the “overboard” pack as the wind is still blowing like crazy. (It turns out that all this wind and rain is part of the late tropical storm “Otto” that had formed and dissipated) This was the residual weather from it.
We head west and the north. Everything is fine until we pass Pta de Molinas….the last protection on the east. We are now in the open water again sloughing against the wind and waves. We again are taking water over the bridge and we decide to slow down. It gets better, but we decide that with this swell we are not going to get to visit the north side beaches on Culebra either. I again decide that I should steer. Definitely makes me more at ease. The seas are still sloppy, and we are soaked, but not as bad as the Vieques/Culebra run.
We see Isla Norte off to the east in the distance. We decide that it may be better on the south side of that island and head directly for her. Upon arrival at Isla Norte the seas flatten out as they are protected from the north swell. We drop anchor in front of a beautiful deserted beach. Perfect. Dink into the water and into shore we head. This is probably one of the nicest beaches we have yet to visit. We walk the beach to discover that there are many, many goats. We pass a stone stairway to nowhere. Wonder where that once went. There are a couple of boarded up houses on the island and are in decent shape so we can only assume that people use them for holiday. They appear to be small one-room structures with outhouses. One has a wooden picnic set outside. Guess they really are used. There is another at the far east end of the island on the point overlooking Culebrita. The southeast end of the island is protected by yet another reef and the water is calm, even though the seas are boiling. We spend the morning there enjoying the total privacy. No one is showing up unexpected. When we head back to Cattitude we decide that this is a perfect place to shoot a bunch of pics for next years Cattitude brochures and maybe even TMM’s. So around Cattitude we travel by dink shooting numerous pics.
Back on the boat we have lunch and while doing so we see this “thing” boat heading towards the east past us. It has a scout boat (maybe 17’ aluminum outboard) ahead of it. This thing is big 60 or 70’, and funky looking…painted blue with red splotches on it. See the photos. Very strange. It has the words “The Crossing” painted across the sides. Jet ski hanging from the stern. It continues past us and heads for the south side of Culebrita.
After lunch we pick up anchor and head east towards Culebrita.

We decide to try the west and south sides of the island to see if there are any decent anchorages. We pass another boat or two, finally, at anchor. People snorkeling. Does not appear anyway to get up the mountain from this side to the Culebrita lighthouse. (not that I was climbing anywhere with my bum toe).
We know that the best anchorage is on the north side and decide to brave the waves once more and head to Tortuga Bay. Travel heading around was not too bad and this time (I am getting smarter) I travel down in the lower outside salon. Perfect down here. Hardly rocking or rolling at all. Paul is being captain and still getting sprayed with seawater on the bridge. There is a very narrow opening in the reef entering Tortuga Bay. It is a little tricky, but once inside the reef, the bay is flat with a horseshoe shapes perfect beach. There are actually 4 mooring balls in here as it is a Turtle Refuge and there is even more to our surprise another boat already in here. We grab the mooring ball at the far west end of the bay and we are good for the night. The waves, a hundred feet or so away, are breaking on the reef, but not affecting the boat at all. This is great. Time to drop the dink and explore shore. A bunch of flotsam on the beach. A pile of kid’s toys on the beach….hmmmmm wonder who owns them? We sight many, many turtles in this bay after not having seen one on the entire trip. We walk the length of the beach and find a path to the lighthouse, but it is getting late in the day and we decide not to head up.
Another sunset hanging in my hammock drinking Coconut Baybreezes. Life is good. One more meal to cook, dinner outside on a perfect evening. The wind is still however blowing and Paul is becoming concerned about the ability of this mooring ball to hold us. If it breaks, we won’t have much time to recover before hitting the end of the beach and the rock wall there. We decide that since no one else has come into the bay, the mooring ball behind us, which is really too close to the beach for safe mooring, would make a great safety. He runs a line from the stern cleat thru the ball pendant and back to the stern cleat. This way if the bow mooring lets go, we will just swing around on the stern mooring, hopefully awakening us to recover before that one lets go. It is a plan. He decides to hang a fender on the stern line so that no one, not that anyone was showing up, would run it over. Of course, Paul now showered and clean, drops the fender and now jumps overboard to retrieve it before it gets out of our sight. Pretty funny routine.
Another great night. No one except the people on a mooring way far in front of us. They own the little kid and it was their toys on the beach.
Friday morning, the weather forecast is lousy, 70% chance of rain. Yuck. Ok, it is nice out now so lets explore. We have breakfast and while cleaning up discover a shark hanging out below the boat. We feed him leftover scrambled eggs. He likes it. After his breakfast he heads back under the boat to hang out. We swam later that morning and never saw him again.
There are rock formations on the east side of the land surrounding Tortuga Bay, and we can see the waves crashing and spraying up over the land. These rocks form bubbly pools called the “Jacuzzi’s”. We try to dink over to the east side to try to walk across to the pools. Between the rocks along the shore and the swell working its way around the point, there is no way that we can land the dinghy. OK off to plan B. We go snorkeling on the reef behind the boat. Beautiful fan corals and HUGE brain corals. Not too many fish, but very pretty bottom. The water is not all that clear as the residual waves from the break are stirring up the bottom.
Not much else to do so we spend the day just limin’. Afternoon comes and a monohull sailboat pulls in. They take the mooring in front of us. Good, we really can’t see them.
They however, are rocking and rolling from the swell. Glad we are not staying on that boat. Late afternoon, we finally get a few clouds and a sprinkle. So much for 70% chance of rain. It passes and the sun comes out for our last sunset in the Spanish VI.
Lo and behold, “The Crossing” shows up and anchors to the far northeast corner of the bay. So much for no anchoring. The boat appears to be from the Abacos and there are 3-5 guys on it.
Our last sunset here…..I don’t want to give up my hammock,  . This our last nite here. Oh well, enjoy while we can. Darkness comes….complete darkness and “The Crossing” lights up with ropes of party lights. At least we will see them coming if they break anchor. Since everyone appears to be in their position for the night, Paul decided to do the second mooring ball thing again. Protects us, but if one of the “others” let go, they will be in our bow. Wind is still kicking. We listen for the forecast for Saturday, as we have to now make the slough back to St. Thomas. We decide since they are still predicting heavy wind and seas, that the only intelligent thing is to leave again a first light before the seas really kick. Goodnite Culebrita.

Sat am First light and we are up. After breakfast and a last swim, we hoist anchor at 7am and head out the channel through the reef. Turning east we see St.Thomas in the distance and head for her. We take it at about 2000 rpms, so as not to get soaked again. We are in no hurry; we have the entire day to get wherever we want to land. We make it to STT by 11 am and decide to fuel up before heading to the BVI since fuel is cheaper at Crown Bay Marina than at Conch fuel dock in Tortola. We end up putting in about $159 worth of fuel (70gals). We didn’t fill one tank as TMM has work to do on it and want it fairly empty when they work on it.

After filling the tanks we head back to BVI, I don’t think we ever cleared back out of USVI. We continue on thru Charlotte Amelia harbor, past St. John and straight to Supers Hole to clear. It is about 12:15pm when we walk into Customs. Again we pay the overtime fee. After clearing, we go over to Pussers as I want to pick up mini painkiller mix bottles and mini Pussers rums for my clients for Christmas back home. Mission accomplished and we head to Sandy Spit for some more snorkeling. At 6pm we head to CGB for laundry and for the night. Quito’s is still closed for renovations so we start doing some of the pack up of our stuff for Monday.
Sun AM last day….take me back to White Bay. We spend the day at the Soggy Dollar as usual and dread the thought of going home. Weather is still holding, but still blowing. A whole week of wind. A usual day at the Soggy Dollar, but we find that KC had broken his leg since we were there last week. We spend some time talking to him and about the changes to take place with new owners. He is optimistic that it will not change too much. Says he will stay on and that is very good news to us. Well, it is now getting to be 5pm and we need to get back to RoadTown. Hoist up anchor for the last time and book on back to TMM. One last sunset over St. John. We see this huge sailing “cruise ship”. The Med 2. A Club Med ship. It dwarfs a 40+ ft. trawler that is passing it.
We arrive back at TMM by dark and dock in our usual spot. Dinner aboard and time to pack up. Tomorrow we have to take the Fast Ferry from RoadTown to Charlotte Amalie for a 2:30 flight back to JFK.
Mon 9am final meeting with TMM management regarding repairs, and the installation of the desalinator we brought down. 9:45 we say goodbye to our baby and head to the ferry. This is a first time experience for us. Not too bad. We have with us besides our luggage, the leftover chicken from the trip and more Chicken salad bacon wraps for lunch. 2 Caribs for the beach we hope to go to on STT before we fly out. And of course 2 painkillers to drink in the airport while we wait for the plane. The ferry ride is enjoyable and we ride up top with only one other person. So sad to be leaving. We arrive at STT and the skies finally open up. A deluge. So much for our beach plans. We go thru Customs and they question the food. No beef, fine. Though she does notice the 2 “painkillers” in empty Poland Spring bottles, and makes a comment. She clears us through food, jewelry and all. We take a cab straight to the airport where we feast on lunch of sandwiches and beer. Save the painkillers for the plane. Flight home was uneventful. (I do like the direct flight STT to JFK)

Comments: The best thing we are finding out about Cattitude is her wonderful fuel efficiency. The entire Spanish Virgin Island portion of our cruise burned only 350 gals of fuel. Again somewhere between 6 to 8 gallons per hr. We had plenty of water for the entire time, with plenty to spare.

Check out the Culebra Pics album 1 and Culebra Pics album 2