We stayed at Ensenada Honda in Culebra for a few days, as it was a three day holiday weekend, so we did not want to head out until the end of the weekend.
We went out for a nice dinner at Zaco's Tacos again, and walked up to a grocery store further away for the exercise and to check it out.
We like the artwork at Zaco's Tacos - food is good as well
Nice container home we saw on our walk
Stopped and got groceries, but could not resist the ice cream. Yes, it was before 10:00 a.m., but ice cream is good anytime
On Tuesday we headed back out to Bahia de Almodover, as we wanted to make water, and needed to get a little power as well, so motoring out would do both.
Leaving the anchorage in Culebra Ensenada Honda
After a night in Bahia de Almodover, with water made and laundry done, we headed to St. Thomas. The winds were NW, which does not happen often, so we decided to head over as we could sail the 20 miles. Winds up to 15 knots, with some rain were forecast. What we got was different. The winds were NW - but saw up to 28 knots, and heavy rain.
Heavy rain knocked down the seas a bit. - But visibility went down to about 1/4 mile
Enduring the rain being blown in
Skies started clearing as we approached the channel on the SW side of St. Thomas
Calm seas and a bit more clearing skies approaching anchorage
Quite the change as we dropped anchor. Only 1 cruise ship at the dock, and anchorage not too crowded
St. Thomas has quite the different feel from Puerto Rico. And catamarans definitely outnumber mono hulls here. This island is definitely more touristy, and louder.
Next day we went for a nice long walk along the waterfront, down to Ace hardware - as we were looking for a new showerhead (Did not find one).
Passed this large graveyard on the main road. Nothing buried, all above ground, and stacked.
We also had lunch out, and then walked through some of the cruise ship shopping area - since no ships were in, and it was empty of people.
Nice courtyard and restaurant
When cruise ships are in, this area is packed with people
We heard lots of sirens that afternoon on the boat - and saw a large fire on the hill. So sad, someone lost their house. No one was hurt but the structure was a complete loss
Lots of black smoke on the hill
Such a steep hill. Firefighters we parked above and below the home, and we could see the flames - at least 10' high.
Next day, we decided to head in and get some groceries, and look at the Home Depot for a showerhead. St. Thomas is a small island, but lots of shopping here. The Home Depot was further away, so we took the bus there. These "busses" are only $1 or $2 per rider depending on how far you go. You wave them down, hop on and pay when you get off. Basically a truck with modified back with bench seating.
Our safari bus had some McDonalds sponsorship, but they are all different
We got a new showerhead, and then stopped at the Cost.U.Less store for some groceries and then back to boat. The Cost.U.Less is a large grocery which is a cross between Costco and a large normal grocery. Great store. We will make a couple more trips before we leave.
Our son Derek arrives Tuesday, so we are excited to see him and will stay here until he arrives, and then head out for some fun times.
We decided to leave Ensenada Honda in Culebra on Monday - we wanted to make water, and Dean wanted to clean the bottom of the boat, so we motored the 4.5 miles over to Bahia de Almodover.
There were a couple of other sailboats there, but the water was clean, and it has a beautiful view, as it is protected from the Caribbean sea by a reef, so you are anchored and looking out at the sea, with land behind you.
The view from the boat
I worked on finishing the salon cushions and thank goodness, got the backrests done before running out of thread.
Cushions - done for now.
Learned a lot on this project, and still want to redo one cushion and sew a bolster backrest for the long one, but the cushions are comfortable, and will stay cleaner than the old ones - so a success.
Dean got in the water and scrubbed the bottom. He had some friends help him out.
These little fish hiding in the small gap between the hull and top of the rudder - about a 1.5" gap
We have got a lot of growth on the hull, we cleaned it a month ago, but this 83 degree water and lots of sun makes the stuff grow fast.
Dean's fishy friends were not scared and swam right up to him.
With the bottom clean and the cushions done for now, we decided to do some fun stuff, and headed over to the island of Culebrita to do some snorkeling. We had heard that the NW corner had some good reefs, so took the dink the 2 miles over to check it out. Unfortunately, there was a lot of reef damage from the hurricanes.
Large reef, but lots of white and dead
Some good signs of growth and recovery
Lots of this undamaged fire coral, which is more resilient to hurricanes and bleaching than other corals
The island of Culebrita is quite pretty, but we did not choose to hike to the top this time.
Pretty beach on Culebrita, looking towards Culebra
Kris went for a nice kayak trip around the anchorage and into the mangroves near land. There were hundreds of upside down jellyfish in the mangroves
They may look like weird plants, but these are upside down jellyfish
They were so thick in some spots they completely covered the bottom
We had the anchorage mostly to ourselves for the week, with two days of being completely alone - but it could not last. On Friday, 7 powerboats came in and anchored. They were not loud, but were a bit close to us. On Saturday morning, more started coming, and we realized we were in the prime spot for the locals weekend getaway, and it was a three day holiday weekend.
Three boats rafted up in front of us.
We decided it was time to move again so Saturday we headed back to the large anchorage of Culebra - Ensenada Honda. Shortly after lunch we got a text message from our friends Ed and Cathy on What If- who are currently in the Bahamas. They said tolook towards land - their son and family had rented a house for the weekend to get away and were nearby. Turns out we were quite close, so we launched the dink, and went to say hello.
Ed and Cathy's son with his wife and children - and us.
We had a good but short visit with them - as they are on holiday weekend, and had lots of activities planned, we did not want to slow them up.
We will stay here a couple of days - and then look for the next place to go.
We left Fajardo on Sunday, as winds were predicted to build out of the south, and we wanted a better anchorage - plus we were done with Fajardo. We sailed the 23 miles east in light winds, with lots of tacking, finally having to turn on the engine the last two hours to make it in before dark.
The anchorage in Culebra Ensenada Honda is very large, and well protected. Monday we headed into town to stop at the post office. We had used our spare water pump a while back, and wanted to keep a spare on board, so stopped at the post office to make sure they would accept general delivery shipments. Smallest post office we have ever been in, but very nice people, and yes, they would do general delivery. We walked around the area a bit while waiting for the post office to open.
Street post office is on.
Nice artwork - probably paid for by Coke but still decorative
Got a kick out of the gnarled tree in the sidewalk. Wonder how long it will survive there
It is important to look up as well. Chicken and cat sharing the perch.
Chickens here don't cross the road, they wait for the bus.
On the way back to the boat, we stopped by another Manta catamaran anchored by us called Gypsy. We met Alan, whose is 80 years old, and single hands Gypsy for the last 5 years, sailing in the Caribbean. Monday night we picked up Alan and headed off to dinner at Zaco's Tacos.
We enjoyed Zaco's Tacos when we were last here in 2014 on our previous Manta What If.
It still looks similar, but the menu and seating has been upgraded.
Sign from 2014
Sign today
Lower eating area in 2014
Same eating area today.
The food was still good, but not the sleepy little restaurant that we experienced before. Quite popular and busy now.
Monday night the winds picked up, and Tuesday and Wednesday were windy and rainy. 20 to 30 knots. Wind got bad enough the small planes that fly in here were not able to land. Dean had a good time watching them trying. Usually they come through the small pass, but with the strong wind direction, they had to come over the hill, then take a sharp dive to the airport.
While the winds blew, we decided to try to take this week to finish recovering our salon cushions. Kris got the lower ones done while we waited out the last blow in Vieques, so now was time for the backrests. This involved cutting and refitting the foam.
Dean working on foam fitting and patching
Kris test fitting the first back rest cushion completed.
Kris made the first backrest, but it was a fail, did not fit as well as we wanted, so she sewed that one again. Very glad we have extra material, as she is not happy with the bottom corner cushion so will want to sew that one again as well. We are running out of thread though, so that will have to wait until after Derek visits, as he will bring more thread to us, as well as other stuff.
After two days of wind and rain, and another day of rain we were ready to get off the boat for a while. We went over and toured Gypsy, and Alan came to our boat as well, then we were off to dinner at the Dinghy dock restaurant. This restaurant is on the water, so you tie up the dinghy, and step off into the dining room. Had a very good meal, and enjoyed watching the many tarpon swimming by the dock waiting for the stray bit of dropped food. Also many birds fly by, and catch food people throw up into the air.
Many 3 to 4' tarpon at the restaurant.
We have a few more days here, as we want to finish all the cushions before leaving, do some snorkeling, and most likely another dinner out.
Our plans changed due to a southerly swell so we did not go to our planned stop on Vieques, but went to the town anchorage of Esperanza.
Looking at town from the boat.
Had a nice beach walk - beach was narrow, and minimal shells, so decided to walk the town. Was quite surprised to find horses just wandering around the town.
Quite the vessel we passed in the anchorage. plastic 55 gallon drums, picnic table and zip ties.
Pier severely damaged in hurricanes - no longer used
Nice stretch of beach, but narrow
"Wild" horses come into town to get water - drinking from gutter runoff, but in the road.
Just walking and grazing along the road
If you want to keep your shrubbery - you will need a taller fence
Charm at anchor
Typical street in Esperanza
Most the homes have a grating on all the porches. This had more than most
After Esperanza, we headed to Isla Palaminos, hoping for some snorkeling, but the swell was out of the south, which would not be good in that anchorage, so part way there we detoured to Isla Pineros. As we got close, the swell changed to the east. We were already committed to the anchorage, so spent the night, and next day over to Isla Palaminos. We got in the dink and took our looky bucket out to see if we could find some snorkeling, but only saw white broken hard coral, with limited soft corals and few fish. The last hurricane did a lot of damage here. We hung out for a couple days, - and enjoyed the rain. Also had to redo the patch on the dinghy as one had a slow leak.
Dumping rain off Isla Palaminos
Next we headed to the anchorage off of Isleta Marina near Fajardo. Hung out for a day, letting the dinghy patches cure before we headed into town. We have been seeing another catamaran off and on for the past several weeks "In Cahoots". We anchored next to them again in Fajardo and finally met the owners, well only Rick because his wife is gone for a week. They are on the same path as us so more running into each other will probably occur.
View of Fajardo area from the boat.
We decided to walk the 2.5 miles into the large grocery store and stock up. We had to take the dinghy to Isleta Marina, pay $5 per person for the dinghy dock, and take the free ferry to the mainland. No other safe from weather dinghy options were available.
Obviously not a lot of traffic on this road we walked.
Nice statue as you enter Fajardo proper on the main road.
It is amazing what you can learn about the local area from the grocery store. In Connecticut stores pasta selection took up almost a full aisle. In Idaho - the selection of Hispanic foods took up almost an entire aisle. Here there was a very large selection of Spam, corned beef, and other processed canned meats.
Quite the amazing selection of processed meat products.
Downtown area quite empty on a Saturday - lots of cars - no people.
Nice church and square in downtown.
All the poles on this street were painted pink. A previous street was pastel green.
Interesting archway near the ferry dock.
Fajardo and Puerto Rico is an interesting mix of cultures. It is a poorer area, and the homes and infrastructure show this visibly. You can be at a road intersection, and think you are in the USA, with road signs, lights and make of cars. Then turn the corner, and everything will be in Spanish, and you will feel more like you are in rural Mexico. Chickens and cats are common to see roaming the streets. Lots of dogs in fenced yards. Horse poop on the sidewalk. Then you go on a busy street and see common franchised restaurants and common stores. Burger King, McDonalds, Panda Express (where we had lunch) and Subway. Ralphs grocery, WalMart, Home Depot, and Best Buy. Next street, none of the common USA names - and all in Spanish. National Ferreteria, Econo grocery, and more. It makes for interesting walks with lots to see.
Today or tomorrow we will head to Culebra - where we will focus on finishing the salon cushions and go to Zaco's Tacos (went there 11 years ago and looking forward to it again)
