It ended up being a quiet night here. No big winds, storms, or waves. Noah gets us motivated for a hike on shore before it gets warm, so we head in and beach the dinghy, dragging it well up the steep shore to make sure the swells don’t pull it out. I’ve given up on the dinghy anchor, after watching it pull right out of the sand and let the dinghy slide into the water a couple of weeks ago. There are turtle habitat signs everywhere, so we are careful where we walk, staying below the high tide line.
We find a sign marked ‘verada’ that we figure means trail, and start hiking through the trees. There are a lot of very large hermit crabs along the trail. At a split in the trail, we head through the mangrove forest towards the sound of crashing waves. The trail has been cut through the trees and is like a tunnel, only wide enough to squeeze through. A couple hundred yards later we emerge on the beach at the Eastern shore. The swells have been running from the east, and are crashing onto the beach.
We take the trail back through the mangroves to the split, and head towards the western sided of the island. We are out of the mangroves, and going though more of a desert habitat. There are a lot of lizards here, scurrying about. Then we spot something else scurrying beside the trail – a big rat. He doesn’t seem afraid of us and just slowly walks away. Nasty. We continue on, surrounded by the constant sound of critters (mostly lizards) scurrying across the dried leaves. At one point we have to go through a narrow section surrounded by tall grass. The scurry noise is everywhere. Tracy and Delaina finally manage to hustle themselves through.
Eventually we make it to the Western shore. This side of the island is protected from the waves, and quiet compared to the last one. There are several mooring balls here, but no boats. We consider bring the boat here, but the forecast is still for north wind, leaving this side somewhat exposed. We head back down ‘rat’ trail to our beach and back out to the boat for a swim and snorkel. There is some great coral over on the eastern side of the bay, and its pretty good snorkeling. Afterwards, we complete the project of measuring the chain, and manage to get a good mark in at 100’. this should be enough to give us a good estimate of how much chain we are putting out for the rest of the trip.
Noah has his sights set on the rock part of the shore, and the climb up to the top of one of the hills. Tracy drops the two of us on the beach, and we start heading along the shore towards the rocks. There is a low rocky area before the hill, where the waves from the east are rolling through creating several bubbly pools. We cross over and head up to the peak. Its really awesome up here, watching the swells crash and spray up on the rocks.
On the way back, we climb along the rocks and bubbly pools over towards the shoreline. Most of the pools are surging too much to safely climb in, and the one we were headed for that looked safe, was filled with small, red urchins, so we waded through carefully, but couldn’t sit down where the waves were crashing in. We climbed out on the rocks towards the open water, crossing over a crevice that would drain out, then fill with an eruption of water. High up on the rocks, most of the waves crashed below us, but we had some big ones roll in, shooting up spray and drenching us with water. From the lower areas, it would have been a struggle to keep from being washed away, but where we were, it was just a good wet spray. Noah was not happy with me for bringing him out here. On the way back, he hesitated a little too long in crossing the crevice, and again got soaked when a big wave rolled through. Once back on the safe side of things, he now is thrilled with the adventure. We hike back along to the beach, while Tracy come back with the dinghy to pick us up. Its been a full day, and its barely lunch time.
After lunch, we haul up the anchor and head South-East toward the main island of Culebra. As we clear the headland, we run into the huge swells from the east. They aren’t breaking, but are steep and close together. We have to motor through those before we are able to turn to the south and run along the island. This area is full of reefs and rocks, and its the most navigating I’ve had to do on the trip. (I just steer Boss, don’t really navigate – C.R.) Once clear on the south side of the island, we had to follow the channel markers through the reef to Ensenada Honda, the main harbour on the island, and where we need to clear in. We wind through the harbour, and drop anchor in the North West corner, behind Cayo Pirata. The wind has dropped off, and is actually blowing from the south west when we anchor. There is a phone number to call and check in, and I am pleasantly surprised that we are able to complete the process without going in to the office at all.
We head in to town to check things out around 4pm. On the way in, we see someone fishing from a large cat, and swing by to ask where the best place to go ashore and find some shops and food. He directs us in towards a place called the ‘Dinghy Dock’. We tie up there, noticing all the large tarpon swimming off the the dock. They must feed them here too. There is no one around at the Dinghy Dock, even though the sign announces happy hour from 3-6. We walk on, finding a small market for ice cream, and laugh at the US post office that looks like its from the 19th century. Tracy buys a cool t-shirt from a local artist, and we stop in to a place called Mamacitas for drinks, since none of the restaurants serve food until after 6. On the way in we run it to the crew from the catamaran ’Clarity’ in the harbor. They are down for a 10 day charter and just starting their cruise. We chat with them for quite a while, enjoying a couple of margaritas and their signature Bushwhackers. We end up staying for dinner, and have the king fish after learning that the hostess’ husband caught it himself that day.
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