15th May, 2010
Left Culebrita back to Culebra for a few days. This turned out to be a sail in a big sea with 20-25 knot winds until we were once again in the lee of the islands. Not pleasant..... Talacam did very well though and was belting along quite happily with gunnels in the water. Picked up a buoy in Tamarindo Grande for the night and day. The snorkeling was by far the best seen to date. The reef was totally pristine and was like an underwater garden. A large variety of fish. Beautiful multicolored parrot fish. Debbie spotted a huge grouper which was tucked away in a hole which would not show itself despite us floating above its lair for some time. She also had the pleasure of spotting a nurse shark just before boarding Passat after the snorkeling. Glad I wasn't in the water at this stage. I am still a little nervous of barracuda and sharks in the water albeit nurse sharks. Ther corals and fans were magnificent ...a very healthy reef.
After staying the night we moved back to Dewey in the hope of picking up internet and watching the ferries from the outside. Picked up a buoy and did a dinghy trip into town for a garbage run. This is a real problem on the boat, having to manage the garbage. One does not realize the amount of garbage we can generate. After disposing of this we went onto our supermarket and stocked up on some fresh veg. and had a few beers sitting outside the supermarket. Bought some snacks which we also fed to the cats, kittens and chickens which came from all directions when the word got around that there was food going around. Cheap entertainment for a few hours watching Debbie chase off a rooster trying to steal food from the chicks.
Supper was a 9 egg omelette as Vossie dropped the dozen eggs we bought on the way back to the boat. Extravagant on a cruising budget but very good nonetheless. This evening we were rewarded with quite a bit of rain and managed to catch enough to do some washing in the morning. Very precious this rain!
Got a bit rolly in this anchorage in the morning so decided to move back to Ensenada Honda bay where it is very calm and protected. What a trip! Decided to motor into the wind because it was not far but Talacam was making very little headway. She was scooping water over the bow every second wave and all I can say is that our decks are now very clean. The planks on the bowsprit were ripped off during this episode and all in all not a pleasant trip. However made it safely into harbor and a much needed recuperation period, for me especially. Did another trip into town this afternoon, doing a detour to the watering hole before and after shopping. And.... I ask myself, why do we need to make excuses for the detour!
Anyway Vossie had a hankering for fish and so supper was a wonderful fish burger by my very own Wimpy chef...very good it was too!
We will check the weather out tomorrow and a decision will be made to move to Vieques tomorrow or not. Very much looking forward to the bio-luminescent bay in Vieques which is one of few in the world.
Thereafter on to Salinas in Puerto Rico.