Thursday 6th May
Woke up fresh and ready to start exploring parts of the island. Took the dinghy through the shallow channel to the outer bay and made our way over to a small island which is a marine reserve called Isla de Pena. After beaching the dinghy we walked across a narrow cut and were rewarded with the sight of a beautiful bay, crystal clear water and calm. After wandering around a little and deciding that returning to spend time in this bay was definite, we headed back to town. Spent the rest of the day finding our way about the town of Dewey. Had a light lunch at the bakery, discovered a few supermarkets, a dive shop combo hardware store and a boatyard with a lift that looked as if it hadn't moved in a long time. We were pleasantly surprised at the prices in the supermarkets which were on the whole better than St Maarten. Saw a few iguana swimming in the mangroves and also a peacock in a backyard. And , need I say it..., this exploring is very thirsty work. ...........
Friday 7th May
Went on shore in the afternoon to visit the vegetable vendor who comes to Culebra on the cargo ferry from Puerto Rico every Friday with fresh veges. We bought some fruit and veg and then visited the supermarket to stock with eggs, bread and milk. On the way back to the dinghy stopped for refreshment at our little place and met with friends who joined us and we all sat about talking. This turned into a little party of sorts which had us trailing home, very happily, much later than planned.

Saturday 8th May
Spent a much needed quiet morning recovering on Talacam and then joined Bob and Debbie on Passat to motor just outside the bay to find cleaner water as Bob needed to put the water maker on to fill his tanks. After lunch we all went off to do a bit of snorkeling and then back to the boat and made our way back to anchorage for sundowner time.

Sunday 9th May
After a nice breakfast Vossie tackled a few odd jobs in the morning getting the pole ready and adding a few extra cleats.
Then took Talacam for a afternoon sail to test out various sail settings on different points of sail with Bob and Debbie as our guests. We stopped for lunch in a quiet little anchorage and then did our return trip. They really are a great help and very patient. Re anchored back in Ensanada Honda Bay for our planned trip on the ferry the next day
Monday 10th May
Today we had decided to go on the early ferry to Fajardo on the eastern side of Puerto Rico. Having to rise very early, to which we are not accustomed, to catch the 6.30am ferry, we picked up Bob and Debbie and took ourselves off in the dinghy in a bit of a rush and hot footed it downtown to the ferry dock to buy tickets.
After a very pleasant 1.5 hr ferry ride we docked in Puerto Real and started a long walk to find a marine shop as we all needed a few items for the boats. This walk took us up and over a rather steep hill through a residential area. Almost every yard had an abundance of fruit trees namely breadfruit, mangoes, coconuts, and papaya. Very tempting, but we resisted.
We finally found the lsmall shopping centre and found some of the items needed. Unfortunately we were unable to find the oil filters we needed and Debbie also needed some sewing materials which we could only buy in Fajardo town so we decided to carry on walking to find the town of Fajado.
On the way we stopped off at a Burger King and had a much needed break and a bite to eat. As we had been told that we could catch a bus from nearby this point we proceeded to find the bus stop. Unfortunately the public transport is not so regular so after a short wait the consensus was to carry on walking. It wasn't too far and we found the store and were successful in getting what was needed. By this time we decided that we deserved a ride back seeing the legs were a little tired and we were directed to the bus/taxi terminal. After some negotiation and agreeing on a reasonable fare , we did a detour to West Marine, a bigger marine store situated on the highway 3, to see if we could find our filters and a bow roller as ours had split in half. Partially successful with bow roller, but no filters.....
The driver patiently waited while we shopped and then took us back to the ferry dock. We were a little early but found a good watering hole nearby to fill the time until 3pm when the ferry was due to leave back to Culebra. As our luck would have it, departure time came and went and eventually on enquiry found out that the passenger ferry has broken down and we would have to come back on the cargo ferry instead at 4.00pm....so guess where we spent the extra hour!
Finally arrived back at the boat at about 6.30pm after a very pleasant, exercise filled day and looking forward to a restful night.
Tuesday May 11th
Fully recovered from our trip yesterday and are busy making water, which task we have fallen behind on, and charging batteries. Hopefully we will also get some rain to catch water as well.
We will probably move onto another anchorage later today depending on what the weather has in store for the rest of the week.