We have been on the move this week and when I look back on how much we have done, I am not sure how it has only been a week! We began last weekend with a trip to Culebra, Puerto Rico. Culebra was only a couple of hours sail from Vieques so we enjoyed the trip. It is also a known fact that if there are two boats on the water at anytime within sight of each other, it is a race. It doesn’t matter if the other boat knows it is a race or not…it is a race. On this particular day, we had several other sailboats in sight and luckily, Galt had a hefty head start so he won with a blazing speed of around 5 mph. Once we anchored in Culebra, we went on the hunt for an early dinner. Do you remember the tale that your Dad used to tell whenever you would complain about not having a car? The one where he had to walk 10 miles to school in the snow uphill….both ways? Minus the snow, that is Culebra. So, we started our trek by walking over to the car rental company to inquire about a golf cart rental since I had already figured out that walking the island was going to be an impossibility. Luckily, they had a cart available and we happily hopped in and went in search of dinner. Little did we know that adventure was going to be a two hour ordeal…in a town that only had two roads! There were a lot of tourists on the island which was a good thing for Culebra. However, the island residents were so scared of the Stupid that many places were still shut down. As we observed the local population, we began to understand why they were so frightened as the mean age of the locals had to be 82 years. We opened Google maps and began the food hunt. As we made our way to each one, we ticked them off the list one by one. Closed. Closed. Closed. Our trusty little golf cart made its’ way up one hill and down another, up and down, back and forth. Finally, we found a pizza place that would take your order on the sidewalk and then bring your pizza out when it was ready. So, we had a golf cart picnic and decided that fine dining in Culebra was not going to be our destiny. The next day, we headed out to explore the beauties of Culebra. We started at Flamenco Beach which has been voted one of the world’s most beautiful beaches. It had stretches of white sand and beautiful Caribbean blue water. It even had two old military tanks that the locals had turned into art which was very unique. From Flamenco, we made our way to another area that was known for good snorkeling. We spotted our first turtle! It was the first colorful reef that I have seen with a variety of corals and fish. After our snorkel, we settled in our golf cart for our picnic lunch (which we had smartly packed prior to leaving the boat) and battled at least a dozen roosters who decided that they deserved our lunch more than we did. We made our way back to the boat and spent the rest of the day counting the number of airplanes that took off and landed. We weren’t quite sure why there were so many planes flying into such a small island and I am still suspicious that it was not just one plane taking off and landing over and over again to create the illusion of a lot of action!
From Culebra, we sailed over to Culebrita. Culebrita was the perfect picture of a Caribbean island. It had sand beaches, a lighthouse and natural “jacuzzi” pools. We started the day trying to win a snapshot of an elusive turtle who liked to torture us by popping up briefly and then diving deep so that I would give up on trying to get a picture. Then, as soon as I put the camera away, he would pop up again. I told Bill that if I ever did get a picture of the turtle, he would be waving his fins by his ears, sticking his tongue out and saying “nanny nanny boo boo!” On Culebrita, there is an area known as the jacuzzi pools. We decided that would be our adventure for the day so we jumped off of the boat and snorkeled our way over to the far beach. On the way, we spotted our elusive turtle and several friends (I still think they were all laughing at me) as well as a sting ray. We landed on a very rocky shore and Bill made his way easily over to the pools. It took me a bit longer…..I am not a very graceful person and my fear of falling on the rocks and breaking a bone is a well founded fear so I would describe my journey to the pools as more of a crawl. But we made it and it was well worth the effort! As we sat in the pools, huge waves from the open ocean would crash through the rocks and then as soon as we thought they would crush us, the waves would disintegrate into a soft foam turning the pool into a jacuzzi. It was amazing! The next morning, it was time for our jump over to the US Virgin Islands! It had been a long time coming and we were ready for our next island chain. It was an easy crossing and we landed in Brewer’s Bay. We had been warned that the USVIs were very crowded due to the British Virgin Islands still being closed for entry and the warnings were well founded. The only spot we could find was next to a large yacht and I don’t think they were happy with us parking so close to them but since they had a dinghy about the size of Galt, two jet skis and a huge pink flamingo floatie we figured they could share a little of their space. Brewer’s Bay sits next to the only airport on St. Thomas and the planes fly straight over the bay onto a small runway that juts out into the bay. One of my friends and her family were landing that day and I told her to keep an eye out for Galt which was right next to the giant pink flamingo. She said she easily spotted us which was no surprise given the size of that flamingo! On St. Thomas, they have great public transit called safaris. The safaris are flatbed trucks that they have converted into small open buses by welding seats onto the flatbed. For only one to two dollars, you can travel just about anywhere. We walked to the safari stop (uphill both ways, of course!) and made our way into Charlotte Amalie which is the capital of St. Thomas. I can’t say that Charlotte Amalie has a lot of flair or charm but it had groceries, restaurants and all necessities so it worked for our needs. We relocated the boat from Brewer’s Bay to the Charlotte Amalie harbor in order to be closer to the ferry so that we could travel over to St. John to visit with my friend, Rachel, and her family while they were on vacation. We hopped onto the safari and made our way over to the town of Redhook to catch the ferry. The ferry moved just a wee bit faster than Galt and we made the crossing in only 10 minutes! Rachel picked us up at the ferry station and we went to Hawksnest beach on St John and had a wonderful day catching up with old friends. Rachel was our first “back home friend” that we have met on our trip and it was a bit surreal to have a piece of my land life mix with my sailing life. It was a great day and we look forward to others of you coming to visit soon! Once we returned to Charlotte Amalie, we spotted a superyacht that had been anchored in the bay. The superyacht had moved into the yacht club so we passed right by it on the way back to the boat on the dinghy. It was massive! When we returned to Galt and looked up the details on the boat, it belonged to the Walmart heiress and it only cost $300 million dollars! Just a drop in the bucket I suppose! We have to be sure and whisper when we talk about the fancy yachts because we don’t want to give Galt a complex! This next week, we are planning on checking out some different anchorages in St. Thomas while we wait for our new dinghy to arrive at the local marine store. Bill found a buyer for our very heavy and difficult to manage on a daily basis dinghy so we have ordered a lighter weight one that will hopefully not kill Bill every time he has to pull it out of the water. We are hoping it will arrive this week but given that St. Thomas is very schooled in Caribbean Maybe Time, we shall have to wait and see! I hope that you all have a wonderful week and that you enjoy the Pulitzer prize winning photo of our elusive turtle! ***more pics on picture tab***
2 Comments
Erin Holland
4/3/2021 10:29:40 am
Love the updates! I've been to St. Croix a few times; my college roommate's aunt lives there so the first time I visited was with her in 1990 on Spring Break. What fun...and it wasn't run amok with the spring breakers like now lol. There a cool artist there - Elaine Estern at Coconut Coast studios. Worth a visit. :)
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Sally Miller
4/3/2021 12:18:05 pm
I will definitely check it out!! We are looking forward to seeing St. Croix!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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