We continue to wait here in Puerto Rico for the order that Seldén messed up, it has become a long wait and at times tedious, but life could be worse than anchoring off beautiful islands in the Caribbean. Our pantry is well stocked, so we have been hanging out at various natural harbors and the beautiful national park island of Cayo de Luis Pena, just off Culebra.
Since we have some extra time, we have also taken care of some of the necessary chores of life – filing tax returns, going to the dentist to repair a broken tooth, and even some boat work on Lulu; although primarily scraping growth off the hull. Whenever we see a fellow long-term cruiser in a remote anchorage, we try to row over and invite them for a sundowner. It is great meeting people in a similar situation, swapping stories of our cruising and plans.
We can identify long-term cruisers by the equipment on their boat – someone who is just out for shorter term cruising generally doesn’t have the windvanes, solar panels, extra fuel tanks etc. that are often found decorating a long-term cruising boat. Also, boats flagged from another country tend to be long-term cruisers. Interestingly, we have noticed that American cruisers in general and certainly most Puerto Rican boats don’t fly their national flag. So a boat without a flag is also generally not a long-term cruiser, in our experience; and Puerto Ricans appear to be especially fond of motorboats and not sailboats.
Recently we were rejoined by one of our ARC buddies Blue Joline, who we travelled together with from Antigua to Saint Martin. We are so happy to have the chance to spend some time with them before we leave Puerto Rico, our evenings often end with card games. It is important to find pastimes that don’t cost a lot of money, as we have a tight budget for our long term cruise and want to be social; but going to bars and restaurants is prohibitively expensive in most places. Snorkeling, hiking and walks are all good daytime activities.
Our favorite place to snorkel has been around the national park island Cayo de Luis Pena, just outside Culebra. We have been fortunate to be able to stay in a couple of different anchorages around the little island, and see the variations in coral and fish. The water has been exceptionally clear there, and there are buoys that are available at no cost. Whenever you jump into the water you see a plethora of smaller fish, and the black-and-yellow striped “Sargent Major” is one of the first fish we see wherever we dive in.
Here in Culebra we have seen large rays with long tails trailing after them, small and mid-size barracuda sharks, turtles, angelfish, blowfish, lionfish, parrotfish, damselfish, fairy basslets, trunkfish, trumpetfish, squirrelfish, blue tang, sea stars, sea urchins and more. Corals in all shapes and colors as well, my favorite being the deep purple sea fans, although they come in several colors, and all the myriad colors and shapes of corals both in large reefs and in smaller patches across the ocean floor. The barracudas appear to be especially curious, once when I was scraping the hull one came and spent a while hovering in the water watching me; and another time we spent some time watching a barracuda before moving on, only to discover that it was following us when we turned back.
Culebra has a beach, Tamarindo Beach, that is supposed to be a spot where you can swim with turtles, but we have been there three times and haven’t seen any turtles. We have seen turtles at other spots around the islands, but usually only one at a time. The best place so far for turtle-watching has been Colombier national park on St. Bart’s, there were all sorts of turtles there grazing under the boat as we tied up to a buoy, not at all bothered by us swimming above them. We also saw lots of turtles swimming between the boats in Bequia, apparently used to the large numbers of anchoring vessels. Tobago Cays has an island where you can see turtles, but also there we didn’t see as many as we have seen in other places.
If we have to spend another weekend waiting for our Seldén order, we will go back to Cayo de Luis Pena and snorkel a bit more. Otherwise, as soon as our items are delivered, we will take the first good sailing window to Antigua to hopefully catch up with more sailing buddies, before they leave the Caribbean. Fair winds to you all!