This week we left the calm Boquerón anchorage and continued heading east. We motored to Isla Caja de Muertos, or Coffin Island, to spend the night on anchor. While there, we explored the abandoned museum. From Coffin Island we moved to Puerto Salinas, where we had a manatee welcome! We also had a good young coconut! After having had a bad young coconut, I’m glad we had a good one – ha! We may always be scarred by the bad one, though. So, so bad. Unfortunately, there were no car rentals available and no taxis (uber laughed at us for trying), so instead of going to El Yonque National Park and Walmart, we walked to Salinas where we had Subway for lunch and ice cream for fun, then a quick pop over to the Econo grocery for fruit, bread, peanuts, raisins, M&M’s (yes, GORP is important here on Two Fish!), and some yogurt.
From Salinas we moved to Puerto Mosquito, also known as the bioluminescent bay. We continue to try to fish but only caught seaweed. Our beach exploring was quite fruitful, though, as we saw both a chain moray eel and an Arenicola cristata (lugworm). That evening we rowed the dinghy into the Bioluminescent bay. Despite the fact we had a mostly full moon, we still saw bioluminescence! Yay! We also saw a bat hunting over the water.
Our next stop was Culebra – and there were so many fishing nets to dodge on the way! So, so many. Upon arriving at the island of Culebra we had a huge barracuda inspect our boat. Poor thing didn’t look too healthy – a cloudy eye, sunken stomach… but he was still huge and a bit scary! The beach at our anchorage was like sheets of rock next to a reef. We couldn’t beach the dinghy and instead anchored it out, trying to hold the anchor in place with rocks, while anchoring the other end on the beach sand. We hiked over the island to Flamenco Beach, which was super cool! The signs said that our dog wasn’t allowed, but the agents at the gate said Lily was welcome if she stayed on leash and didn’t bother the free-ranging cats and chickens. We walked the lovely beach, saw the tanks, treated ourselves to a lunch of empanadas, rice and beans, and ice cream for Wren.
Our next stop was the island of Culebrita. If you have a chance to go visit this lovely island, I hope you take the chance. We didn’t love the fact that it was absolutely packed (75 boats!) but absolutely gorgeous beach, cool overlook from the old lighthouse, and we seriously could have spent half a day at the baths there. So, so pretty.
From Culebrita it’s just a quick hop over to St Thomas to check in and anchor at Charlotte Amalie.