St. Thomas

Well we made it! A bit rough for about an hour but other than that all is good. Presently anchored in Charlotte Amalie harbour, Long Bay. Last night met up with Much Mischief friends at The Greenhouse for appetizers. Currently having lunch at Tickles after spending two hours at AT&T; Result is new phone.......they could not figure out how to get wifi on the old one.

December 31... update...Food at Tickles was better than last year but the number of yellow jackets made me very uncomfortable. As always, Greenhouse calamari were good as were the nachos. Last night happy hour at The Turtle $2 beers and very good wings and mahi tacos for $5 were excellent. Tonight will go to Room with a View to try out their calamari.

Water at Crown Bay was 16 cents a gallon, fuel $2.95\US gallon and the on road price for diesel is $3.40. Culebra water was 25 cents a gallon, diesel was 70 cents a litre, PR water at Palmas 2 cents.....all in US currency.

Mooring balls at St John have increased to $26 a day with a limited stay of 30 days for 2016. Don't know what prices are in the BVIs yet.

We were going to rent a car for tomorrow but the fellow was gouging us. We decided to have salmon for dinner tonight and stay put on the boat. We walked the 99 plus steps to Blackbeards Castle but it was closed. No cruise ships in today which is surprising. However the views of the habour and the outlook to Water Island was just gorgeous.

January 4...We have been busy!  We took a cab up to Bluebeards Castle Hotel two days ago to visit Room with a View. The restaurant was quite formal, luckily we dressed up a bit. It is a large hotel actually with a nice pool and other restaurants which are outdoors and a bit more casual.  And a large oil painting of the actual Charlotte Amalie. Wine $5 and appetizers $5 for happy hour.  Gorgeous views. Walked back to the harbour which was all downhill. 

Rented a car yesterday and toured the island.
There are two surprises here......one a gondola that takes visitors to see the entire bay although if they visited other places they would have the same view for no charge.  Near the cruise ship docks which we had never been to on that side, there is a replica of the Little Mermaid in half size, the same that sits in the harbour at Copenhagen.  She was created by the Danish Sculptor, Edvard Eriksen.

Lots of curving roads and up and down hills.  Spent time at Magens Bay which is an anchorage being quite wide open with a reef in the middle.  There were two boats anchored.  This is probably the nicest beach on the island.  Continued our drive to Sapphire Bay, another anchorage and marina, but sure wouldn't want to anchor there.  Could see St. John from the shore. 

Today was a shopping day with the car.  Home Depot, CostULess and Food Centre and a new route to Yacht Haven Grand.

 Blue Beards Castle

    Lovely Charlotte

St Thomas almost!

December 23...We are having a frustrating time with Internet and AT&T. Nothing  seems to be working. But we are still here in Culebra until the promised winds die, although it really doesn't seem that bad. Hesitant to post any pictures, files from previous post which has not been published too big. What to do....all you techies out there!
Hopefully leave here on Monday for St. Thomas, beyond that still unsure!
Everything closes here today at noon except for the Dinghy Dock bar where we will go to get wifi. Hopefully our water jugs are in!. We have been on the same tank , 85 US gal. since December 10 and are just waiting to run out!  Still have the smaller tank, 65 gal. to rely on but....
Tomorrow, a parade beginning at 10 a.m. hopefully our coffee will be finished by then.
YES, Culebra published!

December 27...A quiet night on Christmas Eve with a full moon rising and on the 25th into town for the non existent Christmas parade, although we did find out later it was at 7 p.m. that evening.  Our  breakfast/lunch was pork from the skewered pig. A nice time at supper with Lou, Lydia, Bug on our boat, even gravy and cranberry sauce!

Boxing day was interesting!  Spent the morning clearing forward head discharge hose. Completely blocked, removed it and now it needs new hose which is not available here in Culebra. A mickey mouse installation in two pieces so not surprised it was blocked. It wasn't my fault!!! Dave, the plumber from Trinidad may be to blame.
Today moving to a new location, Almodovar, which is on the southeast shore for a better jump off for St. Thomas tomorrow.  We arrived in less than an hour. This reminds me a bit of the Tobago Cays, a huge mooring field behind a reef. We spent some time rerouting twisted lines, I went for a surprise swim saving Peter's hat and most importantly his one hat clip!
Bright bright moon last night and a great looking sky at 7 a.m. this mornimg.
Off for St. Thomas, not as early as originally planned.

Culebra

We are alive and well. Internet weak to publish previous post. Just leaving Dinghy Dock bar. Loads of tarpin in the water!

Finally able to publish other post!!!

December 15...another view from the lift bridge. I walked into town today and Peter dinghied in. I wonder which is the fastest. I would have been there earlier but I stopped to chat to some lovely people on the beach.

Entrance to the harbour is wooden carved fisherman throwing a stone? Don't know the significance of that! 

December 20...The significance of the carved fisherman is as follows.....apparently a Norwegian artist came to Culebra  and painted murals on various buildings and then collected driftwood and sculpted "Hector the Protector". That is according to the curator at the local museum we visited yesterday.

We rented a golf cart and the five of us proceeded to tour the entire island. Some hills posed quite a challenge but we managed to overcome. We drove to the south shore, Punta Soldado where there was a mooring. Then looked over to Dakity where we had anchored several years ago behind a reef. Lots of boats there!

We proceeded to the eastern shore and ended up at Zoni Beach where the surfers congregate. We could see Culebrita and St. Thomas in the distance. We stopped by the museum which was very interesting. The US Navy had taken possession of the island in 1908 and didn't leave until 1975 with the help of President Nixon and a minor uprising of the islanders that had been left here and also had come back home. During the period the navy was here, they moved the islanders from their homes on Flamenco Beach and proceeded to use the beach area for target practice.

On the way back we stopped at Seabreeze Suites, also called by another name which escapes me, but there was no one there. Gorgeous pool and the bartender at the swim up bar had nothing to do. 

Stopped at the mangrove swamp and took a picture of the Monkey Don't Climb Tree, so named because of all the needles on the trunk and branches.

Then off to the West Coast to Tamarindo Beach where masses of people from buses snorkelling.

On to Flamenco Beach to sit, have a rest, a beer and people watch. 

A full day day!

Today, December 20, rain that we have been waiting for to get rid of the salt on the boat. We did manage to hoist the main sail to check it out, put a reef line in and put the cover back on before the next onslaught of rain.

Tuesdays and Fridays are market day. On this past Friday, I walked into town and took some pictures of the ferry dock from another vantage point. Lots of Christmas decorations!

We are actually really liking this place. For any interested parties, rental bikes are available, easy to get around with golf carts, accommodation available on VRBO or Air B and B, good snorkelling, great beach, one of the most beautiful, safe and bring your own libations as it is a bit pricy!

tarpin at the Dinghy Dock

Hector the Protector

pulling up dinghy at Culebrita

Bug finding her way

behind the reef

Zoni

bikes at Zoni

ferry dock

Viequese/Culebra

Left today, December 10, for Green Bay. An uneventful motor sail over in two hours or less. Only problem was the ever reliable Garmin which conked out for a time but then got restarted somehow. Loose connection, I think. We had some Pain Killers plus okra on the barby with Lou and Lydia.....Bug.....didn't seem to be interested. Four boats in the bay, waters and wind calm.
First evening sunset....not spectacular but not bad. Nice evening. Can't  decide what is for dinner tonight, leftovers from Italian dinner last night which by the way was way tooooo much or the lobster we picked up today before leaving Palmas. I am sure there are at least two dinners of lobster there!

Spent two nights in Green Bay, one night pasta with lobster, last night leftovers from Italian place. A swelly anchorage and no wind to speak of. Today on our way to Rosario, Culebra which is on the west coast close to the ferry dock to Puerto Rico.

Well, we ended up on the west coast but in an anchorage with at least eight mooring balls labeled dive only. We asked and they are fine to use. No one here but the same boat from Green Bay. Anchorage is called Carlos Rosario Beach. A nice place to snorkel with lots of different types of coral and lots of colourful fish although once I saw a jelly fish I was out of there like a shot. On the other side of the point at Tamarindo Beach there are more moorings and a huge honey bee nest in the tree.

Today December 13 walked over to Flamenco Beach, the second most beautiful beach in the world. Took about 20 minutes through a buggy path and a locked gate but we made it! A catamaran was anchored there. It would be gorgeous to be able to swim and walk the beach but it would be pretty rolly.  There were huge waves coming into the beach while we sat there.

Last night a beautiful sky. Can't decide which picture to post. If you look closely, you can see a crescent moon. It was gorgeous. Today, December  14, we moved to Malones Bay just about a 15 minute motor and again more moorings at no charge. Dinghied over to the ferry dock and through the canal to the Dinghy Dock bar. We have had virtually no Internet so sorry to worry anyone as to our whereabouts!