18:17.5N 65:16.9W

 

Culebra is one of the Spanish Virgin Islands off the east coast of Puerto Rico.  The SVIs are politically a part of Puerto Rico rather than the US Virgin Islands, although in reality there seems to be little distinction between travelling to any of these islands and to the US mainland.  We just have to make a short phone call (a local call using a US sim card) to tell Customs and Border Protection in Puerto Rico that we have moved to another island.

 

Culebra is another of those cruiser’s hangouts (like Salinas in Puerto Rico and Luperon in Dominican Republic) but it has the advantage of being a larger bay, with several different anchorages around the bay.  This means you can choose to anchor a couple of miles out of town, by the reef, where there is a cool breeze and relatively clear water to swim in.  There are hurricane holes here amongst the mangroves, although a resident cruiser we spoke to said his emergency plan was to head back to Salinas where there is always plenty of space.   If you need any boat stuff then it is a cheap ferry ride from Culebra to Fajardo, on the mainland, where there are many shops including a West Marine.

 

The Dinghy Dock restaurant is one of the places in town to have lunch and hang out

 

In Culebra you start to see dreadlocks and other signs of the Island lifestyle

 

Our track from five days spent sailing upwind along the coast of Puerto Rico