Another “Pinch Me!” Place – Spanish Virgins

Wayne sullies this empty Spanish Virgin beach,
gazing up at Isla Culebrita’s lighthouse.

“Where are you hiding?” texted Keith from Kookaburra, our Ruyter Bay (also known as Elephant Bay) neighbor for over a month.

We were tempted once we finally got moving again (click here and here to read about our 34-day delay) to spend one night just around the bend in beautiful Honeymoon Bay (blogged about it 5 times!  click here for 1st post, here for 2^nd post, here for 3^rd post here for 4^th post and here for 5^th post), where our other friends Michael and Colleen from Goldilocks anchored (click here for more about Michael and Colleen).

Best looking boat at Isla
Culebrita beach, because…

But the Bahamas were calling our name, and time was ticking swiftly along.  May 16^th we needed to be nearly 1,000 miles North, to meet Wayne’s folks in Freeport, Grand Bahamas. 

Before talking with cruisers in St. Martin, we’d never heard of “The Spanish Virgins,” which are not chaste women but three Puerto Rican outlying islands.  At 17 nautical miles from Elephant Bay, St. Thomas, they were an easy sail – the perfect ticket for us to get back in the swing of sailing and give Journey a gentle shakeout before tackling longer passages ahead. 

It’s the ONLY boat anchored at this Spanish Virgin gem of a beach.

Most appealing?  After months of neighbors but a few hundred yards away, Isla Culebrita offered one of those amazing experiences where spectacular scenery and solitute collide.  While we love making new friends and dabbling with different cultures, this oneness with our surroundings is what cruising is ultimately all about for us.

We tucked in behind the protective arm of Culebrita’s reef. We were the only boat amidst the arc of a perfect white crescent beach that afternoon and night.  It stayed that way right until ½ hour before we left, mid-day the next day.

Easy hiking trail to Culebrita’s lighthouse.

In between, we slipped into glassy turquoise water, frolicked on the beach, hiked up to the lighthouse (more on the lighthouse in a future post) and over to the bubbling “Jacuzzies” on the other side of the island.

We’re glad we didn’t delay, even a day, to bliss out in Culebrita.  That’s what we told Keith, when we called him back, surprised that there was phone coverage in our secret Caribbean hideaway.

Not warm, but bubby; Isla Culebrita’s ocean side “Jacuzzis.”

Note: This is a slight retrospective, filling in for a couple weeks without much internet.  We’re now in the United States seeking employment to replenish our cruising kitty over hurricane season.

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Perfect end to a perfect day at Isla Culebrita.