Moving On

Moving On

Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th February, 2025

On Monday morning, we settled up our bill with the marina, purchased some ice and got rid of some trash. Then we had to face the “undocking”.  Naturally, there was a boat tied up at the “courtesy dock” opposite our slip!  Finally, after some prodding, that boat departed and we made our way out of the slip with some help from Tracy (s/v Magic Pelagic) and a chap two boats along.  It all went smoothly.  After pulling in all the fenders and lines, we unfurled the genoa.  Our direction was nearly dead down wind.  This combined with the swell from the aft quarter meant that we had some difficulty keeping the sail filled.  The weather was a bit squally, resulting in the donning and doffing of the foul weather gear.

We were on our way to Magens Bay on the north coast of St. Thomas. The seas were especially rough while rounding the eastern point of the bay. Once inside the bay, it almost seemed like a different day!  We found the anchorage to be quite deep until very close to the beach and we  failed twice to get a good anchor set.  Our reason for going into Magens Bay was two-fold.  We thought that if we checked in via the CBP Roam app at St. Thomas, we wouldn’t need to check in at Culebra (Spanish Virgin Islands) or indeed at Puerto Rico.  The second part of the plan was to overnight in this gorgeous bay and break the 30 mile journey to Culebra.  The poor holding convinced us that staying overnight was not an option!  Meanwhile, Mike confirmed with Customs and Border Protection that one check-in would do for all these US Islands.  While his application was being processed, we had a quick lunch.  Then it was time to set off again.  The second part of the journey seemed to go just a bit better, even though the seas were probably bigger.  The wind had strengthened somewhat and the genoa was flying pretty well.  Conditions were quite rolling with a fairly large swell.

Entering between some outer islands, we needed our wits about us as we approached Culebra.  We passed Culebrita (lovely sandy beach and light house) and then, to get to our anchorage, we entered a bay and turned into a narrow and shallow channel to an area enclosed by reefs and low mangrove islands.  Thankfully, we got a solid anchor set on the first try.  What a stunning spot this is.  Toward the east, you see lots of breaking water and a few mangrove islands.  In the distance is St. Thomas (about 15 nM away).  It feels a bit little like you are in the middle of the ocean.  Of course, to the west there is the island of Culebra.  We were very tired after our day of sailing and opted for an early dinner and an early night.  

Tuesday has been the lazy day of all time.  We started the morning with a little panic about my thumb.  The digit has seemed swollen and painful. I have been thinking that I got a splinter (or something) in it and it’s infected.  Overnight it was throbbing and waking me up.  At 4:30 am, I decided to get up and ice it. The noise I was making woke Mike up! (not popular).  Both of us finally fell back to sleep.  However, we had a trawl through our medical supplies.  I’m now taking some cephalexin—we’ll see if that can bring down the redness, swelling and heat!  I think I’ve been feeling sorry for myself with the duff thumb.  Mike has been doing some photography but I’ve just been reading and napping.  It’s now late afternoon and we’ve had our swim and shower.

More strong winds and big swells are forecast so we expect to be on Culebra for a few days then off to Vieques (about 10 miles).  The passage to Puerto Rico will have to wait for better conditions—hopefully early next week. 

18 17.885 N, 65 15.239 W

p.s If you cut and paste the coordinates into Google maps, you should be able to see where we are. Alternatively, you can look on our Predict Wind tracking page, which shows our position and our route.

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Cotinga/

Gloria

Looking back to Soper's hole as one of several squalls approaches from the east (this is not a B&W image - even though there is very little color)

 A fast ferry - (maybe from Puerto Rico?) - heading east on the north coast of St Thomas 

Squalls cover the British Virgin Islands and moved over us, bringing rain and some extra wind (up to 22 knots)

The amazing anchorage in Bahia de Almodovar (las Pelas) - looking west

The amazing anchorage in Bahia de Almodovar (las Pelas) - looking east

Ditto

Shell (obviously!)

Cockpit speaker ... I took this and the shell photos primarily to provide templates from which I might try and generate some collage pictures in the future)