Puerto Rico - Culebra

Tags: Culebra, Culebrita, Puerto Rico, sailing

Date: March 21, 2017

From the British Virgin Islands we sailed directly to the Spanish Virgin Islands, bypassing the US Virgin Islands, the former Danish West Indies, on the way. Confusingly enough, the Spanish Virgin Islands are not Spanish but are a part of Puerto Rico, which in turn is a part of the USA. Even more confusingly, Puerto Rico is not a state in the USA, but a so-called unincorporated territory. People living there can not vote in the presidential elections in the USA, but they can vote in the primary elections. It seems that there is a small majority of the population that prefers to become a state in the USA.

We sailed to the island Culebra, where we cleared into Puerto Rico, hence USA, in the town of Dewey. Dewey straddles two islands connected by a bridge. We went on a dinghy ride on the canal between the two islands:

A house with its own dock on the canal:

A heron:

One of several bars and restaurants with dinghy access from the canal:

Wooden sculpture of rock-throwing man at the southern entrance to the canal:

He seems to be protecting the town from intruders.

After clearing in in Dewey, we went to one of the nearby smaller islands, called Culebrita, where we anchored for a couple of days. The island is uninhabited but it has a beautiful, but ruined lighthouse where a caretaker must have lived when the lighthouse was still functional:

View of the partly flooded inside of the house:

The Back of the lighthouse with the tower visible:

Two birds sitting on top of the tower:

The new lighthouse is a slightly simpler construction: