22 to 23 March 2024

Diamond Cay, Jost Van Dyke to Cayo Pirata, Culebra,18° 18′ 33″ N, 65° 17′ 83″ W, 36nm, 4 hours 30 minutes

We had last seen the crew of Off Course in September 2020 when they left Almerimar to start their Atlantic crossing. With the pandemic still ongoing, we had decided not to cross that year but promised to follow as soon as possible. We hadn’t anticipated that for lots of reasons it would end up being 3 years later!

By the time we got to the BVIs, Oda, Onno and Jasper were tantalisingly close in the US Virgin Islands and heading to the Spanish Virgin Islands so we hatched a plan to have a reunion on the small island of Culebra.

Having checked out the day before we made an early start from Jost Van Dyke, passed the USVIs and were anchored in the enclosed bay by lunchtime. Off Course were a little behind us as their day had to start with some school lessons for now 7 year old Jasper. But by 2.30pm they had anchored beside us and we picked them up in the dinghy to walk together to the airport to check in and picked up right where we had left off in Almerimar. Jasper had grown so tall and now spoke perfect English albeit with an American accent! He was the same gorgeous kid we fell in love with back in Turkey when he was just one year old.

Checking in and out of each Caribbean country has been part of the adventure. Never the same, never hugely problematic, although sometimes lengthy. This was to be our first introduction to US immigration and customs. Culebra is part of Puerto Rico which is a US territory. We had dutifully downloaded a special app for pre advising the authorities of our arrival and about an hour before we arrived we had dutifully completed our arrival report. We received an email telling us to report to the local CBP officer. So far, so good. Except Oda had also completed their arrival report and received an email to say they had been rejected!

Finding a public dinghy dock to get to the CBP office at the island’s small airport was a challenge. It wasn’t for lack of docks. There was one for each beachfront house around the bay. They were just all private. We had passed a couple of young men sitting having a drink on the end of one. We went back to ask them where we could park the dinghy. They were incredibly friendly and invited us to leave the dinghy there while we went to the airport. We walked down the dock and through their garden where other family members were gathered enjoying the afternoon, kids splashing in the small pool.

Walking to the airport all together for the first time in years we chatted incessantly, catching up on the last three and a half years, learning about their time in the Caribbean while Jasper scooted ahead on his scooter. The airport was tiny and very quiet. We found the door for the CBP firmly locked. We asked someone behind the car hire desk and he said they had already gone for the day. While Oda tried calling the numbers on the door, finding only one working, Jasper, with childlike curiosity, got down on the floor to peer under the door. “There’s someone in there!” he said. So we knocked but got no reply. We waited a little longer, confused as to what to do. Suddenly the door was unlocked and a couple shown out by a CBP officer. We moved to walk in but the officer told us to wait and firmly closed the door. After another while we were all invited in and explained we wanted to check in. The officer in turn explained that he had a ferry to catch back home on Puerto Rico so couldn’t complete the process for us there and then but he checked all our passports and gave Oda and I permission to return without the menfolk the next day. The officer was extremely friendly and reassured us that no one would challenge us for not checking in in the meantime.

We returned towards the dinghy and decided that our reunion warranted a stop at a bar to celebrate. While Onno and Stefan went to retrieve the dinghy from the private pontoon Oda, Jasper and I went in search of a suitable place. We found the perfect spot at a waterfront bar called, appropriately enough, The Dinghy Dock. Stefan and Onno took a while to reappear. Our dinghy guardians had offered them a drink and they had felt it rude not to accept this generous offer! When they reappeared and while Jasper watched the giant tarpons from the dock, we had a proper catch up which continued back on board Off Course.

But it wasn’t just our two boats destined to reunite in Culebra. Babs and Rene were on a mission to catch up with us to make the long trip north before hurricane season. They had left Saint Martin and were bypassing the BVIs and due to arrive the following morning.

As morning broke they too put down their anchor off Pirate Cay.

Oda and I joined Babs, Rene and Rizzo for the walk back to the airport. We were greeted warmly by our friend, the CBP officer, who completed the formalities for all of us. While we waited for everyone to be processed we got to pet Rizzo and watch the chicken cross the runway!

We celebrated our reunion and successful entry into our first US territory with a coffee and breakfast by the waterfront and played the tourist at the photo opp!

If you have never heard of Culebra or even the Spanish Virgin Islands, don’t worry, we hadn’t either! Made up of Culebra and Vieques and a handful of much smaller islands west of the British and US Virgin Islands, they are now part of Puerto Rico which itself is a US territory, hence the US customs and immigration.

The people of Culebra might look and sound very different from those on the other Caribbean islands – they are Hispanic and Spanish speaking – but the laid back vibe is still very much there and there are, of course, chickens everywhere in the streets. It is very much a holiday island – a bit like the Isle of Wight to the mainland of the UK – and, given its proximity by ferry, more popular with Puerto Ricans than foreign tourists.

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out with our favourite Dutch family, taking a walk to the park, talking to the local chickens, having an ice cream and recreating photos of Jasper from our previous times together!

On the slide in Turkey aged 1 and in Culebra aged 7

and being dangled in the companionway aged 2 in Sicily and aged 7 in Culebra. We’re not sure Stefan will be able to do this trick next time we see Jasper. He is growing too fast!

When we last saw Jasper we had given him one of our bird scaring rubber snakes, separating our two Slippery Twins that had sat idle in the cockpit for most of our travels. Periodically we got an update on what the snake and Jasper were up to. Now Jasper was keen to show us how well he had been looking after him and his growing menagerie of other animals. He was also very proud to show us his box of treasures collected from the beaches and streets of the Caribbean including sparkling sea glass and fallen crystals from Carneval costumes.

Our time with them had been too short but very sweet. It was so lovely to all be together again in one place. However, we had a weather window to get us to Puerto Rico before some strong westerly wind would prevent us getting there for a while and we knew we had to take it to keep ahead of hurricane season.

As we pulled the anchor up we made an impulsive decision to reunite the Slippery Twins. With Stefan executing as close a sail past Off Course as possible, I was able to transfer our remaining snake on the end of the boat hook and the twins were together again in Jasper’s expert care.

We know because we got an update on how he’s settling in with his twin and his new snake buddy and we know we’ll see them again somewhere, sometime along with the rest of their crew…