ORION: Tamarindo Grande beach, Culebra

Tamarindo,Grande beach, Culebra

This morning we moved ORION to yet another wonderful beach here in Culebra...Tamarindo Grande beach is the next one up from Tamarindo beach where we stayed last. It is unbelievable how each of the beaches here are unique...there is none like the other...some have white sand, some have black sand, some have pepples, and some have a mixture of all three! Tamarindo Grande is even more remote than Tamarindo...whereas Tamarindo beach enjoyed a steady flow of beach-goers and kayakers throughout the day into the evening, there are no people here at Tamarindo Grande beach in the evening at all...and during the day there were only a few sun bathers and snorkelers to be seen. No vans or busses have access to this beach, so the people coming here come by foot...usually they walk over from Flamenco Beach, which is one of the most stunning white sand beaches in the world (!). The beauty of Culebra lies in the fact that mostly everything here is still undisturbed nature...the beaches are not commercialized apart from a few cars or mini vans taking people out and bringing them back and a kayak tour company arranging kayak tours...all in all Culebra is almost an "insider job". We like it like that and hope that it will stay like that for many years to come!

the mooring ball attached to ORION

A lot of the beaches around Culebra are nature preserves, so no hunting, fishing, camping, BBQing, or similar activities are allowed...there are plenty mooring balls to hook up to...we found most of them in good shape...the mooring balls are free and hooking up to them saves throwing an anchor, which in turn saves the beautiful coral reefs that are almost everywhere here! What's not to like? We are getting quite good at catching the mooring ball painters and pulling the line through the loop and attach it to ORION's cleats...my captain does the driving next to it and I do the rest...works like a charm now :) We did have some initial...ahem..."misunderstandings", but they got sorted out quickly once the captain realized that the co-captain almost walked off the job...so the solution was an easy one: the sweetie that tackles the mooring ball painter will do it her/his way and the sweetie that drives ORION will approach the mooring ball accordingly...works like a charm every time now...both sweeties are happy...thank God for small blessings :)

lunch on ORION

We had a yummy light lunch and then went snorkeling! We swam with trumpet fish, sergeant majors, blue chromis, yellow fin snappers, a biggish barracuda, and a sting ray...there were lots of different coral formations and sea ferns...white sandy bottoms...blue crystal clear water...heaven again!

We went for a walk on the beach and later took the dinghy over, parked it and walked a small path across to yet another beach called Carlos Rosario beach...there is a beautiful reef on Carlos Rosario, so we will take ORION there in a day or two!

This morning we saw the DRNA boat taking soundings everywhere...quite fascinating to watch them go back and forth for hours at a time...what a great job to have for someone who loves the ocean! It is a pleasure to see all the work that has been going on around here in order to save the reefs...a period of naturally occurring but inexplicable bleaching which turned them white killing the corals was aggressively treated with "planting" of new coral cultures...with great success! Over the years the corals have taken on and the reefs look healthy which is proven by the abundance of fish everywhere...almost a small miracle! A reason to celebrate for all :)