The Island of Enchantment

We are moored in Christmas Cove on St. James Island, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. We're having one last dinner with our friends before heading back towards the States. On the menu, fresh caught lobster creole, Cuban style. The uncertainty of our lives in the months to come weights heavy on us. The smiles we wear are as fragile as butterfly wings.

Eben and Genevieve on Mirador. 

I plan to make my way back as easy as possible, a little bit at a time. Our first stop will be the island of Culebrita in the Spanish Virgin Islands. Everyone that has been there has recommended it over all other places, even people from St. Thomas. You won't live to be a ripe old age without following advice, so we're stopping.
We picked a beautiful day to sail. It's 20 miles or a leisurely 5 to 6 hours. Everyone was just laying about the boat, like hippos wallowing in a marsh. All movements made were slow and subtle as the hours melted off the clock. The last 5 miles were not well protected, and there was a little discomfort. Nobody said "I hate my life," so the situation was manageable. We went over the top of Culebrita and into Bahia de Tortuga.

Bahia de Tortuga on Culebrita.

Before us lay one of the most beautiful beaches of our 2 year journey. It was the perfect scale, not too big, not too small, the water was sapphire blue, and the sand was a powdery white. Sea turtles were everywhere around us.  Everybody that had encouraged us to visit this place was right, this place is gorgeous.
I have heard people say, "it is better to never have had money, than to have had it, and have lost it." And I reflected, if this is true than it would be better that I never see this place than to see it and leave it. In a very eloquent conclusion to my brief philosophical interlude, I thought to myself, "those people are really full of crap!"
I love looking out from our cockpit, and seeing the kids play on the beach. I feel we have given them an enhanced sense the world around them, and I hope we have stretched their boundaries.

Hadrian and Eva playing on the beach.

Bahia de Tortuga on Culebrita.

Mirador sitting in crystal clear water at Culebrita.

Hadrian and Eva on the beach and Derrick in the water.

We enjoyed our surroundings for a couple of days before sailing over to Bahia de Sardinas on the Island of Culebra. The small town of Dewey is on this bay. We put our dinghy down and went to shore. Culebra is small, but not so small that you can walk it. We rented a golf cart. Our first stop was Flamenco Beach. As beautiful as this beach is, it is crowded, just like Megan Beach on St. Thomas, and I don't like it so much. There were a couple of abandoned Sherman tanks  on the beach that were once used for target practice by the Navy. Hadrian was fascinated by them, and asked me a million questions in the hour that followed. I tried my best to appear knowledgeable.

This statue is at the entrance to the town of Dewey

Eva at the town of Dewey on Culebra.

Hadrian and Eva atop a Sherman tank at Flamenco beach.

Hadrian is fascinated by the tanks.

Mirador sitting in Bahia de Sardina, Culebra.

Zoni beach on Culebra.

Puerto Rico is just a "hop, skip and a jump away." The kids will be leaving Mirador indefinitely, they want to be "normal." They home-school 3 or 4 hours a day, maybe 3 or 4 days a week, and even that is very flexible. They've gone back home for standardized testing 2 years in a row, and scored above average. I suspect that waking up at 7 am, 5 days a week, for 8 hours a day of school plus 2 hours of homework is going to blind side them like a freight train. Let's see how great holding on to the tail of the elephant in front of them is then, (I always say that people go through life doing what they think society expects them to do, like the elephants in the circus, just holding on to the tail of the elephant in front of them, never questioning the path).
It is the end of a great chapter in our lives. We worked for 15 years to make these 2 years happen, but they have been the best 2 years of our lives. 

Mirador sailing from Culebra to Puerto Rico.

The "Island of Enchantment" on the horizon.