Isla Culatra is a charming sand bank/ island with a massive lagoon that is great for anchoring and had incredible long stretches of perfect (and empty) beaches. There are masses of small fishing boats all along the shore outside the tiny village, a few restaurants and a small cement sidewalk leading through the village to a little school and community centre. In short, quite a sweet little place.
Perhaps it is the long stretches of sand reminiscent of the Eastern coast of the Netherlands that attracts them, whatever it is, there are tons and tons of Dutch boats anchored here! Over half of the boats in the very busy anchorage fly the red, white and blue stripes (placed horizontally of course). Some live in the area, some are headed South like us and some are headed North or back home. And it was suuuper gezellig! We met up with old friends from the Breehorn days from the Blues, the Tijd, the Marjolie and met some new ones Bojangles, Vagabond, De Liefde. An impromptu borrel was planned on shore which turned into a dinner out, table for 26 (several people having already returned to their boats).
Emma had gone off for the day with a new friend Femmy from S/Y de Liefde and her parents so did not join us for dinner. Just after dark, Femmy’s parents Peter and Monique sent us a message that they were back from Laos and had been along our boat to drop Emma off. Did we know that our boat was no longer floating? Huh?!?
So off we toddled back to our dinghy and zoomed out to the boat. Indeed, it was sitting high and dry and nice and solid on a sand bank. This was our first experience with ‘droogvallen’ and as such was rather exciting. Our boat has a retractable centreboard and is designed to be a little amphibious in this way but it is still rather odd to be sitting on a boat that lies so still. Still, we took advantage of the opportunity to scrub the hull and take some pics before the tide slowly rose and carried her back into the water.