Carlos Rosario Marine Preserve, Culebra

We left the Puerto del Rey Marina at first light on Sunday, making the three-hour passage to Culebra under power. Both engines seemed to be working fine and neither one was belching black smoke so that's always good.

The past few days have been spent fixing the genset (Kevin) and cleaning up the interior of the boat (me). Kevin spent a backbreaking day hunched over in the genset locker, cleaning parts, fixing connectors, and sweating like crazy. His hard work paid off, as he was able to get the engine to turn over after seven straight hours of labor. We now can recharge our batteries when they get low, which means that we can run the watermaker (which also works -- hooray) to keep our tanks topped off. Kevin definitely has the magic touch when it comes to anything mechanical. He is ecstatic to be back on the boat and in his element.

For me it has been more of a struggle. First off, every cabinet, closet, locker and interior storage space was filled with what looks like light yellow dust but is actually mold. Every time I opened a new cupboard I was thoroughly appalled and disgusted by what I saw (and smelled). I had a few minor psychological breakdowns. I didn't want to touch anything, let alone cook and sleep here! Eventually I just threw on a respirator and started cleaning. All the dishes and galley cupboards are now spotless and I've worked my way through about 80% of the rest of the boat. It's slow going but I am getting there.

Yesterday afternoon we were able to do some snorkeling. We are on a mooring in a marine preserve and the reef is just a few hundred feet from the boat. The coral heads are teeming with sea life. We've pretty much had the place to ourselves except for a couple of daycharter snorkeling excursions. Today after lunch we will head into Dewey (the only town on the island of Culebra). Hopefully there will be a package waiting for us containing the parts Kevin needs to fix both toilets.