Entry Date: 31.03.2010, at 20:05:43 hrs (local)
St. Martin - Virgin Islands
Bush fire on Culebra
| PRID: | 9859 |
|---|---|
| LegID: | 219 |
| LegNo: | 11 |
| Latitude: | N018°18.30' |
| Longitude: | W065°17.91' |
| Day#: | 86 |
| Log (Leg): | 212 nm |
| Log (Total): | 5917 nm |
Culebra is one of the two bigger Spanish Virgin Islands. More and more day guests from Puerto Rico come here to enjoy the beautiful white sandy beaches. The settlement Dewey is small and only few restaurants, guest houses, souvenir shops have settled in.
Shortly after we have started our bicycle tour we see a cloud of smoke at the eastern end of the island. This is the direction we are heading for. The smoke is getting tenser and soon fire trucks are overtaking. At the road side a few fires are burning. First we think, this is done on purpose or by smoking cigarettes. But later we learn from Stephen, that every year in March bush fires is burning because of the dryness.
We continue our tour to the most eastern beach and later to the beach called Favi in the Northeast of the island. In the turquoise water we cool down before we head back to our dinghy. Meanwhile whole hills became black and all trees or green plants are gone. Luckily thanks to the fire fighters no people or houses got hurt by the flames.
