Tarpons, Seagulls and Cold Beer

Despite all the very appealing local restaurants we've seen, we really haven't eaten out at all since we arrived in Culebra. Each morning we agree “Let's have dinner out tonight” and every evening, it's “Feel like going in to shore for dinner or shall we just make something aboard and watch a movie?” It's not the budget so much as “what can we get at a restaurant that we feel like eating that I can't make on board?” Reliable internet and cold beer was the answer this evening and we headed in to the Dinghy Dock Restaurant.

The Dinghy Dock does indeed have a dinghy dock allowing us to tie up right at tableside. It couldn't be more convenient. It wasn't too crowded when we arrived and the view was stunning.

We noticed a small school of huge fish hanging out at the dock … about 3' long (1 m), with pronounced scales and a lovely iridescent blue-green color shimmering through the water … tarpon. Evidently they regularly get fed here and hang out in anticipation.

Internet on the boat is sketchy at best. Even with our super-duper antenna, the shore signal is not strong enough and we lose it as often as we have it. So we lugged the laptop to shore with us and figured we'd sip beer, do internet, then have a pleasant dinner. First things first … David ordered two cold beers at the bar.

Someone threw some bread scraps in the water and there was a mad dash and a battle between the tarpon and the local laughing gulls to get their share.

I set up the laptop, we sent some photos and blog posts to Gentry, sipped some cold beer and did a little research, but mostly we just enjoyed the early evening breeze. The place was beginning to fill up, the music got a little louder and the buzz of patrons increased to compensate for the louder music. We could hear fragments of cruisers' conversations … complaining about insurance rates, bemoaning refrigeration problems, comparing harrowing sea stories … not unlike cruiser bars everywhere else in the world.

It appears there was a shortage of wait staff and table service was very, very slow. We looked at the menu. It had reasonable offerings with okay prices, but nothing really appealed to us. We didn't want to just settle for something for sake of eating out. We didn't want any more beer and … well, you guessed it. We left the restaurant, trotted over to Colmado Milka's bought some chicken and salad makings and headed back to the boat for dinner and a movie.

Going out to dinner should be a treat, not a trial. Maybe another time.