Student Reflection: The "Denis Sullivan" and Culebra
By Jonas Weijer
The first week of our trip was spent aboard the Denis Sullivan, a replica schooner owned by World Ocean School. This experience was definitely a major change from what any of us had been used to, as there were no electronic devices allowed on the ship and each of us was expected to participate in the everyday maintenance of the sails and ropes. Despite these limitations, the overall trip was incredible! Our average morning started with an early wakeup at around 7 a.m., and it was up to the top deck to haul the anchor. Imagine one of those manual railcar pumps that goes up and down like a seesaw, but instead of moving along a track we used it to haul a giant hunk of metal off the seafloor and onto the boat. Needless to say it was a solid workout!
Over the course of the week we visited a few different locations, the most notable one being Culebra, a small island all the way off the coast of Puerto Rico! It took almost seven hours to sail all the way there from St. Croix, but the long trip was definitely worth it. After anchoring off Culebra, we took boats to shore and after a short hike we reached Flamenco Beach. Flamenco Beach is one of the highest-rated beaches in the whole world, and it definitely lived up to the expectation! The water was cool and clear, the sand was smooth and soft, the view was gorgeous and serene, and even though there were many people around they were never noisy or distracting. It was almost as if there was an unspoken tranquility agreed upon by anyone who went to the beach, allowing for a peaceful and calming atmosphere to be maintained.
The United States bought the island and used it as a military testing site, detonating hundreds of bombs on its beaches and forever tainting the ecosystem with residual waste from these reckless bombings. Despite the damage done by the testing, Culebra remains an incredibly beautiful island. There is, however, a chance that a person might stumble upon an ancient undetonated warhead, but personally I think that just adds to the charm. One of the most prominent relics from this military history is actually sitting right off the shores of Flamenco Beach itself. A little ways into the water sits an ancient, dilapidated tank covered in rust and grime. What was once a fierce war machine now lies motionless in the water, an ever-present reminder of the events that transpired on the island. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of my own to share of Culebra due to the lack of cell phones on the ship, but I highly encourage anyone reading to visit the island for themselves!
