"I sailed to the east towards a very high mountain that looks like an island but is not. It is connected to the land by a low isthmus and is shaped like a very beautiful tent. I named this mountain Monte Cristi.." Christopher Columbus- Fuson, R. H. (1992). The Log of Christopher Columbus. Maine: International Marine Publishing.
Team Leader Raimund Krob took Wesley Korpela and Justine Fite, to climb up El Morro, the famous mountain which Columbus named for Monte Cristi. The climb took about an hour and once on the top afforded a great view of Monte Cristi Bay. From there they followed in Columbus's foot steps as they went to the far eastern end and looked out over the reefs to the east.
Justine, Raimund and Wesley at the top of El Morro
The view across Monte Cristi Bay, with Cabrita Island in the foreground.
Saturday, 5 January 1493 "Just before sunrise I made sail with a land breeze. It then shifted and blew from the east and I saw to the SSE, between Monte Cristi and a small island, what appeared to be a good harbour in which to anchor tonight. ... I entered between the mountain and the small island where the depth at low tide is 3 1/2 fathoms. It is a very remarkable harbour and i anchored there.
I took the boat to the small island, where I found a fire and signs that fishermen had been here. There I saw many coloured rocks, like a rock quarry, very beautiful and formed naturally. they would be suitable for building churches or royal structures....
Monte Cristi is very beautiful and high and accessible, and has a pretty shape. all the country near the mountain is low, forming a lovely plain, and the mountain is so tall that when one sees it from a distance it looks like an island. Beyond the mountain, 18 miles to the east, I saw a cape that I named Cabo del Bezerro (now known as Punta Rucia). Between Monte Cristi and the cape the reef extends seaward for 6 miles, although it seems to me that there are channels by which one could enter... Christopher Columbus - Fuson, R. H. (1992). The Log of Christopher Columbus. Maine: International Marine Publishing.
Clearly to be able to see this, Columbus must have walked to the eastern end of the mountain.
Wesley doing a Columbus... looking east.
Wesley's view, the same as Christopher Columbus back in 1493, looking east towards the location of The Tile Wreck (1720-23), The Musket Ball Wreck (179), Le Casimir (1829) and Le Dragon (1783) and on to Punta Rucia, together with the reef chain which runs along the entire north coast and is a lea shore as well.