Day 2: Privateer Bay, Norman Island to Cooper Island

We woke up bright and early as usual, and moved the Omega 15 minutes to be the first boat on the Indians. Arturo did a snorkel check, and after much debate we decided that the water was too choppy to bother with a dive, since much of what we wanted to see could easily be seen while snorkeling. One of Mark's goals for this trip was to dive the Rhone again, but I hadn't dived since the last time I was in the BVIs, so Arturo wanted a checkout dive for me. "We can always dive at Cistern point in Cooper Island. There's also a dive refill there."

We thought also of diving Pelican Island, but by the time we left the Indians the mooring balls there were full and it wasn't worth the wait, so we raised sails and headed up the Sir Francis Drake channel towards Cooper Island. The sail was rather rough, however, so after a couple of tacks we lowered the sales and turned on the engine to grab a mooring ball on Cooper Island, which was strangely full of empty mooring balls for this time of day. What I would realize later was that with the Wily T's move to Peter Island, Peter Island would become a much more happening place, drawing traffic from Cooper Island.

We got into our dive gear and went to cistern point for a dive after delivering the rest of the family to the beach resort on Cooper Island. Mark was very good at spotting critters hiding in crevices, while I unfortunately drowned my waterproof lights bought 7 years ago for this trip! Fortunately for me, my 18 months away from diving hadn't hurt me at all. I was entirely comfortable in the water, and it was as though

When we were done with the the dives it was too late to get the tanks filled (the shop had closed at 4:00pm and she had a backlog to fill, so even if we'd arrived in time she might have turned us away anyway). I got out the paddleboard and practiced with it. I'd watched a Youtube video ahead of time, which must have helped because I didn't even fall into the water once. Earlier, while setting up for the dive, I'd seen a couple of men paddleboard out to cistern point with snorkel gear and then snorkeled there, which struck me as studly as cycling to the start of a hike to do a hike. I didn't think I'd be skilled enough to attempt that!

Once again, we had a beautiful sunset. The seas were still churning, so we decided that it would be prudent to move to protected waters, which meant that diving the Rhone was out of the question. The Baths, however, were protected from the East, and there was diving nearby, and a visit to Marina Cay or Gorda Sound as feasible from there.