Day 5: Marina Cay

 Arturo had great memories of the Maze, a dive site in Lee Bay, and I remembered there was a mooring ball there, but when we got there there was no mooring ball! We ended up anchoring amongst the boats that had overnight there, and Arturo and Mark got into their snorkel gear to swim to the start while I got out the paddle board for more practice.

The night before at Marina Cay, I'd gotten out the paddleboard only to have to get rescued by the dinghy because the wind was blowing harder than I could paddle! This time in the morning in a quiet Bay, I discovered that in ideal conditions, the paddleboard was much faster than swimming or snorkeling, even with fins, and could take Bowen around the Bay before Arturo and Mark had finish exploring. This inspired Arturo and Xiaoqin to try it out as well.

By the time we'd done all that, the other boats had left the Bay, and I got in a bit of snorkeling with Xiaoqin before we left for Trellis Bay to reprovision for the Anegada trip.

Trellis Bay was one place where the devastation of the hurricanes that hit the BVI was still visible. All around the shore, we could see boats that had been pushed aground and destroyed but have not been recovered or salvaged yet. Upon visiting the Trellis Bay market in the dinghy, we discovered that not only was the market well equipped, it was also a short walk to the entrance to the airport!

We headed back to Marina Cay, taking a nice mooring ball right behind the reef, and then proceeded to head over to snorkel Marina Cay with Xiaoqin and Bowen, with Arturo and Mark diving. When the snorkeling was done, I shuttled Xiaoqin and Bowen back to the dinghy, loaded the empty scuba tanks onto it, and delivered a camera to Arturo!

All that effort was in vain, however, as when we got to scrub island resort the dive master there informed us that their compressor had just broken! We didn't need dive tanks in Anegada, so it wasn't a big deal. We shopped at the expensive gourmet market, and then headed back to the boat for thanksgiving dinner.

Bowen had asked for a turkey, but of course we hadn't provisioned any! Mark thought up to make a salad out of various vegetables to make a turkey, so that became our turkey dinner! We went to bed early, knowing that the next morning was the famed Anegada passage, which none of us had ever done.