2025 BVI: Nov 28 - White Bay, Peter Island to Privateer Bay, Norman Island

 Getting up at 6:00am, I made coffee for Arturo, and we ate a quick breakfast, checked the engine oil, and then started driving towards Salt Island, where the wreck of the Rhone was. The ride was pretty bumpy, but in exchange for a minor rain cloud blowing through we got a nice rainbow which didn't linger.

Arriving at the wreck of the Rhone at 7:30am, we had beaten everyone else there, and so had our pick of the mooring balls. However, Arturo had gotten sea sick from the transit (which was admittedly rough), and so picked the most sheltered mooring ball rather than the optimal one for diving. Massi's cabin leaked the night before during the rains, but customer service for Navigare wasn't open till 8:00.

We ate breakfast and prepped the dive tanks. Arturo snorkeled around to find the wreck so he could confirm he wasn't on the optimal dive ball. Meanwhile a professional dive boat arrived and sat on the optimal dive ball (which was out of bounds for recreational boaters), marking out where to tie up for all the following boats to come in.

At 8:00am, I called Navigare. They asked us where we would be and I told them we'd be on the wreck of the Rhone all morning and then at Norman Island in the afternoon. He said to call again after we had settled in at Norman Island. They apparently didn't like servicing a yacht at the dive site.

Indeed, it was a horribly long swim to begin diving to the wreck of the Rhone. By contrast, the snorkelers didn't have any issues, and Boen reported he enjoyed playing with the bubbles emanating from the scuba divers who were diving the wreck. Once we had descended, the dive was superlative --- the wreck was so old that it's been overtaken by coral, and wildlife was abundant. I frequently think that snorkeling is way better than diving because you have so much more freedom, and so much less equipment. The wreck of the Rhone is the exception that makes me think it's worth lugging around all those air tanks, BCDs, and weight belts, not to mention the hassle of refilling air tanks on a boat without a compressor. We even saw a full sized reef shark on the way up!

Coming back up for the surface interval, we discovered that other boats had disappeared. Easy enough, we moved the boat (after making sure everyone was on board) so that our second dive would be much easier. It should have been much easier, but I screwed up, giving Xiaoqin Arturo's BCD and giving Arturo Xiaoqin's BCD. We would only discover that under water when we discovered that Xiaoqin was overweighted and floating around in a BCD that was much too big for her!

We did the dive anyway, grateful for the easy access on our new mooring ball. By the time we finished the dive it was 12:00pm, and we ate lunch before casting off the lines and raising sail. While the wind was blowing nicely from behind, Norman Island was directly downwind and there was Pelican Island in between, so I opted to sail halfway across the channel before turning back towards Norman Island so we could make more speed.

As we passed the Indians I noted to Arturo that there was no one there! "Hm... very tempting," he said. But he reminded me that it was already close to 2:00pm, and we needed to be on Norman Island to get his sister's cabin fixed. I concurred, and we kept sailing until we got to Privateer Bay and found one of the mooring balls available. Surprisingly, it was one pretty close to the caves!

We tied up, and then I called the Navigare customer support. "Our chase boat is at Jost Van Dyke right now. We'll tell them about you so they can go there." Of course, they never showed up! Of course, we were not going to sit there waiting for people who might be no shows. We went snorkeling at the caves again, and the kids went paddleboarding. The sunset was spectacular, and when I got back after snorkeling and saw that the kids had left the paddleboards tied up but not stowed away, I went for another paddleboard!

By this time, Arturo had figured out how to get the watermaker working consistently. We were tempted to write down the instructions proper in blood and tape it on the machine, but of course, paper in an engine compartment is just a disaster waiting to happen. We realized this was the last night of running the water maker anyway, as we didn't care about returning the boat with any water left in its tanks!

Star gazing was a wash. Clouds still came in often enough to make it real iffy, and there were still occasional sprinkles. I flipped through the cruising guide looking for ideas, and solicited where people wanted to go for the last day. The Yans wanted to return to the Indians. I looked at the book and decided we could do another snorkel there, then reposition the boat at Pelican Island, then visit the Willy T's (since it was effectively a new boat and we hadn't been there for a while), and then come back to privateer bay. I went to sleep hoping that our attempts to fix Massi's cabin worked.

BVI 2025: November 27 - Long Bay, Jost Van Dyke to White Bay, Peter Island

 It was Xiaoqin's birthday, and what better way to start it off than to do a 10 minute motor to Sandy Spit (which we'd been staring at all evening yesterday) and swim to shore while we had the island all to ourselves. When we set the anchor, Arturo said: "I know you said 10 minutes but I didn't expect it to be this quick."

Boen was determined to the first person on the island, and went into the water first with Massi. Arturo and I followed after checking the anchor. The others took their time, eating a leisurely breakfast. Boen was already playing in the sand when I got to the island and realized that he hadn't had sunscreen on. I checked my watch and it was only 7:30, so I told him he had to get back to the boat to put on sunscreen at 8:30.

Sandy Cay was the island we'd always visited in the past, right down to being able to run around the entire island in 1.5 minutes. Even Bowen deigned to do so, once he realized how small the island was. This time, there was no way for him to disappear or find coconut trees, as there were only 5 trees on the island, none of which were coconut trees. Interestingly enough, there were signs that the park service or some such was trying to plant more trees on the island, as there were baby palm trees in plant supporting containers sitting on the ground, so we might have more trees the next time we visited.

At 8:15, another Catamaran approached the island, drawing in much closer to shore than we had dared. "It must be a professional skipper," I told Arturo. Indeed, the denizens of the catamaran swam to shore but the captain stayed aboard, an indication that he was a paid professional. We had seen signs of it yesterday when they picked up a mooring ball near us, with just one person steering and one person working, while the rest of the boat applauded. I confirmed that when I spoke to some of the folks who'd swam from the boat.

It rained and we got some very nice rainbows from our spots on Sandy Cay, and then swam back to La Badine to raise anchor and sail to Sopher's Hole on Tortola to reprovision and buy a birthday cake for Xiaoqin. With a beam reach we reached as much as 8 knots heading towards Sopher's hole, and took down the sails and motor'd into the harbor, tying up on a mooring ball and then dinghying in ashore for the supermarket. Arturo had scratched his head this morning over how we were running out of water and diet coke much faster than anticipated, but we reminded him that Mingkuan was a last minute addition to the crew, and he was therefore off by 1 in his provisioning. "That makes sense."

Once ashore, we bought more cereal, bread, and I made a suggestion to buy the Rotisserie for lunch, but Arturo thought it would work great for dinner and eliminate the need to eat out for one night. We bought vegetables, and Xiaoqin decided against a cake but instead we got a bunch of fruit tarts instead in various flavors, pineapple, guava, and coconut. The last was a mistake as I thought I was getting more pineapple, but people ate it anyway! We also bought some ice cream and more bags of ice to refresh our supply. With the big reprovision we couldn't all fit on the boat at once, so Arturo made a separate run for groceries (along with the people required to organize the groceries). While he was so occupied I asked Boen if he would like a rash guard so he wouldn't have to wear more sunscreen on his body and he agreed. He even decided to buy one that was bigger than a tight fit so he would be able to wear it longer.

Stone, Massi, and Kathryn went shopping for a birthday present for Xiaoqin. After we returned to La Badine we ate a quick lunch before casting off the moorings and heading out onto the Drake passage. This time, we headed East against the wind on motor for quite a bit so that when we raised sails we wouldn't have to tack back and forth on our way to Soldier Bay, Norman Island.

Arriving at Norman Island, it looked awfully windy, but it was a relatively sheltered bay with several mooring balls so we picked one that looked more sheltered and tied up to it. Once in the water we discovered that there wasn't a current. The snorkeling was quite good but we didn't find the cuttlefish we had found the last time we were here in Soldier Bay.

Done with the snorkeling, we made ready to head to White Bay, which Xiaoqin had fond memories of on one of our last visits. It would also set us up for a dive of the wreck of the Rhone for the next day as well. It was close enough and directly into the wind so we just motor'd. As we motor'd along, however, a wild storm ran up and blew one of the cushions into the cockpit away and out of the boat! "Are we going back for it?" I asked Arturo. "Heck yeah, that's $650!"  We immediately went into man overboard operations. As many people as could be spared would point at the cushion. The boat hook was readied. I then turned the boat towards the cushion and then tried to maneuver it so that it was up wind and someone could pick it up.

Well, that was the plan. First, the storm picked up even harder, making it hard for me or the crew to see it. Then the wind tried to pick up another cushion to blow it away. I slammed my body against the cushion to keep it from flying away, and called for someone to come sit on it. It blew away from me anyway (bruising my knee in the process), but fortunately it flipped over and hit Arturo in the back, which prevented it from flying off the boat like its brother. After that, I became thankful for the cockpit being much higher than on other catamarans I had rented, for I could now see the dang cushion flipping over on the waves and made for it.

The recovery wasn't smooth, I ran over the seat cushion once, and then a second swing by happened to quickly for anyone to pick up the cushion, and on the third try the intrepid crew finally snagged it with both hands and boat hook and lifted it back to the boat. Cheers went all around, and I turned the boat back towards White Bay, where we arrived in good weather.

To our surprise there were two super yachts anchored right outside White Bay, but there were plenty of mooring balls available, so we grabbed one. Arturo went for a swim, Mingkuan grabbed a paddleboard and went to shoot more video after the kids got tired of paddleboarding, and I grabbed the other one. I paddled Xiaoqin to the shore of White Bay, where we walked the beach. We asked a couple (the only other people on the beach) to take a picture of us and they asked us about boating. "My kids are too young for the boat," said the man. "My son's been sailing since he was 18 months."

Xiaoqin chose to swim back to the boat, since she'd brought her snorkel gear, but of course while trying to get the paddleboard back to La Badine I slipped and dunked myself into the water. After I returned the paddleboard, Mark took a turn on it and he too, dunked himself in the water. The waves were still a little churned up from the storm.

Arturo noted that one of the super yachts was owned by the CEO of Blackberry and the other by the original tech lead of Microsoft Office. He said that both those boats apparently visit White Bay every Thanksgiving. We setup dinner, hungry from the day's activities, and ate everything, sang "Happy Birthday" to Xiaoqin using a lighter as a candle, and ate all the dessert as well. Star gazing was out of the question as the rains had made the decks wet. But what a day!

BVI 2025: Nov 26 - Marina Cay to Long Bay, Jost Van Dyke

 We were not in a hurry this morning, so after getting up at 6:15, Arturo and I made coffee and then ate breakfast before getting the boat ready to go, checking the engine oil for the first time on the trip. We cleared Great Camanoe before raising the sails for a downwind run to Brewer's Bay.

On this trip, Mingkuan had brought a pirate costume and on this long downhill run, he directed his mom on how to shoot a video for a cool riff on Pirates of the Carribean. Over the next few days he would run out and shoot various scenes and at the end he put together what looked like a pretty great video.

Arriving at Brewer's Bay, we peeked inside the bay to discover there was only one other boat there. The cruising guide mentioned that Brewer's Bay had limited anchoring room, and many charter companies prohibit anchoring there because of numerous undersea cables. Well, we had waived our chart briefing so we didn't hear of any prohibitions on this charter. The book also noted that they'd never heard of anyone fouling the cables

Taking down the sails and motoring in, we took care to avoid the reefs (which turned out to be so deep that our Catamaran wouldn't have run aground), and found the sand patch that the book described and dropped anchor. Snugging everything up at 1500rpm, the anchor held so Arturo and I jumped into the water to check the anchor. The anchor was stable, but Arturo noted that we were a bit too close to the reef. "It's OK for a day stop." "Yeah, we let out way too much chain."

The snorkel was weird. Arturo, Boen and I missed the reef that Xiaoqin found, which had a lot more wildlife and ended up all the way across the bay. It's a testimony to how much more efficient fins make you that you can swim all the way across a bay and come back. The snorkeling was decent, but not "excellent" as described by the cruising guide, though we did see a lobster. Nevertheless, it was a good stop. After we had lunch, we raised anchor, motor'd out and headed straight for Sandy Cay, which was so close that it wasn't even worth getting up the sails.

I'd confused Sandy Cay with Sandy Spit, and so was very surprised when I saw there were mooring balls on the west side of Sandy Cay. Well, we picked up the closest mooring ball since there were no other boats, and then swam ashore as we had the entire island to ourselves. The snorkeling towards Sandy Cay was pretty good, and when we landed ashore it was obvious to us that this wasn't what we were thinking off, as there was a National Park sign which didn't remember, and we remembered we could run around the island in a matter of minutes whereas Sandy Cay didn't have runnable trails once you were outside the beach.

We shrugged, since finding a new place we'd never been to before was worth it, and we had the place to ourselves. Bowen and Boen started building sand castles. "It's very good that your kids are so independent." We walked the length of the beach, which was big enough that we could be out of sight of the kids. We found coral, and then Ying and Xiaoqin found a super cute Atlantic Ghost Crab. I shot a video of the crustacean, which must have been mystified at the large number of cameras pointed at it as it skittered along.

I went to find Bowen and Boen so they wouldn't miss out on the excitement, and we found Boen who went to see the crab, but Bowen was nowhere to be found. When asked, Boen told us he went to find some coconuts. There was a good 15 minutes of panic as we ran around looking for our wayward son. "OK, maybe it's not such a good thing that your kids are so independent!" said Arturo. Eventually, though, Bowen was spotted coming out of one of the trails with 3 coconuts in his hands, oblivious to the fact that the rest of us had spent 15 minutes searching for him. "See?" said Boen. "He was looking for coconuts." Mark Brody, who'd be on the La Badine the whole time would later describe his perspective from the boat, where he saw Bowen wandering off, and then see (but not hear) the panic, the search, and the spreading waves of people looking for Bowen.

Alls well that ends well, so we swam back to La Badine, coconuts and all. When we had de-sanded everyone properly ("No sand on the boat!" cried Arturo and I), we got ready to move La Badine again, this time reminding everyone not to take showers, as our next destination was Long Bay and the hike from Foxy's Taboo to the bubbly pools where we expected everyone to get more salt water exposure. Arturo had checked the mooring ball status for Long Bay in the morning and it was very clear that there wasn't going to be a problem getting a mooring ball or anchoring at the location. In fact, when we got there we saw that the reservable balls were all the desirable ones, while the white balls were further away from Foxy's Taboo. It was a windy location, so we would expect to ship water in the dinghy coming back, but going there we simply loaded the dinghy up for all the people and went at a moderate speed.

Tying up at Foxy's Taboo, we walked the 2 mile walk to the bubbly pool, which was a much shorter walk than I remembered. The pool was a hole in the island's reef where high waves from the Atlantic would push through and create foaming water, much like a Jaccuzi but at Caribbean temperatures instead of a hot tub. It was a fun activity and a change from the snorkeling and swimming, and the weather was warm enough that the water was fun.

When we were done we walked back and had drinks at Foxy's (non alcoholic for us), and then dinghy'd back to La Badine in 2 batches so that we wouldn't ship too much water into the dinghy. It was much too windy to risk paddleboarding, so we raised the dinghy and made dinner, eating the rest of the quinoa. The next day's weather forecast called for  a small craft advisory, but we were in protected waters. The stargazing was good, but the clouds started gathering and the bright moon made it difficult.

2025 BVI: November 25 - Deadman's Bay, Peter Island to Marina Cay

 I woke up at 5:45am, determined to get the boat moving as quickly as possible. Making coffee for myself and Arturo, eating breakfast, and getting going, we left our mooring ball at 6:20am, and motor'd at our cruising speed upwind. I knew that it was a longer distance from Deadman's Bay to the Baths, but I was shocked that when we passed Cooper Island, 3 Mooring's Yachts came right out of Manchioneel Bay.

The boat briefing told us that the cruising RPM for the La Badine's engines was at 2000rpm, but given the competition, I pushed our engines to 2500rpm, reasoning that it was only 30 minutes to the Baths and the engines were already nice and warm by then.

As the Baths got closer and closer we were dismayed to see that despite the early hour there were already boats on the mooring balls in front of the baths. I remembered that there were at least 8, but in the morning light it was not clear whether there were more or less or whether they were all taken. As we got closer we discovered that there were a lot more than 8 mooring balls, and there were at least 3 left. I made for one and as we passed a few boats already moored they shouted at me to slow down. In the excitement to snatch a mooring ball I had pushed the engines for too hard for too long. Despite all that we easily snagged the mooring ball and settled down to eat breakfast, relieved that we wouldn't have to sit around or come back another day. It was 8:00am.

After breakfast, we got everyone ready for the snorkel. Our mooring ball was positioned nicely so we didn't even have to get the dinghy out, and could just swim to shore, directed by the yellow flags on the beach. Upon arriving, however, we discovered that since the last time we were here, the hiking trail in the Baths have turned into one way. We debated locking up our stuff and hiking over, but at the last minute I decided that the swim was way more pleasant than the hike and we just snorkeled over to Devil's Bay.

The Baths in the morning before cruise ships arrive is an outstanding experience. We had plenty of time because the big cruise ships didn't arrive until tomorrow. The walk takes you over, under, and through the boulders that constitute the beach, and is carefully constructed to be exciting while actually offering minimal physical challenge. We took our time, enjoying the walk, before popping back out to the other side.

From there, we swam back to the boat. There, we had a lunch. The previous day, we had debated what to do. One option was to sail back to Cooper Island, refill our scuba tanks, and then attempt the wreck of the Rhone. But the weather forecast was not good, and doing that was effectively backtracking. We ended up deciding to go to Marina Cay, where there was a dive tank refill at the Scrub Island Resort, and I knew there was good snorkeling at Diamond Reef.

We untied from our mooring ball and released it and immediately there were two boats fighting over our freshly vacated ball! "I think that boat was here first!" shouted Mark at one of them. "Tell that to my skipper!" came the reply as that boat motor'd furiously and snatched out the mooring ball from the waiting boat. Despite the notice that the mooring balls were supposed to be for a 90 minute visit only in practice nobody actually enforces that period, which means that those waiting for a ball could easily have been waiting for hours. We were glad to be spared that drama on the way we chose to visit the Baths. And it was a good day too, since there were no big cruise ships sending huge numbers of visitors to the Baths.

Raising the sails, we made for a beam reach towards Marina Cay, making good time under nice conditions. Arriving there, however, we discovered that all the white mooring balls (the first come first serve regime) were taken, and an online scan of the orange balls showed that they were all reserved as well. Arturo had checked various websites at 7:00am and discovered that places like Cooper Island were all booked at 7:00am! How could that be? It turned out that you could pay extra to be able to make reservations at 7:00pm the night before, pay even more to be able to make reservations the day before, and even more to book up to 3 months ahead. In other words, rather than having to wake up early, you had to pay money months in advance. This was a shitty way to run a vacation based on the outdoors, however, since you had no way of knowing what the weather conditions were like that far out!  At first, we tried anchoring off diamond reef but were told off by the Yachtsmen who were already there. It was pretty iffy and there was a reef and a power line running between Scrub Island and Great Camanoe so it was probably a good idea to leave well enough alone.

Under motor, we made our way through the mooring field in despair. My back up plan would be that we pick up an orange ball, get the air tanks refilled and then anchor out at the airport off Trellis Bay. But at the last minute we spotted a white mooring ball across the channel off Great Camanoe. When we picked up the mooring ball it was full of gunk, and it took us a couple of tries to tie up to it, since cleaning up the pennant eyelet took enough time that we could stay put. The color of the ball was correct though, and after we tied up to the ball I tested the ball by reversing it at 1500rpm (it was obviously so infrequently used that I didn't trust it!), and it held firm. It would turn out that the ball was so far out of the way that the fee collectors didn't bother to show up to collect either!

Arturo had called the Scrub Bay Dive center and confirmed that they would refill our tanks, so we loaded up the dinghy with all 10 tanks. Arturo, Mark, and Kathryn would go refill the tanks while the rest of us chilled out on the boat, since the dinghy was already very low on the water with all 10 scuba tanks onboard. Kathryn wanted to do some souvenir shopping as well. The trio dropped the tanks off at the dive center (it turned out that there was a 20% discount for doing 10 tanks at once), did some reprovisioning, and then came back to pick everyone up to snorkel at Diamond Reef.

Diamond Reef had excellent snorkeling, and we had a great time exploring the area. Not for nothing was the place so popular that we couldn't anchor there! After that, we paid a visit to Marina Cay hoping for some ice cream but there was none to be had! We then dropped everyone else on the boat and Xiaoqin, Arturo, Mark and I went over to Scrub Island to pick up the dive tanks and buy ice cream! On the way there Arturo pointed out that one of the luxury Catamarans that were tied up at a slip had the royal colors of Spain!

We picked up the dive tanks with no problems --- there was even a wheelbarrow handy so we wouldn't have to carry the tanks one at a time, and Xiaoqin bought 3 cartons of ice cream, enough to feed the boat. We were greeted with cheers.

Dinner that night was boiled hot dogs, with Arturo saving the leftover quinoa for another night so we didn't get sick of it. We did some star gazing but there was a lot of light interference from the airport, and there were splotches of rain, so we called it a night early. I had big plans for the next morning --- a long sail to Jost Van Dyke with a possible stop at Brewer's Bay for some snorkeling along the way, so getting everyone to bed early fit my plans!

BVI 2025: Nov 24 Kelly's Cove, Norman Island to Deadman's Bay, Peter Island

 The long day yesterday and the jet lag still took its toll. Despite my intentions, I woke up at the late hour of 6:15am, and discovered that it was already quite bright. I made coffee for myself and Arturo, ate some cereal, and then we moved the boat 15 minutes over to the Indians, where we were still the first boat on the national park mooring ball.

By the time we'd finished our boat move, everyone had awakened and were eating breakfast. Arturo went for a snorkel to recall the optimal places for diving, and the rest of us took the chance to go snorkeling as well. The Indians is a fantastic snorkeling site, and the value of being there early was apparent when by 7:30am, every mooring ball was taken.

We got our dive started around 8:30am, and we were finished by around 9:30am. We moved all the dive tanks back in place, and then moved the boat to Key Cay on Peter Island for the dive of the new Willy T wreck. We arrived as another dive boat had divers in the water, but moored our boat with no incident. We asked the dive boat if they had a good dive and they said they did.

Arturo got in the water to snorkel around, and then discovered that the mast of the Willy T's was directly under the La Badine. He looked dubious about the dive, and I had my expectations set low, but we were there, so decided to do the dive anyway. With everyone in the water, we descended and there was the Willy T's, but this time, decorated with pirates of the Caribbean style. The wreck wasn't very old, at most 3-4 years old, but it had had enough time to pick up coral, and quite some wildlife, though it was a bit too deep for the colors to pop in the photos. As predicted by Arturo, we finished the dive because we ran out of things to see long before we ran out of air.

Packing everything away, we motor'd upwind around Peter Island towards Cooper Island. Upon arriving at Cooper Island's Manchioneel Bay, however, we saw that every first come first serve mooring ball was already taken, and every reservable mooring ball was already spoken for. We went past Cistern point to see if there was a place to anchor, but the placement of mooring balls there meant that anchoring was iffy at best. After a failed attempt to drop our anchor I decided it was wiser to raise the sail and sail to Deadman's Bay.

Sailing downwind was easy, and we arrived at Deadman's Bay around 4:00pm, with enough time to go swimming or snorkeling or paddleboarding after parking at a $40 mooring ball. Dinner this time was shrimp with quinoa (we'd discovered that one of the refrigerators didn't work at all, so had to eat the seafood early before it spoiled!), and then some superlative star gazing before bedtime. Our goal the next day was to motor over to the Baths as early as we could wake up.