BVI 2017: Day 7 - Privateer Bay (Norman Island) to Soldier Bay (Norman Island)

The day started at 6:00am. At this point, everyone on board the Kokomo III had shifted to the schedule Arturo and I had set, and the saloon was positively bustling by 6:10, with coffee, Mac & Cheese, milk and cereal all in various stages of consumption. Our plan was to dive a site on Dead Chest island, but upon motoring there, we broke the boat hook trying to grab the yellow mooring ball! We called up Conch Charters and they gave us a choice: we could either use the deck brush, or swing by and they'll dinghy a new boat hook to us.

Conch charters was a beam reach from where we were, so we put up sails and were at Conch charters by 9:00am. 5 minutes of circling, and we had a new boat hook, at which point I just motor'd straight to site B for diving. Site B didn't look any good for snorkeling, however, so we went back to Cistern point, where Bowen and I would dinghy over with the divers and then swim back to the mooring ball by ourselves so we wouldn't have to wait for the divers.

Cistern point is just as great a snorkel site as it is a dive site, and Bowen had fun exploring the location. I pointed out a flat fish to him and even chased it around a bit so it would be easier for him to see, but he would later claim that he couldn't see it. I guess that camouflage worked really well.

When the divers came back, Arturo proclaimed that the dive had been a bust! "I got lost," Arturo said sheepishly. That's never happened as long as I've been diving with Arturo, so I was surprised. "It happens," said Arturo. "Well, we're on Cooper Island. We can dinghy over and get a refill!" To my surprise Arturo said "No. We're finished. You know what independent events are, right? What happened this morning was not a series of independent events." Reflecting on what had happened, I realized that we'd made mistake after mistake which led to breaking the boat hook, as well as not finding the dive site we wanted to find. We were probably tired and not making good judgements, which meant that we shouldn't keep diving.

So we put up sails and headed over to Peter Island's Little Harbor, which was our initial choice for a final night in the BVIs. Passing by the island in the morning, we had noted that there were a lot of masts there. The book indicated that good snorkeling was to be had there. Getting into the harbor, we took down the sails and motor'd around. None of the obvious anchoring spots were good, but there was a place where I could do a forward anchor and back out and then tie a stern line to shore. I thought about initiating this (we had done it in much tougher conditions in Canadian waters), and then I noticed that everyone on the boats tied up in that location had no shirts on --- it was cooking hot! I thought about it and said, "Norman Island."

I'd planned to head for Privateer Bay again, but while motoring towards Norman Island spied 2 bays I'd never been to before: Soldier Bay and Benures Bay. Soldier Bay looked quiet, so Soldier Bay it was.

Soldier Bay turned out to have excellent snorkeling! We got to see a Sting Ray feeding, and John even spotted a shark!

It was a great place to spend the night: it didn't have much by the way of a sunset, but it would have an early sun tomorrow, and we might even have time to do a morning swim before having to return the boat.

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BVI 2017: Day 6 - Long Cay to Privateer Bay (Norman Island)

Sandy Spit is easily one of the smallest islands you'll find anywhere. According to Strava, it took Arturo and I less than 90 seconds to run around it. There's but a single palm tree on the island, and it is in fact the quintessential small-boat experience in the Caribbean. We got up at 6:00am, ate a leisurely breakfast of Mac & Cheese, and still got to Sandy Spit by 7:00am from Long Bay. We dropped the anchor, watched a bit to make sure it held, and then snorkeled in to check the anchor before swimming or taking the dinghy to the beach.

Once on the beach, we ran around the island a few times, Bowen and Boen played with sand, and we generally had fun. The water was still too churned up for good visibility, and we reluctantly agreed that Jost Van Dyke wasn't going to be fun diving on this trip. At 8:00am, we had had enough. Another boat had pulled up to Sandy Spit and we could tell that they were waiting for us to leave: as soon as our dinghy left the island, their dinghy headed exactly for the landing spot we had picked!

Looking at Arturo's dive guide, the best candidate was Angelfish Reef, on Norman Island. We hoisted the dinghy, and sailed towards Soper's Hole to pick up water and final provisions for our last two days. Once again I was struck at how idyllic the place looked: except for a few ferry boats and one tiny cruise ship (obviously a luxury cruise ship), we were surrounded by sails.

In Soper's Hole, we were extraordinarily efficient, sailing all the way to the mouth of the harbor before dropping sails and starting the engine, then simultaneously filling up with water and reprovisioning. Our dive tanks were still full. We then motor'd back across the narrow channel and then raised the sails again.

This time, we had to gybe several times, lining ourselves up with Nanny Cay before being able to make a beeline for Angelfish Reef. At Angelfish Reef, we found that the mooring buoy provided was yellow, meaning that it was supposedly only for commercial vessels. We took a chance and tied up to it anyway, and then proceeded to dive. Xiaoqin got to dive this one, while I would take Bowen snorkeling.

The snorkeling wasn't all that good, but while waiting for the divers to come back, I had time to notice that there were white mooring balls available closer to Norman Island. The divers came back just in time for us to vacate the mooring buoy to yield to a commercial diving vessel. We moved to a white mooring ball, but just as we were settling in we saw another boat vacate an even better mooring ball, right up against the caves! We immediately jumped on it: we were now such a smoothly working team that we had no compunctions whatsoever about redoing a mooring.

In the afternoon heat, we turned on the generator and the AC, but really, the far better solution was to get into snorkeling gear and go snorkeling. This time, with the surge gone, I could take Bowen all the way into the caves!

When Bowen was done with snorkeling, I took Xiaoqin out and we got to see a turtle feeding! It was a great experience. Everyone reported that the conditions were much better than our first day some 5 days ago, with clear water and no surge. There was no question that we would stay here for the night.

The sunset lived up to the standards we expected in the Caribbean. Golden, beautiful, and with a sea-breeze to cool us down. For a change, nobody was ill on the boat, and with a full moon in the night there was no more romantic place in the world.

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BVI 2017: Day 5 - Soper's Hole to Long Bay

Bowen joined us on our usual 6:00am reverie, as did Boen. I made him Mac & Cheese for breakfast, after which the rest of the crew proceeded to explain to me that Mac & Cheese is not breakfast food like I'd thought, but was in fact, lunch and dinner food. I'm just bringing up my kids all wrong by feeding them Mac & Cheese for breakfast!

We raised the dinghy, turned on the engines, puttered out of Soper's hole, and once past the channel between Great Thatch and Tortola, raised the sails and turned off the engine.

The original plan was to visit Sandy Spit or Sandy Cay and enjoy a morning on the beaches, but upon arrival, we observed that the place was pretty rocky, and so proceeded to look for a less rocky anchorage. We found a mooring ball right off of Foxy's Taboo. No one was using the slips next to the bar, since it looked like it would beat up your boat just by sitting at the slip. The forecast was for the swells to slowly die off the rest of the day, so in the mean time we decided to visit the bubbly pool, which should be excellent during times of north swells.

The hike to the pool is best done in dry conditions, there are several Manchineel Trees on the trail that would blisters the skin if you stood under the tree in a rain storm! The day was dry, and except for Bowen feeling out of sorts, we made it to the pool easily and in short order. The intermittent waves from the Atlantic would blow past the rocks guarding the entrance and make a natural jaccuzzi out of cool water. With the swells, we certainly had lots of bubbles to play with!

After we had had our fill of the pool, we explored the cliffs above the pools, which presented views of the Atlantic as well as an astonishing blow-hole.

On the way back at the boat, we walked past a sign that said "Jewel's Bakery." We stopped and Bowen ordered a pineapple tart. We brought it back to the boat and checked the forecast again. To our dismay, the forecast for the swells had been pushed off and we were expected to have swells the rest of the day into most of tomorrow. We had a quick debate as to what to do --- we still had plenty of time to sail over to Norman island, forgoing Sandy Spit and Sandy Cay. But the place was nice, we had plenty of sunshine, and we were on vacation, so staying put was also a good option. In the end, we opted to stay put.

We had a cold lunch, then as the day warmed up, got into the water with mask and snorkel. The shallows were a lot of fun, having a lot of coral and feather dusters to play with. In fact, Bowen wanted to touch every feather duster he saw, though with a wet suit on, he was far too buoyant to be able to dive! I helped him and he could submerge and touch a few and make them shrink.

After a long 40-minute snorkel that even ended with me cold, Bowen took a nap, though not before asking for more pineapple tart. What I noticed was that there was a strong current coming back to the boat. I talked Arturo into running the dinghy back to get the tart from the bakery, and then after dropping it off at the Kokomo III, we ran the dinghy over to Sandy Spit to see if it was a viable place to anchor for the night.

The currents were fairly strong. At one point, it felt like the dinghy had stalled, and Arturo had the throttle on the outboard motor run all the way! The looked at various potential anchorages on the way back from Sandy Spit, which didn't look appealing at all. In the end, nothing looked appealing: the one boat which had anchored in what looked like a quiet spot was actually (illegally) anchor'd on a coral patch, while the others looked like they would be very bouncy. Our mooring ball looked good by comparison.

That evening, we ran the oven and made pizza, and used the BBQ for the last time to make chicken. Our plan the next day was to spend time on Sandy Spit, and then find a place to dive if the swells had come down. In fact, if the swells did come down, we could visit Great Tortugas, which I had never been.

At night, I started an evening star-gazing session with Bowen. He really wanted to see a shooting star, and I had actually spotted one near the start of the trip, and Mark reported he saw one the day before. "Did you make a wish, Daddy?" "Yes I did. I wished for you to be safe and grow up healthy." "I have a wish for when I see a shooting star." "Really? What is it?" "I wish for my brother to have swimming lessons and learn how to swim!" Bowen's such a sweet kid.

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BVI 2017: Day 4 - Great Harbor (Peter Island) to Soper's Hole

I slept for 9 and a half hours the night before, which put me in a great mood come 6:00am! In fact, I definitely felt well enough to dive. Bowen had also switched to a 6:00am rise time, so now we had a full complement of crew at 6:00 to help move the boat. We made coffee, ate quickly, and did engine checks as well as health checks. Arturo and Mark felt great, and John also felt OK to dive, so we headed off to fine the wreck of the Rhone buoy.

We arrived at the Rhone NPS buoys as the only boat around. A swim check revealed that there was a better buoy for what we wanted to do, so we moved the boat and then started prepping for the dive. Xiaoqin felt well enough to dive, so she did the first dive while I took Bowen around the bow part of the wreck so he could look around as well as see mommy dive.

We were just about done with the snorkelling and were waiting for the divers to come up from their first dive before the first commercial dive boat started showing up. Dive shops typically start at 8:00am, and it takes a good hour to prep the divers and then drive the dive boats over to the dive sites, so if you manage to get to the dive site at 7:30am, you pretty much get the place to yourself.

My third (and last) dive on this trip didn't feel as nice as the first two. My lens kept flooding, and I had a hard time descending. Add to that was a current that did nothing for my sense of peace. Nevertheless, the wreck of the Rhone is still a great dive, and I enjoyed myself. Arturo did a good job of steering us away from what had become a crowded dive site, and when we got back on-board, we were hungry enough to eat lunch before putting away the gear and setting sail for Soper's Hole.

My last sail to Soper's Hole was in 2007 on a mono-hull. With a single-engine and inexperienced crew, dealing with mooring buoys was such a chore that I opted for a slip, and didn't have a good experience --- it took a long time to pick up water, and the place felt crowded. We debated contingency plans for when we got there, including deploying the dinghy to reserve a mooring buoy if the place was so crowded that finding a free mooring buoy was going to be an issue.

Once in the harbor, we were told to go to the main fuel dock to pick up water. While we were filling up our water tanks, we put Xiaoqin, her mom, and the 2 kids ashore, while I did the dishes. Mark, John, Arturo and I found a wheel barrow, moved all the empty air tanks into it, and then Mark proceeded to wheel it to the Blue Water Divers shop. The shop had a great policy --- since we had rented the tanks from them, we didn't have to wait for a fill --- they would just exchange our tanks with already filled ones, and then bill us for the fill along with the rental equipment when the charter was entirely over.

We paid for a mooring ball and water, and then got off the docks to grab a nearby mooring ball. There were a large number available, so it was a non issue.

Ashore, Bowen and Boen had gotten ice cream, but when we arrived at the land showers (might anticipated), we discovered that the marina office was closed! While the staff manning the fuel station was willing to give us the code to the bathroom, the showers would only operate using a token that can be purchased from the marina office.

Arturo was unhappy. "No land showers, no way am I going to eat ashore!" We reprovisioned, piled into the dinghy, and went back to the Kokomo III intending to get a BBQ dinner. Even that was almost thwarted, as the BBQ literally fell apart in Arturo's hands when he mounted it! It was so old that the hole around the screw cap had rusted off. Arturo salvaged it by screwing back everything in an "unauthorized" fashion. "It probably won't hold for more than 2 more BBQs, but we don't have to BBQ more than that!"

For once, everyone had a decent appetite, but right after he had his burger, Bowen threw up! He'd gotten the Nolo virus. We cleaned up, gave him a nice hot shower, and put him to bed with a garbage bag and instructions to throw up into the bag if he felt sick. This left Mark the only person who'd gotten away without getting sick. Not coincidentally, he had imposed quarantine by labeling a bowl, plate, and eating utensils with his name and making sure he was the only person to touch them.

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BVI 2017 Day 3 - Cooper Island to Peter Island (Great Harbor)

Upon waking up, Arturo told me that he threw up a couple of times during the night, which must have sucked. Well, definitely no diving today. He didn't feel well enough to lead any dives. For whatever reason, I always thought the motor from Cooper Island to the Baths was 2 hours. It turned out to be closer to 40 minutes.

Arturo reminded us that the Baths had been listed as one of the 250 places you have to visit in your lifetime. Visiting the Baths in a small boat is the best way to see it. For one, by arriving at 7:15am, we had our choice of mooring balls and could moor near to the dingy buoys for a short swim ashore. The waves were surprisingly big, but it was not a problem for Bowen to swim to shore, after which I went back to fetch Boen. Boen did not care much for the swim ashore, however, screaming all the way from the dinghy to the shore, whereupon he attached himself to mommy and refused to let anyone else hold him.

The hike from Devil's Bay to Spanish Bay is unique: you walk amongst the Batholiths, negotiating over and in between boulders, occasionally wading in water the came up to your waist. You're assisted along the process by rope, stair cases, and in many cases have to bend down, squat down, or squeeze between places. Xiaoqin's job was made much worse by a clingy baby, a far cry from the last time we visited the place with just adult friends. Bowen, by contrast, loved it, and walked every step himself.

Upon reaching Spanish Bay, Arturo realized that the swim to the dinghy line there was shorter, so he and Mark volunteered to return to Devil's Bay, pick up the Dinghy, and shuttle it over so that Xiaoqin wouldn't have to walk all the way back. Xiaoqin agreed and shortly thereafter, the two of them returned with the Dinghy. I swam out with Bowen, Arturo met me half-way to pick him up, and then I went back to grab Boen, who screamed once again all the way back to the dinghy.

Arturo was effusive with praise for Bowen's swimming. "I held out my hand to him in case he needed help but he pushed it away. Then as he approached the boat he started corkscrewing just for the heck of it, and I realized that I wasn't there to babysit him. I was just there to observe and keep him from getting over-confident! You're swimming like a dolphin, Bowen!"

Once on the boat, we ate some snacks and then hoisted the main halyard while on the mooring buoy. Then I powered on the engine, we dis-engaged the mooring lines, and sailed on a broad reach towards Peter Island. Since all our air tanks were filled, we did not need to stop at Cooper but could get a less rocky harbor. Half of our freshwater was gone, however, so I knew that we would have to make a stop somewhere for water the next day or the day after at the very latest.

Arriving at the Great Harbor, we looked about for anchorage space but there wasn't any. There were plenty of mooring balls, however, so we picked one deep on the inside of the harbor for the smoothest night, and then proceeded to rest and eat lunch. At about 3:00pm it got so warm that we needed to go for a swim, and proceeded to look for a snorkeling place, which the cruising guide said that the Great Harbor was known for. Taking the dinghy out towards the restaurants on the west side of the harbor, we looked for a dinghy buoy but didn't find one. We ended up tying to the dinghy dock for the restaurant, whereupon the staff told us to just jump off the dinghy dock and look around!

Indeed the area was full of wildlife and fish, including a barracuda which I didn't spot but Arturo and John did. However, the north swell had churned up the water so much so that visibility was very limited so we didn't get many pictures.

That evening, Boen seemed much recovered, while the rest of us were still feeling a bit sick. At least without Boen screaming at night we'd all have a chance to rest. So we all took an early night, hoping that sleep would heal all.

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BVI 2017: Day 2 - Norman Island to Cooper Island

We got up at 6:00am, made coffee, checked the engines, and headed out to the Indians, enjoying the sun rise and solitude as we were the first boat to arrive. The biggest problem with arriving at the BVIs during spring break is that the solitude is soon gone. By 7:30am, all the mooring buoys were taken, but we had the prime spot! Soon, we were in the water exploring the area.

In the past, we'd always opted to do 2 dives at the Indians, but the current warning from the chart briefing was to arrive at Cooper island before 12:00pm to be assured of getting a mooring ball, so we opted to do just one dive. Xiaoqin was still feeling ill, so I would get to dive and then take Bowen for a snorkel after the dive.

While many complain that the dives in the BVIs are shallow, I don't mind. In shallow waters you get better light, and that makes for better photography. The dive in the Indians for me felt like I'd never left diving. The BCD Arturo had rented for me felt perfect, with weight pockets so I didn't need a belt, and 8 pounds of weight felt very comfortable. The swim through was no problem, and holding a 15' depth for a 3 minute safety stop didn't result in me bobbing up and down.

Upon returning to the Kokomo III from the dive, we talked Bowen into a wet suit and got him into the water with his mask and snorkel on. As Arturo instructed the day before, I refused to give him any towing, and made him swim to the reefs by himself. As expected, he wasn't at all uncomfortable in the water, and in fact, swam all the way around the Indians navigating the shallows with ease and making it onto the swimming ladder by himself. In fact, he even took off his own fins and threw them onto the boat! He would improve from day to day at a dramatic rate for the rest of the trip.

We motor'd up wind to Cooper Island, arriving just half an hour short of the 12:00pm deadline. Sure enough, there were only one or two mooring balls left and we grabbed one directly from the dinghy dock for air tank refills. We had lunch, then dropped off an air tank refill for the Cooper Island dive center. After digestion, we loaded 3 dive sets onto the dinghy. John was filling sick and had started to throw up, indicating that he had contracted Boen's Nolo virus. Xiaoqin was similarly out of sorts, so it was just Arturo, me, and Mark diving Cistern point.

Cistern point was a great location for wildlife. We spotted a lobster (rare sighting during the day), and a turtle. It was a long enough dive that I started feeling cold towards the end, and we all ended the dive with well over 1000psi in the tanks, indicating the being cold was the limiting factor, not running out of air.

Upon the return, we delivered air tanks back to the dive center for another round of refills, and picked up the previously filled dive tanks. Bowen refused to do more snorkeling despite having seen the turtle, but agreed to go ashore with mommy for ice cream. Arturo started feeling a bit ill, so we checked the weather forecast to plan the next day. The original plan was to dive the wreck of the Rhone, but with everyone feelling so ill and North swell conditions being in effect, we decided it would be better to do the Baths the next day and then come back to Peter Island to do the Rhone the day after.

Sunset was pretty as usual. It was muted because so many folks were sick that we didn't really cook very much as not enough people felt like eating. We retired early to try to rest up for another 6:00am start the next day.

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