What an odd thing to say to someone who is about to use two-engine control to deftly maneuver out of the mooring field. I guess we can do it her way, since I had already figured out how much room we would need to fall off before the sails bite and give us some control.
It worked out just fine. We left the last of the charter boats behind, and then gybed for the leg through the pass. That's when the forecast let us down.
Since we're in the Trade Wind Belt, we were expecting winds out of the east-northeast at nearly twenty knots. All of the forecasts said it would actually be a little stronger than that for a few days. In Cane Garden Bay, I was happy to be in the lee of the hills, where the five-knot winds acted on our pre-double-reefed sails to make for a nice, slow getaway.
After we left the pass, the wind decreased to three knots or so. Fine, I thought. We'll just wait until we are out of the lee of the hills. As rain showers raced overhead and occasionally doused us, we saw almost none of it at sea level, but I was loathe to shake out more sail for fear of getting blasted by a squall. As all of the charter boats from Cane Garden Bay went motoring past us, I tried my best to remain patient and enjoy the zen of sailing very slowly.
After tacking past the western end of Tortola into the gap between it and St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, The wind stopped and then came in from the west at two knots.
Undeterred, we tried to keep sailing, but it seemed that every time another two-hundred-degree wind shift would hit us, we would end up having to alter course in front of someone who had just dodged around us from our last swerve. I didn't mind making the charterers do it as it was a good review of the rules of the road, but I was feeling distinctly more guilty about being constantly in the way of the big ships. It must have seemed to them like it was our first time renting a boat.
Eventually, with only about two miles to go to our first stop, we finally got some real wind and were able to behave like a proper sailboat again for about twenty minutes. Then it was time to pull all of the sail down and pick up a park service mooring ball.
Our first stop was at The Indians, billed by many sources as the best snorkeling in the BVI. As we had crawled along earlier, we had been carefully watching with interest the turnover of the few mooring balls there. They appeared to be all gone when we arrived, but then a helpful neighbor pointed out to us an empty one that had been obscured from us by another boat. Woo Hoo!
We took two circuits at The Indians's site to enjoy the underwater geology and life, there is a 90 minute time limit on the mooring balls so we couldn't do more
Having been there now and seeing it firsthand, I think we would both agree that the reports are true. The snorkeling at The Indians is very good, with plenty of interesting geology to add to the above-average diversity of coral and fish species. We did two laps together for good measure and then moved Begonia the short distance to the caves at Norman Island.
Here, the big draw is not the fish or the coral, but a few caves accessible from the adjacent moorings. We got there when the only other boat was just untying and had the place to ourselves for a while before the next groups started showing up.
Almost all of these were clearly commercial tour groups, yet they seemed to be pretty universally unprepared for the site. Not one of them had any sort of underwater light for use in the caves and a third seemed to be flailing around with just a mask and snorkel, but no fins.
No matter the size of the contingent outside, Maryanne and I could always find solitude by finning past them and then using our light to find the deserted back of the cave. The coolest stuff to see was all back there. For example, we spotted a pretty big Lion Fish, which was cool to see, but also very much not something you would want to accidentally step on in the dark. I'm surprised none of the tour operators even had a group leader with a light.
The 3 caves of Norman Island are a popular excursion, you can swim right in (no need to dive down and hold your breath). There was some great growth on the walls (Sponges? Algae?) and a couple of nice picture views, but they were small and quickly seen (but worth the visit). One cave is soon fully dark, and fewer of the tourists seem to visit beyond the entrance, thankfully we'd brought along our underwater flashlights. And we visited two days in a row! The caves (and surrounding waters) were filled with comb jellies that were sometimes so think you'd have to swim through them and several would bounce off our exposed cheeks and appendages.
When Maryanne and I were done, we had just enough time to cast off our mooring and drop anchor on the other side of the bay before the rapid tropical darkness set in.
The next day, as dozens and dozens of boats came and went, we spent our time slowly snorkeling the entire length of the bay and back. With Begonia around the corner, we did get a couple of confused looks from people as we emerged from the caves with no obvious dinghy or mother ship in sight.
Snorkelling for hours on the surrounding cliffs and shoreline was just as much fun, we are fully aware of our huge privilege in this life
Anchorage location (Privateer Bay, Norman Island)>> On google maps
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