Spelunking

Well, no, not really spelunking, but we were having fun snorkeling in and around the caves on Norman Island.

Norman Island lies south of Tortola and east of St. John. Departing from Cane Garden Bay, we started our travel here yesterday with a nice relaxed downwind sail along the northern coast of Tortola. It didn’t matter to us how slow we were going… we were going downwind! Our entire trip from the Chesapeake to here has been to windward (into the wind) so we were happy to enjoy ourselves. Ultimately we did have to “tap out” and start an engine when, after sailing into the Thatch Island Cut, the wind dropped to essentially nothing and the current helped to cut our speed to nil. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

We’re getting used to seeing bays filled with mooring balls and The Bight at Norman is no exception. We moved close up to the shore though and dropped our anchor in front of all of them, just by the Pirates Bight beach. Too bad their web cam isn’t working! With much of the afternoon left to play, we opted to take the short dinghy ride around the corner to “The Caves.” We’re really glad we did too. As you can see from the pics below, it was pretty cool. Although the coral was not as elaborate as we have seen, it was some great snorkeling, the best we have experienced since Rum Cay (there are no doubt plenty of great snorkel spots between here and there — we just haven’t come across them).

Anchorage: The Bight, Norman Island, BVI
Internet on boat with Alfa: Yes. Free. Fairly fast and consistent.
Internet on boat without Alfa: No.
Internet on shore: NA