BVI Trip: April 6 – Peter Island To Salt Island To Virgin Gorda
We pulled anchor early the next AM to head over to Salt Island to dive the wreck of the Rhone. Salt Island is an uninhabited island which historically was used to mine salt from the 2 large salt ponds on the island. The RMS Rhone sunk in 1867, and is one of the few wreck dives where you can see such large portions of the ship’s structure. We were snorkelling only but free dove to 65 – 75 feet and could touch cannons, hatches etc. A great dive. Make sure you hike up the hill by the large salt pond on Salt Island to get the amazing views of the small cove on the north east side of Salt Island.
We then cruised a round Cooper and Ginger Island and over to Fallen Jerusalem. Fallen Jerusalem is a great spot to anchor swim and snorkel, and it doesn’t get near as crowded as the nearby and more famous Baths on Virgin Gorda. I’m not sure what caused it, but there are literally tens of thousands of dead conch shells on the bottom at Fallen Jerusalem, making for an interesting snorkel. We stayed anchored there, but took the tender over to the Baths. This is an interesting hike through many aquatic caves, but I recommend going first thing in the morning, or it is likely to be totally overrun by tourists and very crowded. We then returned to the Moonshadow, and sailed over to Savannah Bay, our anchorage for the evening. After some wakeboarding behind the tender and some cocktails, we were treated to an epic sunset, with great views of Tortola and the Dogs.
BVI Trip: April 5 – Norman Island to the Indians To Peter Island
After a peaceful night’s sleep in the Norman Island Bight, we pulled anchor relatively early and motored out to the Indians. This popular diving spot has limited mooring balls so we wanted to get out there before the crowd so we could grab a spot.
The Indians is a great dive spot, basically 5 rock outcroppings which rise starkly out of the water. Underneath the surface there are numerous walls, cliffs and tunnels with an amazing variety of sea life based on the positioning in tidal currents. Leah and I took the sea kayak for a paddle around Pelican Island.
We then sailed to Deadman’s Bay on Peter Island for the afternoon. We had a nice lunch on the boat and then went to the beach to chill.
The breeze was filling in , even though Deadman’s Bay is somewhat shielded from the prevailing trades by the rock cliffs on the east end. I could see whitecaps out in the channel, and I was itching to see if I could could get the kite up, so I went to the beach to rig. I was able to launch but the wind was too light / variable to do much riding. The wind was effectively blowing straight offshore once I got out the bay, and I was a little bit worried about drifting across to Tortola if I dropped the kite, so I bagged it.
We did some tubing in the bay behind the tender, which my daughters loved. Then we motored over to Grand Harbor, had sunset cocktails and dinner, and settled down for the evening.
BVI Trip: April 4 – St Thomas to Tortola to Norman Island
In April of 2009, my family and I took a great vacation aboard a charter catamaran from Voyage Charters. We sailed for 8 days on the Moon Shadow, a totally luxurious 58 ft Voyage catamaran. This honestly was the best vacation our family has ever taken, combining natural beauty, relaxation, fun and quality family time (no internet or SMS most of the time). I’ve been meaning for a long time to chronicle briefly our itinerary, which I will do in the next series of posts.
We actually flew into St Thomas on April 3, and spent the night at the Marriott on St Thomas. On April 4, we took the ferry over to Tortola and then met up with our crew, Keith (Captain, Bartender and fellow kiteboarder) and Meghan (Mate and Chef). We loaded our gear and sailed over to Norman Island. This is the island where the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were filmed. There is excellent snorkeling in “The Caves”, and there are literally some caves where we got so deep that you could not see sunlight anymore. After a nice late afternoon snorkel, we motored over to the Bight where we anchored for the night.
The Indians
The Indians
Norman Islan Caves
Norman Island Caves
Sunset Over Tortola
