18:21.68N  64:35.09W

 

Friday 3 to Monday 6 April 2015

 

It rained during the morning and we were keen to get away from ‘Mr motor boat’ and his generator which started again mid morning.  Once the rain stopped I went ashore to ‘dump the trash’ and check the weather forecast on the internet and we left late morning.  There was a bit of a blow and we beat into 25 to 32 knots of wind towards Norman Island.  This island forms part of the chain of ‘Channel Islands’ which run parallel to the south coast of Tortola with Francis Drake Channel running between.  The other main islands are Peter, Salt, Cooper and Ginger Islands.

 

Our speed was noticeably down with the barnacles we have on the hull and propeller but we still made good progress under reefed sails.  There weren’t as many boats out today!  The most popular bay on Norman Island is The Bight but this looked very crowded as we got near.  Over the last couple of days there has been a continuous stream of motor boats arriving from Puerto Rico for the Easter Holiday who, having cleared Customs in Soper’s, have no doubt gone to places such as The Bight to enjoy the delights of the Willy T ‘pirate ship’.  This is a bar/restaurant and has the reputation for being somewhat raucous although it has always been tame when we have been there.

 

We decided to skip The Bight altogether and head directly for Benures Bay which is a quiet favourite.  There is nothing here and the mooring buoys haven’t invaded yet.  For the first hour after anchoring several charter catamarans attempted to anchor in the relatively small area between us and the shore.  Most moved on once they realised there was insufficient room to swing at anchor but eventually one decided to stay.  The accepted protocol is that if the first boat to anchor is not happy with the proximity of the second then the second can be asked to leave.  We didn’t want the hassle which would come from spoiling their holiday so we raised anchor and moved to the other side of the bay.  This was a little more exposed but had the advantage of a more consistent wind so we didn’t move in circles around the anchor, and there were no other boats!

 

 

This was the following morning after most of the boats have gone from the normal anchoring spot across the bay:-

 

 

 

 

We had our own little ‘beach’ close behind us:-

 

 

 

 

The darker area of water is caused by the sea grass on the sea bed which attracted several turtles throughout our stay.  As the water was clear we decided the following morning to don our snorkel gear and have a look at the nearby reef which was quite attractive but remarkably clear of fish!  Then it was time to have a go at scraping the barnacles from the propeller. 

 

On Sunday morning we attacked the barnacles again.  I’m sure somebody mixed some barnacle food into our antifouling paint.  The real reason for them was the fertile water in Simpsons Lagoon in St Martin where we anchored for 5 weeks.  All the boats in there were complaining of much the same thing and many seemed much worse than we were.

 

For a change of scene we motored a couple of miles across to White Bay on the south coast of Peter Island.  The island is private and landing ashore is not allowed so we contented ourselves with some swimming and a couple more sessions with the scrapers.

 

The following day, Monday, we gently sailed the 6 miles along the south coast of Peter Island and around the western headland and back along the north coast to Great Harbour.  Like Great Harbour on Jost van Dyke this is really a bay rather than a harbour.  Again very little has changed here although a number of mooring buoys have sprung up since our pilot book was written but none of them were placed in the recognised anchoring areas which is good news for those of us who prefer to anchor (and avoid the US$30/day mooring buoy fee).

 

 

 

Looking ahead to the head of Great Harbour:-

 

 

 

 

and behind us across Francis Drake Channel towards Tortola:-

 

 

 

A further couple of sessions during the day with the scraper in the clear water.  We are making very good progress now and we are happy at how our snorkelling technique is coming on.