Norman Island. The Bight. We landed just before 10am on Sunday morning and discovered mooring buoys laid so tight, there was no where to anchor. Again. We’d reached ‘Treasure Island’, where Stevenson set his classic tale. The tale with the best, more charming baddie ever. We on Quest love Silver, as long as you have a barrel of apples handy to hide in.

By the number of boats and mooring buoys around, it seemed everybody else here wanted a piece of eight too. Including super yachts that should really have enough already. But can you blame them? They probably all modelled themselves on Silver. One super yacht owner surrounded by his staff drove past and gave us such a huge, happy wave, it was a strangely heartening sight. Especially since I was just trying to feed my ungrateful kids salad. There was a steady stream of charters into the bay. One boat was playing Christopher Cross’s Sailing. Perhaps he’d dreamed for years, ‘When I rock up in Treasure Island, I’m going to have this blaring out of the speakers.’ ‘Technically, he’s not even sailing,’ our blondie crew pointed out. I don’t know; take the kid across the Atlantic… The boat was a motor catamaran; the kind we’d seen about twice before coming to the BVIs and about three hundred since we’ve got here. So, technically they were right. Still, dreams are dreams, no? 

Sunday lunch over unusually early (anyone for large amounts of leftover salad), it was time to explore. The bay adjacent to us, Privateer Bay has a network of sea caves. We thought of Ben Gunn and his hidden loot and were off. We discovered more mooring buoys with luxury catamarans and inflatable unicorns. Someone here is making a killing on those unicorns. We tied ourselves to the dinghy line and jumped in. It wasn’t pristine. We had to avoid other peoples’ flippers in a nature-trail underwater queue, Some sailors turn their noses up at this kind of thing. Unless it’s off the beaten track, they’re not going. We have mixed feelings. On the one hand we’re just happy to be here, on the other the US $30 mooring buoy fee sucks. When we got back to Quest, we discovered Treasure Island had no wifi. No wifi? We were just around the corner from Tortola’s capital. These were high class problems or what… so we left. 

The next island in these Southern Channel chain is Peter Island. Just around the corner. Five full bars of 3G and an empty anchorage. In strong-holding sand. In these moments we like to use the ‘Amalie’ test on Quest. Would our young friend, Amalie like it here, we always wonder? Is the beach wild enough? Are there materials to build with, the sea clear and the forest remote? We looked around. Amalie would like it here. Yup, we’re good. Note to charter boats: very rolly conditions. You should stay on Treasure. 

Love from Quest and her crew xx