Monday 26th December
Nowcrew
Tue 27 Dec 2005 16:16
Boxing Day -
Marina Cay Tortola
We spent the morning
on land at The Bitter End. It was self service brunch at the hotel
restaurant and then we explored the resort which is a high class all inclusive
adventure holiday hotel. If anyone wanted a taste of the Caribbean with a lot of
water sports activities included in a very beautiful venue then this would be
highly recommended.
After lunch we set
sail again and headed for Marina Cay. This is set between Scrub Island and Great
Camanoe. It is nestled behind a reef and has an all weather anchorage. Ashore
there was a Pusser's company Store and a beech bar and restaurant and a little
six room hotel. The shallow, warm, waters behind the reef of the lagoon make it
ideal for snorkelling.
Most of the crew
swam or snorkelled to the beech and then sat at the beach bar and had cocktails.
Rory, Jason and Frazer collected coral pieces in the lagoon and they used
them to make up messages in the sand later.
This setting is
often described in guides as a tropical jewel and at sunset we all saw why. The
light reflected off the shallow waters of the reef and the scene was
magical.
We ate on the boat
that night using up more of the M&S meals we had stocked the boat with for
the ARC. after we had eaten Ron used the big torch to spot for fish in the
shallow clear waters and soon lit up a giant manta ray just under the surface.
This was one of the largest rays we had seen on this journey. You usually see
small one's on the sandy bottom when snorkelling but this had come up to the
surface to feed.
We were about to all
have an early night when Dan persuaded us to head back to the beach bar for a
few night caps. Ron looked after Jason, Rory and Frazer and we shuttled in on
the dingy. It was great to sit on the fine sandy beach in the dark with a bottle
of red stripe and chat about our adventures so far.
Nowcrew
out.