RMS Rhone & Virgin Gorda

When you’re in the BVI, it’s obligatory to dive the RMS Rhone, a Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ship that sank in 1867 and was split in two by the force of a devastating hurricane. She’s 310 feet long: the bow section is in eighty feet of water and the stern in thirty so it was a good dive for Jamie.

Jamie and Chris dived the wreck and came up waxing lyrical about the visibility, the fish, the lobster, the coral and we decided to return with full bottles so I could see it too. Alex and Chris snorkelled over the wreck so Alex got a glimpse – he’s dying to do his open water too.

We then went to The Baths on Virgin Gorda, a collection of giant boulders that look like a giant flung them together but are actually the result of volcanic activity. It’s a great snorkelling spot – when it’s a bit calmer. We all found it a bit rough but dutifully snorkelled around a bit imagining how pretty it would be...


Pics: Sailing and Eating

Tortola: Soper's Hole

After our remora experience we sailed for Tortola and Soper’s Hole. This is a very pretty anchorage with pink, green, yellow and purple buildings in the marina and some lovely houses nestling in the hills surrounding the bay. We moored easily, explored the marina and had an expensive, execrable and slow dinner.

When we returned to the boat, we were slightly concerned with its close proximity to our neighbours, but we were moored to an immovable buoy, so we just shortened our line to the buoy. We had a couple of anchor alarms – they tell you that the boat has moved more than you should expect – and we dismissed them as GPS errors. Finally, we believed our eyes rather than the buoy and decided it was wandering.

By this time it was dark, there was no possibility of anchoring because the harbour is too deep, and the harbour was full. We had to get underway to avoid collision, so we cast off and started to sweep the sea with our Big Bertha torches to detect unlit boats and a hopefully empty mooring buoy. There were no available buoys but plenty of tension. Finally the skipper made a decision to tie to an empty private buoy on the basis this was an emergency and we would leave first thing in the morning. In the event, the owner of the buoy didn’t materialise, the mooring was strongly anchored to the sea floor so we didn’t move and everything was OK.

Really no Mora!

From Jamie:
Moored up in a bay in St John. Dad and I were talking about the baby fish that were swimming next to the starboard hull. I went inside to start school when I heard Dad scream.
“Jamie! Quickly! Alex! Quick come look at this in the water! It’s there!” he cried pointing to the right.

From Alex:
I dashed to the stern when I heard Dad call. He told us to go to the starboard, then to the port, then he said to come down to the dinghy (which I wish was a rib) so I rushed down and I saw what I thought was a shark! I nearly screamed but I managed to stop myself.

From Jamie:
Sharks! The words swirled around my head. Could they really be sharks? A sudden urge to exit the dinghy and get back on the boat flooded through me but I managed to stop myself. After that Dad quietly put the waterproof camera under the water and started filming. One of the creatures was just acting relaxed and cool while swimming back and forth between the hulls.

From Alex:
Mum accidentally dropped some spaghetti in the sea so instead of just swimming round the boat they were charging at the food which was right beside the dinghy. I was scared to death.

From Kim:
There were about 4 of these fish. They were around 3-4 feet long and they really looked like sharks when they were feeding!

From Jamie:
... suddenly it raced towards the camera and Dad snatched the camera back in to the dinghy. Our hearts were now pounding. As the creature came close we saw that it had what looked like a bootprint on its head.

From Alex:
Dad said they were remora.

From Jamie:
The boot print was its suction pad. But the fins weren’t quite right.

From Alex:
I got off the dinghy onto the boat.

From Jamie:
Finally the worry was over although I must say I’m not keen on swimming in this bay ever again because the fins were not remora fins but the tail was not a shark-like tail. So we’re still not sure what they are.

From Chris:
I checked out the creatures on the Internet and in the National Parks Office and they are remora – although not a very common kind.

St John: Hawksnest Bay

After some school and some swimming – Alex and Jamie decided to go seek stingray too – we moved around to the north of the island to Hawksnest Bay. This was another spectacular bay with purportedly good snorkelling. We arrived in time for a quick dinghy round the bay and sunset.

St Croix – St John

We were sad to leave St Croix. I think everyone had a good time on this island. Our next destination was another US Virgin Island, St John which as a stop-off before Tortola. The crossing was a bit bumpy but we arrived in good time to moor at Little Lamshure Bay. The idea was to find anchorages like those in Greece where the kids could jump off the boat and swim. However there was some degree of apprehension because of our previous exciting underwater adventures involving stingrays. Chris persuaded the kids to go swimming with him over to an inviting looking beach having sworn oaths that there were no stingrays in the bay. The visibility wasn’t great because of the rough weather, so it was slightly unnerving when two stingray shapes were indeed spotted emerging from the depths. Kids back on board, Chris and I went stingray hunting and found one of them: fabulous creatures they are, so graceful. This one had two “friends”, small fish who followed him around (he was small, so we think it was a him). It was a lovely bay – so relaxing we forgot to take a picture of it.

The Simpsons in St Croix

The day did not start auspiciously. What was supposed to be an early start to refuel the boat in preparation for leaving early the next day turned into breakfast at midday and a decision to hire a car.

To Alex’s delight, we hired an orange Jeep and went to a rum distillery, a sugar plantation and the botanical gardens. Sadly the botanical gardens were shut, so we headed up into the rainforest to a place called the Domino Club -- just past Springfield(!) -- that has a beer drinking pig – hence the title of this blog. In fact, they have two. The pigs are massive – about 3’6”at the shoulders with impressive teeth – and drink cans of no-alcohol lager which you hand to them carefully. Their eyes reminded me strongly of Sam, my flatcoat. They appear to love the visit and the petting, love the beer and love the attention, but I can’t help feeling there’s something wrong with the whole concept...

Buck Island, St Croix

Buck Island is a small island that’s been designated a national park because of its turtles, pelicans and coral barrier reef. We had decided to take a half day trip to try to give Alex more of a chance to see some really great underwater life and have a good snorkel.

Naturally, the wind was not being kind and the conditions even inside the reef were ... interesting. Alex did snorkel – all credit to him because I found it taxing and he did see a turtle underwater – wahoo!

In the afternoon, Jamie and Chris went diving while Alex and I did some school and played on the beach.