Tortola

Another day, another destination - our last one :( Today it was time for the British Virgin Islands! The ship docked at Tortola and we were met by Captain Rudy at 0800 sharp. We had chartered his boat and his services for the day. His boat was conveniently docked on the other side of the pier which was only a short walk away. 

We were a bit worried about a day on a boat as the thought of being out on the ocean on a stinking hot day with swell may have been very unpleasant. As it turned out, we needn't have worried - the day flew by. The weather was mostly warm with a cool breeze that was only occasionally disturbed by a burst of showers. The boat was nowhere near as big or flashy as others out on the water but it was comfortable and offered shade, drinks, snorkel gear and a toilet. Our longest hop was about 50 minutes.

First stop...Virgin Gorda Baths. The Baths are essentially an area of granite boulders on the beach which form natural tidal pools, tunnels, arches, and "caves" right on the water. We had to swim onto the island as it was a national park and so had to "travel" light. Our phones survived in 2 ziplock bags (we couldn't find our drybag!!!) so we do have some photos! Virgin Gorda is as pretty as the photos you see online. We were fortunate to "swim" in before the big excursion groups came and so we were able to explore the baths and Devil's Bay in relative peace. We decided to explore the island and got a thorough exfoliation treatment on our feet as we trudged on the sandy rock toward Stoney Bay. The quiet here was a big contrast to the masses we found upon our return to the Baths. We were not able to make our way past the line of people trying to get to the baths and had to get creative finding our way around the giant boulders. The children found our adventure highly exciting. Oma...not so. We had duck, squeeze, and swim our way around until we saw our boat fortunately moored not too far from where we were. We bravely swam out towards our boat, and moved on to the next island.

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One of the first to get off the ship!

Boarding Captain Rudy's boat

The rocking waves were apparently sleep inducing. An 0830am nap...

Swimming onto Virgin Gorda!

The beautiful Devil's Bay

Let's explore!

Opa unfortunately was worried about making the swim and so turned around and went back onboard

Stoney Bay. No one else here!

Caves

and pools. With our own resident mermaid, or wait, maybe it is our pet seal

You have to be relatively mobile to be able to explore

Norman Island was essentially a lunch stop... but a very pretty one. It gave us a chance to sit with Captain Rudy and ask him about the impact of Irma. He descrived it as the worst he had ever seen. The restaurant we were at was demolished, boats ended up on top of houses and apart from the immediate impact they also suffered from an almost complete loss of business as they tried to rebuild. We were quite amazed at how things have turned around so quickly. Apparently the government really stepped up to the plate. Given that so much of their income is from tourism this was a smart move not just a humane one. The food by the way was not cheap but it was tasty enough, and there was free wifi!

We returned to the boat for a short trip to the Norman Island Caves which can only by accessed by sea. The water was particularly warm here and teeming with all sorts of fish. The largest cave went about 50m in and became darker and darker the further we went. We went most of the way in, but were put off by our various phobias - needlefish, Thai cave dramas, the dark, the possibility of stone fish or sharp coral on the floor. None of the other snorklers ventured any further although some of their phobias may have been more to do with the relative dimensions. The swim back to the boat was against the current. Good thing Oma brought a noodle so that we could tow her back.

Our last stop was Peter Island. It was not as postcard perfect as the others, but the marine life was more abundant. We saw several turtles and sting rays. One turtle was particularly active and we spent a good ten minutes just following it around - from a reasonable distance.

Captain Rudy had us back to the ship exactly on time. We always give ourselves a bit of leeway, but it was nice not to have to stress. Thanks, Captain Rudy!

Lunch on Norman Island. Pirates Bight

More beautiful, crystal clear water. Norman Island

Willy T's floating restaurant. The attraction is to be able to jump off the platform

Norman Island sea caves

Peter Island

The last surprise. Mum and baby dolphin swimming next to our boat

Time for laser tag

Laser tag champions! We demolished the other team despite being one short in numbers