Rhone diving

It was a dive I'd read about and it was supposed to be special, so after some inquiries I went with BVI Dive to the wreck of RMS Rhone. We had to get a permit to use one of the national park moorings, so I went to the park office and handed over my 12 dollars to a slightly disorganized but very cheerful lady at the counter. We anchored over at Peter island and in the morning motored over to Salt island, where the Rhone was wrecked about 150 years ago.



The dive was very well organized, and we went down two times, first for the bow section in about 25 meters and then the stern section, a bit shallower next to the rocks where it floundered and about 300 passengers met their deaths.

And it was awesome. Barracuda, sharks, huge lobsters, huge coral reef fish, it has it all. Two swim-throughs into the wreck with fish and lobsters hiding inside. And endless parts strewn across the ocean floor, some recognizable and some just coral encrusted bits of metal.

Just before the second dive, rain had started pouring so we went in and stayed just below the surface for a minute or two, watching the rain splashing down in the water above us. It is a very nice sight, especially in such nice warm water at 27° C.

So the diving in the BVI proved first rate, as the snorkeling already had. It was an excellent diving experience to conclude an already wonderful cruise in the Caribbean aboard Victor Too.

Goin' home

After the lonely beaches of Anguilla, we've come to the last stop of our Caribbean circuit. Very touristy, with hundreds of charter boats. We manage to squeeze into anchorages, albeit sometimes a bit awkwardly. The beaches are fine, the sailing excellent.



The first items on a list of things to do before we leave for the Azores are being tackled. It isn't a very long list, we've been doing this for a while now. Just a few more days of cruising, relaxing and sampling the local cooking and we'll be heading across the big pond again.

The crew has smoothly filled up and we'll be crossing with the five of us. We're preparing for the extra people on board. The last few bouts of snorkeling and some more turtles, rays, lobsters and barracuda. One evening snorkel with my dive lights we had an eagle ray whizzing by at very close range.



The BVI is a very nice cruising ground, something to come back to. So many bays to be explored, so many islands. They'll have to wait for us to come back one day, perhaps chartering out of Road Town or a nearby place.

So we head for Village Cay Marina, where we'll pick up our crew and get supplies, and seek that weather window that sets us off across to yet another string of beautiful islands, much closer to home.

Routine

It's a bright morning and we decide we want to be Somewhere Else. The boat has been tidied and nothing will fall over if we heel. Ingrid takes the anchor winch stick while I start the engine.



I walk forward to help with the anchor chain safety. We always attach a hook to the chain to prevent the forces from being transferred to the anchor winch.



I take the rope with me to the cockpit to secure it. Meanwhile, Ingrid has started winching the anchor in. I help her by motoring forward slowly.



After the anchor is up and secured, we sail off for our next destination.



After a hard sail - the Caribbean, you know - we arrive and Ingrid walks forward to prepare the anchor. She stands ready while Paul positions Victor Too.



The anchor goes at the right spot and we let out 10 meters of chain, then wait for the wind to make the anchor grab. We let out more scope and secure the chain.

Then, sometimes I snorkel to check on the anchor. But when we can see the sandy bottom, this isn't necessary. Only once we've had to re-anchor, and once I have had to reverse afterwards to make the anchor dig in. So we're quite pleased with our Manson anchor.



After all the cruising, we deserved a drink!

Snorkeling

Awe

First I was stunned. I was looking at a huge fish. It was 1.5 meters long and it was floating in the water. We were snorkeling off Creole Rock in French St. Martin. There was a good deal of coral and many schools of fish, angelfish, sergeant majors, surgeonfish, the works. Then I stared at its head as I circled it slowly. It was a barracuda.

Anxiety

It was not just a barracuda, but the biggest monster I have seen to date. It was floating about 30 cm below the surface and it was so big I squeezed Ingrid's hand and whispered "barracuda" in my snorkel tube. We positioned ourselves to its side and a bit further away, to get a good look and also not to attract attention to ourselves.

Escape

The head of this fish was so big, my whole hand would fit in its mouth effortlessly. I imagined it was pure luck that it wasn't feeding or we may have suddenly become prey. We watched it intently for a good ten minutes as it seemed to rest between the coral heads and apparently unaware fish swam around it. After a while I figured it wasn't going to attack us, or it would have already done so. So I started backing away slowly, holding hands with Ingrid as we exchanged glances while keeping an eye on this monster of the seas. We successfully got away and regretted not having brought the underwater camera Ingrid's brother had bought just the day before.

Honey Pond

Our stay in the dutch part of St. Martin wasn't very long. A couple of days in Philipsburg watching the cruise ship crowd, and then a day in Honey Harbour - or make that Oyster Pond. Anybody who has ever gone to Canada may know Honey Harbour. It's right off one of the tributaries to one of the Great Lakes, Georgian Bay.

We did a trip to Canada a while back and we once visited this place and while the scenery must have been wonderful, a room in the only hotel was 300 US$ a night. A bit steep, certainly for our taste. Never mind it had a private bubble pool. I then delivered my since famous line "All right, I'll go get my wife in the car". After which I hopped into our rental car, drove off swiftly and we checked into the cheap motel we'd seen on the highway 15 miles back. We've never seen Honey Harbour in daylight.

This time round, we went to the marina office only to be told the private mooring we were on was 46 US$, actually exactly the same amount as we'd be charged berthed in the marina. But if we came into the marina, we might get a discount.

So we slipped the rope of that mooring and tucked into the farthest corner of the pond, after first snorkeling to look for hidden dangers on the bottom.

We met a Canadian guy later that night whilst having a drink in the bar who we told we were anchored. He was incredulous, only believing we'd actually anchored there after I also told him we'd already crossed an ocean. He'd chartered from there and hit bottom three times while getting into the marina. He wasn't paying the berthing fees, and he was impressed we'd gotten away with it.



We used to refer to ridiculously priced accomodation as "Honey Harbour" since our trip to Canada. Now, we have renewed that habit to outrageously priced marinas and half the time refer to Oyster Pond as... Honey Harbour.

Alternative destinations

First I'd planned to visit Saba to dive there. Then the wind was consistently from the North East which made mooring in Saba pretty horrible so we changed plans and aimed for St. Barths instead. When we left on Saturday morning, the wind didn't do much, but later rose and changed to the North, and in the afternoon veered North East. But by then, our target was too far to windward, so we opted for Statia instead.

All of these are pretty close together, so no trouble getting from one to the next. Our next hop was meant to be Oyster Pond in St. Martin, but the North Easterly wind combined with the late hour made us go into Great Bay on St. Martin. Just six Miles closer, but 4 Miles more Westward. It took us 3 days of waiting until the wind had changed enough to finally make it into Oyster Pond.

The upshot of all this is of course the continuous changing of cruising plans and destinations as we go along. We're having a lot of fun exploring different options and I've long started putting in alternate routes into our navigational software so we're never without an alternative.

But tomorrow we're headed for Anguilla, and since we're picking up my brother in law, we'll make that. At least that's our aim and weather permitting, it doens't look impossible. But we have already had to put people on a ferry so as not to rush too much, so our cruising lifestyle remains leisurely. No point getting stressed with deadlines or having to beat to windward if the wind isn't favorable. There's always ferries, planes and cars to get others to come to us.

But we try. It's just a far cry from my trip to Portugal in 2006, when we ended up taking the rough route to meet folks. But I believed then, and do still, there is always an alternative destination on the horizon. It should be every cruiser's motto.

St. Kitts cruise ship Mecca

We didn't spend enough time in Nevis. It's a shame, but when we tried to get to the most Northerly bay, the wind made it impossible to get there. So we sailed immediately to St. Kitts, across the Narrows.



The stay in St. Kitts was nice, very relaxing and calm. We stayed a couple of days in Whitehouse Bay, where we met Sam and Alex and got together for a drink and some snacks. We snorkeled the bay to see some old wrecks and saw some old cannons lying on the sea bed right below Victor Too, and a Manta Ray swimming next to one of them.



In the capital Basseterre we got into the marina for water and fuel and to get six weeks of laundry done. The laundry cost was a bit of a shock and very badly folded on top of that, the price of water was a joke (15 US$) and the fuel never materialized. But apart from that, it was a nice marina and a pleasant town. But it also shows that if you put enough cruise ships in a port, prices become a joke while service not necessarily benefits. We had a similar experience with customs and immigration officers, which we wouldn't rate as high as our sacred guide (Doyle's) does. Perhaps bad luck, but perhaps they just don't need yachts that much anymore with up to 5 cruise ships in port at the same time.

Anyway, the people in town were very friendly and helpful, as everywhere we've been. We didn't go see a lot, being victims of the inflated prices (64 US$ per person for a train ride), but I did two dives at very good sites in excellent visibility.

I prefer smaller islands to bigger ones, but with too many cruise ship passengers in town, sometimes the larger islands with more remote bays provide more alternatives to escape the crowd. So far, we've had plenty of everything not to decide either way. We still have a couple of islands to go, each different. Plenty of opportunities along the way!