bvi captains log blog

today you mostly get a lot of nice fishy pictures, Our guests were up bright and early and had the baths accomplished by 915 in the morning. That was great as we could move on away from the crowds. I understand there were about 10,000 cruise ship passengers scattered around the territory today! That is a lot...
Here is last nights dinner picture...

We went out the South Drop to one of our favorite spots, the Fishbowl. Yes it was flat! Going down was a picture in clarity...the divers and boat look wonderful.

The fishermen have found our spot and there were a few fish traps there. This eel was dead, dies with a fish in its mouth, and it seemed to be stuck under a part of the cage. Either that or he was really stupid!

We always see nice Hog Fish out here...

A nice few Amberjacks...

and lobsters (more) lined up in a row...

I am doing these names off the top of my head, so I may get them wrong tonight!. These are beautiful Pompanos, although looking at them I think they should be called Angel Fish with there wispy fins...

Simeon coming over the reef...

Divers against a sunburst...

We had lunch served upstairs today, which is unusual for me, but I thought it would be better if they did not have to walk around with their soup while we were moving. I made fresh bread and Leek and Potato Soup...Yes, it was wonderful...

Trolling along and nick finally managed to catch us dinner. This nice little Mackerel!

Soon he was being fileted and seasoned for the barbecue tonight..

Some more diver shots...

Then it was jumping in the water right at the tip of Pajaros Point on Virgin Gorda. We saw many schools

including a school of Permits! There were dozens of them!!!!!!

I saw several fair size grouper...

and another Hog Fish that looked just like the hog fish this morning...

A school of Chubb followed us everywhere...

And we did see one Green Moray Eel. He did not want to come out so I could get a picture though...

It was into North Sound then, and we spied this cruise ship that was too big to go in the Sound anchored outside ferrying guests back and forth to Prickly Pear....

Stad Amsterdam pulled in and anchored beside us, takes 28 guests, with 25 crew for $100,000. a week. Pretty boat. We counted about 27 "white boats" around us tonight. There are probably less boats anchored in North Sound on New Years then I have ever seen though. It may have something to do with the weather because it is so calm, they can go elsewhere. Unusual at this time of year!

Happy New Years all, I will be sound asleep by the time it is rung in!

As yesterday was rainy and cloudy, today was warm and sunny.
First order of the day was one of my favorite dives of all time here, Carrot Rock

Our fearless divers led by Simeon and myself were off/ We jumped in on the windward side and the boat picked us up on the lee side....

Lots of schools of Chubb Fish around...

and baby fish...

The barracuda did not like us being in their territory today, they kept a very close eye on us throughout the dive. Many of them...

Our divers going down...

Then the action started, we had a Nurse Shark and a lobster at the same time! There was also a coral banded lobster in between them, but no pic of that...

There were lobster everywhere....we must have seen a dozen...

Simeon was giving me the signal for shark off in the distance here, but I missed that one...



Another cute pic of a barracuda...

Lots of Yellow Fish....

3 beautiful Tarpon circled around us...



Another angle of a lobster...

and surprise, another close up of a lobster! He was pretty!

We saw about 4-5 Sharks, Nurse, Simeon says he saw a Bull Shark in the distance, and I saw a Reef Shark at the end of the dive. Altogether successful!
We spent lunch at Deadmans Bay on Peter Island before going to join the other 30 divers who were diving the wreck of the Rhone this afternoon....We almost need a schedule for who dives when between the dive shops on these busy weeks... Our wind had pretty much died down by now, so we took the opportunity to troll up the outside of the islands towards Virgin Gorda. Our count was about 3 Barracuda, a Horse eyed Jack and also a Mackerel that took himself off as we went to land him.

Here are my guests watching the fishing lines and the sunset, (for Joeys mom!)

And as most of you know, our son and daughter in law in Australia are having a baby at the end of January. They sent me this picture, and I thought, "Karen is really not that large"

and then I saw this picture and wondered if it was really Karen who was pregnant or maybe it was Wade!

It was a late uprising this AM. I wandered out about 830 to see what the consensus was for Breakfast, and there was only one face looking at me, so I went back to bed for a bit! We had a lot of rain today, although the wind has moderated a lot. We did the caves, did a dive, had lunch and then about 330 made our way to the outside of Angelfish Reef to do a dive back around to the mooring ball. It was looking very flat and calm with not much wind at all....

One of our picture takers saw TWO octopus, which the two dive instructors did not see at all!

We found a sandy spot and our referral diver finished his skills and is now fully certified!

Always pretty sponges out here...

Divers coming over the reef...

Our newly minted certified diver...

This little Turtle circled Glen back and forth. First he took a lot of pictures and then just stood there and watched it while I took pictures. It was perfect!



Lots of Angelfish...

An interesting shot of a little cave...

We attempted to sail up the outside, as it had seemed very calm, but it really picked up and we sheered a couple bolts on the stay sail traveller and through a few things around the boat in the swells before we managed to get back in and anchored at White Bay on Peter Island. The guests decided it was time for an obligatory shot of tequila,

after a late dinner (it is after 9 PM!) it is time to turn in to bed for the night...

Well the wind is still howling in the British Virgin Islands! Shock to the system to see a lot of boats around as well. Tonight when we went by the bight on Norman about 4 PM every mooring ball was taken and there were boats anchored all over the place in between the moorings! yeeks!! We anchored in Privateer and there is probably 20 boats anchored here tonight.
It has been a busy day. The boys took the guests up to see the Great House at Peter, and spied this cute little Iguana on the way...

Then it was diving for a couple, snorkeling and kayaking before lunch...I have gotten really into lately making some off beat breads that have been usually turning out quite well. Today was green onion with Rosemary and Thyme...



After lunch we went for a sail and a fish, here we are waiting for the one that got away!

It was off to the Indians for an afternoon dive, and the girls saw a 18 inch shark when they got in the water and promptly walked on water to get to the ladder and were trying to both launch themselves on at the same time. I wish I would have had a picture! It was funny!! Cocktail hour was banana coladas...

The sunset tonight was spectacular, and these pictures have not been touched at all! What glorious colors!

This one turned out rather well also with the flag of the BVI in front of it...

2o minutes later this is what the sunset looked like, it was very muted...

****FOR THOSE WHO DON'T LIKE FISH AND SHARK CATCHING READ NO FURTHER. DO NOT EMAIL ME AND TELL ME THAT YOU DISAGREE WITH FISHING OR WHATEVER, JUST PUT THE BLOG PAGE DOWN AND WALK AWAY, GO ON, YOU CAN DO IT!******
No fish were harmed (well, except the bait fish the large fish ate!) in the making of this blog and he was released and off like a torpedo!
For those who do like pictures of big fish and believe that we may actually have a shark or two in the waters down here, this was a pretty exciting night! We caught bait fish, and then put out the lines. We usually have pretty good luck with big fish off of privateer bay we do and tonight was the biggest one we have ever caught! Glen had him on the line and reeled him in like a master, it took him about 40 minutes and we had a couple scares thinking he might go under the anchor chain.

Can you figure out what he is? We use a lasso to bring him on board so we don't have to gaff him before we throw him back. The funny thing was that we all were screaming and pulling and taking pictures. We put one of the smallest guests on the line to pull and this baby was 6 feet long and weighed over 200 lbs! To Melissas credit, she did not let go, but did fall over.

Look at the teeth on this Bull Shark! It was amazing to watch and see....

Funny our proud fisherman did not really want to get too close to him for pictures though. We had to bring him on board with a halyard he was so large!

This whole procedure happened, guess when, about the time we went to put dinner on the table as usual, generally when we catch big fish and made dinner an hour late!i

It was an early morning and a sad farewell to our guests this week. I know we all truly enjoyed it very much and the hours flew by! They left us a lot of nice comments.....

We truly enjoyed the spectacular trip. Third time around for us. Diving, sailing, food, all excellent! A special thank you for your patience and guidance for Caseys certification. THE MILLERS, CHARLOTTE NC

Thanks for making our vacation perfect. The food was the absolute best. Diving and Sailing and Hiking were the best. Thanks for Julies resort dives and Davids certification. We will remember the Bubbly Pool, Baths and Rhone, Banana Boat and the DESSERTS! LITTONS, MARIETTA, GA

Thanks guys, we enjoyed it too...

Then it was a mad dash to get the boat cleaned up and turned around for pick up this afternoon. I knew my food order was not coming until after noon, and I thought that as it usually has many things missing on it, and noone had confirmed that I was ACTUALLY getting an order, that I would just go in and buy what I thought I would not get! I have never seen Riteway so packed!! there was no produce on the shelves and everyone was pawing through the boxes as soon as they came out of the warehouse! The check out lines were very long. When we returned to the boat, for the first time ever, I got everything I had ordered, so these guests will not go hungry.
We pick up at 4 this afternoon... (Coincendently, these guests were on board the week before last weeks guests three years ago! and from the same State)

We put up the sail and made our way out into the gale force winds, for a short sail over to Little Harbor on Peter Island...

Dinner of seared tuna was had, with chocolate espresso cake for dessert and I am totally exhausted and off to bed!

It is a record for me..It is almost midnight and I am still editing pictures to give to the guests and doing my blog...I don't often stay up this late, but the last day of charter is often very hectic.
We went off of Little Thatch this morning to do a drift dive, except it was slack tide so there was less then no current!

Some of the divers went up...

and we found an old decrepit abandoned trap with a Nurse Shark in it that i am not sure how it got into it! That provided lots of excitement for all our divers to see....



We snorkeled with our tanks for quite awhile just under the surface watching the bait fish, Steve kept on thinking that he could touch them there was so many!

Beautiful soft corals and sponges down there...

It was over to Great Thatch then to hike up to the fort, have hamburgers, snorkel, dive and all that kind of stuff. We were going to go up the channel but it was so nice at Thatch, we stayed there all day for a second dive, which we did as a drift dive down Great Thatch toward St Thomas. It was beautiful and the current was smoking. Best drift dive I have done here, except for when we took ourselves out of the current it felt like we had lead weights on, a lot of them as we came to such a halt...

Everyone was very happy with this dive...We had eels, lobsters, turtles and what have you.

Some gigantic Angel Fish as well!

Then it was time for the long hike up the channel to East End, and we did not get there until almost 8 PM! BUT, we had hot turkey sandwiches waiting for dinner....



Followed by cake and homemade ice cream, so it was very good!

Busy day tomorrow, up early, drop, clean boat and provision and back on charter tomorrow afternoon at 3 when I guess we will see new faces up here!