British Virgin Islands Trip

On March 13, we went on a tour to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) with Limnos Charters. We boarded a fairly good sized boat (53' catamaran) along with about 45 other people and then went to St. John to pick up a few more passengers. Then we headed to the BVI. The captain took us north of St. John and south of Tortola (BVI). We went all the way to Virgin Gorda - one of the furthest BVIs - to see the famous Baths.

The Baths are a British National Park. It's an area along the beach filled with huge boulders. There are lots of "rooms" and pools created by the boulders. Here's a picture of Dave and me in the largest cavern, called the Cathedral. We walked along a trail of sorts squeezing between boulders and practically crawling in some places. (It was great for us claustrophobes, right Dad?) Eventually we came out to a large open area with a beach and more boulders. We swam around there for a little while. I liked snorkeling there and thought the coral attached to the boulders was pretty interesting. I swam between two boulders but after I went through it I decided it was probably safer not to do it again because they were pretty close to each other and the currant was a little unpredictable. The photo below is of Mom, Dave and me.

After our visit at the Baths, we got back on the boat to go to Norman Island, another BVI. It was a pretty day for sailing and it was fun standing on the top deck feeling the warm sun and nice breeze while passing the various islands. (It was especially enjoyable because I took the day off work for the trip!) Along the way, we ate lunch and enjoyed the open bar. Rum punch was a popular choice. The crew told us about the islands we were passing, but I don't remember the details other than some pirate left some people on one of the islands with just rum and guns - must have been Dead Chest Island (from the story of Dead Man's Chest). Legend has it that Norman Island is the island written about in Treasure Island.

At Norman Island, we jumped off the back of the boat for snorkeling. Norman Island is home to Norman Caves (coincidence?). Dave, Dad and I swam to the various caves and explored a little. Mom stayed on the boat to guard our fair share of the rum. (Thanks, Mom!) Some of the caves had purple coral in them. The water was fairly shallow inside the caves, but outside the caves it was pretty deep. Dave practiced his free diving a little bit and would point out various creatures to me, and sometimes he'd bring them up from the bottom for me to see. (Don't worry, he puts them back.) In the photo below you can see one of the caves.

After Norman Caves, we headed back to St. John to go through customs. For some reason they require boats returning to the US to go to St. John before continuing on to St. Thomas. Along the way, I got to drive the boat. All the kids did! I was the oldest kid though.... We had a really good time and got to see a lot of the BVI in one day. We even had energy left to go out to dinner for my parents' anniversary. If you come visit, you too can go on the BVI day trip and see these neat things too!