April 15th to 17th An amazing Phenomenom!

17^th April Norman Island Great Bight Bay

We were woken up early by a large splashing that continued. When we investigated we were amazed to find the boat was surrounded by a huge ball of bait fish, and there were Pelicans dive bombing and feeding off the bait.

We watched and took photos for an hour or more. The small white birds were swooping on the Pelicans and stealing fish out of their bills.

We then noticed larger fish – Tarpon, a Trevally type fish, Barracuda and sharks! Robbie and Jessie swam and snorkelled for some time and then came out for breakfast. I wasn’t going to go in once I knew there were sharks there but they both convinced me to go in, and I was glad I did.

It was one of the most incredible things I have seen.

 

 

16^th April It was a pretty quiet day, we moved from Colison Point on Virgin Gorda Island to Norman Island to Great Bight Bay. There was another Nordhavn – a 68’ called Toroa anchored, but a catamaran on a mooring drifted very close and almost hit them so they up anchored and moved away.

We had a busy day cleaning and boat maintenance jobs.

 

15^th April It was a beautiful morning with no wind and the ocean was glassed out. We departed Anegada at 10am, a bit sad as we did not get to see the Flamingo’s again, we kept looking with the binoculars (the fantastic binoculars that Peter and Heidi brought Robbie for his birthday last year!) But even the “you beaut” binoculars did not find the Flamingos for us again. Oh well, unfortunately, some things just have to stay in your memory.

Jessie decided to cook us bacon and eggs for breakfast, “Mum you do realise that the vinegar you use for poached eggs is cleaning vinegar, and it says it’s not safe for human consumption?” Ooops! I must have grabbed the wrong bottle out of the storage container under the salon seats. I wasn’t really trying to poison us all!

We had a fantastic passage with more dolphins, Jessie drove the boat the whole way and I did boring chores like cleaning the oven and kitchen. Great stuff that cleaning vinegar!

We arrived at Virgin Gorda at 1pm and found a mooring near the famous “Baths” which are huge granite boulders with white sandy beaches and pools inbetween and lovely clear water. We took the duck in and tied it to the buoys cordoning off the swimming area. No ducks are allowed on the beaches here. We had a lovely swim and then it was back to the boat to go and find a better anchorage for the night.

Not faraway was Colison Point and we picked up a mooring. The water was extremely clear and there were Tarpon swimming around the boat and mooring, which we could see on the bottom.

We had dinner and Jessie and Robbie decided to try to catch a Tarpon. Finally Jess hooked one, and after about 30 minutes she managed to get him in. Robbie pulled him in for a photo and to get the hook out. He still had a bit of life in him and jumped towards me and I screamed (not as loud as Monika screamed with the shark though!) they are a huge fish. Jessie didn’t want to kiss it so we let him go straight away.

They were both pretty stoked to land one of the elusive Tarpon!