8 January 2019 Benures Bay, BVI
After our frenzy of anchorages yesterday, we decided to stop and chill out for a day. Mid-morning, we nipped around the corner and picked up a dive mooring on “Spyglass Wall”. We descended to 20 metres and headed east, following the bottom of the reef. When we had half tanks, we retraced our route at 12m.
The visibility was very good although there were enough particles in the water to make photographing fish a challenge. We saw about half a dozen large lobster and lots of fish. There were a few varieties of Hamlets, so I concentrated on trying to photograph them –
In the afternoon, we ran the dive compressor and the water maker and then chilled out. It’s a very nice, peaceful anchorage away from the charter boats.
9 January 2019 Benures Bay to Haulover Bay, BVI
We motored upwind to have a look at the dive site for the RMS Rhone, but all moorings taken and the sea state was rough, so we carried onto Haulover Bay, dropping the anchor at 18 22.5259 N 064 30.6617 W in 7 metres of water on good holding sand. Despite the light winds, a swell was still hooking around into the bay, so it was rolly, but we decided to tough it out.
After lunch, we took the dinghy across to the dive mooring for “Wreck Alley”. We descended the mooring line and then headed west down the reef and across 50 metres of sand to two tug boat wrecks. There was some big fish including a friendly Dog Snapper and a shy Reef Shark.
We looked around for five minutes and then swam north across a 100 sand patch to another two wrecks. One was upside down and of little interest but the other one was very good with an interesting cargo hold and cabins. Our friendly Dog Snapper had followed us over and was amusingly possessive, chasing away other fish when I was trying to photograph them. The Reef Shark also came over and did a few close passes.
When we were down to 5 minutes of no decompression time, we returned to the reef and ascended to 12 metres for our return to the dive mooring. It was a very, very nice dive – much better than the busy RMS Rhone.
Back on the boat we filled the dive tanks, ready for tomorrow. We had a few rain squalls come through and unfortunately, the swell didn’t die down, so we had a very rolly evening.
10 January 2019 Haulover Bay to Key Cay, BVI
It was one of the rolliest nights that we’ve had for a while, so we upped anchor after breakfast; motored around to Ginger Island and picked up the only general purpose buoy at 18 23.1977 N 064 28.9134 W . Our intention was to dive “Alice In Wonderland”, but a charter catamaran picked up the dive mooring. There used to be two moorings, but one has gone missing.
Instead, we went to the south-west corner of the bay and picked up the dive mooring for “Ginger Steps”. We headed south-west from the dive mooring and after passing a couple of ridges, descended to 20 metres. We didn’t stay long at that depth because the reef was very dull and ascended back to 12 metres, following the reef heading south-east. At half tanks, we turned north east and then followed a lovely reef back to the mooring.
It was a pleasant reef dive, with lots of friendly fish, including a large Nassua Grouper, who followed us for 10 minutes coming within a few feet of me at times.
Back on Alba, we stowed the dive gear and headed for Tortola island. Our intention was to stay in the anchorage at Buck Island, but when we arrived at the channel, we could see a boat rocking and rolling. Instead, we headed into Road Town and picked up a mooring at 18°25.48N 064°36.72W just outside the breakwater.
We nipped ashore and tied the dinghy up alongside a wooden dock just past the BVI Yacht Charters marina at the north-east corner of the bay. After sneaking our two bags of garbage into the marina skip, we walked across the road to the Riteway supermarket, where we bought a few bags of provisions. I walked back to buy petrol at the convenient garage, so we’re fully fuelled and provisioned ready for Puerto Rico next week.
It was a short 5 mile motor across the sound to Key Cay, where we anchored in 6 metres depth on good holding sand. I dived down to have a look at the anchor and found that we’d backed over some large rocks, which I thought might snag our anchor chain, so we moved ten metres further in and a bit to the north. We finished up at 18°20.74N 064°35.81W. It’s a lovely anchorage, but again, there’s a bit of swell hooking around the corner making us roll.
11 January 2019 Key Cay, BVI
It was a little rolly last night, but nothing too bad, so we decided to have a quiet day and stay. Mid-morning, we went for a snorkel over to the headland, which has some dramatic rocky canyons to swim around. I spent ten minutes trying to photograph four, shy Caribbean Reef Squid – they gradually let me get closer, but they jetted off when I pushed their boundary.
We filled the dive tanks and ran the water maker in the afternoon and had a quiet evening – there’s only one other boat in the anchorage.
12 January 2019 Key Cay to White Bay, BVI
We motored around to The Caves on Norman Island and picked up a Marine Park mooring at 18°18.88N 064°37.46W. After assembling the dive gear, we headed over to Carval Rock and did a scuba dive called “Angelfish Reef”. The dive had a splendid review, but it looked very bleak to us, with the only interesting parts in 10 metres of water close to the rocky point. It was very disappointing.
Back at boat put gear away and then went for a snorkel around The Caves. This is a huge tourist attraction and a very popular stop for the day-tripper boats. It was okay – there are some large caves that you can swim into, but the scores of tourists and the copious amounts of Sargassum Weed made it unpleasant. The only highlight was spotting a huge lobster – if there hadn’t been so many people around, it would have been in a bag, despite it being a Marine Park.
A huge rain squall passed over us, so we stayed on the mooring for lunch and then motored around to White Bay on Peter Island. We anchored at 18°20.88N 064 34.52W in 10 metres of water. It’s a fabulous anchorage in a huge wide bay. There’s only one other boat in here and best of all there are no charter catamarans – bliss…
13 January 2019 White Bay, BVI
We had a very peaceful night, so we decided to stay and do some chores. Glenys dragged out her sewing machine and did some repairs, replacing Velcro on the bimini side panels and re-stitching some seams on the dinghy cover. I pottered about keeping out of the way, filling our dive tanks and getting on with some admin.