Day 2 Tortola to Norman Island
We hit the ground running this morning. It's Meow or Never!! We had our yacht briefing at 8 a.m. Heather took the 9 a.m. ferry from St. Thomas to join us. Annette, Ruth, Annie , Karen, Dawn and I took the free shuttle to One Mart to pick up some fresh produce, booze, etc. An hour later we met Heather at our boat. She familiarized herself with the boat while we put provisions away. Once everyone had the right size fins for snorkeling, we were ready to depart. We left the dock and hoisted the pirate flag that Karen provided for our trip which made us,officially, pirates of the Caribbean . With very light to no winds, we motored to the Caves at Norman Island. After picking up a day mooring at the Caves, we put on our snorkel gear and jumped into the water. A day mooring is free, with an hour time limit. After about 20 minutes of snorkeling we all agreed that the current was just too strong. We dropped our mooring and moved to another spot locally known as the Aquarium. It is more protected and easier to snorkel. We saw a variety of fish: Blue tangs, Sargeant majors, Parrotfish and a ray just to name a few. We then moved the boat one more time and picked up a mooring for the night in the Bight. Rachel, a friend of Heather's and a charter captain for the Moorings, came over to say hello from the mooring next to us. She was on a tandem charter with 14 people total. Before going to dinner, someone came out to the boat to collect a fee for the mooring. Someone else would also come by to offer ice for sale and to take our trash. We took the dinghy in to have dinner at the Pirate's Bight. It was a beautiful open air restaurant on the beach. We enjoyed Grouper, Snapper, Lobster bisque and conch fritters. We finished the night with a game of dominoes and lots of laughs!