BVI - Grenada

Travis arrived at 1pm on a Thursday from St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Unfortunately, my sister arrived the same day (in the evening) at Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. So we had to throw Travis on board quickly feed him and lift the anchor to head off to Tortola. We managed to make good time and arrived early to pick up my sister . . . Jangles was now a full boat!

Travis only had 2 weeks on the boat and we needed to make the best of it, as the BVI is just so spectacular. We left the next day to Norman Island, stopping off at the Indians on the way to snorkel. The Indians are just four protruding rocks in the water with excellent underwater life. Afterwards, we picked up a buoy at the Bight for the night. The next morning, my sister, Travis and I went around the corner in the dinghy to Treasure Point where we snorkeled inside the caves where Blackbeard’s treasure had previously been found!

The Indians

Rebecca inside the cave

We then moved on to White Bay in Peter Island. We took the dinghy to a snorkel spot where we saw our first lionfish and a Caribbean reef shark! Travis and I went paddle boarding in the afternoon around the gorgeous bay. After all this snorkeling, it was finally time for a dive. We only have 2 BC’s  (other one needs a new seal) so Travis and my dad went down to dive the wreck of the RMS Rhone. My mom and I snorkeled the bit we could see. It was quite the snorkel as my mom and I were being stalked by a giant spotted eagle ray! It was an amazing experience in hindsight, but at the time we were pretty scared haha. Apparently the same ray came right up to Travis as they were diving. 

Travis diving the Rhone

From here we moved to the most popular destination in the BVI, the Baths at Virgin Gorda. Essentially a whole bunch of natural rocks along the beach. Travis and I spent hours snorkeling and climbing all over the rocks.

From here, it was off to Great Dog Island where my sister and Travis dived an old airplane wreck.

Travis inside the plane

Rebecca at the nose of the plane

Eventually the day arrived.. It was my 21^st birthday. I came out of my cabin to an over the top decorated cockpit, with champagne and presents galore. We had champagne and cake for breakfast and had a great dinner at a restaurant in Virgin Gorda called Cocomayas. Overall, it was a really fabulous day.

COCOMAYAS

We had a report of some bad weather heading our way so we headed around to Bitter End in Virgin Gorda. We hooked up with the dive school and Travis went on his first night dive! He absolutely loved it, the highlight being a small blue octopus. The next day we went for a small hike around Bitter End, with spectacular views.

Off to the night dive!

View from our hike

Unfortunately the time had come for Travis to leave. It was a fantastic 2 weeks.

Jangles was now getting ready to head down south out of the hurricane belt. We had a few bad storms, and changed our destination twice but we eventually ended up in St. Lucia. We had dolphins swimming with us three times as we sailed! We headed to Tobago Cay’s for a few days and had some amazing snorkeling. I got to see my first octopus, rather a large fellow but fortunately rather timid so I was able to get some really nice close photos.

We are now in Grenada, where the boat will stay for the hurricane season. As I leave soon to the states for 2 months, I decided to get a dive or 2 in before I go. My mom and I dived off the back off the boat at the underwater sculpture park in Grenada. We saw 4 lionfish and about 5 spotted moray eels. . . it was a really amazing dive!

That dive was so great, we filled the tanks and decided to do one more. This time my sister and I went down in the same place. We had another excellent dive. . .we saw 2 spotted moray eels, a sharptail eel, a huge lionfish and even a scorpionfish! Two great dives to say farewell to Jangles.

As it is possible that this may be the last Jangles blog of the year (given that no one else knows how to post them, haha) so here is a short video of our last stretch this year from St. Lucia to Tobago Cays.