Tortola snorkeling

Day 6  Friday, January 25, 2019  British Virgin Islands, Tortola

This photo was after our snorkeling trip, once the sun had come out. Prior to this, it was a rainy and windy day, but we enjoyed the adventure.

This map covers this day and the next, when we were in St. Thomas of the U.S. Virgins. Today's excursion took us out to Norman Island, there on the bottom, and to Peter Island just above it.

We did not realize how intermingled the two sets of islands are. When you see a broader map of the West Indies, what stands out for the U.S. Virgin Islands is its much larger island 45 miles south, St. Croix. (And, Puerto Rico is only 40 miles west of St. Thomas.) We later learned that after departing Tortola that evening, our ship just creeped slowly "around in circles" for 15 hours before docking only 20 miles away in Charlotte Amelie, St. Thomas. Pretty funny.

Here we are on our boat, getting ready to depart. We had walked only a short distance from our ship to this boat on the pier. Since it was rainy and windy, there was some complaining in our group, and a few of them elected to cancel. Wimps! The worst part of the morning for Janet and me was how early we had to wake up! Every other morning thus far had been leisurely, but we had to be ready to go at 8:00, which meant awakening at 7:00! "Oh, the humanity!" hahaha  We did have time to eat breakfast at Margaritaville, at least, because we surely needed our coffees!

The speedy ride 10 miles south to Norman Island was wet and wild! The wind was coming from the east, but we were on the starboard side of the boat, so we did not get TOO wet. Those on the other side of the boat got drenched.

We moored at this western side of the island where it was protected and calm. Several other boats with scuba divers or snorkelers were there too. We got to explore around for about 45 minutes, and it was beautiful! So many colorful fish, and Janet saw an octopus.

Once back in the boat, we loved those large Norwegian Escape pool towels!

We then moved northeast to Peter Island, tying to a dock in a protected bay on the north side once used by pirates. In the far background of this picture is Tortola.

As you can see, by now it was sunny, and we could either relax on the beach or continue to snorkel.

 Janet elected to sun on the beach and collect fossil souvenirs, while I snorkeled.

I did my snorkeling straight ahead in this photo, up to a small pier you can barely see behind the palm tree. It was not nearly as scenic underwater as the previous spot had been, but I still got to see some interesting fish.

This was a 19th century pirate's cannon they discovered only recently when digging on this beach for the foundation of the building behind. Cool.

Two photos of us once back on board to return to Tortola. From our smiles, you know we had a great time out there that morning. But the excitement was about to begin once we got back on the open sea to home port!

We are headed back to port, and this was the last photo I could take before we got out from the protection of this cove. We elected to ride on the upper level. Even though we were down-wind on the port side of the boat, it didn't help. The water came splashing up over the pilot and then us all the way home! We knew when to duck when we saw the pilot duck. What a drenching adventure!

Ahhh, the protection of the harbor as we were almost back and ready to dock.

Once back onboard, we showered up and then had lunch at Shenanigan's. I wanted to walk into the town to see what we might see. So, Janet and I headed off, stepping foot on the actual island for the first time, and headed past the port shops toward town. Janet then made the smart move to skip this walk and head back to the sunny basking by the ship's pool. I continued on.

My decision to continue on into the town was a bust. Nothing notable to see. But I will go ahead and include the pictures I took. I thought the name of this building was interesting. Of course, BVI also suffered the effects of Hurricane Irma, with four deaths.

I took this photo only because it says "Aaron Rentals."

Columbus passed by these islands in 1493 and gave them the fanciful name Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes (Saint Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins), shortened to Las Vírgenes (The Virgins), after the legend of St. Ursula. Spain claimed the islands in the early 16th century, but never settled them, and subsequent years saw the English, Dutch, French, Spanish, and Danish all jostling for control of the region, which became a notorious haunt for pirates. There are more than 50 islands in BVI.

In 1672, the British seized final control from the Dutch. In 2002, the citizens became official British citizens. Although the territory is not part of the EU and not directly subject to EU law, the islanders are deemed to be citizens of the EU by virtue of their British citizenship. The currency there was Euros, and they drive on the left side of the road. 

Damage from Irma.

Their colorful open markets by the bay. No tourists when I happened to snap this photo, but there were many from our ship there shopping. You can see from the palm tree that it was still pretty windy.

At the end of the line of market stalls, with a view back to our ship. I then turned around and returned to the ship, donned my swim trunks, and found Janet at poolside.

There she is! And she even saved a deck chair for me! (In the background you can see the band playing. It became a sore point that the pool area, and the atrium inside, were always way too loud and noisy with music and events going on. We wished for peace and quiet.)

Yes, it was a bit cold after soaking in the hot tub. I did a little swimming in their tiny deck pool, and  then warmed up in the hot tub before washing off the chlorine and joining Janet on the lounge chair.

More norovirus trouble. This is the emergency cleaning team that rushed in no-time-flat to the pool deck spot where someone threw up. That meant the whole-ship sanitizing needed to continue for at least two more days. We had learned that they had to have no sign of illness on the ship for 48 hours before they could ease off on all their sanitizing.

 We were lucky to have such a large shelf in front of our window to let all our stuff dry out. For the rest of our cruise, we always seemed to have lots of junk on that shelf. And the view ahead is:

Here's a nice photo out our room window as we departed Tortola. Even though our next port was in the opposite direction (only 20 miles away), we headed east for a night of cruising "in circles." Those distant islands, if you refer back to the map at the top, are Virgin Gorda, Anegada, and others. We cruised right up next to all of them before turning south and circling back as it got too dark to see.

Dinner that night was a scrumptious prime rib special at Shenanigan's. But unfortunately, we were seated close to a man who was loud, angry, and swearing to his table mates about how he was wronged by his girl friend. As always in the atrium area, it was so loud that this asshole apparently thought it was okay to yell above the noise to tell his tales of woe and revenge.

Our theater show was a "comedy" magician, but Janet and I didn't enjoy his show as much as other magicians from previous cruises. We then watched JR in the District before hitting the hay.

 Tonight, Jackie made us this crab. She was finally feeling better after suffering from a bad cold starting on our first day. Janet kept giving her throat lozenges, and we turned on our Do Not Disturb sign all day on most days so that she could take at least a one-room break from her duties.