Marina Cay 4-7

We leave Cane Garden in the morning and start the slog to the east, into the wind and waves. Its not any worse then expected, but it does seem like we are doing a lot of this into the wind stuff.  The wind is strong, blowing steady at 20 knots, but we hug the shore going up so its not too bad. The plan is to stop at Monkey Point for snorkeling. The trip takes a little over an hour, putting us at the point right about noon, just as the ball closest to the reef opens up. We have a great snorkel trip – water is clear, and I still think this is the one of the best places in the BVI. The coral is shallow so you can swim over it, and then dive down into the deeper areas in between. Tons of fish of all kinds and the coral is amazing. We finish snorkeling and then have lunch before dropping off the ball and motor sailing over towards Marina Cay. The moorings are full and we anchor in 30 feet of water. We are secure, but the forecast is calling for some very strong winds, and we may be a little exposed where we are now. We pull up the anchor and move to a better spot. Just as we are dropping anchor, we see a ball right up off the Marina Cay dock open up. Once again Tim springs into action and zips forward in the dinghy to secure the ball while we raise the anchor and motor over. Its worth the effort with the dinghy because once again there is another boat on the move that would likely have beat us to the ball if Tim wasn’t on it. We would have been fine on anchor, but its just so much easier to go ashore and relax if you don’t have to worry about the boat at anchor. We go on shore to explore and swim at the beach on the far side of the cay. The kids are having fun running around the island and exploring. Soon we see people in pirate garb heading up the hill. There is an old house up on top where an author named Robb White lived many years ago. Its almost time for Happy Aaarrr. This turns out to be a fun one man pirate show with a guy named Michael Beans. He’s actually family friendly and involves the kids in his pirate bits and songs. There are shaker bottles on the tables that he calls for throughout the show. Its corny, but fun and we all enjoy it. Noah wins a gold coin for knowing the answer to a pirate joke. (How much did Blackbeard pay for his earrings? – a buccaneer)

On the way out to the dinghy, we pass a webcam that takes shots every 15 seconds and stores them on the web. These are taken at 6:47pm 4-7-10:

http://www.pussers.com/redbox/about