Day 7: The Boarding Party Party
We rose, ate breakfast, and cast off from Diamond Cay headed to our next destination: Norman Island and The Bight. The ride to Norman was sunny. We traversed the Thatch Island Cut past Soper’s Hole until we ultimately passed the Indians and headed into The Bight. Finally, a decent day of sun! Hmmmm. Wait a minute. I spoke too soon; here come the clouds again. Damn. Now rain.
We grabbed a mooring ball on the north side of The Bight near the shore and rode out the rain; didn’t last too long and the sun returned. With all the rain we were having, Adonis looked pretty good—no need to swab the decks. Matt and I jumped in for a quick snorkel and to check the mooring line. I snorkeled down to get a look at the mooring line and surfaced next to the ball. My shoulder just brushed the ball and I felt something that felt like a cross between a sting and an electrical shock; really caught me off guard. I looked at the ball expecting to see a “poison something,” angry critter, or crusty barnacles, but there was nothing on the ball except the typical slimy, green muck. As long as my shoulder was in the water, the spot that touched the ball burned. When I got my shoulder out of the water, it stopped burning. It left me with a red whelp that stung for hours. Wish I knew what caused it. My shoulder still bears a mild, ringed scar of that sting one-month later. Lesson learned: keep away from mooring balls.
Matt and I continued with snorkeling and, as usual, saw lots of colorful fish, conch, and spiny sea urchins. I spotted an unusual cluster of conch on a rocky outcrop and dove to inspect it further—seemed a little “set up.” Maybe someone had tried to make off with a bunch of conch and dropped them in this spot. I lifted a conch covering a hole and spotted an octopus in the hole. Wow! It withdrew to the back of the hole and became still. I replaced the conch and surfaced for air. Didn’t expect to see that! That was cool! Matt got a peek too and after a short time, we returned to Adonis for lunch. Lesson learned: everything may not be what it appears to be.
The crew ate lunch and we decided to ding to The Caves for some primo snorkeling. The admiral stayed behind to protect the boat from pirates. The sun was getting hot so a few libations were brought aboard the dinghy to prevent anyone from getting ‘too thirsty’. The crew donned snorkel gear after tying off on the Cave’s dinghy line. The guys dropped into the water leaving the ladies behind to explore at their own pace—neither being dare devils. I had looked forward to my first visit to The Caves with great vigor. I brought along some cylume light sticks—inexpensive glow sticks from Dollar Tree—to provide some light on our exploration of The Caves. Good thing; those caves are DARK!
The entrance to The Caves is beautiful: coral heads and rocks, lots of fish, and crystal clear water. No wonder they are so popular. We popped our light sticks and began our trek swimming inside one of the caves. Exciting! The surge of the water, the darkness of the cave, the great unknown! I pushed forward with the light stick in front to keep me from running my big head into a rock. Captain Bart and Matt followed suit until we made it to the rear of the cave and rested our butts on the rocky “beach” inside. Sitting down and looking out of the cave allowed us to see others at the entrance who were a bit less intrepid (like our lounging ladies); we could see them, but they couldn’t see us. I suppose the first cave we were in was about 25-30 yards deep into the rock. It would have been an excellent place to store pirate treasure, Arrrgh!
Matt took a bunch of photos with his waterproof camera and we soon eased back out toward the entrance. Matt and I pursued two other caves, exploring as we went. Captain Bart returned to check on our damsels; he claimed to have “grass stuck in his snorkel.” Hmmmm. My guess is he is plundering the beer. Later, we found Captain Bart had located our ladies lounging on their comfortable, blue rubber flotation mats and he helped “watch” the beer near the dinghy line. Matt and I ended up about a hundred or so meters down from the dinghy line and had a great time looking around and exploring. This is what I came for! It grew hotter and we soon ended our exploration of The Caves—besides, the remaining Caribe was getting warm. The funny part was getting BACK in the dinghy from the water. We looked like a bunch of goofs trying our hand at getting in. Everyone seemed to have a “better idea.” While we all eventually made it back into the dinghy, it wasn’t very pretty and Captain Bart suggested we rig a re-entry line next time we need to get back in the dinghy from the water. Lesson learned: plan ahead for your re-entry into the dinghy from water level and LISTEN to the captain.
We dinged back to Adonis and re-greased our bodies with sunscreen. Good thing, because that BVI sun does not play and I could see, by my moderately red skin, that the sunscreen I had put on earlier (30 SPF) was wearing off and needed some back up. We all lathered up.
We commandeered the admiral and the entire crew dinged to the Pirates Bight. We landed at the dock in HOT weather. It was sticky, steamy! We took a few photos and pushed up to the bar for a painkiller. We sat within the big, open-air Pirates Bight bar and sucked down our painkillers quickly. My first-mate tossed off her beach cover and jumped into the water to cool off. The souvenir shop was open and the air conditioning was on. Guess where Fat Daddy K went?
The souvenir shop at the Pirates Bight was well-stocked with a good variety of shirts, hats, and typical “touristy” items. The staff was very helpful in locating proper shirt sizes and various souvenirs. I moved slowly so I could absorb as much A/C as possible before returning to the crew. After locating a suitable tee-shirt, I walked veeeeeerrrrrry slowly to the cash register, opened my wallet like it was made of granite, and took my time handing over my dollars—one-by-one—so as not to rush the transaction and ‘savor the A/C experience.’ The clerk probably thought I was having a medical episode, couldn’t count, or was EXCEPTIONALLY tight with my money. But alas, my deal was done and I returned to the crew (and the heat), ordered another round of painkillers, and asked the barkeep for a couple bags of ice. We bought two BIG bags of cubed ice for $14. These were large bags—not the traditional ice bags we all recognize from 7-11. These were easily 2-3 times the normal size, AND, the cubes were an excellent size for placing in drinks! I helped the bartender fill up the bags and we rushed back through the scorching heat to Adonis to cover our sacred beverages.
Once aboard Adonis and confident that our drinks were suitably covered in their icy beds, we played the rest of the afternoon away in the beautiful clear, crystal waters of Norman Island. We snorkeled more—even got the admiral in the water; she loves to snorkel—relaxed on our rafts, and downed a bunch of soothing Red Stripes and Caribes until dinner. Deckhand Matt decided to jump off the roof of Adonis over the stern dinghy davits and into the water in an exhibition of his youthful prowess—did not go over well with the Captain OR the admiral. Hmmmm. Looks like someone may walk the plank . . .
It was plain to see that as the day went on, the mooring balls started to became scarce at Norman Island. I only counted 10 vacant balls as the sun began to set. Our crew dined on steak and baked potatoes before preparing the Boarding Party Raid Plan and commencing “Operation Willey T’s.” Arrrrgh!
Anchored on the opposite side of The Bight is the William Thornton—“Willey T’s” for short. This floating beverage schooner is boarded and pillaged on a regular basis. Many have gone before us to this isolated restaurant and bar to indulge in its pleasures; tonight is our night, for tonight is PIRATE NIGHT aboard Adonis!!! Arrrrrgh! I surprised the crew by bringing along some “official” pirate boarding gear: hats for all the crew members and a special “royal plume” version for the captain; even got the captain his own “parrot.” Okay, so it wasn’t so much as a parrot as it was a clip-on style red canary to attach to the shoulder of his shirt. (Every pirate captain deserves a bird! Arrrgh!)
We donned our sacred pirate hats (complete with official red-pirate-boarding-party-plume) as we quietly boarded our dinghy and launched for the evening raid. Dinghy captain Matt put us on a direct course for Willey T’s. Arrrgh! The tension was mounting as the crew huddled for the assault. Slowly we motored until we could hear the happy, unsuspecting laughter of those aboard the Willey T. We came upon her broadside, just as others aboard the Willey T spotted our boarding party. Avast mates! We’ve been seen! Aboard! Aboard! Take no prisoners! No quarter, no mercy! We tied-off and boarded the Willey T, made our way to the treasure hold—located in the bar—just in time to capture the booty: frosty painkillers. Arrrrgh! “Painkillers all around!” came the call from the captain as the crew imbibed in good measure at our successful raid.
We had a good time laughing and mingling with the other visitors at Willey T’s and didn’t experience any problems. The admiral became somewhat enchanted with the looping video of the past participants of Willy T’s “activities.” We warned her not to look, but curiosity killed the cat; she would look and stammer, “Oh My…!” and quickly look away—the unknown and forbidden pulling her back. It was all in fun! Naturally, we pillaged the souvenir hold and acquired a few tee-shirts, “wife-beaters,” and captured the requisite yellow Willy T’s pennant. While we didn’t have any of the problems some others have witnessed in days gone by, we chose to take our treasures and disembark before anything got out-of-hand. While we were there, all was good and nothing inappropriate happened . . . that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Lesson learned: don’t take a camera ANYWHERE you don’t want pictures taken.
The dinghy ride back to Adonis took us by a large, white and very impressive three-masted schooner anchored nearby. We felt obligated to take a detour past this beautiful sailing vessel and snapped pictures of it as we made our way back to Adonis (Note from Fat Daddy’s wife: Fat Daddy K was our ‘light of hope’ on our dinghy ride back, holding our bow light and flashing red light so we would not be rammed, or run into anyone else. He looked a little like Napoleon or Rudolph on Santa’s Sleigh on our bow, but still cute!). We clambered aboard Adonis where Dinghy captain Matt had his first experience at feeding fish after he dropped a few small pieces of leftover dinner steak into the water; he had never fed wild fish as a child, but appeared to master it in short order as we all enjoyed the frenzy of small fish and snappers plucking the bits of food from the water. Lesson learned: it’s the simple things in life that are most enjoyable.
The admiral had placed a tidy deposit on several movie rentals before we left the dock and it was nearly time for our evening “wind-down” entertainment. We watched “Vegas Vacation” until my eyelids were too heavy to hold up another second. Lots of sun, lots of drinks, and lots of fun at Norman Island! Norman Island and the Bight—a good time . . . Arrrrgh!
(If someone can tell me an easy way to upload photos to this forum, I'd love to share a few; just not much of a computer techie)
