Wednesday 21st February

Little Harbour, Peter Island
British Virgin Islands

18 21.278 N
64 35.959 W

Gerry and I took charge of hauling the anchor up and steering the boat out of the harbour whilst Rose and Mark worked on their sun tans. We did a quick sweep past the silent Willy T so that Mark could snap off a couple of pictures of the place, it looks so much better during the daylight hours without the drunks falling all over the place. Then it was time to hoist the jib and motor sail the short distance to Little Harbour, Peter Island. The bay, as the name suggests is little and as we arrived there were about 10 boats all anchored and with stern lines tied to the trees or rocks on the shoreline, the reason for this being that the water is pretty deep for just anchoring – about 50 foot which would require us to put out 250 foot of chain – we don’t have that much chain and I doubt that many cruising boats do. Dale and Lorie anchored first and just as they got their stern anchor set a boat next to them left (must have been something they said!) – leaving a tie up point on the old dinghy dock vacant. We snuck in there and grabbed that spot, dropping our bow anchor and then running a stern line across to the dock to keep us in position. Once we were set it was time to get the snorkeling gear on and do a tour around the place. Lorie had lent Mark a “Noodle” to try and help him float whilst learning the fine arts of snorkeling, happily it seemed to make it easier for him and he was able to go with us out to the edges of the harbour and see the pretty tropical fish that were swimming around. I spotted a ray trying to dig itself into the sand and called everyone over to see it, Lorie pointed out a very large shoal of fish that were loitering in the shadow of their boat, we didn’t know what sort of fish they were but there were lots of them. After we had exhausted ourselves snorkeling it was time to have a quick shower on the transom and enjoy watching the pelicans dive bombing into the water to catch their food, they hit the water with such force that you would imagine it would hurt them but they keep doing it so I guess it doesn’t. Mark had volunteered to cook dinner for us in the evening so we really put him on the spot and invited Dale and Lorie to join us for cocktails and dinner. Just after 18.00hrs our visitors appeared and we began the evening session, sending Mark down to the galley after only one drink so that he could cook dinner before the rum set in! I have to say he did a great job of making chicken biryani for us. I made dessert and by the time we had finished eating there was only a few morsels left to feed to the fish. As I threw the last of a crepe into the water a huge fish leapt up for it – we were all surprised and tried to have a repeat performance when I tossed out the vegetable waste, I tell you these fish are picky eaters they didn’t go for the vegetable stuff at all! Before it got too dark to see (or may be it was before they got too drunk to find their boat) Dale and Lorie put putted back to their palace fro the night then it was time to turn in ready for another sun filled day tomorrow