Cooper Island BVIs

Leaving Deadman Bay.  Dead Chest is the rocky island just left of centre

The following day, Thursday 7 January, having waved goodbye to the rest of the dive team who were heading off to the US Virgin Islands, we moved from Deadman Bay to Road Town to shop and top up one of the propane bottles.

Entering Road Town harbour

It was a busy 2-hour stop in Road Town (engine off to engine on), but we managed to achieve all we needed to.  Having let go the (free, thank you Road Town harbour officials) mooring buoy we then motored across to Haulover Bay on Cooper Island.  We had hoped that this would be an interesting anchorage with good diving close by and good protection to shelter from the imminent blow.  But overnight it proved to be too rolly for an extended stay so in the morning we moved a little further north up the coast of Cooper Island to anchor in the corner at the south end of Machioneel Bay on the edge of the mooring field.  There was much better shelter here with our anemometer recording just 15kts of wind.  We knew that there was much more in the exposed areas as we could clearly see white caps in the Francis Drake Channel.  The only downside to the anchorage area is that it has a circular current running through, it so we span around all over the place.

Once secure and happy with our position at anchor we decided to go for a dive in the vicinity of Cistern Point. We were expecting to sit out a period of several days of strong winds here and so it seemed sensible to dive whilst we could, before the big blow.

Tarpon

Cistern Point is marked as a good snorkelling site but also a dive area too.  We took our dinghy and left it on the mooring buoy and then set off to see what we could see.  Above us we had tarpon circling which was unusual.  They are big fish and these ones were over 6 feet long.

At the other extreme of size, I spotted some small but beautifully decorated Flamingo tongue snails; a first for us.

Top left: Spanish Grunt.  Bottom left: Smooth trunkfish.  Right: French angelfish

We saw spotted fine examples of the fish that we were now used to seeing…

… Nicky, however, spotted something much larger and more interesting; a huge green moray eel.  We have not seen one out in the open before as they normall hide in crevices in the rocks.  This this one was about 6 feet long, so it was quite a highlight of the dive.  The green colour, apparently, is the result of a yellow mucus overlaying the dark blue skin.

It was fabulous that it didn’t seem to feel too threatened by us so I could snap away and get these pictures of it.

Around the corner we found the current to be quite strong, more than we were comfortable with, so we turned back towards the dinghy and retraced our steps.  During the 5-metre safety stop we had the added bonus of watched stingrays swim about below us on the seabed.

8 January is Nicky’s birthday so after the dive we go ashore to see what was available in the restaurant at the resort.  Sadly, it rapidly became pretty grey and overcast with squally showers and I think that coloured our judgment somewhat.  We checked out the craft brewery and sampled the homemade ice-cream; both getting a seal of approval.

Despite the heavens opening and our eating ice-cream under a sun umbrella to shelter from the rain, it was good trip ashore but the day’s menu just didn’t spark our interest.

So when the rain stopped and the sun started to come out again we retired back to BV to put together a feast there.  We popped the cork on some chilled Crémant to get sundowners going and then we fired up the barbeque to do justice to some really big steaks that we had found during our Road Town shopping trip.  Not exactly what we had originally planned, but with all of the trimmings and a nice bottle of red wine it made for a very successful birthday dinner.

We had a lazy day the next day.  Chris Parker’s forecast continued to predict sustained uncomfortable sailing conditions and, despite the excellent shelter in our anchorage, the white caps in the Francis Drake Channel suggested that staying put was the best plan.  So, we lazed in the cockpit and read our books whilst BV span like a top in the anchorage.  Various yachts came and went.  Those that went seemed to be charter yacht holidaymakers needing to return their charges to the base in Road Town whilst those that joined us were again predominantly charter yachts but wanting, like us, to seek shelter.

The sheltered anchorage meant that going ashore was not an issue so we took full advantage of the sunnier conditions to explore ashore again….

.… and to double-check the quality of the craft beer and cocktails at Happy Hour.

We found one of the downsides of the current in the anchorage to be that it was very difficult for newly arriving yacht crews to work out where our anchor was and where BV would move to as the wind and current worked their effects.  [Ed: to be fair, we found it difficult too!]  A Moorings yacht arrived at last light and anchored at what we thought to be too close a position, but it was difficult to be sure, so we thought it wrong to make a scene and insist that they move.  But, as the gusts and current span us both it was clear that we might get close so at 11pm I put the kettle on for a coffee and sat on anchor watch.  We did get close several times but at 3 am when we were barely 6ft apart we launched our dinghy and Nicky rowed over and proposed that perhaps the right thing was for them to move position in the anchorage.  Fortunately, when they came on deck the boats were still very close together and they were only too happy to agree with our request, so we benefitted from a lot more sleep in the final part of the night!

Cooper Island, British Virgin Islands