Peter Island

We spent a week over in Little Harbour, Peter Island with an anchor off the bow and the stern tied to the rocks ashore. This was a great place to duck out of the wind. In this bay the winds just swirl around at 0 to 12 kts while it is blowing easterly at 25 – 30 kts out in the channel. Not a lot to do here, other than boat projects and our daily snorkel.
There was a single coral head that was located by itself among some mushy green slime. It was small, but had a lot of sea life. Above is the local lobster peering out of her home there.

Next to the coral head was a flat rock that was home to this green eel.

Here’s the eel deciding if this squirrel fish could actually make a good dinner.

Deep in the coral holes lived this orange eyed octopus.

His mother loves him (porcupine fish)

You don’t see a lot of big fishes on the shallow reefs, but this guy came in for a look from the deep. Note the 6 inch fish tracking his tail.

This flounder variety was peacefully laying on the bottom carefully colored to blend in.  When I came close and took his picture, he got scared and decided to put on his defenses. That’s the blue rings all around. Apparently big fish don’t like to eat blue-spotted fish – proof that fish don’t like blueberries.

Check the little fish in front of Chris’ right mask lenses. We sat on the swim step of the boat and put on our swim fins. This fish came up to Chris and just started to hang with her. The fish swam along at least 150 yards to the point and then all the way back to the boat. When Chris dove deep, the fish went with. I think he wanted a girlfriend.

On a different day this yellow and black angle fish insisted on playing with my yellow and black fins.

On shore in the harbor are the remains of the 1950’s Chub estate. That’s Chub, like in Chub Insurance. The story is that back in the old days he used to come to the waters edge to take pot-shots at anyone who anchored in ‘his’ bay.

We dropped our genoa headsail off at Philips Sail and Canvas in Road Town, Tortola. The sacrificial cover was shot. This is the fabric that protects the sail from the sun when it is rolled up. We dropped the sail on the deck and Chris started resewing it. The more it got resewn, the more the material disintegrated. It needed replacement. Something much better done with a large room to lay it out. Hopefully it will be ready on Friday.

We left Little Harbour and sailed over to Sopers Hole so we could check of the British Virgin Islands with customs and immigration. On the way in we passed Venus. Venus is the super yacht built for Steve Jobs – but he never got to enjoy it. The bridge is at the top level. It has floor to ceiling glass all the way around. Great for the Silicon Valley look – not so smart at sea.

We headed over to St John and Cruz Bay to check back into the US of A. We needed to pick up mail that we had sent down – credit cards for the new year. On the way back out the outboard slowed way down. We weren’t sure we’d make the 1 mile run back to the boat. Turns out the propeller had hit the rocks onetime too many. In the old days props had shear pins that would snap when the prop hit something. This was to protect the gears in the outboard. Now the props have a rubber core that does the same thing.

The rubber ring on the prop (left) was trashed, letting it slip whenever you rev’d the engine. Fortunately I’d bought a spare carburetor and prop from a cruiser in Panama for a $100. So I stuck on this high-thrust (I know it sounds sexy, but it isn’t) prop and and off we were. More fixing your boat in exotic ports.

Our mail isn’t here yet – but it will be soon – for sure. Then we’ll head back to the BVIs to pick up our sail.

Paul