The Rhone Shipwreck & Nanny Cay, Tortola

Monday, December 3 & Tuesday, December 4

In the afternoon, we sailed to The RMS Rhone which is a shipwreck off of Salt Island which has been turned into a national marine park that is considered the best dive site in the BVI. Gene and Kat dove the wreck while Betty and Tom snorkeled around the shallow area where the bow of the wreck was located. The dive was a lot of fun – we dove to ~ 80 feet where the stern of the wreck was located and saw a bunch of amazing fish, coral, and rays, including a huge spotted eagle ray!

After a great afternoon exploring The Rhone, we sailed across the channel to Nanny Cay, Tortola where we got a slip at the Nanny Cay marina. From here, we had a chance to fill up the boat with diesel, do some laundry, clean the boat, and pick up some fresh provisions. We got a couple of orders of the best conch fritters ever from PegLegs, a restaurant on the beach at Nanny Cay. If you ever go to Tortola and you like conch fritters, you have to try this place!

On Tuesday, Tom and Betty spent the morning at the beach off Nanny Cay and enjoying their last day in the BVI before heading back to Florida that afternoon. We were forced to say our good-byes around noon when they headed off to Road Town to catch the ferry back to St. Thomas. We were very sad to see them leave, we had such an awesome week with them in the BVI.

We really enjoyed the Nanny Cay marina. It's got a busy vibe to it that has always surrounded ports. Being a cruiser's port there were lots of folks doing the same thing as us, cruising. People are running around with spare parts in their hands, hiring workers to wax, polish, paint, fixing broken heads, replacing water pumps, generally getting ready for their next month at sea... 

It seems trivial but there was a neat historical sense to our interactions that is hard to explain. People have been sailing/exploring for thousands of years. We've only been driving cars for a hundred.