March 29: Day 4

Mangroves serve many functions in aquatic environments, and we take advantage of many of them on Tortola for a unique swim. It's the kind of place that you have to slow down a bit and focus on the sea bed to find some great sea life; lots of juvenile fish, crabs, rays, and upside-down jellyfish inhabit the shallow waters.

Eggs benedict followed by a brief stop back in Road Town for fuel and to pick up Lindsay, a Promenade crew member. She joins Felix, another Promenade crew member, originally from the Island of Dominica. They're both excellent crew.

We put four sails up to cross the channel, our destination Norman Island. We moored near a famous set of caves and plotted an out-and-back swim. Guest Mark led < the way. He's a 3-time client from California who swims and swims and swims. This is the first time I'm meeting him, and he and I have done a lot of the swims this week stroke-for-stroke. Until today he was on the slow side. Guide Dave gave him some tips to improve his crawl, and he has almost doubled his speed, and reached the rocky turnaround point first. When everyone else caught up, we were greeted by a friendly spotted eagle ray who stuck around long enough for photographs.

Threepeat Swimvacationer Mark has picked up speed this week.

Amy enjoys our sail to Norman. Guide Dave flops in at the caves. Guide Heather resurfaces after an eagle ray encounter.

Group photo at the end of Norman Island - the end of the BVI Archipelago.

We swam back to the caves, where we splashed around and enjoyed an amazing display of fish and coral. I hopped out a little early to start putting together a dinner of chicken caesar salad. Most of us then headed to the infamous Willy T's for some dancing and general merriment. This might be why everyone is sleeping in this morning. I'd better put on a pot of coffee.

- Hopper