Little Harbor
Peter Island
18.21.296N
64.35.966W

High winds and rain punctuated the quiet night at Norman Island but all in all, we got a good night’s sleep and awoke to a beautiful day. Of course, there was still the lingering rain shower from time to time which was announced by a few gusts of high wind during the morning hours. We listened to “Chris” anticipating the forecast for a weather window this weekend in which to cross the Anagada before we dropped the mooring ball and made our way around the corner to Peter Island.

Arriving in Peter Island there were 6 boats med-moored along the perimeter so we dropped our anchor and prepared to do the same. For some reason Dale wanted to set the anchor in the opposite direction before we backed into place to drag another line to shore forcing the primary anchor to turn around and reset but it still worked and we were situated well away from other boats leaving enough room for Orpailleur to back into a spot where they could tie to the rock pier still standing from the 60’s.

As it was still well before lunchtime, we jumped in and snorkeled around the edges. Nicky spotted a ray loitering beneath our boat right away, so we all gathered around to point, take pictures and basically scare it off. A school of non-descript fish were gathered in the shadow of the Palace as well. I found a good sized conch shell but it was inhabited by one of the largest hermit crabs I’d ever seen. I did spot a fish that I don’t recall ever seeing before. It had a mouth like a moray but a body like a fish and stayed sitting on the bottom. According to my fish book, it could have been a Bluestriped Lizardfish. Also according to my book, they are rare in the Caribbean. In any event, I’ve got a picture of the thing. Maybe not the best picture but I’m still playing with the new camera.

We swam back to the boats for lunch and then Dale and I watched the incoming parade of boats doing to the anchor dance while Gerry took Mark and Rose to the old house on the hill to show them around.

We finished the day with a curried chicken dinner on board Orpailleur prepared by Mark and a banana crepe dessert prepared by Nicky. I brought a Cobb salad. No one was left hungry. In fact, we tossed a couple of bites of crepe into the water for the little fish gathered in the light and suddenly a huge fish zoomed in and downed it in a gulp. Dale figured it looked like a tarpon. My natural inclination was that it was a barracuda. What ever it was, I’m not doing moonlight swimming.