There are plenty of places to anchor in the British Virgin Islands. Norman Island BVI is the one people talk about for the rest of their lives.
It has everything — pirate history, buried treasure legends, the best snorkelling caves in the territory, a restaurant that fires a cannon at happy hour, and a floating bar where anything can happen and usually does. It also has a quiet south-side anchorage almost no one knows about, where the seabed holds actual shipwreck doubloons and you can have the whole bay to yourself.
I’ve been sailing to Norman Island for thirty years. Here’s what you need to know.
The Legend — Treasure Island and the Creque Gold
Norman Island is the source of the story Robert Louis Stevenson tells in Treasure Island. We have an old chart of the island hanging on our office wall — and if you look inside the cover of Stevenson’s book, the map he drew matches Norman Island almost exactly. The Caves are the source of the tale.
Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, a local fisherman named Henry O. Creque paddled his dory into one of the caves to shelter from one of the sudden downpours that typify the tropics. Once inside, he was greeted by an unusual sight — shiny things moving back and forth in the water with the swell. He assumed it was fish. It wasn’t. A chest on a rear shelf had broken open, and the cave floor was scattered with gold coins.
Creque used part of the gold to purchase the entire island from the government. His family, the Creques, became custodians of Norman Island for generations — until Henry Jarecki, who also owns Guana Island, purchased it from them in 1999 for eight million dollars.
Jarecki’s original plan was a mega-yacht marina and exclusive residential development. Then the financial crash of 2008 arrived, and those plans have been on hold for nearly two decades. Norman Island remains as it has always been — wild, largely undeveloped, and visited by charter yachts every single week of the year.
The Bight — Pirates, Cannons, and Willy T's
The Bight is Norman Island’s main anchorage on the northwest side of the island. Pick up a mooring ball or anchor in good holding sand, and you have two bars and a restaurant within dinghy distance.
Pirates restaurant sits in the southeast corner of the Bight with a dock for dinghies. It’s a great family spot — cold drinks, good food, a beach to swim off. At five o’clock every day they fire a cannon shot to signal happy hour. It’s the most civilised thing you’ll hear all week.
While you’re at Pirates, look into the corner of the bay just next to the dock. You’ll see an underwater rock wall just below the surface — the remains of a dock that was active hundreds of years ago. The fact that it’s now submerged tells you exactly how much sea levels have risen since it was built.
Willy T’s is the black pirate ship moored in the southwest corner of the Bight. Named for William Thornton — a famous British Virgin Islander who won a competition to design the United States Capitol Building, beating out three other architects including one of the Founding Fathers — it’s one of those places where you never quite know what’s going to happen next. Sunday afternoons are a particular event. So are most nights. People jump off the top deck. Shots are consumed. The party finds its own level and then exceeds it. If you have guests who want a tame evening, send them to Pirates. If they want a story to tell, send them to Willy T’s.
If the Bight is full or you simply want a quieter night within reach of the action, Benures Bay on the northeast side of Norman Island is an excellent alternative. Good holding, well protected, and a short dinghy ride to Pirates and Willy T’s. It’s also a favourite spot for those who want to be off the mooring field but still close enough to hear the music from Willy T’s carrying across the water on a still night.
The Pirate History — Careenage, Spyglass Hill, and Blackbeard's Gold
The Bight wasn’t just a good anchorage. It was one of the Caribbean’s most active pirate careenage sites.
Careening was the process of beaching a ship, unloading everything, rolling her onto her side, and cleaning and copper-sheathing the hull — essential maintenance in an era when wood fouled quickly in warm tropical water. It was months of brutal, skilled labour. The Bight was ideal for it: protected, deep enough for large vessels, and remote enough to avoid unwanted attention.
The rumour of Blackbeard’s gold buried somewhere on Norman Island has brought treasure hunters to dig holes here for centuries. No one has found it — or if they have, they haven’t said so. What does keep showing up on the beach near the old careenage area are cannonballs, anchors, and lead shot.
At one of the highest points on the island sits Spyglass Hill — named for exactly the reason you’d expect. From here, a lookout could see ships approaching from multiple directions across the Sir Francis Drake Channel. When a target was spotted, the pirates could sail out from the Bight to intercept before the merchant vessel had any warning. It’s still worth the hike up for the views alone.
The Caves at Treasure Point
The Caves are the most visited snorkelling site in the entire British Virgin Islands. Day boats from Road Town and the US Virgin Islands bring groups here regularly, and National Parks mooring balls fill up fast — sometimes 30 or 40 boats in peak season.
A note on mooring placement: the balls at the Bight end of the moorings tend to sit aligned to the prevailing wind. The balls near the cave entrances can be very close together, so if you’re bareboating, take your time coming in and watch the boats around you. If the moorings are full, pick up a ball in Privateer Bay or the Bight and dinghy across. Blue balls are dinghy moorings directly in front of the cave entrances.
The caves themselves are shallow — none go back more than about 40 feet, and none are deeper than around 15 feet. They are easy snorkelling for anyone. Inside, the walls are encrusted with vivid cup corals in orange and red, and the fish life is extraordinary. Sergeant majors, bar jack, yellow-tailed snappers, blue tang — fish that have been fed by visiting snorkellers for decades and will swim right up to your mask looking for treats.
On fish feeding: I’ve always taken a piece of bread or some cereal in with me. Some people are philosophically opposed to it. But I’ve noticed that many of the same people who object have no problem putting a bird feeder on their back porch. Draw your own conclusions.
Money Bay — Norman Island's Best Kept Secret
Most charter guests never make it to the south side of Norman Island. That’s been the appeal for as long as I’ve been coming here.
Money Bay sits on the south side, outside and below the main island mass, sheltered from the prevailing wind when conditions allow. It holds one boat comfortably anchored stern-tied to shore — sometimes two if you’re friendly with your neighbours. There’s a small salt pond in the back, a beach that is exactly the right size, and in the corner, if conditions have brought a small swell around the point, you can surf the incoming waves on a kayak and deposit yourself directly onto the sand. We did this for years with guests. Nobody wanted to leave.
Why is it called Money Bay? Because of the shipwrecked galleons and the doubloons on the seabed, naturally. The area around what we call Money Bay was once known as Landing Bay — the Jarecki-era name appears on newer charts — but the older name stuck for everyone who knew the place before development came. An old chart I have from 1776 shows that a man named John Purcell held the land lease for the area at that time. Cannons, anchors, lead shot, and cannonballs have all come up from the bottom here over the years. I know where some of them are. I’m not going to tell you on the internet.
Tales from Money Bay
Money Bay is also where some of my most vivid charter memories live. We spent a week there off-charter one summer — scuba diving, snorkelling, using a metal detector on the sand, watching the birds. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than in that anchorage.
One afternoon we noticed a group of people at the far west end of the bay. Police boats appeared. Through binoculars we could see women and children being helped aboard, along with what looked like coolers. We assumed it was a picnic — the police sometimes used the island for target practice on the goats. When we left the bay to restock and came back, we learned that a go-fast boat running illegal immigrants from St Maarten had told its passengers they were being taken to the USVI. The boat hit the reef coming into Money Bay in the dark and put everyone in the water. They had been on the beach for days — around thirty to forty people. At least one infant died. We had been anchored at the other end of the bay the entire time and hadn’t known. On the little beach afterward, we found a Spanish bible and some clothing left behind.
It stays with you.
Not long after, on a different charter, we were in Money Bay at night after dinner. No anchor light — you want to see the stars there. All at once a very bright spotlight hit the cockpit. A customs vessel had come alongside in complete silence and tied to our transom without us hearing a sound. Customs checking us out in the dark, with guns. Once our hearts returned to normal speed, there were no problems. But Money Bay has a way of reminding you that the BVI is not just a backdrop for holidays.
Practical Notes for Charter Guests
Moorings: National Parks moorings at the Caves fill quickly — arrive early or be prepared to dinghy from the Bight. The Bight itself has good holding sand for anchoring if mooring balls are taken.
Pirates restaurant: Southeast corner of the Bight, dinghy dock, family-friendly, excellent happy hour cannon at 5pm.
Willy T’s: Southwest corner of the Bight, floating bar, tender dock. Best Sunday afternoons and most evenings. Not for the faint-hearted.
Money Bay: South side of the island, outside the main anchorage. Check weather and swell before committing — exposed to south in certain conditions. Fits one boat comfortably stern-tied to shore. Worth every bit of the effort to get there.
Ferries: Norman Island is accessible by the supply vessels for the restaurants from Tortola at certain times and has water taxi connections to the main BVI ferry network.
Ready to Visit Norman Island?
Norman Island appears on almost every BVI charter itinerary for a reason. The Caves alone would justify the stop. Add the Bight, Pirates restaurant, Willy T’s, Spyglass Hill, and the quiet south side anchorage at Money Bay, and you have a full day and a half of experiences that simply don’t exist anywhere else in the Caribbean.
Give it more than one night if your itinerary allows. Arrive at the Caves early before the day boats come in. Stay for the sunset at the Bight. And if the weather cooperates, anchor for a night at Money Bay and see what the island looks like when most people have gone.
