The BVI comprise nearly 60 islands (most not inhabited) of which the main ones are Virgin Gorda, Anegada, Tortola and Jost Van Dyke. We started our journey at Virgin Gorda, the ‘fat’ virgin, so called because Columbus thought that the island's profile on the horizon looks like a fat woman lying on her side. The Virgin Islands generally are swarming with tourists and the spot we chose, The Baths, was particularly crowded. We managed to find a spot to anchor and then, miraculously, late afternoon, all the other boats disappeared, leaving us in solitary splendour in this magnificent spot. We promptly moved onto a mooring buoy and then went for a fabulous bit of snorkelling amongst the beautiful grottoes that have been formed by huge volcanic granite boulders lying in scenic piles along the beach.
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| The Baths, Virgin Gorda |
We moved along next morning before the daily swarm arrived and sailed on to Road Harbour on the island of Tortola to do our check-in. The water was so crowded with yachts it felt like we were in the middle of a regatta! The anchorage at Road Harbour was crowded and the holding was very poor. I stayed on board to watch the boat whilst Mike went in to do formalities and a bit of shopping. He returned some hours later with steam coming out of his ears; check-in had been rather expensive! Very unhappy with the anchorage, we moved straight away to the beautiful, and much less crowded, White Bay on the island of Jost Van Dyke. We spent two nights there and managed to collect a decent amount of water during a hefty downpour. We took a long walk to the next bay and visited the famous ‘Foxys’ bar. Saw no one famous, needless to say.
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| White Bay, Jost Van Dyke |
The USVI comprises four main islands – St Croix, St John, St Thomas and Water Island, as well as several dozen smaller islands. The US Virgins are considerably more sophisticated than the BVI and check-in was free – we liked it better there!
17 April 2003
Our first port of call was Cruz Bay on St John and we arrived on the morning of Good Friday. Once we’d done our check-in and bought some extremely expensive pills for Mike ($12 for 10 days worth!), we went off to get something to eat. I ordered a glass of wine and was taken aback to be told no alcohol could be obtained anywhere on the island until after 4pm – because it was Good Friday. Most young English now refer to it as ‘Bank Holiday Friday’ but Americans are apparently made of sterner stuff. After lunch we took a long, hot, tour of the place, ending up at a beach bar where we waited, along with a large crowd of thirsty locals, till four o’clock for their advertised house special of ‘Painkillers’ – rum, coconut, pineapple and orange juice. We had two each and they were worth the wait.
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| Cruz Bay, St John Island |
That night we had heavy rain again accompanied by hard winds. Our anchor dragged and we had to re-anchor, but on the up-side we did manage to collect more water. It was extremely hot by now and the rain brought a welcome relief, albeit short lived.
We moved on and anchored at Honeymoon Bay on Water Island, off St Thomas. It was nice there, but very crowded and hot so we didn’t linger - at this point it was cooler to sail, at least you got a bit of a breeze! Leaving the area, we passed a smallish, obviously uninhabited, island sporting a large ‘For Sale $20 million’ banner. Buy that and be neighbours with Richard Branson!
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