Hello to all following our adventures and apologies for the delay!

The last few days of our trip last week were so busy there was no chance to blog. Read on to find out the conclusion to our week in paradise that we are all sorely missing after being back in “the real world”.

From our anchorage in Cane Garden Bay we took a nice morning sail to Guana Island.

View from the top deck

At Guana Island we grabbed a mooring ball for a couple hours at Monkey Point and we all took some time to snorkel, feed the fish (with frozen peas!), or just relax.

Fishing (and diving) via tender at Monkey Point

From Guana we had a lovely sail over to Marina Cay, one of the prettiest little anchorages in the BVI. The tiny island, nestled between Tortola, Great Camanoe, and Scrub Islands, sports a fuel dock, small hotel, and, of course, a Pusser’s. The red telephone booth on the end of the dock is iconic. Originally the home of author Robb White and his wife Rodie in the late 1930s, the island is immortalized in White’s memoirs and the film adaptation Two on the Isle. Their original home still stands.

 The mooring field at Marina Cay

Marina Cay and its iconic phone booth

Shenanigans

Next stop: Virgin Gorda! The next day we sailed briefly to Leverick Bay on the island of Virgin Gorda for some tender engine repair and to meet with some old friends living there. While docked at the marina, Sir Richard Branson pulled up next to us in his tender (much bigger and nicer than ours) on an apparent trip to the grocery store! Alas, there are no pictures (we were playing it cool) so you’ll have to take my word for it. In other celebrity news, across from our sailboat were 3 mega-yachts, one of which was owned by Simon Cowell. The price tag? A cool $79 million. Of course, if you just rent it for the week it’s only $385,000 – much more reasonable.

Pretty boats all in a row

From Leverick Bay it was a quick motor to our mooring for the night at the Bitter End Yacht Club, a wonderfully unpretentious little resort with a focus on water sports. In the evening we made our way to the Saba Rock Restaurant for a few cocktails and enjoyed the beautiful night where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Rain rolls through the Bitter End

Saba Rock at dusk

The next day, Friday, was the last full day of our charter, but also one of the best! Our destination was the far southern point of Virgin Gorda, the internationally recognized site known as The Baths. Having actually nothing to do with cleanliness, The Baths is a geologic formation of hundreds of large granite boulders strewn about the coast of Virgin Gorda. They form natural caves and shallow pools that modern tourists can hike through, and at one time pirates hid their treasure within (or so they say). No trip to the BVI is complete without a visit to The Baths. The photographs speak for themselves.

After we finished exploring, we made our way back up the coast to Virgin Gorda’s largest settlement, Spanish Town, and got a slip in the marina for the night. Everyone enjoyed a shower ashore (showering on the boat just doesn’t compare) as we prepared for the evening festivities: drinks at CocoMaya Restaurant  and dinner at the Treehouse at the Rock Cafe. CocoMaya truly redefines the term “beach bar” (no soggy dollars here!) and we had the perfect evening to take advantage of it. Dinner at the Treehouse was phenomenal and everyone thoroughly enjoyed spending their last meal of the charter reliving the incredible week.

CocoMaya

The sun sets on an amazing charter

On Saturday morning we awoke to rainy skies that thankfully cleared before we left Spanish Town to bring our boat back to Tortola. At the dock, goodbyes were said, promises to keep in touch were made, and plans to do it all again were begun. We couldn’t have asked for a better week, a better crew, or a better place to enjoy it all – aboard a sailing ship in the British Virgin Islands!

Next time, maybe you’ll join us?

Signing off,

Adam, First Mate / bartender / sous chef / tender captain / dive guide / therapist