Vacation - British Virgin Islands (BVIs)

How lucky are we? Well... on a scale of 1-10, I’d say, “20!” We had a wonderful, wonderful time. There’s so much to share - it’s probably best that I split our story into smaller chunks. So you should consider this the intro. In the pieces that follow, I’ll try to give you an idea of where we sailed and the places we visited. And throughout, I hope you’ll get a sense of our overall experience.

The ‘lucky’ and ‘wonderful’ part happened because of Jimmy and Amanda, John’s son and daughter-in-law. Their work involves being a Captain and Chef team on a 58’ Voyageur Catamaran in the BVIs. For the week we visited though, they were not ‘on charter’ - lucky for us. And as to the quality of the time we spent together, it was so valuable – wonderful for all four of us!

Most of you know that Jimmy and Amanda moved to the Caribbean several years ago. For the past two years, their neighbourhood has been the Virgin Islands. They are familiar with the waters – both being on it and in it. They are familiar with the history and pirate folklore – and there is lots of it. I’m sure we asked a zillion questions and neither of them tired from sharing their knowledge. We have vacationed together in the past and this experience was no exception – lots of laughs, a healthy lifestyle and a very relaxing time.

Here’s a pic of the four of us on the top of a ridge on Norman Island off the Sir Francis Drake Channel:


The night before, we had anchored at Pirate’s Bight:



It's not hard to imagine that pirates took refuge in some of these bays!






In the morning, we took the 15’ zodiac to shore and Jimmy encouraged us to trek to the top of the ridge ‘to see what was on the other side’! Here is the view of Money Bay:


You can see the Caribbean Sea spreading out to the skyline and, in the foreground, a huge bay with two separate beaches. The bay is uninhabited, unreachable (except by water) and heavily protected by a nasty coral reef.







More in a few days on our overall trek from Red Hook (USVIs) to Tortola (BVIs) east across the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Virgin Gorda (BVIs) and eventually back to St. Thomas (USVIs). If you can connect to Google Earth, try Tortola. The long and lat is 18 degrees 25’ N and 64 degrees 35’ W.

Don’t forget to check back in a few days… m.