Simpson Bay Lagoon straddles the border between French Saint Martin and Dutch Sint Maarten. It's a vast stretch of water completely protected from the ocean, but is very shallow with a buoyage system that can only be intended to provide amusement and employment for the locals, with the added delight of being directly under the international airport's flight path. However the island is one of the best places in the Caribbean for obtaining gear and getting work done on yachts, so we spent three nights there at anchor, had the mast fixed, raided the chandleries and supermarkets then caught the 1630 bridge opening for an overnight passage to the BVIs.

Soon after dawn we passed between Prickly Pear Island and Necker - Richard Branson's hideaway - and were amused to see next to it the classic cartoonist's vision of a castaway's island, a sand-bank with two palm trees: only these were plastic! We entered the magnificent expanse of Gorda Sound and anchored in Gun Creek, where we were able to clear customs. Next morning we found an anchorage to ourselves in Robin Bay where we could swim, and row to an isolated beach with a multitude of conch shells washed up in the sand. Later we went by dinghy to the Bitter End Yacht Club, a fabulous place for a shore-based sailing holiday, then to the bar on Saba Rock for a happy-hour "painkiller" cocktail or two. Amongst an eclectic collection of nautical paraphernalia were some vintage outboard motors, including an Evinrude just like the one my father owned. Next stop was Spanish Town, at the other end of Virgin Gorda, where the pilot book advises buoying your anchor in case it gets snagged under a rock. What it doesn't mention is that you then have to ward off charter yachts who think your buoy is a vacant mooring! From there it's a longish dinghy ride to the BVI's most popular tourist attraction, the Baths. This is the middle one of three small bays surrounded by massive, rounded granite batholiths piled up into fantastic formations, rather like those at Ploumenac in Brittany, but pale grey instead of pink. There is an intriguing path through a series of grottos leading to Devil's Bay, and the whole area is great for snorkelling.

The capital of the BVIs is Roadtown on Tortola where we spent a couple of nights in the rather exposed anchorage. Despite being a British Overseas Territory, the US influence is everywhere: most of the visitors seem to be American, the vehicles are left-hand drive yet are driven on the left, the shops sell mainly US produce, the currency is US dollars and every receipt is presented with "have a nice day". The marinas in Roadtown are at the heart of the massive charter yacht industry. Financial services are also booming, mainly involving offshore company registrations. We left our boat in Nanny Cay Marina and spent a very enjoyable couple of days as guests of Craig and Avril, old sailing buddies of Amanda, at their lovely hill-top home with superb views over Cane Garden Bay. They took us on a tour of some of the bumpier roads to get a feel for the hinterland, and fed us very well. Their children have spent most of their lives on the island and seem very happy on it.

Norman is the last of the islands strung out westwards from Virgin Gorda. Its tales of hidden gold and pieces-of-eight are said to have inspired R.L. Stevenson to write Treasure Island. He describes his island as being "shaped like a fat dragon standing up, with two fine land-locked harbours and a hill marked Spy Glass". Norman Island perhaps more resembles a skinny lizard, but the Bight is certainly a fine harbour, although, typical of so many these days, the anchorage has been filled with moorings, available for a fee. We and a couple of other "cruisers" managed to find the few gaps amongst the buoys to anchor, then each evening watched an armada of charter boats tie up to them, only to leave early the next morning to bag day-time-only moorings close to the snorkelling sites. We stayed at anchor for four nights, using the dinghy to get to the caves for some excellent snorkelling, and ashore for a walk up Spy Glass Hill. There was no sign of Ben Gunn: the island is deserted apart from the Pirates' Bar. Finally we re-crossed the Sir Frances Drake Channel to Soper's Hole, a pleasant and convenient harbour with a supermarket and customs office where we could take on stores and check out of the BVIs. When we noticed that a pelican had started to build a nest on top of our radar scanner we knew it was time to set off on the long passage north!