Last week after taking in the Friday night Jumbies party at Leverick Bay we picked up anchor the next day and headed the short distance to Saba Rock. One of the things on our 'to do list' was to snorkel the outer reef, east of Saba. We had only ever done the closer ones on earlier trips. This time we have our friends Doug & Cherry with us. Interesting sights including a spotted ray and two old ships cannons laying on the bottom of the sea. After the snorkel session while exploring around Eustatia Island we ran into friends from Grenada, Richard and Jennifer on Our Rose and while the six of us sat chatting on their boat we hatched a plan to all meet over on Anegada in a few days. Richard & Jennifer were leaving the next day and we would leave a day later.

In the mean time Cherry wanted to visit Biras Creek Resort where a few years earlier her daughter Kelly brought some horses over from Puerto Rico and she wanted to look in on them and we would go with them. Biras Creek is a beautiful spot situated in the narrow valley between two hills and has access to both the tranquil Gorda Sound side as well as the open Atlantic. The views from the dining room are fantastic as was the beach, the fresh water pool (which I enjoyed greatly) and all the horses were doing fine in their handsome paddocks.

The next day the 12nm trip over to Anegada just wasn't long enough since we were enjoying the beam reach sail so much. Anegada is a flat, sand island, very few residents and several beach bars. The entire island is surrounded by beach and reefs and depths are scary shallow. We arrived with what seemed like a flotilla of charter boats and they wasted no time picking up all the available mooring balls. We anchored in 8' of water in the 'deeper' end of the anchorage which felt like anchoring in open ocean since there was little protection from wind and waves.

Jennifer & Richard with their shallow cat were able to anchor in quieter waters and having arrived yesterday had already arranged for a car for all of us to explore the island the next day. The island is only about 10m long so getting around it would take no time at all so stops at all the beach bars was in order. Lunch at Loblolly bay after some fantastic snorkeling from the reef off the beach. This reef had deep crevices and caves and some of the biggest fish I have seen yet. Grouper almost three feet long and some other devilish looking fish about five feet long and large teeth to match...which ended my snorkeling right there.

After lunch we were off to find the elusive pink flamingos said to inhabit the salt ponds on the interior of the island. Seeing some ponds in the far distance we parked the car and set off on foot to search them out. This island is so flat and dry it reminded us all of a desert. It even came complete with skeletal remains that had us all whistling the movie theme of " The Good, the Band and the Ugly".

As we walked we came upon a fisherman setting of to pick up his traps who told us of a large flock of flamingos he saw on an outer reef. They were so many that from a distance he thought it was a ship laid up on a reef. When he went to investigate they all flew over him to retreat back to their salt ponds. He described it as the sky being full of pink. Unfortunately our sighting of these birds was only from too great a distance to get any good pictures but we did see them.

The weather for the sail back to Virgin Gorda a few days later started off as a clear, although windy, day. About half way across squalls started forming and reefs were in order. Soon it was socked in with rain, blowing 25knts and visibility had us relying on instruments only. As we threaded the needle that is the entrance at 7.5knts and came into the sound everything quieted down and we took anchorage once again at Leverick Bay.

Yesterday (Sunday) Doug & Cherry left for Nanny Cay to have their refrigerator looked at again and we decided to do some exploring. There are two islands Mosquito Island and Necker Island which are owned by Sir Richard Branson. Necker Island has his personal residence and Mosquito Is (sometimes spelled Moskito Island) is where he is currently building a resort. We dinghied over to Mosquito Island where construction was in full swing, even on a Sunday. A walk around to the other side of the island we found a beautiful secluded beach to spend the afternoon. I will be interesting to see the end result after construction is finished and we surely will have to return.