We left Peter Island on Thursday and sailed to Virgin Gorda and The Baths. We were tacking against the wind up the Drake Passage, but made good time for the 10 miles between them. The Baths is an amazing area where it looks like huge boulders were casually strewn across the beach. There are trails around, over and under these massive rocks that make for delightful exploration when going between one pristine beach and another. Once we were done exploring and after having lunch at a small outdoor (covered) food stand we headed back to the boat and moved 2 miles further east to an anchorage. There are lots of mooring balls at The Baths but overnight mooring is not allowed. A park ranger pointed out to us that there is a theoretical time limit of 90 minutes for the moorings - they don't enforce that in the off-season however. While we saw maybe 100+ people in the whole area, the ranger said that in the winter there would be over 500 people there at any time!

Friday morning we topped up our fuel, picked up some groceries and headed east again. We were planning on going to North Sound in Virgin Gorda, which is a rather large bay that has several marinas & anchorages scattered around it. Looking at the chart with Ryan & Olivia (on SeaUs), we decided on a slight modification. We sailed up the Drake Passage - still tacking but much of the time doing 8+ mph. Instead of entering North Sound, we went past it to Eustatia Sound and anchored behind Eustatia Island. The Sound is very shallow in spots and has coral heads scattered all around. Consequently there is very little boat traffic. Adding to that, there are no facilities and Eustatia Island is private - so no landing on the island. Fortunately, Virgin Gorda is 1/4 mile away, so I can take Windy ashore there.

We anchored close to a long reef area that extends off the north side of the island. So yesterday (Saturday) afternoon we took SeaUs's inflatable dinghy out to the reef and went hunting. We (Ryan mostly) ended up with 3 large fish & a couple smaller ones. There were a LOT more that I went after and missed. Spearguns are not allowed in the BVIs, so were had to use pole spears. It's extremely difficult even to get within range of larger fish with a 5' spear! I also saw a baby turtle (maybe a foot across) and a couple reef sharks (about 5' long).

We may stay here a couple more days as the fishing (hunting) is pretty good, it's a nice anchorage (no bugs!) and we need to prepare for our next leg. From here we head to St Martin, which is about 80 nm (close to 100 statute miles) and will probably take 20 hours or more - depending upon the wind. The forecast from yesterday predicts that the winds should swing around Wed to give us a better sailing angle as this is mostly an easterly leg.

Yesterday I spent a couple hours snorkeling around the boat & collected 4 large conch. I initially went into the water to check the anchor & then noticed all these conch scattered around the bottom. It took me most of the rest of the day to get them out of the shells & then cleaned. Last night I fixed them up - very tasty (if chewy).

Just a couple miles away is Necker Island, which is wholly owned by Richard Branson (of Virgin Everything). It has a recognized anchorage close to it and is surrounded by reefs. We were thinking of taking Inspiration over there to anchor for the day and hitting those reefs while we wait for the weather.