Day 4 Cooper Island to Virgin Gorda
We had bacon, egg and cheese sammie's for breakfast. Heather, Ruth, Karen, Dawn and I took the dinghy into the beach on Cooper Island to do a little shopping at the boutique. When we returned, we prepped for departure and left our mooring. Winds were 12-15 knots today. We took turns at the helm. It was a nice easy sail to Virgin Gorda. The waters were inky blue. We took a day mooring at the Baths and swam to shore. The current was strong. It was quite a workout. Once we were on the beach we all met Heather's friend Lily. He is a local artist (t-shirt designer and a musician). We all purchased some of his wares and he played a song on the guitar and sang for us. There were good vibes here already. We took the trail up to the top of the Baths to have lunch. The view up here never disappoints. We had Jamaican jerk chicken sandwiches and drinks. We met up with Heather's friends Ross, Bobby, Ross''s Dad, Adrian and Jennifer. After taking some pictures together, Heather gave us a tour of the Baths. The Baths are beautiful rock formations. Sports Illustrated did a swim suit issue photo shoot in a spot here called the Cathedral. We were running out of daylight, so it was time to turn back and head to the boat. Ruth and Annette hitched a ride out to our boat with a family of three from Puerto Rico.
The rest of us swam back to the boat. It was an easier swim with the current this time! The family dropped Ruth and Annette off before we arrived. They said that they enjoyed a beer on the way while we were doing our long distance swim! We showered off on the transom, dropped our mooring and motored to Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda to pick up a mooring for the night. There were no moorings available, so we dropped anchor for the first (and only) time on the trip. There was some discussion about anchoring. It has been said that there can be too many Captains aboard a vessel. In our case, we also had three past Commodores aboard. After hearing our discussions on the bow about having the proper amount of chain out and how to attach the bridle, the neighboring boat captain graciously offered to help. He came aboard and told us that he was confident that we had a good hold because he saw the boat stop as we backed down on the anchor. He showed us how to attach the bridle to the chain, which would help to keep us from swinging too much. That added 15 more feet to our chain. We thanked him for his help. We should have given him a bottle of our special rum 😉. A charcuterie dinner was a perfect ending for this busy day!