North West Towards Florida
24 February 2020
Lorraine and Chris Marchant
Leaving Riviere Sans Marina we had a slow sail in the lee of Guadeloupe then had an excellent sail north-westward. To avoid night sailing we stopped overnight at Montserrat but it was a rather rolly anchorage. During our return home in 2015 we visited the island and it remains a sad reminder, like St. Pierre in Martinique. of the dangers of living beneath an active volcano. The damage of the 1997 eruption is still very obvious, half the island was buried and most of it is still an exclusion area.
Pressing on north west we had a rapid sail in ENE 5-6 winds to St Kitts (St Christopher) and anchored in Slutter Bay. We were only planning to stay a single night but the weather decided otherwise and we stayed for 2 nights until things improved. We actually attempted to check in but the customs and immigration were in the main town of Basseterre. We'd stayed in a small marina there in 2015 and we hoped they would accommodate us again but they were full and we were forced to anchor off the harbour. However, the swell was such that it was going to be dangerous to land in the dinghy so we gave up and returned to a calmer spot. It seems they only really want super-yachts and cruise ships here these days!
Our next passage was overnight to the British Virgin Islands. We had good conditions for the trip and were able to sail close to the islands of Statia (St Eustacius) and Saba, neither of which have good anchorages. Statia's main claim to fame seems to be its 60 giant oil storage tanks which provide storage for the whole region.
On the other hand Saba, the smallest Dutch island in the Caribbean with just 5 square miles of land, is remote and apparently very unspoilt with the main settlement high on a shoulder above the sea. The people who live here have unusual lilting accents as the first European settlers were Scottish and Irish, the Dutch came later. It is thought that Saba was the first island in the Caribbean to be settled during pre-ceramic times and it is much studied by archaeologists. The island is also a divers' paradise and there are advanced diving courses available for exploring the deeper waters. The only way to get to the island is by flight or ferry from St Marten and there is no anchorage, we were sorry not to have been able to visit.
Landfall in the BVIs was delightful. We sailed past Richard Branson's private island of Neckar, it is the only one with wind turbines and we wondered how they would fare in a hurricane. Sailing through its sheltering reefs we entered Gorda Sound and it soon became clear that there is still a great deal of rebuilding to do after hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. We were hoping to go to The Bitter End, a once popular yachties' bar and restaurant in the Sound but it had been very badly damaged and still looked like a building site. The charter yacht companies are all up and running again but the shore side facilities on Virgin Gorda are still few and far between.
One of our abiding memories from 1982 was our visit to The Baths in Virgin Gorda with our friends Alan and Belinda who were sailing with us. The Baths is a collection of strikingly beautiful giant granite boulders sitting on the edge of the sea with the water lapping beneath and between them. In 1982 there were few tourists, we were able to anchor close to and visit them on our own taking lots of photos. Today they are deservedly popular especially with the many charter yachts in this part of the Caribbean. Fortunately we were aware that it could become very busy with yachts competing for the mooring buoys that have to be used now. We therefore arrived soon after 7a.m. and apart from one small party from Taiwan or South Korea who were just leaving we had the place to ourselves again.
There were no restrictions as to where we could wander in '82, we found wonderful rock-scapes amongst the boulders and photographed whatever we could. (See gallery) We tried to search out these places we had found before but found only one although there were others quite similar. There are a number of areas cordoned off now, probably for health and safety reasons to avoid accidents but also to encourage plants and trees back into The Baths which lost many during recent hurricanes. Nevertheless, our trail through from the dinghy mooring to the beach and back via a different route was just wonderful. This is such an extraordinary place.
We spent another week in the BVIs, mainly at Norman Island and Peter Island. At Peter Island there was an unusual group of rocks called the Indians standing straight up out of the water with a wide skirt of rocks and coral which gave excellent snorkeling, the best we had in these islands. We were enjoying a number of very pleasant anchorages with excellent swimming and not many boats. It is surprising how easy it is to get away from the charter boats by going to interesting and beautiful places away from restaurants and bars and still enjoy a cold beer when we want one. One of our favourite anchorages was Benures Bay at Norman Island. We did have a few nights in the marina in Road Town which was very convenient for shopping and services but also horribly expensive.
By this time we were hearing plenty of news and comment about coronavirus and were beginning to appreciate that CovID19 was going to impact our plans so we decided we had better get a move on and get to the Bahamas and Florida as quickly as possible.