Not your usual sandy beach.
We left in the afternoon bound for British Virgin Islands. Our last stop with the boat was a lunch stop at Maho beach. It is still fascinating to be looking at the underside of so many planes. We had a very good sail up to BVI’s, making Virgin Gorda just at the officials opened up for the day. After clearing in with a couple of surly officials we headed off to The Baths, an area of round rocks littering the beach. It is great snorkeling but not a comfortable place for the boat so we moved up the island to Pond Bay. This is tucked behind a reef and needed some good navigation skills to get in. We managed, even thought the chart was not as accurate as we liked. But it was worth it. We were here alone for a while but eventually around here, boats follow you in. We did see some scary moments as we watched some of the boats try to make it in but seemed to ignore the reef. It is amazing that nobody went aground, given the number of people that just see the anchorage and head straight for it. We spent several days here then it was off to the Biter End Yacht Club. This was really a bitter disappointment. We quickly realized that this cruising ground caters for charter boats that have a big wallet. Some of the best anchorages are taken up with mooring balls, starting at $30 per night. The shorelines are dotted with restaurants, all touting for your business and the prices are not cheap. We knew this before we came here and had to see it for ourselves. Still, it is a lovely set of islands well worth cruising around. Our goal has been to find the good anchorages without mooring balls and without the hordes of charterers. So far we have found a few. We have also visited the popular places like nanny Cay, Sopers hole, Road Town and enjoyed the ambience.