Sailing the Caribbean

Days 10-11: Bitter End Yacht Club, Anegada

We were so happy to sacrifice a stop at Willie T's for another day at the Bitter End, it's really quite beautiful. 

Our boat at Bitter End

We started the day Saturday with a hike after breakfast which was a lot of fun. 

We climbed to the top and back, Then we headed to the boat, jumped into the water for a quick swim, and went to the Bitter End for a yummy lunch, blog posting, and napping. 

We found out that for the cost of a mooring ball we could get free water and ice next door, so we headed over to fill our tanks and found this cute bar. Happy hour was until 6, so we moved faster than we have the whole trip to get there before it was over. 

Back to the boat for more drinks, dinner and a good night's sleep because...

Sunday morning Ian and I woke up at 6:30 and got the sails up with great winds as we put civilization behind us and headed for the desert island of Anegada.  Leah and Jason woke up about halfway there and we enjoyed the open sailing for about 2 hours until we reached this, the island of Anegada. It's a flat, scrubby island with about 200 people on it despite being the second largest of the BVI. 

Seriously amazing.

We frolicked on this beautiful beach for a bit and Ian suggested we pack a lunch and go of a walk. He remembered there was a bar about 2 hour walk away along the beach. Great idea, right? Let me just inform you that Ian is a 7 time world champion adventure racer. Google him. Ian Adamson. So we set off for a little walk suggested by Ian, the adventure racer. 

We stumbled on this little bar after having our lunch and a snooze on the beach after 4 miles/ 2 hours.

Did we stop here and get a taxi back? Nope. Ian said his bar was "just around the corner". Famous last words

We did find an awesome conch shell along the way,

Lots of birds,

A cow,

And nothing else.... For miles and miles.... We walked 10 miles, around lots of "corners" and saw no one. That's right, I said 10 miles. 5 hours of walking with no shade in the sand and rocks and water.

Here's the island. We walked from Ian's finger, left, up and over to well past the word Anegada. Too long for non 7 time world champion adventure racers.

We were down to no water, one power bar, and zero patience, when FINALLY, around the next corner we found the bar! Pretty cool, and the famous Foxy of Jost Van Dyke was drinking there and treated us to some rhymes while we waited for our well deserved lobster and drinks. 

My successful shell collecting

Foxy! From the cover of the Virgin Island tourism book (we didn't want to paparazzi him with a picture).

Lobster dinner

We got the taxi back to our boat, enjoyed more food, wine, and lots of laughs before we hit the bed for more early sailing the next day. Our trip is nearing its end and I'm so sad I could cry. 

Sailing the Caribbean

Days 8-9:  Peter Island, The Baths, Bitter End Yacht Club
We spent all of Thursday on Peter Island, a private island with nothing but this one luxury resort on it (and us docked off their shore). We woke up and decided to go for a hike before our massages. Again our athletic friends hiked and ran, but we just hiked, it was steep!

We could get used to these views!

As we were heading along, we saw Ian and Leah on their run back, so I decided to turn around and join them for the rest of their run. We three ran down the mountain and headed to the boat to grab our stuff for the spa and the real showers! Jason hates running and hates running downhill even more, so he just walked back and met us at the shore after we packed up. 

Jason took this waiting for us. 

Time for massages and facials!

While Jason was relaxing by the pool and watching the Phillies on his phone 

We all joined him by the pool and hot tub, then took real showers and got dressed for a late lunch/ early dinner at the restaurant on the water  

Then we headed back to the boat for drinks, laughs and music while Ian baked us some yummy gluten free brownies. Brilliant! Ian also taught us that the highly concentrated gusts of wind aimed at us were called bullets. What we didn't count on was that was going to happen all night - after the generator failed so we had no a/c. Awesome night of sleep. 

Jason wanted to see the Rhone wreck, so Ian and I got up and sailed us over for an early morning snorkel while Leah and Jason slept in a little. The Rhone was a ship that sank off the shore of Peter Island in the 1800s and is now sitting at the bottom of the sea. 

After some cool snorkeling and a quick stop at Tortola for gas, we were on our way to The Baths. 

How cool! We swam out to these rocks and climbed all through them. 

Jumping from rock to pool

Then walked along a little path to some private little beaches and played a bit in the water. 

We swam back to the boat 

and head out to sail to our next anchorage, The Bitter End Yacht Club. I got to sail us there. With some great winds, what fun!!!!

Pulling into Bitter End

Once there, we decided to head up to one of the bars and as we walked around the grounds, Jason fell in love. We liked it even better than Peter Island, so we decided to stay another day on Saturday instead of getting up and heading to Anagada in the morning. After drinks at the lovely beach bar, we headed back to our boat for a dinner of grilled fish tacos and then went to sleep excited for our next day! 

Sailing the Caribbean

Days 6-7: Jost Van Dyke, Sandy Cay, Tortola, Peter Island

I know it sounds like a lot for two days, and it is. We woke up and set sail bright and early out of Culebrita on Tuesday morning. We were heading against the current and the wind, so we really had to get going if we wanted to make it to Jost Van Dyke. 

When we did get to Jost, we found a perfect harbor 

and we decided to hike up to the cell tower. 

(Of course Ian and Leah hiked and then ran along the ridge at the top, so we let them go ahead, just the hike was enough for us!) It was crazy steep to get to the top, which was 1,000 feet up, but the views along the way were worth it. 

The goats were way better at this than we were.

Eventually, we met up with Ian and Leah at a little bar back at the dock, and we all headed back to the boat for dinner and drinks. 

On wednesday, we got up and headed to Sandy Cay for a morning walk and breakfast. The island was this little dot of an island with beautiful white sand and a path to explore the island. 

When we got there, Ian opened a coconut for us so we drank from it

and headed for our walk along the path that goes around the island.
The perfect spot for jumping pics. 

We headed back to the boat, but Jason decided to swim back while we took the dingy.

After breakfast, we headed to Peter Island, but we needed to stop at Tortola for some more provisions, so we pulled up to Soper's Hole. What an adorable marina!

We had to stop at this cute bar for a cocktails.

Then looked at some amazing boats docked here, shopped the little boutiques, and bought some groceries before heading back to the boat and off to Peter Island. While sailing the choppy waters, we thought it would be a great idea to jump on the trampoline to catch some air as we hit waves.

Great idea, huh? What a gash on my elbow!

Leah and Ian dropped Jason and me at the marina on Peter Island so I could get a medic to look at it while they found us a spot to anchor the boat. Unfortunately, no luck in the first aid department at Peter Island, but we did find a bar, so we sat down for a drink after we just walked around exploring.

Once Leah and Ian found us, we walked to the perfect little bay that they found for us on the other side of the island. There were no other boats and a private little beach with chairs and cabanas. 
Ian tended to my wound, we ate some dinner and hit the sack! Tomorrow we have massages at the spa!