18 30.1N 064 21.9W

 

Apologies to the few people who actually read this. We seem to have done an awful lot since our last entry !! We first went up to St. Barts for a few days. Hired a quad and saw the Island. Lovely beaches but not much to see inland, apart from some very expensive properties ! Le Select bar still there and the best bar in town. Allegedly where Jimmy Buffet got the inspiration for ‘Cheeseburger in paradise’ Presidente £3.50. Then moved on when we had a nice 3 day stay in St. Martin anchored out in Simpson Bay. Enjoyed the happy hours at Lagoonies bar; Presidente beers 1$ a bottle ! Took a dinghy trip over to Port Royale on the French side and generally just chllied out. We had planned on watching the superbowl there but a big swell came in and the anchorage became very rolly so we left early for Anguilla. Lovely anchorage off of Road Bay with a superb beach but incredibly expensive everywhere. They wanted $56 a day for a cruising permit to visit the other bays and off lying islands. We opted to stay put. Found a beach bar to watch the superbowl on a big screen and Caroline had the brilliant idea of walking into ‘The Valley’, the main town on the island. “It’s a 20-30 minute walk” a local told us. An hour and 15 minutes later we arrived ! The walk was mostly uphill, on a charmless, busy, dusty road and it was 90 degrees. Still, we needed the exercise...

 

So now we are anchored just west of Saba rock in Virgin Gorda in the B.V.I’s. Everything has gone more upmarket since our last visit; Saba rock used to be a cheap and cheerful beach bar. It is now more of a restaurant where a carib beer was $4.50, and that was happy hour !!! However, clearing in was as painless and cheap as it always has been. $9 for a 4 week stay ! It seems they havn’t got round to charging private yachts for a cruising permit yet.

 

So we are here for a month. Sue Atkins from Southampton Sailing Club joins us on the 18th Feb. for 2 weeks. Anyone else wants a holiday out here just let us know !

 

I promise to try and keep this blog updated more frequently ! Until the next,

 

C & C