Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, BVI

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Sun 22 Jan 2012 20:34
Well we have arrived here in what was billed as the one of the most beautiful anchorages in the BVI's and I have to say I am a bit disappointed - not least because when we were in Road Town last week we saw a professional photo of the bay which looked so amazing!!  Maybe the weather is not helping - it is a bit grey and overcast with only short sunny periods at the moment - although the photos look sunny it was less than 5 minutes after we took these that we were sheltering from a torrential downpour.
Prior to arriving in the BVI's we were both quite excited as everyone we met who had been raved about it.  I am not sure if we are going to the wrong places, but so far I am not so sure.  The scenery is without doubt spectacular, but the anchorages are another story.  The whole area is almost a victim of it's own success and caters very much to the charter market which is huge here - we were in the Sunsail marina last week tying up our dinghy and the amount of boats waiting to go out was unbelievable, they were packed into the slips 4 deep in places, this is without the hundreds that are on the water daily.  
Each main anchorage area has now been turned into a mooring field full of balls to tie up to.  There are two main reasons for this, one, financial, they can charge you to use the balls, (even here they would struggle to justify an anchoring charge), and secondly, on an environmental basis they do protect the sea bed from anchors which do a fair amount of damage especially when dropped on coral and grass.  There really is no excuse for that here as the water is so clear you can see where you are dropping the anchor in just about every place.  The introduction of mooring balls means that there are twice or three times as many boats in the anchorages as previously, as you can get far more boats in as you each need much less room.  
We have walked along the beach bars here today to look for somewhere that we might like to go for dinner off the boat, but have found no-where, all the restaurants are just overpriced burger joints catering to the American charter market & serving huge portions.  Also the restaurants, rather than being small like the cosy beach bars of a few years ago, have grown into huge impersonal places a bit like the TGI Friday restaurant chain.
Although when we made our plan yesterday we had allowed 3 nights for this place, it is unlikely that we will stay for more than 1. We will try another couple of islands and then head out to the Spanish Virgin Islands for a change. These islands are said to be more Puerto Rican than strictly Spanish but as most people don''t know where they are or that they even exist there is a fair chance they will be quieter.  When making our plans we always allow extra time so that if we like somewhere we can stay longer, but that hasn't happened here yet.  Looking back over our trip the places we have stayed longest have been either French or small out-of -the-way islands where there are few if any tourists and you can meet the local people and feel part of the life there, such as Nevis or French St Martin where we will definitely go back to on our way to Antigua.

  This makes the place look quite nice - just out of shot are all the beach bars

 The anchorage - there are some spectacular homes built up into the sides of the cliffs with stunning views