Saba Rock, Virgin Gorda

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Thu 12 Apr 2012 18:08

18:30.16N 64:21.75W

 

 

Wednesday 11th April

 

Wednesday dawned early when a dinghy came round to ask for our mooring fee at 0640 despite the fact that we had already paid, perfect – early morning call thrown in for the $25 fee!   So we headed off to the Baths on Virgin Gorda to try and get a mooring buoy before it got busy.   But it had already got busy!   So we aborted to Spanish Town and anchored off, and then set off in both our dinghies back down to the Baths.   The Baths is an area with huge granite boulders piled up on a white sand beach;  they are within a marine park and probably the most photographed feature of the Virgins.   We attached ourselves to the dinghy line and were faced with a fairly daunting entry into a very rolly, wave-swept area.   But once we were immersed it was far easier swimming than it appeared.   The rock formations continue underwater and although the fish life is less impressive, the vast cliff faces and enormous ‘rock pools’ they create makes you feel you are in one huge aquarium.  We swam down to Devil’s Bay and back to the dinghies, and then ashore for a scrabble through the Caves.  This is the land side of the Baths, where the rocks form caverns, pools and narrow passageways.   At this point one starts to encounter the cruise ship landlubbers, some of whom’s physiques do not lend themselves to squeezing through holes and the whole process slows down, so we opted to re-don our snorkel gear and swim back from Devil’s Bay to the dinghy once again.   Rob did particularly well, being one of life’s non-mermaids, he is now so fit with constant snorkelling that he was very able to fin the long swim and propel himself through surging passages.   I however, who always swims without fins “for the exercise” was pretty wacked at the end!   The whole site is quite  spectacular (have a look at the photos especially the panoramas at www.rhbell.com but they may not be posted for a day or so though) and is well worth the effort of getting there.

 

So back to the boats for a delicious cinnamon and raisin bagel on Scott-Free (never heard of/had one – definitely to be pursued) and then a nice sail round to the north of Virgin Gorda, passing Richard Branson’s Necker Island on the way.   We also saw the little island off the larger one resembling the cartoon idea of a castaway’s atoll complete with three perfect palm trees which Chris is convinced are plastic – and we quite agree, far too idyllic to have survived summer winds!   We then sailed into North Sound which is a huge almost landlocked area, a yachtie mecca now far more developed obviously than when I was here 32 years ago – and oh yes, poor Rob is totally bored with any sentence starting with ‘in my day’.   We dropped anchor around the top corner near Saba Rock in hopes of getting wifi and spotted La Contenta, a blue Najad 490 last seen in the Hamble, just ahead of us.   Rob went to say hello in the dinghy and Warren and Judy filled us in on all the sort of yachtie info for the area which is vital for liveaboards.   The rest of the day was spent with Scott-Free who kindly took on the catering this time.