Bath time
Stream
Darrell Jackson and Sarah Barnes
Mon 27 Jan 2014 16:44
Friday 24th January
First thing to do today after an evening spent reading about the island was to find out where we could purchase a permit to allow us to use the mooring buoys in the BVI Marine Park. We discovered that although we do not need a Cruising Permit we do need a permit for the Marine Park. The marina office directed us to the tourist office which we had completely missed before on our tour round the marina. When we found it we realised why. Apart from the rack of leaflets outside it there was no indication as to what lay behind the solid door next to them. When we went in we found ourselves in a very cool "office" (they do like their air conditioning here) with a tiny, high counter with a gentleman standing behind it. There were no pictures on the walls, no maps, brochures or anything that might give the game away as to what we were in. He confirmed it was the Tourist Office, but when we asked about permits for the Marine Park he knew nothing about them, however after a phone call found that we could get them at the Customs office where we had been the previous day. (Sarah is convinced that this was a front for some shady organisation, but then she has been reading a series of thrillers and has such a vivid imagination, possibly not helped by the strange wifi she keeps picking up, but I am getting ahead of myself, more on that later.) Off we went. When we went in we were directed to another gentleman on the "public" side of the counter who fixed us up with a permit for three weeks use of the mooring buoys for $150. These are not for overnight use but daytime use for snorkelling and diving. Unfortunately he did not have any of the guidance leaflets with maps of their locations on, but arranged for us to pick one up later when we visited The Baths.
Now I'm very much a bath person and one of the drawbacks of our current lifestyle (yes, I know its hard to believe, there are drawbacks) is that there is no bath on Stream (or many other yachts for that matter). Our trip to the Baths today was not to have a bath but to visit one of Virgin Gorda's main tourist attractions. These are granite "boulders" along a short stretch of coast, some of which are the size of houses, which have undergone 'woolsack weathering' (Google it, or ask Adam or any other old fashioned geographer!). We decided to walk to them to stretch our legs and challenge Sarah's wobbliness on land. This took us along some beaches and through posh hotel resorts until we arrived at 'The Top of The Baths' National Park. We arrived just as the heavens opened, so we ducked into a bar for a refreshing drink. After catching up with our Marine Park Warden for a copy of the guidance leaflets for the mooring buoys we then had a wander around the gift shop until it was dry enough to walk down to The Baths. At least the rain ensured that many of the tourists headed up to the top for lunch. So we were able to wander through and over the boulders at our own pace as hardly anyone remained down on the beach. So we were lucky with our timing and being from Northumberland, a little rain wasn't going to put us off! We spent some time watching the yachts on mooring buoys and the dinghies coping with the swell. We actually wanted to see if any of the swimmers would manage to get back into the dinghies. We were glad we walked as it was one less thing to worry about.
We then went through 'The Cave' to 'Devils Bay'. This is a twenty minute walk, well, paddle and scramble through the 'caves' and rock formations. It is reminded us of caving but in daylight. Much easier than the 'Cheesepress'! (A "squeeze" in the Long Churn Cave system for non speliologists) The waves crash through without much warning and easily knock people off their feet. Thoughtful people have put ropes and ladders in some parts to make it easier. The erosion on the rocks has created shapes and holes that are fascinating. It suddenly opens onto a sandy bay with a steep drop into the sea which is buoyed off for swimming and snorkelling. Due to the swell the water was cloudy, but Darrell still managed a swim.
We started to walk back to Spanish Town and were offered a lift by a local lady, although she turned out to have been born in St Lucia, but has been living on Virgin Gourda for 30 years. She was very concerned about what had happened there recently and the effect it would have on tourism. She was worried about us getting wet and had seen us walk up in the morning. We had a very pleasant journey back to the marina with her and her friendliness was much appreciated.
Saturday 25th January
After a successful exit from the marina, we had a very pleasant sail across the Sir Francis Drake Channel (all the best pirates sailed around these parts!) to Tortola. Tortola is the main island in the BVI's and is very pretty as you sail towards it. For the first time this trip we saw lots of other yachts and vessels, which made for interesting sailing, especially going into Road Town, as not all were clear on sailing etiquette.
As we were unsure where we were going, we just found somewhere to anchor in the rolley bay. It was lunch time so we just headed ashore in the dinghy and as usual nearly everywhere was shut. Well, it was a Saturday afternoon, which meant half day closing! Luckily, Pusser's Pub was open and serving 'Painkiller' cocktails, pizza and zucchini fries, which went down well and ensured that neither of us could eat for the rest of the day. I have to say that Road Town, the capital of the BVI's, is not a 'wow' place. It has some nice buildings but has a lot of reclaimed land for the ferry and cruise ship areas. But we weren't really able to make a true judgement as most of it was closed.
Back on the boat and in need of a communication fix with those we left behind. The search for wifi. To our delight we could pick up a good number of wifi networks on the boat, but were surprised by some of their names. Amongst the usual bars and private residence names we had "FBI Surveillance Vessel" and "Nuclear Submarine" two highlights that prove either that people round here have a sense of humour or the Americans do not know how to be covert! So the evening was punctuated by the whistle of What'sApp and the bong of Darrell receiving email, before an early night and then waking in the morning to find 2 huge cruise ships had come in during the night and we had slept through it!