The Last Resort
Stream
Darrell Jackson and Sarah Barnes
Mon 10 Feb 2014 02:19
Thursday 6th February,
After a somewhat windy and rolley night anchored at Anegada, we sailed, with both the genoa and main reefed, a broad reach back to Great Dog for some excellent snorkelling. A reef shark was the highlight of the swim.
We then sailed on to Trellis Bay, back where we had collected our guests, to spend their final night with us and have dinner at The Last Resort. We went ashore in the afternoon to pick up wifi but they were experiencing the sort of problems we normally get in Tarset; slow speeds or no connection, so we gave up.
The Last Resort is a restaurant on a tiny island, Bellamy Cay, in the bay. It has just come under new management and Sarah was disappointed that the singing donkey is no longer there. But the food was good and we had a very pleasant evening.
Friday 7th February,
First stop: The Dogs, yes it is a firm favourite with us for the excellent snorkelling, the fantastic coral, the gullies and caves to swim around and the variety of fishes. We spent an enjoyable hour or so there before heading off to Virgin Gorda Sound.
The wind was strong so we had reefs in both sails. We had to beat up (tacking into the wind for non sailors) the channel, but that just made it more interesting for Dave and Darrell as they trimmed the sails and tacked trying to get the course correct to enter the buoyed channel by Mosquito Island under sail. Darrell was chuffed that he managed this at a speed of 7.5 knots!
This visit we went to the North end of the Sound towards Eustatia Sound, or the posh end as Sarah says, to a tiny island with a resort on called Saba Rock where we stopped for lunch on board. By tiny, we mean it is smaller than a football pitch, but it has a marina, gardens, restaurant, gift shop and a beach with hammocks, and a great atmosphere! It didn't take us long to decide that this was a good spot to spend the night. But first we had to drop our guests off at Biras Creek, which is just past the Bitter End Resort. A short motor around to their jetty and a nearly perfect berthing and we said goodbye to our friends, who were no doubt looking forward to having showers where they could use unlimited water and the bedrooms don't move!
So just the two of us again!
Sarah now had to pick the mooring buoy up single handedly and get both warps through and cleated, this job involves at least three hands. So she is developing a technique which involves the end of the ropes being lodged in her waistband, while she picks up the mooring buoy tail with the boat hook. All was going well, until Darrell joined Sarah on the foredeck, although we did get secured first time, due to a technical hitch Sarah had to uncleat the starboard warp, which she then had to let go as it was twisted. As she used the boat hook to retrieve the end, it somehow ended up in the water and floated to the back of the boat to be retrieved by Darrell.
There are three added bonuses to Saba Rock as a place to moor for the night:
1. 250 Gallons of free fresh water and a bag of ice. (Our water tanks only hold 100 gallons)
2. Happy hour where cocktails were only $3.50, which we made the most of!
3. The wifi sometimes works on the boat when it is lying in the right direction and not too many other people are online.
At 5pm on Saba Rock, during Happy Hour, they feed the fish. They started feeding one Tarpon about three years ago. Now everyday about twenty arrive from about four o clock, waiting for their own kind of happy hour. They have grown and were three to five foot in length and to the uninitiated they have the look of small sharks. They also had a huge Moray Eel being fed. It was an unusual interlude to the drinking and, as well as being very interesting, it was amusing to hear some of the comments and questions from the other guests at the bar.