Blog No.70) ....and so to Necker Island!

Catou
Paul and Sylvie Tucker
Fri 22 Apr 2011 16:33
 
Iguanas in Saba (think they were doing more than sunbathing!)
'The ladder' in Saba. All imports used to come up nearly 1000 steps - including a piano!
'Catou' anchored. Necker island (Mr Branson doesn't know)
18:26.81N 64:31.88W
 
Good Friday 22nd April   Yesterday morning while still in Road harbour, Tortola, we went ashore and hunted out a cyber cafe where we could go on line and complete the entry into the U.S. formalities.  That done, and a little shopping we slipped the mooring at midday and had a pleasant gentle sail across to Virgin Gorda on the other side of the romantically named Sir Francis Drake channel.  At the southern end of Virgin Gorda are an extraordinary pile of massive heaped up boulders which you can walk, over, under and through.  They were somehow left in their tumbled condition by volcanic activity millions of years ago.  We dropped anchor in a very crowded bay (we have been spared these crowded conditions during the last 2 weeks) and snorkeled our way ashore.  There are lovely pools that you can swim in amongst these huge boulders, some of which must weigh thousands of tonnnes.
 
We then went back on board and sailed/motored back across Sir F.D. Sound and around the back of 'Beef Island' to a bay called Trellis Bay.  It was packed with large charter catamarans, but be found a mooring and secured for the night.  We were so tired that we stayed on board for supper and I slunk off to my bunk at 8pm!
 
This morning we set off at just after 0700 and motored to northern end of Virgin Gorda.  Not a breath of wind.  We were going to go into a large 'Sound' at the northern end of the island, but it looked so crowded that we decided to go and take a look at Necker island, just a short distance to the north. Richard Branson owns this island, and I recall from his autobiography that he bought it in his very early entrepreneurial days.  Since then, he has built a very palatial-looking establishment on the island and according to the pilot book, you can rent it for $38,000/day.  Anyway, charter boats are not allowed to anchor here, so we crept our way in very slowly between the coral heads using visual and chart plotter navigation and dropped the hook at about 1000 hrs.
 
We cannot go ashore, so can't give you any juicy details - but it looks lovely.  There is a little sandy Cay close to us with 3 palm trees on - looking like the classic desert island.
 
I was studying the chart yesterday and there are some wonderful names for the features in the BVI.  A few of them as follows:
 
  1. Pull and be damn point (there are two of these).
  2. Dead Chest island.
  3. Brandywine bay.
  4. Cistern point (that's for all toilet component exporters).
  5. Quart-a-Nancy point.
  6. Broken Jerusalem island.
  7. Fallen Jerusalem island.
  8. Mosquito island.
  9. The Invisibles (Rocks off Necker island).
  10. Cockroach island.
  11. Dog island group (consisting of West Dog, Great Dog and George Dog islands).
  12. Eat Hogs bay.
  13. Treasure point.
  14. Privateer bay
  15. Dead Man bay.
  16. Throw way wife bay!
Well that's all.  We have to start working south from tomorrow (Saturday)  We need to be in the marina in St. Thomas by Tuesday morning, and we fly out early Wednesday to connect with a flight from San Juan to St. Lucia and thence home that night on British Airways. 
 
Hope we haven't bored you all to death.  Will do one more blog before we leave.
 
Paul and Sylvie
 

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