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| Karen enjoying the scenery at Bitter End Yacht Club |
North Sound in Virgin Gorda has so many wonderful sights and fun things to do...it's hard to know where to start when sharing it with you. There's the Bitter End Yacht Club, Saba Rock, Biras Creek Resort, Leverick Bay Resort, entertainment, great restaurants, as well as a number of different small islands and bays to poke your nose around.
We arrived in the afternoon and anchored our boat right in front of "Plane to Sea", the sailboat we had gone to St. Maarten on last year. Jim and Connie were getting ready to head over to St. Maarten again (early am next day,) although they admitted it would probably not be in the record time we all had together. They invited us over to Saba Rock for happy hour with some of their other friends, so we hussled up, as happy hour was almost at halftime. Karen and I can't resist a bargain...$2.50 rum punches, painkillers and Carib beers! Yeah, I know...you're all thinking I'm nuts to think that's a bargain, but hey...it is for this part of the planet.
We dinghied over to Saba and squeezed our way into a slot at the dock. There must have been 30 dinghies tied up...seems the Saba Rock happy hour is very popular with a lot of sailors and resort guests. Anyway, we spotted the party at the end of the bar, grabbed some extra chairs and started to sit down. About that time, we spotted some other friends we had just recently made, Bruce and Emmy. We invited them over to join the rest of us, and boy-howdy...we all had a good time. It is always amazing to us how easy it is to strike up conversations and friendships with boaters!
Bruce and Emmy are from Vancouver Island, British Columbia and are here enjoying their newly purchased boat "Off Island." It is a rather unique boat...a Freedom 38 sailboat. What makes it unique is that the mast is free-standing...no shrouds or stays (the guywires used on most sailboats to hold up the mast.)
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| Off Island Look, Ma! No wires to trip over and hang up in the trees |
Karen and I got up at 6am the next day and said our farewells to Jim and Connie. They figured to arrive in St. Maarten by 9pm...15 hours of motorsailing. They texted us later to let us know they arrived about 8pm. Not too bad.
Later in the day, we met Bruce and Emmy for a hike on the mountain above Bitter End Yacht Club. So nice to stretch our legs and get some exercise.
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| On the trail, looking North. That's the Atlantic Ocean...next landfall, Anegada reef. If you miss the reef, then it's Greenland. |
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| Emmy, Karen and Bruce |
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| Looking down into Deep Bay |
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| Hey Ken...another Aruban dragon! |
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| Caribbean pink flamingos on a salt pond, Prickly Pear Island |
We headed across the sound to Leverick Bay Resort to introduce Bruce and Emmy to the "Pirate Michael Beans" show. We highly recommend his show to anyone, especially those with kids. He is quite popular...it's possible to see about 2000 different youtube videos of his performances (we even have one.)
The four of us sat at our table on the beach, shoes off and toes in the sand, listening to Michael play the music. There were about 60 people at his show that night, with all of the beach tables taken and most of the gazebos above the beach full also. Bruce attempted to beat the competition in the conch blowing contest while Karen was one of the winners of the "name that pirate" competition...Emmy and I cheered them on. Then everyone got up and danced the night away.
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| Bruce tried his luck at the conch horn blowing contest |
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| Who's the most famous pirate of them all? |
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| Emmy and Bruce dancing under the stars in the Caribbean sand |
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