Stopping at Norman Island, Virgin Gorda, StMartin & StBarths.... At the end of the Virgin Island Regattas, its time to start making a move back towards Antigua upwind all the way! To make the trip more enjoyable we planned a few extra stops along the way. First stop Norman Island, home of the William Thornton, or Willy T's, a floating pub, although we had already been there before on the cancelled day of racing of the BVI regatta, we decide to give it a shot on a Friday night...We arrived after dinner and were happily being entertained by the other customers who were doing shots from a water ski, throwing red wine on each other or just dancing. Slowly people began disappearing upstairs, then came the splashes as people started the ritual of jumping off naked to claim their free t-shirt, luckily Lorna had already bought one!! We witnessed wife swapping and dinghy ramming, the entertainment was non stop and we were surprised it had reached midnight when it was time to head on home. The following day was the day I had been waiting for, a trip to The Baths. In one magazine they were described as one on the 12 hidden wonders of the world. We weren't disappointed. We snorkelled into the beach and then headed through a small gap between some boulders, the Baths are formed by volcanic rock along part of the south-west coast of Vigin Gorda, I can't find words to explain how beautiful it was but luckily we had our camera, so the pictures will be posted soon.
The following day we headed round to the Bitter End, the North side of Virgin Gorda, right by Necker Island owned by Richard Branson. We actually ended up spending 3 days here as the weather didn't give us the break we required to get to StMartin, so we checked out the various places and were quite astonished at the prices of the villas, far from the cheap getaway prices to anywhere in the Caribbean. On the third day that we rose at 6AM we decided to go for it, unfortunately my stomach was not with the decision and resulted in me spending most of the trip lying downstairs. I have never been so pleased to see StMartin and hope I never will again. We ventured to the StMartin Yacht Club which is built on and of containers and watched the boats coming through the bridge into the lagoon, then onto the Floating Bar which was actually quite disappointing for a place that has a great t-shirt saying 'The liver is evil, it deserves to be punished!' Then it was off to Bananas for one of their great burgers for dinner. Matt and I spent the following day around the lagoon while Lorna ventured off to Philipsburg to do some shopping, we met that sunset at the Soggy Dollar before returning back to the Disco for dinner.
Next stop StBarths, as usual StBarths was bustling and full of life, we had a quick wonder round before heading to a bar and watching a local band playing at the bar across the street, they were really good and we were quite disappointed when they packed up around 7PM. Sunday in StBarts is always the same, dead, no where is open and there is no one to be seen, its almost like a ghost town. On Monday we rose at 6AM with good weather that saw us a pleasant trip to Jolly Harbour, Antigua. I think Lorna had actually had enough sun as she spent most of the day downstairs in the shade while Matt and I had a Jamiroquai day. Heading towards Jolly Harbour at night required us all standing with tourches to watch out for rocks, we made it in safely, anchored and were in bed by midnight, it felt good to be at the end of the trip. So, last move to English Harbour, its only about 15nmiles away and took just over 3 hours motoring as the seas were quite big. As we came into English Harbour we were greeted by four dolphins, we were all so full of happiness, as that had to be a sign for great friends and a great week to come.
Revised -- Saturday 18th May 2002
Carry on to Antigua Sailing Week 2002
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