Bitter End Yacht Club Virgin Gorda BVIs

We left Spanish Town at 1335hrs on Tuesday 10 April having been there little more than long enough to check in to the BVIs. Conscious that we had spent more of Charlotte’s holiday time than we had expected to in Sint Maarten, we wanted to get going on exploring the BVIs.

The sail up to the northern end of Virgin Gorda was fabulous. It was a beat into wind but nowhere is particularly far in the BVIs and, even zigzagging to make progress, it only took 2 ½ hours to get there.

The entrance to Gorda Sound

We debated where to go in Gorda Sound and in the end decided to anchor way out on our own tucked into Drake’s Anchorage in the shelter of Mosquito Island (behind the righthand headland in the above picture). Here we had reasonable shelter behind a reef and we were able to swim and relax in the sun.

Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island

Directly in front of us, just beyond the entrance to the sound, we could see Necker Island; for a short while we were Sir Richard Branson’s neighbours. Not that I expect that he was in residence as there was clearly a lot of hurricane damage repair work going on.

The Bitter End Yacht Club

We had expected to stay anchored in the same place overnight but a check on the weather forecast showed that there would be a big swing in the wind and we decided that we may not be as protected as we would have wanted if we stayed put. A quick check on the chart suggested that the mooring buoy area beside the Bitter End Yacht Club would be a better place to ensure a quiet night and so, before it got too dark, we moved there.

We knew that the Bitter End Yacht Club had been badly affected by the hurricanes, but nothing really prepared us for the state that it was still in.

This used to be a very upmarket nautical village, one of THE places to come in the BVIs, with a marina, spa, diving centre and multiple water sports facilities. You could stay in one of their beachfront cottages and keep yourself entertained with a whole array of restaurants, shops and bars. But sadly the whole place is now completely wrecked and needs a total rebuild.

There was a large yacht and a catamaran moored on the marina quay but we had no idea what the arrangement was there [Ed: and there was a big sign on the quay saying that the marina was closed for renovation]. Instead, in the last of the light, we anchored at the edge of the empty mooring buoy field. It proved to be a very sheltered place for the night. When it got dark we saw a few lights ashore so there are still people in the area, but not many.

During the evening Charlotte thought that she could see something in the water close to BV and so waved a flashlight around. Spooky orange eyes peered up at her from the depths! However, with the ripples from the wind she couldn’t clearly see what it was or, as there were now multiple pairs of eyes, they were. Glimpses of fins and the tails suggested that for some reason we had half a dozen 5ft long reef sharks loitering in the water next to us. Any thoughts of a night time swim were immediately cancelled!

South Bay, North Sound & Off Bitter End YC, Virgin Gorda, BVIs