caves, baths, and pirate beach

Hello Again!

We had a great overnight 'sail' in light winds from St. Martin to the British Virgin Islands (BVI's) It was a dark night and Maggie, Levi and I took turns watching. There were a lot of boats out there! As this is peak season, there are always sailors heading from one place to the other, and after a week of unfavorable weather, it seemed like we all left at the same time. We saw twice as many boats in one night as we did in 3 weeks on the Atlantic!

We tried to time it right, so that we arrived at the island of Virgin Gorda at daybreak, to explore a National Park called "The Baths" It is a few dozen acres of hiking trails in and around huge boulders that look like gigantic rock marbles. There are caves, isolated pools, and several beautiful beaches spread throughout. The idea of getting there early, is that tours from cruise ships start arriving by late morning, and we wanted a head start. So, after arriving at 6:30 am, we made a feast of potatoes and eggs (strictly for energy!) and headed to the beach. 

THIS is the trail through the rocks.....Emma, Mom and Miles

The whole park is very clean and well maintained, and the hiking trails are marked out. We had to carry Miles a bit as we hiked through the caves, waded through deep pools where the trail leads, and up and down the rocks with only a rope to pull yourself up. He did great, sliding around, and absoultely loved the pools. He could find ones just right for him to wade through. We took turns snorkeling around the boulders on the edge of the sea, and out into the ocean, and found some big schools of electric blue fish, a barracuda, and lots of underwater caves you could peek inside. I really wish we had a scuba tank with us and Levi and I were sure there had to be some leftover treasure in some of the underwater caves.  We left it for the next explorers. :)

The BVI's and the USVI's are a small cluster of islands, maybe 25, all within sight of each other. So, the sailing is really easy, anchorages are great and we'll be in and around here for the next week and a half. It is like nothing we've seen in the Caribbean so far, and we're glad to be here. Tomorrow is a treasure hunt for "cruising" kids on an island called Norman Island and we downloaded a treasure map and instructions to find it. So the kids are really excited to see what they find!! We'll let you know.