Anegada (da Vita Baby)

The Island of Anegada

We had a great overnight sail under the super full moon when we left St. Martin.  We sailed on a beam reach and enjoyed the night, with the exception of a few thunderstorms in the distance, we didn’t encounter any problems. We made it to North Sound, Virgin Gorda early Sunday morning and spent the day getting caught up on our rest and getting the boat sorted back out after the overnight passage.  That evening we decided to sail to Anegada the next morning since it is an island that we had not yet visited.  

Anegada is a little different from the other Virgin Islands because the entire island is only 28 feet above sea level.  It is called The Drowned Island.  It is made up of coral and limestone and was created by the movement between the Atlantic and Caribbean plates, which meet to the northeast of the island.  Anegada is 11 miles long and has mile after mile of beautiful white sandy beaches.  It reminded us of the Bahamas, which is a big difference from the mountainous Virgin Islands.

One interesting thing about the island:  I guess because they are a remote island, we should expect things to cost a little more.  The prices we found were staggering, at least to us “value centered” cruisers.  A beer at the local beach bar will cost you five dollars, a lobster dinner, $50.00.  That’s not so bad for lobster you might think, but even the ribs and BBQ Chicken dinner was $28.00 per person.  Not in our budget.  We did end up at the beach bar on Cow Wreck Beach and found of the of “serve yourself” honor bars.  You make your drink and mark it down on your own tab.  It’s a good thing Troy and I only had one rum & coke each, because we discovered upon paying our tab that they were $8.00 each.  That was a drink made in one of the little plastic solo type cups (no, not the big red ones either).  We were shocked because usually that type of drink can be found at some bars for $1.00 - $2.50 at happy hour.  We also discovered that Anegada does not believe in happy hours at the bars.  They just say “every hour is happy hour”.  Too bad that’s not reflected in the prices!

The salt pond in the middle of the island is home to a flock of flamingoes which were reintroduced to Anegada.  They brought eighteen birds from the Bermuda Zoo in 2002 and the birds are thriving with a flock that far exceeds 100 birds because the habitat is prefect for them.  At least that’s what the guide books tell us.  We went looking and only found 2 birds.  We did see pictures of great flocks of them though.  Maybe we just didn’t look in the right spots.

The 8 of us decided to rent a vehicle for the day and tour the island and beaches.  We checked on motorcycles, bicycles and cars.  The best deal we found was a truck with bench seating in the back.  It was a perfect way to see the beautiful beaches and look for flamingoes.  As usual, Rene was voted as driver, this time Troy was navigator (I suspect that they were running the A/C while we were baking in the back of the truck!).  Anyway, what a fun day we had.  Driving around, taking in the scenery and eating lunch on a perfect beautiful beach.  What a life we are living.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story:

Stay seated until the vehicle comes to a complete stop







The word through John's eyes!



Rene has a glass of wine at the beach - why not?

"The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place." -Arthur Ransome