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Anchored in Great Harbor at the eastern end of the harbor at Peter Island turned out to be a fantastic location. The anchorage was deep at 40 feet so we laid out 200 feet of chain. What we liked the best was that there was no roll or wrap around swell and for one night our boat did not rock from side to side, but rather sat flat and calm. That may not sound like a big deal but it really is. Being below decks all night with the boat rocking from side to side can be uncomfortable plus plates and glasses slide off the table while dining. When we chartered here, we were usually on catamarans, so the rolling is much less noticeable. We are finding very few anchorages or mooring balls that provide a calm flat anchorage. This one, Great Harbor, was calm. We took advantage of the good conditions to varnish teak and compound and wax the cabin top.

Taking the dinghy to the head of the harbor and landing on a gravel beach, there is a trail that leads over to the Peter Island Yacht Club and then out to Deadman’s Chest Bay. Yachtsmen on anchored boats are actually invited to use one particular beach, a large and lovely beach with shady trees. (See sign below.) This was very surprising.

Peter Island Yacht Club is a very upscale resort with a marina and mooring balls for $65 per night. Golf carts take guests around the property and over the mountain 5 miles to a huge beach on White Bay. There a large spa and several different styles of beautiful accommodations. It is unrecognizable from July 1987 when we had an elegant breakfast there while aboard a Whitby 42 charter boat named “Winds of Paradise.” We enjoyed our hike to a look out cabana with a 360 degree view while the crews of Fezywig and Sea Star went snorkeling.

Sailing and motor sailing from Cooper Island to Peter Island is downwind and it is only 5-6 miles, so we were lazy and we simply sailed a jib. I am always amazed at the color of the blue blue blue water. These are all cell phone photos. Look at the beauty….

 Look at the water inside the harbor where we dropped anchor in 30-40 feet.

These photos are from our long walk around Peter Island Resort and Deadman’s Bay….

…Blue blue water…

Hands down, Cooper Island Beach Club at Manchioneel Bay has the most blue blue clear waters of any harbor in the British Virgin Islands. You can see the bottom at 30-35 feet deep, you can see green turtles swimming past the boat along with many tropical fish. You can snorkel and dive right off your boat along with the dive instructors training new divers right in the harbor. Then to add to these great water activities, there is a beautiful reef on each end of the harbor which is a short dinghy ride away. There are national park moorings for dinghies so we do not damage the reef by dropping an anchor.

They even have underwater web cams where you can watch the fish LIVE and maybe you will even see a swimmer or diver. Very cool idea.  This live feed is displayed on a 60″ TV mounted over the bar. Way cool.

After a fun full day of water sports then it is time to enjoy the outstanding happy hour where their rum punches, painkillers and well drinks are two for seven dollars! WOW, guess what? The bar is full every happy hour, no kidding. Copper Island Beach Resort has hit a home run. They have games to play, comfortable furniture and umbrellas for your use. They really make you feel welcome. The site is very well designed, upscale, spotless, and provides something for everyone. Coffee shop, ice cream and pastry shop, dive shop, rum bar, gift shop, cottages and a 5 star restaurant. We have now been here twice and we are sure to spend more time here next season on our way back through. For now, we are simply hitting all the key places as a review for this April/May time frame and then in late May we will store our boat in Puerto Rico and head home. We will be returning to the boat in November and go to the BVIs for Dec. It has really been great spending far more time here. It is dream come true to NOT be on a one week charter boat, but rather to be on our own Island Spirit and on our own time frame. What a different experience this has been. It is really wonderful and these photos will show that as well….enjoy.

Island Spirit off Cooper Island Beach Club

Rooms to rent

Onsite solar micro brewery

Sunset over Tortola as seen from Cooper Island

Oh yes, It is the BVIs so it is charter boat madness. They are bigger than ever before!

The dive shop has fantastic prices on masks, so we bought new ones to replace out 1991 vintage models.

The water off our stern and the dinghy

   
       Cistern Point snorkeling. We saw squid, file fish and a huge lobster, in addition to the usual fish.

Here is a photo from the Cooper Island Beach Club web site. You can see why this place would have such clear water. Look at how this harbor is on the west side of the island. The current flows around the ends of the island and this causes a lot of odd swinging of the yachts. Thank goodness they added 30 mooring balls here, like every harbor in the BVIs. The moorings are a great idea to help the charter boats, and they are wonderful for protecting the coral reefs. At $30 – $35 per night, they are a expensive for cruising yachts….$900 + per month! The waters left for anchoring here are 40-50+ feet deep, making it difficult to anchor. This harbor really needs the mooring balls due to the currents and the wrap around swells. NOTE: When the winds are lighter and there is no south aspect to the east winds, and no swell, we will anchor in the little bays to the right where J.M. and Kimberly IP 420 Pura Vida recommended.

…Salt crystals forming in the pond…

This interesting building has 4 equal rooms, with an exterior door leading outside from every room. there are two large windows in each room. Inside, there are doorways leading between every room. We are left wondering why the owner went to such great expense and effort to install so many doors. The next 4 photos are all of the same house.

The moderate ESE winds were gusting around both sides of the high hills, making for a somewhat rolling night on anchor. Only two boats were anchored with us overnight and several boats came for a day stop. The anchorage is very deep so we dropped 150 feet of chain to anchor in sand.

What fun we all had at the Michael Beans “It’s Happy Arrr” Show at Leverick Bay! Michael is a great musician who draws in the crowd and then never lets them go. It is a fun filled night of singing, dancing and just having a good old time for pirates of all ages.  Oh, yes, at the end of the show, there was a conch horn contest. Team Six Knots was well represented. Meloney of Fezywig won the women’s division and was given a 6 pack of beer and a T-shirt. Hayden won the men’s section and for that was awarded a bottle of signature rum. Team Six Knots did not waste any time on that bottle, as we worked it down and partied on. What a fun time!

These photos and the video at the bottom show the good time we all had. Thanks to Meloney for the video footage. Great show, Michael Beans. Thank you!

Guy’s Trail is a two-mile tour that climbs the 455-foot hill behind The Bitter End Yacht Club from north to south. Hike along with us!

This trail is steeper than it looks!

Saba Rock was truly a rock when we were first here in 1986. It was the site of Bert Kilbride’s famous dive shop. Now it is a classy spot with hotel rooms and lovely outdoor spaces and a great dinghy dock for happy hour.

Looking east across the reefs

View from the trail left to right, Prickly Pear Is., Eustacia Is., Necker Island, with Saba Rock in the foreground.

Don and Meloney, our fun buddy boat team on Lagoon 380 called FEZYWIG, created this very cool video of the great time we all had at the Virgin Gorda 50th anniversary Easter Monday Parade. Please enjoy this three minute video. Meloney is a great photographer and Don is a master with Adobe Premier and video editing. GREAT JOB Team FEZYWIG! Thank you very much for this effort.

The newly crowned Ms.Virgin Gorda

Thanks to “The Welcome” (a glossy magazine-sized monthly guide to the BVI’s) we made plans to attend the 50th Anniversary Grand Easter Parade which was celebrated in Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda, on Easter Monday. Our travels included dinghying to the Bitter End, riding The North Sound Express 11 a.m. ferry to the Gun Creek Customs and Immigration dock across and finding a substitute taxi to replace the one who did not materialize. Our new driver was very informative and helpful. He was also a good driver, which we appreciated on those incredibly steep mountain roads. We learned that the parade would probably not start on time at 1:00 p.m., that it would move very slowly. and that we would be welcome to walk along with the participants. He was correct on all points. He also told us that the parade would form again around 10 p.m. and repeat the entire route. We did not stay to find out. When we arrived in Spanish Town, we listened to a local band at The Yacht Harbor, walked through the parade staging area and enjoyed lunch. The parade started around 2 p.m. and was still moving along in fits and starts at 5:00 when we called for our cab. There was a great sense of celebration and family involvement. We were outsiders and spectators yet we felt very welcome. After going to the parade grounds, we walked back through the parade to meet our cab and saw many more of the floats, bands, dancers and ethnic groups represented, which included local residents originally from the Philippines and from Dominica. The 6:30 ferry took us back to The Bitter End, after a long and very interesting day!

The stilt walkers are known as mocko jumbies.

We enjoyed the steel drum band!

Costumed participants are called masqueraders and groups of marchers and dancers are known as troupes.

Miss British Virgin Islands, from Tortola, was crowned in August 2016 and competed in the Miss Universe Pageant  in January in The Philippines. A bake sale was held recently to raise money for the local pageant. We did not learn the details of Mr. G.Q.’s future plans.

Each troupe or band would stop periodically to give a performance and then resume marching.

Many participants were wearing this shirt. We finally asked what it says and what it means….. “Don’t Ass Me Up” means “Don’t mess with me and my goals.”

After marching the length of the parade, these enthusiastic and well-trained percussion students from Tortola performed at the parade grounds, too.

Total concentration from this young musician.

Events earlier in April that were part of the Easter Festival included the Prince and Princess Show, the Ms.Virgin Gorda Pageant, the Calypso Monarch Competition, the Fisherman’s Jamboree, and the Cultural Food Fair. We are so glad we could be part of the 50th Anniversary Grand Easter Parade, the largest event of the year in Virgin Gorda!