Kayak Riding the Waves to Savannah Bay

Our last full day on Virgin Gorda (Friday the 29^th) was pretty quiet, although Maddy and I had quite the adventure. 

After Thursday’s sail on the Bravura, everyone was sunburned and tired out.  I let everyone sleep in.  Carol and I ran down to Spanish Town for cash and a few more groceries, but things didn’t start stirring till around 10am. 

TJ made pancakes and sausages, and Anne cut up some fruit.  We all lingered around the breakfast table, in no rush to get out into the sun. . .which became rain in the afternoon!

Eventually, Maddy and I grabbed one of the green double kayaks and headed out to Savannah Bay, which is two bays over from us.  We had been dissuaded from going to the Dogs (so to speak) by Captain Bob’s report of a kayaker who said the 1.5 mile kayak across the channel wore him out.

Savannah Bay turned out to be a fabulous destination.  The waves were huge, the wind was up, and it was a good workout the whole way over.  The beach is beautiful, and there was only a handful of other people on this mile long sand beach.  We glided in, letting the waves carry us – and, most importantly – did not overturn. 

After pulling the kayak way up on shore (it was high tide), we went into the water and got pounded by the waves and the strong current.  We stayed in the water for quite some time, doing a little body surfing but most diving under the huge waves.  Some of them had to be 15 feet high. 

Getting the kayak back out into the channel was likely to be a challenge, and it was.  Thankfully the kayak did not flip.  We crashed through the waves, mercifully lower than many, with me exhorting Maddy to paddle and Maddy predicting our imminent demise at the hands of the next wave.   The kayak filled up with water at points but never swamped.  Adrenaline was running high – best adventure of the week for me.

We were so intent on getting through the big waves we kept paddling directly out even though we were through the worst of it.  We could see rainstorms approaching from two different parts of the channel, and visibility was becoming more limited. 

We paddled furiously towards our home beach in Mahoe Bay.  We were so far out we had to come in over the reefs, which meant riding more breaking waves, but we kept the kayak straight and had no problems, particularly after Maddy pointed out some coral at the crest of the water and I steered us around it.

Beaching the boat, no one took notice of our great adventure. . .they were all sleeping or reading on the comfy chairs.   We had laughed at death, or at least a big spill, and yet no one cared!  After that, we had a late lunch at the house.

The afternoon was quiet.  I jumped in the pool for a bit, staying in despite a light rain.  However, after a bit the rain got stronger, so I jumped out and joined the others in the conversation circle of chairs just under cover.  Every so often the wind blew the rain in on us.  We sat and talked for the afternoon, or people went off to nap or read (as I did for a bit in the hammock on my deck, until I got too  chilled and went in.

The rain and cooling it brought was enjoyable.  Particularly given how lazy and sunburnt we were.  Better the last day than the first.  The only bummer is that we were robbed of another stunning sunset on our last day. 

We went to dinner at the Rock Café (NOT the Hard Rock).  The rain caused the back garden tables, set among the amazing boulders, to be closed, so we missed out on that.  The food was good – primarily seafood and Italian, although it wasn’t as amazing as Coco Maya. 

After that, we went back to the conversation circle of chairs by the pool (the rain had pretty much stopped, although it did rain again), and drank a 1986 Groth Cab.  Once again, I think I was the first of the adults to hit the sack – Carol and Anne stayed up talking till around midnight.