Our last
full day on Virgin Gorda (Friday the 29th) 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.
