The Baths, a beautiful sailing day, and the Bitter End

Today we got up before sunrise to make our way over to the Baths on Virgin Gorda.  Uncle Greg had regaled us with tales of when he was a captain here years ago and would take his charter guests there for the sunrise when no one else was around, so we were all looking forward to it!

We anchored off shore at the Baths and dinghyed over closer to snorkel in to shore, but it turned out the dinghying part was more trouble than it was worth and we really could have just snorkeled from the boat.  There were waves and surf on the beach, which made it difficult to avoid the big rocks strewn about underwater, but we all made it to shore in one piece and made fools of ourselves trying to walk on the beach in our flippers... lol.

Uncle Greg was right - we had the whole place to ourselves, and it was incredible!  After making our way around for a while, we spent time scrambling about trying to find a place that Uncle Greg remembered (har har) where you could walk up one of the rock faces to get to a place on top of them for an incredible view.

  After much fruitless searching we finally found a spot (probably NOT "the one", but it worked) and climbed up, and the view WAS worth it, especially with the morning sun hitting everything and waking it up.

I saw a tiny island not far off shore (maybe at one time part of Gorda?) that was covered with smaller boulders and greenery, and for some reason it reminded me of Ireland, though I've never been there.  :)  Also up there, we found a tree that had people's names (mostly couples) scratched into its leaves!  Whoever thought of that first has started a major trend, as it's hard to find a leaf NOT scratched.  I didn't write our names, but Jessica did hers and Trey's, and afterward I wished I had done it too and taken a picture because later Jesse's aunt (wife of Uncle Greg's brother) told us she and Uncle Mike had scratched their names into the same tree's leaves almost 20 years ago on their honeymoon! 

We headed back to the boat just in time for the people to start arriving behind us.

  It was a beautiful day for sailing, so we took the longest route possible and doubled back a few times before actually heading to our destination: The Bitter End.  On our way in we saw multiple kite surfers having the time of their lives and catching some major air!  I was SO jealous!  I've always wanted to learn, but it's just too expensive of a sport for me to justify at this point.  The problem is, once I have the money to spend on it, my body will be too old to do it!  Lol... Anway, apparently this area is famous for its great watersport weather!

We ate lunch at the little grill (regular burgers and fries, yay!) and explored a little gift shop on the waterfront as well as the menu for tonight ($45 a head, yikes!  little did we know it would only get more expensive at the other resorts.

. haha).  After a little digestion, we headed back out, this time on the dinghy, to a snorkeling spot just minutes away. 

It turned out to be a great experience, first because the sun was out beautifully, and second because we saw creatures that we hadn't gotten close to yet, like a pufferfish, a turtle, some other unique fish (the names of which I learned and promptly forgot) and TONS of jellyfish!  They were beautiful, but there were so many of them that I was paranoid and kept turning every which way to see if one had drifted behind me... lol.

And dinner tonight was delicious, after all.  Mmmmm... nothing like a good day of climbing rocks and sailing to get your appetite up!