Breen Family Travel Log: Day 5

Another beautiful morning to wake up to. Honestly, I sat on the bridge and enjoyed this view.

Breakfast was Eggs Benedict with fresh fruit. After that, we lounged around for a bit while Nick and Amy prepared for the day.

Then we repositioned the boat up to Virgin Gorda. It took appx 1 hour to relocate. Seriously... even this is so much fun - seeing the different islands, enjoying the views, and so relaxing! We typically gather on the bridge with Captain Nick and Amy who answer all our many questions. We listen to music (a custom playlist each day), enjoy the fresh ocean air and occasional spray and just enjoy the beauty around us. Today we passed lots of different islands including Tortola and the island where Blackbeard left his mutinous crew stranded.

We stopped at the very southern point of Virgin Gorda to moor just offshore of the Baths National Park. We swam in and then walked up the hill to pay our entry fee and then back down the shore to enter the Baths. It is so incredible and unique. I’ve never experienced anything like it. The views are breathtaking. Huge boulders line the shore, balanced as if placed in a game of Jenga. The path goes between and through the cracks and crannies of the rocks and in and out of the ocean water. Beautiful, fun, etc.

When we finished, we had a bit longer of a swim back out to our dinghy as Nick had helped the staff fix a swim line that had been down. But we all made it… and if I don’t say so myself, we are getting MUCH better at getting back into the dinghy from the water.

Amy and Nick suggested we wait for lunch because our mooring location was a bit rough with larger swells coming in off the ocean. We did not object since we have all been eating SO well and haven’t felt hungry all week. So we got underway again and headed north for about another hour to North Sound with a charcuterie that Amy had prepared.

We moored in North Sound and again, I was amazed by the beauty of this place. Surrounded by islands, we are nestled in to our spot surrounded by turquoise waters.

We sat down to an amazing lunch of crab cakes served with a Ceasar salad. The kids also had chicken nuggets and Mac and cheese to choose from. It was an incredible meal. Amy brought another round of crab cakes out later and many of us had a second helping.

We cleaned up after lunch and Nick took us ashore to see a one-man Pirate Show “Happy Arr”. On our way out, we decided to trick JC into thinking we had left him behind so we all loaded up in the dinghy and moved the boat out of sight. Just as JC came up, Amy said we had left and we watched as JC stood on the back of the boat, completely disappointed, gazing at the horizon trying to see us from a distance. We slowly floated back into his peripheral view and once he realized, we all had a big laugh.

The pirate show was fun. Set in a beautiful location. It was a silly comedy routine with a lot of audience participation… maracas, Rum drinking, singing and dancing and the finale for us, a conch shell-blowing competition. Aunt Gretchen won for the women and Sammy won for the teens. Both received a conch shell to take home. Sammy even ended up on stage with the pirate at one point!

After the show we took a quick (and pretty wet) dinghy ride back to the boat to pick up Amy for our dinner reservation on shore. At the far north end of the sound, there is a small island that has only a restaurant on it called Saba Rock. Nick and Amy highly recommended it.