About British Virgin Islands
The BVI is where sailing was made. Consistent trade winds, flat inter-island passages, and a chain of islands of extraordinary beauty make this the most complete sailing destination in the Caribbean — and the one that has introduced more people to sailing than perhaps any other place on earth. Tortola is the hub; the Sir Francis Drake Channel, sheltered between two island chains, provides the protected sailing corridor that makes the BVI uniquely forgiving. Norman Island, said to have inspired Stevenson's Treasure Island, guards the southern end. Virgin Gorda holds The Baths — a geological landscape of enormous granite boulders creating grottos and pools at the shoreline, best visited at first light before the day-trippers arrive. Jost Van Dyke is the social soul of the BVI: the Soggy Dollar Bar, where rum punch is paid for with wet dollar bills swum ashore, is as legendary as it sounds. And 15 miles north, past Horseshoe Reef, Anegada rises barely two metres from the sea — a flat coral atoll of deserted beaches and lobster dinners that most BVI sailors never reach.
Suggested Routes
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