Wind In Your Sails: Part VI

My story left off with an exploration of the Baths on Virgin Gorda. We returned to the boat mid afternoon and made ready for the long sail to our next overnight destination – the Bitter End – before the sun set. In the sailing days of yesteryear, the last nub of land that galleons and schooners passed on the long journey back to the Old World was the North Sound of the British Virgin Islands – known as the "bitter end". Today, this remote peninsula of Virgin Gorda holds one of the busiest resorts in the Caribbean – one that remains true to the nautical tradition of wind, water, and sails.

Sailing along the western coast of Virgin Gorda within the protection of the Sir Francis Drake Channel, I struggled to see how the island got its name. Named by Christopher Columbus, Virgin Gorda means "fat virgin." Apparently, looking at the island from the distance reminded him of a reclining naked woman. If you squint and use your imagination you can just about get an inkling of what Columbus saw, but it doesn't take much imagination to understand that Captain Chris spent way too many sea days solely with the company of his fellow sailors!

The Bitter End Yacht Club (BEYC) began in the 1970s as a small marina for sailboats and has slowly grown to become a huge self-contained complex which caters to visiting and vacationing yachtsmen, boaters, and water lovers of all ages. We had only a handful of precious hours to get to the North Sound – home of the Bitter End.

Claudia enjoys the ride...


To get there we must sail a few hours along the west coast, and around the northern point of Mosquito Island with famous Leverick Bay to starboard and Prickly Pear Island to port. I radioed ahead to the BEYC requesting permission to dock, and prepared our crew for arrival. I was at the helm. As we approached the dock, I switched the gear of our diesel engine to neutral to slow the forward motion of Quantum 2. An instructor in one of my sail courses called this technique “kissing the dock”.

Bill was at the bow, ready to toss the line to the waiting dock hand. Doughboy was at the stern. Rather than wait until the boat came to a safe stop, he leapt a space of a couple feet from the boat to dock. Big mistake! His sandal caught where the mainsail and stern halyards meet the boat deck. Doughboy's sandal stopped his foot dead while he remained in motion, falling hard against the dock. He was in serious pain. We didn’t know how serious until we returned home. We had absolutely no basis for our medical opinion, but his injury couldn't be that bad. Could it?After immediate and careful examination, we determined he had badly sprained his ankle. We didn’t know that he had actually ripped his Achilles tendon in two – the top part of the tendon rolled up inside his calf like a window shade while the bottom half bunched up around his ankle. His only medical treatment was an Ace bandage that I found at the local General Store. Even now, I wonder how he made it through the rest of our vacation by hobbling around on one foot. Thinking about it still makes my butt pucker :( It would take copious amounts of ice – for the rum – to bring him any amount of comfort.

Doughboy’s unfortunate accident would delay our departure for two days. Hmmm…two days in paradise was not a terrible imposition. We were thinking only of his comfort, of course. Having securely docked Quantum 2, we had shore power which meant a luxurious amount of electricity at our disposal. Hot showers were available about 20 feet away. Yes, we could be quite content staying put for a couple days until Doughboy recovered well enough to depart for our next destination.


Later, when we return home, I would feel badly for making light if his injury. At the immediate time, I ridiculed him for getting out of his share of work and making Bill fetch rum drinks. Look! There's Bill...probably his 15th trip of the day!


"Hey yo Bill! Can you bring anudder rum drunk pleazh?"


NOTE: As I mentioned in a previous post, please excuse the poor quality of my photos. They were taken six years ago with an old film camera. Technology has come a long way since then.

To be continued…