The Renée Review

February 16, 2006

We have the sun and have spent time snorkeling at Oil Nut Bay followed by some beach time at Eustasia Island with our captain Mark Schwegman & first mate Justin Smit. While we all snorkeled, Simine Tepper made some headway with water fear and was actually submerged in the ocean while hanging on to the dingy ladder – way to go Simine!!!

Oil Nut Bay is a shallow snorkel site, good for children with fear of deep water – here you can stand in waist high water with good reef all around. The challenge is not allowing the surge to push you into the reef, a difficult task. With Marlo’s previous day’s injury, the fins were a bust and she was unable to do much exploring due to lack of fins and foot protection. Paul made the effort to pull her on the float mat, but this became logistically tricky. We gave up in the end and opted for some beach time at Eustasia Island.

At the beach, Simine, Ryan, Marlo & I all worked diligently on building a sand trench, enjoying the benefits of salt water, sand & sunshine. Our trench wouldn’t win any sand castle contests, but we had a great time building nonetheless.

Returning to the ship we were served a lovely red snapper luncheon by Tracy Schwegman and Jessica Sharkey then went shopping by tender at the Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda with Justin.

At Bitter End Yacht Club (800) 872-2392 / fax# (284) 494-2745 you can rent one of several identical beach villas, chill on their beach, (sand is identical to that of Peter Island – see Blog for February 14th) dine in their bar or rustic open air restaurant and participate in sports such as wind surfing, scuba & sailing. We did not tour the rooms and by the casual appearance of their public space, I expect the rooms’ also possess a rustic worn ambiance.

Currently we are preparing to depart for Anegada where we’ve been told of some whale sightings. Anegada is a coral island and has 13 miles of white sand beaches – can’t wait! On Anegada, we’ll dine in the Anegada Reef Hotel (284) 495-8002 / fax (284) 495-9362 www.anegadareef.com. Their restaurant is known for delicious Caribbean spiny rock lobster and if there is time – we’ll explore the resort for those interested in a hotel review.

Well – no whale sightings for us and we’re back from dinner and exploration – “The Scoop”

The Food: Dinner is on the sand with Christmas twinkle lights and hot coals burning in cut steel drum cans. Calypso music plays on speakers under bright stars. It’s been said that Richard Branson frequently dines here and that he’s moved a more full time operation to Necker, his private island. The atmosphere is decidedly casual and looks as if the locals are throwing a beach bonfire party. The food is not bad, and if you come – I’d say it’s for the concept of dinner in the sand rather than the fresh lobster, which really is very fresh and probably caught that day. It’s not a bad place, but I personally have no need or desire to return, but that’s just me.

The Hotel: OK, absolutely no one I know would stay at the Anegada Reef Hotel, it’s no better than a roadside Motel 6. The hotel is undergoing a slow renovation. The process consists of renovating 4 rooms at a time in succession. The first of four rooms was supposed to be complete in November of 2005 and as we looked on, my guess is that these first four will not be done for yet another 5 or 6 months. Once renovated, the rooms should be basic enough, by our western standards. If you find you must come here – the rooms currently under renovation are rooms numbered 1 – 4.

The beach at the Anegada Reef Hotel is of crushed white coral sand, but has debris and dangerous steel wiring seemingly holding up their earth, but is literally at waters edge where anyone stepping on it, is sure to puncture and infect their foot.

This is not the famed beach we’re to explore tomorrow.