Virgin Gorda

Virgin Gorda

Virgin Gorda is the third-largest of the British Virgin Islands
Geography
Location	Atlantic Ocean
Coordinates	18°48′00″N 64°30′00″W / 18.80000°N 64.50000°W / 18.80000; -64.50000
Archipelago	Virgin Islands
Administration
United Kingdom
British Overseas Territory	British Virgin Islands
Demographics
Population	3,930

Virgin Gorda is the third-largest (after Tortola and Anegada) and second most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Located at about 18 degrees, 48 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area of about 8 square miles (21 km²). Christopher Columbus is said to have named the island "The Fat Virgin", because the island's profile on the horizon looks like a fat woman lying on her side.

The main commercial and residential area is Spanish Town on the southwestern part of the island.

An unusual geologic formation known as "The Baths" located on the southern end of the island makes Virgin Gorda one of the BVI's major tourist destinations. At The Baths, in spite of evidence of the island's largely volcanic origins, huge granite boulders lie in piles on the beach, forming scenic grottoes that are open to the sea. Granite is an intrusive igneous rock, thus not volcanic. It did form from magma, however, at great depth. Granite becomes exposed at surface only after geologic ages of erosion removes the overburden. Further erosion broke the granite into large boulders and rounded their surfaces. North of the Baths is the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor, formerly owned by Little Dix Bay. The most notable ruin on Virgin Gorda is the old Copper Mine.

One of the great harbors of the world, North Sound, and historically Gorda Sound, lies at the NE end of the island. It is bordered by 4 islands and connecting reef systems that keep the sound calm, creating one of the world's great watersports meccas, with over 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) of protected waters. At the Eastern end of the sound is the premier anchorage, in the lee of Biras Hill (el. 435'). The village, resort, and marina at this point (Jon'O'Point) is called the Bitter End Yacht Club, and runs for approximately one mile of coastline. The sound is a famous destination for charter yachts and contains over 130 moorings. Historically renowned as well, the anchorage off Bitter End was the site of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins' 1595 fleet rendez-vous, two Elizabethan British Admirals who lead Britain's ascendance into naval supremacy. 26 ships anchored in the sound and used the large hill at Bitter End to practice for their attack on San Juan, to wrest Puerto RIco from Spain. With both admirals dying on the 1595/1596 voyage, the land at Bitter End may be the last place that these legendary mariners set foot on British soil. Nearly all of the 200' + megayachts of the world have anchored or tied up at the docks of the megayacht-equipped marinas in this harbor. Norman Rockwell, Brigitte Bardot and John Wayne's signatures are in the hotel guest book from Bitter End circa 1969.