Alpha 3 & Tango 3 Day 13: Hiking Beautiful Rocks With Beautiful People
August 6, 2016
There could not have been a better way to begin our last day all together. Our boats awoke early for a sunrise motor to The Baths on Virgin Gorda. Once we were on the ball, the boats prepared their last breakfast of the program, breaking bread together as a team for one final breakfast.
Once everyone was full and the boats were cleaned up from the meal, everyone hopped in the water and swam to shore for our last, and one of the most fun hikes! The gang got to learn about the unique formation of the Baths as they explored the naturally created caves and tidal pools.
All the islands in the BVI, apart from one unique island, are the product of a subduction zone located at the edge of the North Atlantic plate which is subducting under the Caribbean plate. The heat and pressure from this process forces the rocks to change, to heat and to melt. Then their appearance as they are reborn is decided by the rate at which they cool. Most of the islands are the result of rapid cooling; the Baths, however, are the result of a slow-cooling process. Because it cooled slowly, crystals had the time to form, resulting in a beautiful arrangement of rocks that are flecked with white and pink crystals. These rocks then eroded and broke apart into massive boulders, creating caves and caverns one can easily walk through.
We spent the day exploring these igneous crevices and learning about their formation. Then we jumped off of them into the crystal blue waters and sailed home to Hodges Creek Marina, where it all began, to spend one last evening in the Caribbean together.
