Catamaran Vacation -- British Virgin Islands

Category: File - :St-Vaast Catamaran Wikimedia Commons.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Two catamaran sailboats, leaving Saint-Vaast Harbourg

A catamaran (from Tamil kattumaram) is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas. Catamarans can be sail- or engine-powered. The catamaran was first discovered being used by the paravas, a fishing community in the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, India. Catamarans were used by the ancient Tamil Chola dynasty as early as the 5th century AD for moving their fleets to invade such Southeast Asian regions as Burma, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Catamarans are a relatively recent introduction to the design of boats for both leisure and sport sailing, although they have been used for millennia in Oceania, where Polynesian catamarans and outrigger canoes allowed seafaring Polynesians to settle the world's most far-flung islands.

In recreational sailing, catamarans, and multihulls in general, had been met by a degree of skepticism from Western sailors accustomed to more "traditional" monohull designs, mainly because multihulls were based on, to them, completely alien and strange concepts, with balance based on geometry rather than weight distribution. However, the catamaran has arguably become the best design for fast ferries, because their speed, stability and large capacity are valuable.

Category: Image - :Catamaranedan.jpg|thumb|right|A small sailing catamaran

The Virgin Islands are an archipelago, part of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea. The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles, where the Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean.

The Virgin Islands are divided into two political entities; on the east, Anegada, Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, and over fifty other smaller islands are administered as an overseas territory of the United Kingdom; and in the west, St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, and Water Island are governed as an unincorporated territory of the United States.

Christopher Columbus named the islands Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes, shortened to Las Vírgenes, after Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgins. They were inhabited by the Arawak, Carib and Cermic, all of whom died out during the colonial period from disease, harsh labor conditions, and murder.

Later, the islands were re-populated by European plantation owners, and enslaved Africans who worked on sugar plantations, and at least one tobacco plantation. The sugar plantations are gone, but the descendants of the enslaved Africans remain the bulk of the population, sharing a common Afro-Caribbean heritage with the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean.

Motor vehicles are driven on the left-hand side of the road on both the British and the U.S. Virgin Islands, although the steering wheels on most cars is located on the left side (as is the norm for drive-on-the-right localities). Also, the United States dollar is the official currency on both the British and U.S. Virgin Islands.

West of the Virgin Islands lie the islands of Vieques and Culebra, that since a 1990s tourist campaign have re-christened themselves the Spanish Virgin Islands, though they are seldom identified as such on maps and atlases. The "Spanish Virgin Islands", or Passage Islands, are just east of Puerto Rico, and governed as part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Natives speak Spanish, and the culture is similar to Puerto Rico. Vieques and Culebra belonged to Spain prior to the Spanish-American War in 1898. Though the islands are not labeled part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, some argue that Vieques and Culebra are geographically part of the Virgin Islands chain, and note that Vieques and Culebra are closer to St. Thomas, than St. Thomas is to St. Croix.

Category: File - :VI-Map.svg|thumb|right|Virgin Islands political regions

Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands which form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local belief is that the name was originally given to the island by Christopher Columbus, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". In actuality Columbus named the island Santa Ana. The Dutch settled, and dubbed it Tor Tholen (New Tholen), after a tiny island off the west coast of the Netherlands. When the British moved in they altered the name to its present day form of Tortola.

At roughly 8 square kilometers, Jost Van Dyke is the smallest of the four main islands of the British Virgin Islands, the northern portion of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Jost Van Dyke lies about 5 miles to the northwest of Tortola and 5 miles to the north of Saint John. Little Jost Van Dyke lies off its eastern end.

Like many of the neighboring islands, it is volcanic in origin and mountainous. The highest point on the island is Roach Hill at 321 meters (1054 ft).

Virgin Gorda is the third-largest (after Tortola and Anegada) and second most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Located at approximately 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 town 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, the beach shows evidence of the island's volcanic origins, as huge granite boulders lie in piles on the beach, forming scenic grottoes that are open to the sea. North of the Baths is the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor, formerly owned Little Dix Bay. The most notable ruin on Virgin Gorda is the old Copper Mine.

Norman Island is located at the southern tip of the British Virgin Islands archipelago. It is reputed to be the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate novel Treasure Island."Where's Where" (1974) (Eyre Methuen, London} ISBN 0-413-32290-4, Norman Island.