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.

Catamarans are a relatively recent introduction to the design of boats for both leisure and sport sailing, although they have been used since time immemorial among the paravas, a fishing community in the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and independently 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: File - :Catamaranedan.jpg|thumb|right|A small sailing catamaran

Category: File - :Bodensee Katamaran Ferdinand in Konstanzer Hafen.JPG|thumb|catamaran sailing in Lake Constance

The Virgin Islands are the eastern island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Politically, the north-eastern islands form the British Virgin Islands and the south-western ones the United States Virgin Islands.

The British Virgin Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom comprising Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke, over fifty smaller islands, and Anegada to the north. The United States Virgin Islands is an unincorporated territory of the United States comprising St. Croix to the south, with St. John, St. Thomas, and smaller islands. The Virgin Passage separates the U.S. Virgin Islands from the "Spanish Virgin Islands" or "Passage Islands", Vieques and Culebra, which are the easternmost islands of Puerto Rico.

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 Ter Tholen, after an 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. In the island's North Sound is the high-end Bitter End Yacht Club, now a five-star resort.

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.