YO HO! YO HO! A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME!

Petra Shepherd joined Travel Channel for its launch back in 1994. She looks after our research and works on all original productions. Petra’s one of the most recognisable faces in the travel industry and when she’s not on the canapé circuit promoting the channel, she spends every free moment travelling. She’s visited over 70 countries and prefers back packing to 5 * luxury, unless of course it’s in the name of research!

Due for release this July, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST starring Johnny Depp is expected to be this summer's big family blockbuster. It was shot in St Vincent and the Grenadines but historically when it comes to the real "Pirates of the Caribbean", look no further than the British Virgin Islands. I visited the islands in an equally nautical mood in March this year, to crew in The British Virgin Islands' Sailing Festival and Spring Regatta. You can see my report on the 35th anniversary of one of the Caribbean's leading regattas in next month's Travel 2006.

The British Virgin Islands (or BVI as they're commonly known) are a collection of some sixty islands in the North Eastern Caribbean, 60 miles east of Puerto Rico and 200 miles west of Antigua. They run in two lines about 3 miles apart, separated by the Sir Francis Drake Channel. The two main islands are Tortola (the largest, and home to the capital Road Town) and Virgin Gorda. Christopher Columbus discovered the BVI in 1493 on his second voyage to the New World. The islands made such an impression on Columbus that he named them Las Once Mil Virgenes, after the 11,000 virgins whom St Ursula was said to have led to their martyrdoms near Cologne in Germany. In 1585 Sir Francis Drake sailed through the channel that now bears his name, and subsequently pirates and buccaneers discovered the islands and found the many bays and sheltered coves perfect concealing and stashing booty. Back then, the Sir Frances Drake Channel was called "Freebooter Gangway", freebooter being another term for pirate.

Several of the islands that make up the BVI, including Norman, Jost Van Dyke, and Great and Little Thatch are named after legendary piratical characters. One of the most infamous buccaneers in Virgin Island history was Edward Teach (or Thatch, nobody knows his last name for certain) who became better known as Blackbeard. Somewhere between 1715 and 1718, Blackbeard and his mob made Soper's Hole on the West End of Tortola their base of operations. Jost Van Dyke is a tiny, mountainous island of just 200 inhabitants lying three miles off the coast of Tortola. It was named after a seventeenth century Dutch pirate.

As late as 1792, even though the British had officially been in control for over one hundred years, Tortola was still described as a 'pirates den', with pirates hell bent on terrorizing professional sailors and soldiers, attacking treasure ships and distributing the loot in accordance with the pirates code. Today, the coves and bays provide refuge for a flotilla of modern day explorers but the pirate past is evident. Take the names. There's Deadman's Bay on the North Shore of Peter Island and Smuggler's Cove on the West End of Tortola. I'm not sure how Cow Wreck Bay Beach on the island of Anegada got its name. The islanders on Anegada depended on the sea for a living but when they weren't fishing, they were off pirating, smuggling or looting the ships that were wrecked on the reefs around the island.

You can follow in pirate footsteps; stay at the Jolly Roger Inn, drink at Billy Bones Beach Bar, eat at Peg Leg's Landing and Pirates Bight, take a Jolly Roger party boat cruise and buy all kinds of pirate-related souvenirs.

Next door to the US Virgin Island of St John is the last of the BVIs in the chain, Norman Island, which also crops up in pirate lore. Rumours are that there is hidden treasure all over the island. Three chests of gold have reportedly been discovered since the mid 1700s and it's this reputation that has led some to suggest that Norman Island was the model for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

The floating bar/restaurant William Thornton 11, commonly known as Willie Ts is anchored off Norman Island and today a crowd of latter day pirates and tourists turn up every evening. It's one of the liveliest and certainly the most raucous drinking spots in the BVI. The top deck often sees worst-for-wear customers, diving naked into the water. Now that's something that sadly you won't be seeing Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom doing this July!

Fifteen men of a dead man's chest

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

Drink and the devil have done the rest

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

The BVIs most famous rum is Pusser's Navy Rum. Sample it in the local cocktail called a Painkiller, a mix of rum, orange juice, pineapple juice and touch of coconut cream. There are two pubs named after the rum; Pusser's Landing in Soper's Hole, and Pusser's Pub, the legendary local waterfront pub, in the heart of Road Town. I decided however to taste some rum that could really "knock your spots off ". That's how it was described by the 12 year old who showed me around the Callwood Rum Distillery in the West End of Cane Island Bay. I'm still wondering how on earth he would know? Their rum is called Cane Juice and it's still made in copper vats according to age-old methods. It makes a good souvenir to take home. That's if you can stomach any more rum after your fill of Painkillers. Pain-inducers would be a more accurate name!

The British Virgin Islands have a reputation for excellent sailing. In fact if Greg Norman had designed a perfect place to sail in as opposed to a perfectly designed golf course, then the BVI would be it. Nowhere is more than a couple of hours sail away with hundreds of idyllic anchorages and safe bays to moor in. Winds generally blow northeast to southeast at 10 -20 knots, the waters are sheltered and navigation is simple with little to worry about in the way of tides or currents. There are many charter companies such as the Moorings (the largest charter boat company in the Caribbean) offering crewed or bareboat yachts

Alongside the sailing, for which it's famous, the BVI offers land activities and plenty of top-notch accommodation. At Long Bay Beach Resort and Villas on Tortola, you'll find a 52 acre hillside estate and '1748', the oldest 'new' restaurant in Tortola, set in a converted 18th century sugar mill on one of the finest beaches on the island. You eat on the upper or lower decks, or right beneath the seagrape trees on the sands. Initially a family retreat, Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda has evolved into a destination resort featuring eighty-five shoreside accommodations, three restaurants, a full service marina and a world-famous watersports centre and sailing school. Their beachfront villas come highly recommended. The unique architectural design includes a wrap-around porch designed to catch the balmy trade winds night and day with a double-size hammock. A new US$65 million luxury resort is being developed on Scrub Island, which being on an island called Scrub will naturally have to have a spa. What's with The BVI and the strange island names? There are the ones I've mentioned named after pirates but there's also a Fat Virgin (Virgin Gorda) right next door to Richard Branson's Necker Island; there's Beef Island and Buck Island; Prickley Pear Island and then there's a group of islands called The Dogs. This group of six islands lies halfway between Tortola and Virgin Gorda and the diving here is excellent, so no shame in "going to The Dogs".

To sum up, the BVI offers plenty for landlubbers and salty seadogs alike but still a third of all visitors come here to sail. So if you're a professional sailor or an amateur yachtie keen to find out more about one of the most popular sailing fixtures in the Caribbean diary be sure to tune into The Travel Channel next month. To recap, Travel 2006 will feature my report on The BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival and you can see it on the following dates and times:

3rd July - 20:30 GMT, 21:30 CET
6th July - 20:30 GMT, 21:30 CET
9th July - 17:00 GMT, 18:00 CET
19th July - 20:30 GMT, 21:30 CET

Petra travelled to the British Virgin Islands with British Airways to Antigua and Caribbean Star from Antigua to Tortola staying at Long Bay Beach Resort and Villas in Tortola and the Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda.