Too small to call an island, Saba Rock is a fleck in the middle of North Sound [1] and home to a popular restaurant, hotel, marina, carefully tended garden, and nautical museum. The Saba Rock Nautical Museum and Gift Shop (284/495-9966, www.sabarock.com/museum [2], 9 a.m.–9 p.m. daily, free) showcases some of the treasure discovered on shipwrecks around the BVI by underwater explorer Bert Kilbride. Kilbride, who died in 2008 at the age of 94, is said to have discovered and dived more than 91 wrecks around Anegada.
A few years before his death, Kilbride claimed to know the location of some 138 wrecks around the BVI and was planning to explore another, the San Ignacio, a Spanish ship that sank on the Anegada reef in 1742 carrying gold and jewels. A resident of the BVI for more than 50 years, Kilbride aroused admiration from many for his underwater daring but anger from some for taking as his own what many considered to be the property of the BVI as a whole.
You can see some of Kilbride’s remarkable underwater finds at the Saba Rock museum. Coins, jewelry, cannons, and many more artifacts are on display daily from early until late. In addition, an anchor and cannon from the RMS Rhone, famously wrecked near Salt Island in 1867, are displayed in the lighted shallows around Saba Rock, providing a good reason to come here at night. Day or night you can also enjoy the perfectly manicured and tended garden.
Links:
[1] http://www.moon.com/destinations/virgin-islands/virgin-gorda/sights/north-sound
[2] http://www.sabarock.com/museum