Guide · 23 September 2026
The flat island, the reef you do not cross, and the forecast that decides the week.
Anegada is the outlier of the British Virgin Islands — coral, not volcanic, so low you barely see it until you are on it. The beaches are why guests ask. The reef is why some weeks never go.
From the North Sound on Virgin Gorda the run is on the order of a dozen nautical miles north. On a sailing cat in a decent trade that is a couple of hours. On a powerboat it is shorter. You want good light for the arrival, not a late-day guess at the channel.
Horseshoe Reef wraps the southeast side. It is a protected fisheries zone. You do not fish it. You do not anchor on it. You do not take a shortcut across it because another boat did. Approach Setting Point through the buoyed channel only, in daylight, on a current chart. The inner marks are there for a reason.
Setting Point itself is shallow — often eight to eleven feet over sand. Plenty of charter cats go in. A deeper keel needs a careful ball or stays out and tenders. A deeper boat may wait outside and come ashore by tender. We will say so before you go.
Moorings and sand both exist. The field can feel tight when it is busy. Ashore at Setting Point you can eat that night if you order lobster by mid-afternoon — kitchens cook to a count, not to a walk-in at seven. The north shore beaches (Loblolly, Cow Wreck) are a taxi or a long walk. The salt ponds hold flamingos on a good day. None of that is a reason to rush the channel.
A leftover north swell, poor visibility, a forecast that will trap you overnight in an easterly slop, or a yacht that needs more water under the keel. The week then stays in the Drake Channel and the North Sound. Guests remember the water they actually swam. They do not remember the island they argued about on a chart.