Great Camanoe

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A map of the British Virgin Islands. GB Virgin Islands.png
A map of the British Virgin Islands.
View of the eastern (uninhabited) side of Great Camanoe, from the east. Great Caminoe Island.jpg
View of the eastern (uninhabited) side of Great Camanoe, from the east.
Great Camanoe
Coordinates: 18°28′30″N64°31′55″W / 18.47500°N 64.53194°W / 18.47500; -64.53194

Great Camanoe is a small island just north of Beef Island and northeast of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that forms part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

Beef Island island in the British Virgin Islands

Beef Island is an island in the British Virgin Islands. It is located to the east of Tortola, and the two islands are connected by the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. Beef Island is the site of the Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, the main commercial airport that serves Tortola and the rest of the British Virgin Islands.

Tortola island

Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It has a surface area of 55.7 square kilometres with a total population of 23,908, with 9,400 residents in Road Town. Mount Sage is its highest point at 530 metres above sea level.

British Virgin Islands British overseas territory in the Caribbean

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Great Camanoe is primarily a residential island, divided into two communities, Indigo Plantation and The Privateers, on the southern half of the island. Access to the island is by boat only. Visitors often anchor at Lee Bay or Cam Bay, a national park and good snorkeling site.

Snorkeling Swimming while breathing through a snorkel

Snorkeling is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped breathing tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a wetsuit may also be worn. Use of this equipment allows the snorkeler to observe underwater attractions for extended periods with relatively little effort and to breathe while face-down at the surface.

History and name

A 1793 Spanish map of the Virgin Islands refers to Great Camanoe island as Cayman Grande and Little Camanoe island as Caiman Chico. [1] These names are obvious references to American crocodiles (cayman or caiman) which inhabited the area when the islands were first explored by Christopher Columbus and to this day are still found on Cuba, Hispaniola and other Caribbean locations. In Columbus' native tongue, Italian, the word cayman is spelled caimano.

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References

  1. A 1793 Spanish map of the area in the U.S. National Archives and here: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html